Hours in Task Usage Sheet

[parul]

I have entered a task with a duration of 1 day but MSP shows it as
starting on 14 Nov and
finishing on 15 Nov. Its a task for 1 day for 8 hours. WHen i check the
Task usage sheet, it
shows me that the resource is working for 7h only on 14 Nov while
working for 1h on 15 Nov. Why
cant my resource complete the work on 14 Nov for 8h only?

 

[John]

I have entered a task with a duration of 1 day but MSP shows it as
starting on 14 Nov and
finishing on 15 Nov. Its a task for 1 day for 8 hours. WHen i check the
Task usage sheet, it
shows me that the resource is working for 7h only on 14 Nov while
working for 1h on 15 Nov. Why
cant my resource complete the work on 14 Nov for 8h only?

parul,
Well it depends on the resource's calendar. Many thing can impact
schedule times. First, the working time calendar (Tools/Change Working
TIme), determines when tasks start and finish. Normally this calendar is
applied to all tasks (Project/Project Information) but each task can
also have its own custom calendar (Project/Task Information/Advanced
tab). Second, if any resource has an individual calendar that is
different from the task calendar, (View/Resource Sheet, then
Project/Resource Information), the resource calendar will prevail unless
you specifically designate that the resource calendar should be ignored.

In your case, my guess is that the working time calendar for that
resource is probably set for 7 hours, or the start time for that
resource is not the same as the start time for the whole project or
individual task calendar.

For additional information you might want to go to our MVP website at:
http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm
and check out FAQ 5 - Default Working Hours.

John
Project MVP

 

[John]

Hours in task usage sheet <Hours in task usage

I am having the same problem and after I tried your suggestions I am still
having tasks that start one hour short of a complete day on the first day and
cary over one hour onto what should be the day after the last day.

Thanks for any help you can give.
-Mark

Mark,
It's a little hard to believe that if your Project, task and resource
calendars and work times are all in sync that there would still be a
problem. However, you mention that you have tasks that start one hour
before the end of a working day. That is not a calendar/working time
sync issue, that's a scheduling issue and may be perfectly normal. If
the predecessor task duration is not in full days such that the
predecessor task finishes one hour before the end of a work day, then
the successor task will start at that time, assuming a normal
finish-to-start link. A similar thing would happen if the duration is
slightly more than a multiple of whole days - the finish time will spill
over to the next working day.

John
Project MVP

 

[John]

All the tasks are whole day duartions. The calender is set up to 6 ten hour
days per week and all durations are in increments of 10 hours. If you think
I may have one or more calenders wrong, please advise as to where any and or
all calenders that I need to look at can be located.

Thank you

mccormick,
Here's how I would set it up. Starting with a blank project file
1. Go to Tools/Change Working Time
2. Assuming the work week is Monday through Saturday, select the weekday
header for M through S of whatever month is shown. Changing it this way
will change all months. Note, you can still go back and manually
designate any national or company holidays or other periods of
non-working time.
3. Select the option for "Nondefault working time"
4. Set the "from" and "to" times (e.g. from = 7:00 am, to = 5:00 pm).
Include a lunch period if applicable by showing times before lunch and
after lunch as separate shifts, just like the default calendar uses.
5. Select the "Options" button. That will take you to the Calendar tab
of the Options submenu
6. Set the default start and end times to agree with the shift times of
step 4.
7. Set the "hours per day" to 10 and the "Hours per week" to 60. If you
want you can also change the "days per month" to 25 since Saturdays are
now part of the work month.
8. Hit "set as default", then hit "OK"
9. Hit "OK" on the change working time window
10. I also recommend you go to Project/Project Information and insure
the start time of the Start Date agrees with the setting from item 4. If
not, change it to agree.

Given that setup, your tasks should work properly for 6 ten hour days
assuming you have not specifically selected a different calendar (i.e.
other than your now modified standard calendar) for any task or resource.

If you did not make these changes prior to entering tasks, you probably
will have some tasks that do not follow the calendar times you desire,
even though you changed the calendar settings. In that case you may need
to start over. The idea is to set up your file calendar before you
actually create a plan.

John
Project MVP

 

[John]

Thank you very much!!!

mccormick,
You are very welcome and thanks for the feedback.
John