How to get an actual duration fixed while making changes to resour

[ZH7]

Hi,

I am new to MS Project and I am using MS Project 2003.
My situation is I have the project duration planned, for an example, from
Oct 10 to Oct 15. During that time, the actual working time will be one day
only and it has been completed.

I've been trying to set the percentage completed to 100% and then I cannot
set the day to one day. It changes to 5 days instead. Is there any way to set
the percentage completed to 100% while setting the actual working time to a
day (8 hrs)?

Thanks a lot for your time. Deeply appreciated.

 

[davegb]

Hi,

I am new to MS Project and I am using MS Project 2003.
My situation is I have the project duration planned, for an example, from
Oct 10 to Oct 15. During that time, the actual working time will be one day
only and it has been completed.

I've been trying to set the percentage completed to 100% and then I cannot
set the day to one day. It changes to 5 days instead. Is there any way to set
the percentage completed to 100% while setting the actual working time to a
day (8 hrs)?

Thanks a lot for your time. Deeply appreciated.

There are 2 fields at issue here, Duration and Work. Duration is how
long in calendar time it takes to get the work done. The Work field is
the time it really takes to do the work, which can be considerably
less. If you have more than 8 hrs of work assigned to the task and
only one resource unit, the task can't be done in 1 day. The
relationship is expressed in the formula:
Work = Units x Duration if Duration and Work are in the same units. If
Duration is in days and Work is in hours, then you need to add a
conversion factor of 8 (assuming default settings in Project). Take a
look at your task again and you'll probably see some conflict with
this formula which is causing your problem. If not, repost here with
more details so one of us can help you further.

Hope this helps in your world.

 

[Steve House]

The duration is the amount of time during which you would have observed
physical activity. In Project's tracking table, set the Actual Start date
to the date you would have seen the resource begin the work, enter the
Actual Duration of 1 day, and set the Remaining Duration field to zero.
Project will do the rest and you'll see the task updated to show 100%
Complete with the work starting on the date it actually started and ending
on the date it was completed. Simply entering 100% means that the schedule
was accurate and the planned duration was actually how long it took, ie,
work took 5 days in your case, and it started just when you thought it
would.

Durations are not the "window of opportunity" during which the task might
take place. Rather, they are a measure of how long the physical process
will take from beginning to end, measured in the number of working-time
calendar units between those two points. Assuming your task required the
resource to put in one full day of undistracted work (100% effort units)
sometime between 10 Oct and 15 Oct, it's not a 5 day duration task (actually
3 day duration unless Sat and Sun are working days in your part of the
world) but is instead a 1-day duration task that is able to start on 10 Oct
and has a required completion deadline of 15 Oct. If your resource has to
split his working time evenly between it and something else (50% units) it's
a 2-day duration task, etc.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project MVP
http://users.online.be/prom-ade

 

[ZH7]

Thanks for your reply. According to your answer, I believe there is no way
that I can set a time frame of five working days and get one resource work on
only a day.

Let's say the time frame is between Oct 15 to 19 (which is more practical
and does not include weekends), I have one task planned to complete but it
actually requires only one working day and only one resource. If the resource
finishes that task on Oct 17, can I still set the % completed to 100%?

I just want to clarify the answers. Thanks a lot to everyone answered.
Appreciated.

 

[Dave]

Thanks for your reply. According to your answer, I believe there is no way
that I can set a time frame of five working days and get one resource work on
only a day.

Let's say the time frame is between Oct 15 to 19 (which is more practical
and does not include weekends), I have one task planned to complete but it
actually requires only one working day and only one resource. If the resource
finishes that task on Oct 17, can I still set the % completed to 100%?

I just want to clarify the answers. Thanks a lot to everyone answered.
Appreciated.

You need to be clear about what you want to show and why. Normally
resources complete a piece of work and then go on to do another. Hence,
if they finish a piece of work early, it is usually desirable to
represent the finish date on the Gantt chart so subsequent pieces of
work can be brought forward.

If you absolutely want your completed bar on the Gantt chart to occupy a
given period, then you will need to make it fixed duration. However,
there should be a good reason for doing this in terms of the Project.

 

[Steve House]

Of course - it's 100% complete when it's complete. BUT if it was complete
on the 17th the duration is no longer the 5 days between the originally
scheduled start of 15 Oct and the original end of 19 Oct. If it began on 15
Oct and finished the end of the day 17 Oct, the new duration is 3 days
measuring between the point the task began and the point that the required
deliverable was done, the point at which it's 100% complete. Set the Actual
Start to 15 Oct, Actual Duration to 3 days, Remaining Duration to 0 days (or
Actual Start to 15 OCt and Actual Finish to 17 Oct). If the resource has
done 1 day's worth of Actual Work over that 3 day period, go into the menu
to the Tools, Options dialog, the Calculation page, and un-check the line
"Updating task status updates resource status" and on the tracknig table
enter Actuial Work as 8 hours. Your resource has worked at a 33.3 %
assignment level - it took him 3 days of time to do 1 day's worth of
full-time equivalent work, effectively working at 33% capacity.

Another way to do it to go to the resource usage view and post in the actual
hours he worked on each day and delete any remaining hours after the 17th.