How to show the resource estimated hrs

[Update]

I am trying to use Project 2007.
I have two 10 week deadline tasks. How can I show that Resource 1 estimates
21 hrs and Resource 2 estimates 30 hrs?
I created 2 tasks and two subtasks and set the base line. I am not sure how
to show the resource estimated hrs.
Also what how can I show if Resource 1 cannot complete his task and that
Resource 2 now has to do Resource 1 work?
The Gantt chart shows duration in days - How to show a milestone for Task 1
that Resource 1 will finish this task after 21 hrs?

 

[DavidC]

Hi Update,

Let me understand your query. You have two tasks whith a deadline 10 weeks
out. You have two resources available, one will work on one task for 21
hours, the other will work on the second task for 30 hours.

There are two things to consider, the duration of the task may be longer
than 21 hours unless the resource is 100% assigned to the task. So if you
have Resource 1 allocated for only 50% of their time, then the task duration
will be 42 hours.

The way to set these tasks up is to have them effort driven. Now assign the
resources to the task and set the work to 21 hours for task 1 and 30 hours
for task 2. Set the units for each resource to reflect the amount of effort
in the day they will spend their hours on that task. If full time then it is
100% if half the day it is 50% etc. This will now set a duration for the
task. Set the deadline to each task being 10 weeks out, and you should have
two tasks showing how long they should take to complete with the resoruces
you are assigning to the task, and how much float you have before the
deadline.

As for putting resource on to one task after the 21 hours has expired if
they are parallel tasks will theat be possible if resource 2 is still
applying their 30 hours to task 2. Best leave it simple and then monitor
against that plan and only change if towards the deadline the tasks of gone
'pear shaped'.

Hope this helps

Regards

davidC

 

[Update]

Hi David,

Thanks for replay. But I did find a column Actual Duration that would show
estimates from the resource but again it is shown in days not hours.

Another problem I came to is if I have 2 tasks and I add the same Resource 8
hour per task is added. If I specify that the resource can only work 50% on
a task the Finish deadline increases by 50%. That should not happen.
If a task should take 10 weeks and a resource is utilized 40 hrs (1 week) on
both tasks, 20 hrs on each task. How to keep Completion duration at 10 week
not 20 weeks. The Resource is spending 50% on Task 1 and 50% on and 50% on
task 2 - the Actual work is 20 hours for task 1 and task 2 which is still 40
hrs or 1 week for both task which is within the 10 week deadline.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Sorry for jumping in here because your very first sentence is totally wrong.
ACTUAL DURATION is a measure for how much time during which there HAS BEEN
(in the past) some ("actual") work oin the task.

In which unit isit is shown is totally irrelevant; by all means Poject
calculates it in minutes.
Want to show it differently? Tools, Macro, Macros, Format_Duration, Run.

Againavoid using the term Actual Work for anything else then Work already
done - no longer to be planned.

Further on, your maths don't add up. For Project, Work=Duration times units,
full stop.
So 40 hrs of work is NOT equal to 10 weeks duration times 50%.
Plan your 40 hrs in 2 weeks adding a deadline to the task (That too is an
available field) and Preoject wil show you the task CAN be finished in 2
weeks from now (duration will be 10 days) and that it HAS TO be finished in
10 weeks time. Ant that is a reflection of reality.

Hope this helps,

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[DavidC]

Thanks Jan

Update

I concur with Jan on his comments. The deadline for completing your task is
10 weeks from now. Place that as a date in the deadline filed for the task.
The duration of the task will then be the the work required to complete the
task by the resource (21 hrs) modified by the units of the resource applied
to the task say 50%. As Jan has pointed out 21hrs of work with a resource
working 50% of the time on that task will take just over 1 week of duration.

Think of it this way, if the effort needed to complete the task is 40 hrs,
and the resource is assigned 100% of the time to the task and the reosurces
normal work time in one week is 40 hrs, then that task duraion will be 1
week. Now if the resource is only going to work 50% of the time on the task
then the task will take 2 weeks to complete. The deadline remains 10 weeks
out and the taks will show 8 weeks of float available.

hope this helps clarify things for you.

How the duration is shown and repsources time is shown in units depends on
the settings under calendar options. If duration is set to show in days
(which would be normal) then those are the units that will show. In the same
tab you can set what units work is shown as. It is normally set to hours.
All the resource data will show in hours. The task though will show in days.
Do not mix up a task and resource. They are different things but are
related through the resource impacting on how long a task will take.

Also the deadline should never change form that set by you in the deadline
field, that is why it is a deadline. The task can move out past the
deadline, and that is when you atrt to look at why and how to reduce the time
taken to complete the tasks before the deadline or to revisit the deadline,
by asking the question is it realistic.

from what you describe, two tasks each with less than 30 hours of work
involved and you have two resource available to carry out that work it seems
easily completed within the time frame, unless there is other data missing
from what you have described. The reality is to have a task as you describe
taking 10 weeks to complete means that the resoruce would only need to spend
a little over 5% of their time every day every week over the next 10 weeks to
finish the 21 hr task, and a little under 8% of thier time every day every
week for the next 10 weeks to complete the 30 hr task.

Try simply plugging in the numbers afresh. 2 tasks, Task 1 and Task 2.
Assign resource 1 to task 1 and set the work to 21 hrs then change the units
and see how the duration changes. Make sure that the Effort driven box is
ticked. Set the deadline to a date 10 weeks out. You can find this date by
creating a dummy milestone task with a duration of 10ewks (elapsed to ignore
holidays weekends etc), this is then the deadline date.

Please let me know how you get on

regards

DavidC

 

[Update]

Hi Jan De,

Thanks for the Actual Duration clarification.
I still not sure how to accomplish what I need to show. Maybe I am not
explaning it clearly. I need to show Task 1 starting from today that needs
to be completed in 10 weeks. Resource 1 says that he can accomplish it in 20
hours. But that 20 hrs are not done in a row or in the same week. And the
resource can work on the two Tasks at once. Also, the same goes for Task 2,
starting from today and needs to be completed in 10 weeks. Same Resorce
says he can finish it also in 20 hours. Can I show 20 hours within 10 weeks
for a Task? If not do I show 20 hrs and a milestone in 10 weeks? If so how?
Can I show 2 lines for 1 Task? See below:

Task1 WeeK1 Weeek 10
Resource1(50%)
|------------------------------------------|
========== 20 hrs ==========
Task2 WeeK1 Weeek 10
Resource1(50%)
|------------------------------------------|
========== 20 hrs ==========


Thanks in advance,

 

[DavidC]

Hi Update,

further to my other post, what you are saying is that one resource will
spend 20 hours on one task and the second resource will also spend 20 hours
on that same task. This means that the task needs 40 hours of work applied
to it, or is it 20 hours with 40 hours of eefort.? there is a subtle
difference. This work and be applied any time over the next 10 weeks, but
initially the duration for the task is say 20 hours or some other duration
depending on the percentage of time the resources apply to the task. How the
task progresses then depends then on how the resources apply their time to
the task. If they go flat out they complete in 20 hours, if they spend 15%
this week then nothing for 4 days then this will show as you progress the
task daily. Updating to show the task 15% complete today, but nothing until
say next week, means progressing the task using the "progress" button on the
tracking toolbar. If you have it set up correctly the task will split and
show the remaining work associated with the task to start on the status date
and hence show a new finish date. The deadline remains though on that task
and the float available will reduce.

Another option is that if you expect the task to take 2 weeks to complete
because the resources will be working on other things as well and so their 20
hours will be spread out over two weeks, then set up the task that way, but
still progress the task as above.

Hope this helps

DavidC

 

[Update]

Hi David,

One Resource has to do 2 Tasks in 10 weeks. He can be utilized only 20
hours per Task. I am using Gantt Chart and I specify Start Date and End Date
(ending in 10 weeks) for Task 1 and Task 2. I add the Resource and specify
50% utilization. Tell me step by step where do I put 20 hours.

Thanks in advance

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

You don't give up easily do you?
Work=duration times units
You want duration 50 days, Work 2,5 days and units 50%
To put it bluntly YOU CAN'T.
You will have to decide what you want Project to show: 2 out of these three.
There have been several soilutions suggested in this thread, which one do
you pick?

Hope this helps,

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[DavidC]

Ok, first will the task take 10 weeks or does it have 10 weeks in which to
finish? There is a difference and that relates to understanding how
important it is to keep to the schedule. Sort out the task first. There are
times when a task might take longer than the amount of time a resource will
apply to it. however it seems that you are looking at a task where the time
to complete is determined entirely by the effort applied by the resource to
the task. So if the total time the resource needs to apply to the task to
complete the task will take 2.5 days of a standard 40 hour week if the
resource spends 100% of the 20 hours of work on that task. If the resource
only spends 10% of the time on the task then the task will take 200 hours to
complete. On a 40 hour week, it will take 5 weeks to complete the task.

So here goes:

Task name is say "Task 1", leave the duration alone. In the entry form add
in your resource, 'resource 1', now assign 20hrs to the work column. Now
estimate how long each day the resource will spend on the task, is it full on
or only say 15% of a normal work day. Now enter the percentage of a unit the
resource will spend on the task in the 'Units' column. It may need that as a
percentage or a decimal it depends on your default settings. Now with the
effort driven box ticked and/or the work type set to "fixed work" then the
duration will be set starting from now. In the task information box select
the Advanced tab and put the deadline date into the deadline box. If you
want to check what that date will be have a task set with a 10wk duration and
use that finish date as the deadline for the 'real' task.

Hope his helps

Let me know how you get on''

Regards

davidc

 

[DavidC]

Jan,

I think he/she has difficulty in separating task duration from work applied
to the task. It can be difficult initially to understand that just because a
task is going to take say 20 days to complete it does not necessarily mean
that a resource will be working on it full time throughout. In fact I often
find myself setting durations on say a report up to 5 to 10 time longer than
it would take if the person sat down and wrote the report in one sitting.
This is generally not a realistic scenario so I allow for the fact that real
life has work being interupted and so a task needing 8hours work might take
three or four day to complete. This is where I think 'update' is missing the
point. Between the two of us they may yet get it.

regards

DavidC

 

[Update]

Hi,

I tried your suggestions and I am getting closer.
To be sure I uderstand:
There are 40 hrs is a week. If the task dealine is 10 weeks.
I take 40 hrs x 10 weeks = 400 hrs
the resource works 20 hrs. So 20 hrs/400 hrs = .5
Unit is .5 x 100% = 5%

When I do that the duration is 172 hrs and End date is 9/3/08

Here are other results:
Task1 208 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Tue 9/9/08 R1[10%]
Task2 200 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Mon 9/8/08 R2[10%]
Task3 208 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Tue 9/9/08 R3[4%]
Task5 200 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Mon 9/8/08 R5[10%]
Task6 172 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Wed 9/3/08 R6[5%]
Task7 200 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Mon 9/8/08 R7[10%]
Task8 208 hrs Thu 8/7/08 Thu 9/11/08 R8[4%]
Task9 172 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Wed 9/3/08 R9[5%]

Not sure why Project 2007 can give a a consistant number? Which one is
correct?

Thanks in advance

 

[Crook]

Hi Update,

Please excuse my intrusion. This thread is extremely interesting.

It sounds to me like you are using MS Project to track the work being done
by your contractors, right? You have some jobs that must be done within 10
weeks and a contractor estimates 20 hours for one of the jobs. There appear
to be no dependencies between the jobs. You want to track the fact that the
job is due in 10 weeks and a contractor has estimated 20 hours for the job.
Naturally, you want to track any variances from the estimates. MS Project
will do this, but it is overkill to use it. Excel will perform this record
keeping for you quite simply.

Project is built to help you manage projects consisting of many jobs with
dependencies between the jobs. that is, job 1 must be done before job 3,
and jobs 3,6,7 must be done before job 13 can be started. Project is killer
at this sort of thing precisely for the reason that is giving you fits at
the moment. Project expects a PM to define the parameters of a project,
then Project itself will determine how long the project will take and how
much work is entailed. If any particular task slips along the way, Project
will automatically adjust the start date of any dependent tasks thereby
slipping the entire project (if necessary).

Project manages this using the formula Jan and DavidC provided, work =
duration * units. In the slang of practical usage, we fix one, input one
and Project calculates the third. That is, we determine the task type (fix
one - task type of fixed units or duration or work), input one (input hours
or units or duration, one of the other two variables not fixed), and project
will use those two pieces of data to calculate the third piece of the
equation. Ignoring this fundamental behavior of MS Project leads to many
frustrating days at the keyboard.

Hope this helps,
Crook

Hi,

I tried your suggestions and I am getting closer.
To be sure I uderstand:
There are 40 hrs is a week. If the task dealine is 10 weeks.
I take 40 hrs x 10 weeks = 400 hrs
the resource works 20 hrs. So 20 hrs/400 hrs = .5
Unit is .5 x 100% = 5%

When I do that the duration is 172 hrs and End date is 9/3/08

Here are other results:
Task1 208 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Tue 9/9/08 R1[10%]
Task2 200 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Mon 9/8/08 R2[10%]
Task3 208 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Tue 9/9/08 R3[4%]
Task5 200 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Mon 9/8/08 R5[10%]
Task6 172 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Wed 9/3/08 R6[5%]
Task7 200 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Mon 9/8/08 R7[10%]
Task8 208 hrs Thu 8/7/08 Thu 9/11/08 R8[4%]
Task9 172 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Wed 9/3/08 R9[5%]

Not sure why Project 2007 can give a a consistant number? Which one is
correct?

Thanks in advance

Ok, first will the task take 10 weeks or does it have 10 weeks in which
to
finish? There is a difference and that relates to understanding how
important it is to keep to the schedule. Sort out the task first. There
are
times when a task might take longer than the amount of time a resource
will
apply to it. however it seems that you are looking at a task where the
time
to complete is determined entirely by the effort applied by the resource
to
the task. So if the total time the resource needs to apply to the task
to
complete the task will take 2.5 days of a standard 40 hour week if the
resource spends 100% of the 20 hours of work on that task. If the
resource
only spends 10% of the time on the task then the task will take 200 hours
to
complete. On a 40 hour week, it will take 5 weeks to complete the task.

So here goes:

Task name is say "Task 1", leave the duration alone. In the entry form
add
in your resource, 'resource 1', now assign 20hrs to the work column. Now
estimate how long each day the resource will spend on the task, is it
full on
or only say 15% of a normal work day. Now enter the percentage of a unit
the
resource will spend on the task in the 'Units' column. It may need that
as a
percentage or a decimal it depends on your default settings. Now with
the
effort driven box ticked and/or the work type set to "fixed work" then
the
duration will be set starting from now. In the task information box
select
the Advanced tab and put the deadline date into the deadline box. If you
want to check what that date will be have a task set with a 10wk duration
and
use that finish date as the deadline for the 'real' task.

Hope his helps

Let me know how you get on''

Regards

davidc

 

[DavidC]

Hi Update,

Getting there.

First let us concentrate on one task for the moment and get the philosophy
of how project works and calculates work, duration and units of resources.

For the purpose of detailing the task forget the 10 week deadline for the
moment.

Enter in your task, the name of the task and enter in the resource(s) and
the work they will apply to the task against the task. Now you need to ask
yourself the question how mcu time of the resource will be aplied to the task
daily, is it 100% or 10% or some other value. if you know this value then
enter that into the units column, if not then estimate how long it will take
to complete the task. If the task only needs 20 hours work, then applying 1
hour of work per day will see the task completed within 20 days or 4 weeks
(using the default 5 day weeks). So if you enter 20 days as the duration you
will find that the units of resource applied daily to the task is 13%.
However it is important to select the correct task type as well. Selecting
fixed work, seems the most appropriate selection given the information you
have provided i.e. 20 hours of work for the resource.

The other thing is to keep your duration in units normally understood by
people. Keep it to days or weeks. Using hours gives large numbners and is
not how people generally measure time beyond one or two days. As an example
when you tell us the deadline parameters, you gave it in weeks not in hours.
In general people work by the day not by the hour. They may be paid by the
hour, but in general terms we look at the day either in whole or part thereof
for allocation of a resoruce to a task.

So there are two options available:

If you know how long you expect the task to take then add that into the
duration and with the task tyope set at Fixed work, project will then show
the resoruce allocation for that task as being 13% of their time to provide
20hours work over the 20 days duration. remember to only input 2 items of
data, the third one will be calculated for you.

The second option is to input the work (20 hours) then add in the units of
resource being assigned to the task say (20%) and project will then calculate
the task duration in this case to be 12.5 days.

Now we come back to the deadline. Since the task can be completed at any
time before the deadline, in general terms good project management has tasks
completing with time to spare to cover for those things that cannot be
predicted (sickness, accidents power outages etc etc.) So you will want the
task to finish before the 10 week deadline date. However you need to know
how much time you ahve available between when you could finish and the
deadline. So set the date in the deadline field for the task to the deadline
date 10 weeks out. This will then set an arrow on the gantt chart 10 weeks
out and provide the task now with float defined as that period of time
between when the task could complete and when it must complete as defined by
the milestone.

if for some unkonwn reason you actually want to spread the work out over the
full 10 weeks, then set the duration of the task to 10 weeks and that will
give an assignment of the resource at 5%.

When I place the above in I get

Task 1 10wks, Resource 1, work 20hrs, result 5% units
Task 1, resource 1 10% units, 20hrs work result 5 weeks duration

Briefly without going into details yet, it seems that the calendar and
settings for the different resource are different to get a different duration
for the same work and units of resource. (R1, R3 and R8 in your examples)

Please try on one task setting the task type to Fixed units, then add in 20
hrs work, then play with entering in duration and seeing the units change,
then change the units and see how the duraiton changes. Do this for a few
examples and you may then see how the interraltionship between all three
values operates in a practical sense.

Please let me know how you get on.

regards

DavidC

Hi,

I tried your suggestions and I am getting closer.
To be sure I uderstand:
There are 40 hrs is a week. If the task dealine is 10 weeks.
I take 40 hrs x 10 weeks = 400 hrs
the resource works 20 hrs. So 20 hrs/400 hrs = .5
Unit is .5 x 100% = 5%

When I do that the duration is 172 hrs and End date is 9/3/08

Here are other results:
Task1 208 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Tue 9/9/08 R1[10%]
Task2 200 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Mon 9/8/08 R2[10%]
Task3 208 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Tue 9/9/08 R3[4%]
Task5 200 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Mon 9/8/08 R5[10%]
Task6 172 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Wed 9/3/08 R6[5%]
Task7 200 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Mon 9/8/08 R7[10%]
Task8 208 hrs Thu 8/7/08 Thu 9/11/08 R8[4%]
Task9 172 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Wed 9/3/08 R9[5%]

Not sure why Project 2007 can give a a consistant number? Which one is
correct?

Thanks in advance

Ok, first will the task take 10 weeks or does it have 10 weeks in which to
finish? There is a difference and that relates to understanding how
important it is to keep to the schedule. Sort out the task first. There are
times when a task might take longer than the amount of time a resource will
apply to it. however it seems that you are looking at a task where the time
to complete is determined entirely by the effort applied by the resource to
the task. So if the total time the resource needs to apply to the task to
complete the task will take 2.5 days of a standard 40 hour week if the
resource spends 100% of the 20 hours of work on that task. If the resource
only spends 10% of the time on the task then the task will take 200 hours to
complete. On a 40 hour week, it will take 5 weeks to complete the task.

So here goes:

Task name is say "Task 1", leave the duration alone. In the entry form add
in your resource, 'resource 1', now assign 20hrs to the work column. Now
estimate how long each day the resource will spend on the task, is it full on
or only say 15% of a normal work day. Now enter the percentage of a unit the
resource will spend on the task in the 'Units' column. It may need that as a
percentage or a decimal it depends on your default settings. Now with the
effort driven box ticked and/or the work type set to "fixed work" then the
duration will be set starting from now. In the task information box select
the Advanced tab and put the deadline date into the deadline box. If you
want to check what that date will be have a task set with a 10wk duration and
use that finish date as the deadline for the 'real' task.

Hope his helps

Let me know how you get on''

Regards

davidc

 

[DavidC]

Update,
Further to my prior post if you wish, you can email me at
dcoatesatihugdotcodotnz.

Clearly you need to change certain words for the appropriate symbol for an
email address

regards

DavidC

Hi,

I tried your suggestions and I am getting closer.
To be sure I uderstand:
There are 40 hrs is a week. If the task dealine is 10 weeks.
I take 40 hrs x 10 weeks = 400 hrs
the resource works 20 hrs. So 20 hrs/400 hrs = .5
Unit is .5 x 100% = 5%

When I do that the duration is 172 hrs and End date is 9/3/08

Here are other results:
Task1 208 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Tue 9/9/08 R1[10%]
Task2 200 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Mon 9/8/08 R2[10%]
Task3 208 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Tue 9/9/08 R3[4%]
Task5 200 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Mon 9/8/08 R5[10%]
Task6 172 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Wed 9/3/08 R6[5%]
Task7 200 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Mon 9/8/08 R7[10%]
Task8 208 hrs Thu 8/7/08 Thu 9/11/08 R8[4%]
Task9 172 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Wed 9/3/08 R9[5%]

Not sure why Project 2007 can give a a consistant number? Which one is
correct?

Thanks in advance

Ok, first will the task take 10 weeks or does it have 10 weeks in which to
finish? There is a difference and that relates to understanding how
important it is to keep to the schedule. Sort out the task first. There are
times when a task might take longer than the amount of time a resource will
apply to it. however it seems that you are looking at a task where the time
to complete is determined entirely by the effort applied by the resource to
the task. So if the total time the resource needs to apply to the task to
complete the task will take 2.5 days of a standard 40 hour week if the
resource spends 100% of the 20 hours of work on that task. If the resource
only spends 10% of the time on the task then the task will take 200 hours to
complete. On a 40 hour week, it will take 5 weeks to complete the task.

So here goes:

Task name is say "Task 1", leave the duration alone. In the entry form add
in your resource, 'resource 1', now assign 20hrs to the work column. Now
estimate how long each day the resource will spend on the task, is it full on
or only say 15% of a normal work day. Now enter the percentage of a unit the
resource will spend on the task in the 'Units' column. It may need that as a
percentage or a decimal it depends on your default settings. Now with the
effort driven box ticked and/or the work type set to "fixed work" then the
duration will be set starting from now. In the task information box select
the Advanced tab and put the deadline date into the deadline box. If you
want to check what that date will be have a task set with a 10wk duration and
use that finish date as the deadline for the 'real' task.

Hope his helps

Let me know how you get on''

Regards

davidc

 

[DavidC]

Hi update,

how are you getting on now with the problem you raised?

Regards

DavidC

Hi,

I tried your suggestions and I am getting closer.
To be sure I uderstand:
There are 40 hrs is a week. If the task dealine is 10 weeks.
I take 40 hrs x 10 weeks = 400 hrs
the resource works 20 hrs. So 20 hrs/400 hrs = .5
Unit is .5 x 100% = 5%

When I do that the duration is 172 hrs and End date is 9/3/08

Here are other results:
Task1 208 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Tue 9/9/08 R1[10%]
Task2 200 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Mon 9/8/08 R2[10%]
Task3 208 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Tue 9/9/08 R3[4%]
Task5 200 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Mon 9/8/08 R5[10%]
Task6 172 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Wed 9/3/08 R6[5%]
Task7 200 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Mon 9/8/08 R7[10%]
Task8 208 hrs Thu 8/7/08 Thu 9/11/08 R8[4%]
Task9 172 hrs Tue 8/5/08 Wed 9/3/08 R9[5%]

Not sure why Project 2007 can give a a consistant number? Which one is
correct?

Thanks in advance

Ok, first will the task take 10 weeks or does it have 10 weeks in which to
finish? There is a difference and that relates to understanding how
important it is to keep to the schedule. Sort out the task first. There are
times when a task might take longer than the amount of time a resource will
apply to it. however it seems that you are looking at a task where the time
to complete is determined entirely by the effort applied by the resource to
the task. So if the total time the resource needs to apply to the task to
complete the task will take 2.5 days of a standard 40 hour week if the
resource spends 100% of the 20 hours of work on that task. If the resource
only spends 10% of the time on the task then the task will take 200 hours to
complete. On a 40 hour week, it will take 5 weeks to complete the task.

So here goes:

Task name is say "Task 1", leave the duration alone. In the entry form add
in your resource, 'resource 1', now assign 20hrs to the work column. Now
estimate how long each day the resource will spend on the task, is it full on
or only say 15% of a normal work day. Now enter the percentage of a unit the
resource will spend on the task in the 'Units' column. It may need that as a
percentage or a decimal it depends on your default settings. Now with the
effort driven box ticked and/or the work type set to "fixed work" then the
duration will be set starting from now. In the task information box select
the Advanced tab and put the deadline date into the deadline box. If you
want to check what that date will be have a task set with a 10wk duration and
use that finish date as the deadline for the 'real' task.

Hope his helps

Let me know how you get on''

Regards

davidc

 

[Steve House]

Actual Duration represents what really took place when looking back on the
task in hindsight. At that point it's not an estimate, it's physical fact -
Joe, who works an 8 hour day shift, picked up his tools on Tuesday at 8am
and commenced work, finishing the task Friday at 4pm: Actual Duration = 31
hours (8+8+8+7). Actual duration should be zero until work has physically
been done and it should always be placed occuring on the date the resource
really did do the activity.

If you look at the pre-programmed macros in the tools menu you should find
one there that resets the duration units into any unit you like.

You confusing the calculated finish date with a deadline. The deadline is
obviously the date you need to have the task done by. But a task's duration
is not the time between when it can start and when it is due, it's not the
task's "window of opportunity." The task's duration is the time you predict
that it will take for the work to be completed once it starts. Look at a
physical example - the task requires 400 widgets to be created and the
resource, when working at full capacity can create 10 per hour. The work
required is 40 man-hours. If he can in fact work at 100% it will take him
40 hours to complete the task - that's it's duration regardless of whetrher
it needs to be done tomorrow, next week, or next year. If, OTOH, he has
other stuff on his plate so he can only devote 50% of his energy to the task
at hand, he can only create 5 widget per hour and the task duration has no
choice but to become 80 hours. It's still 40 man-hours of FTE work but each
1 man-hour of work takes 2 hours of physical time to achieve. The
calculated finish date is the date it is predicted that the resource will
complete the task if he starts it on a certain date, defined by start date +
duration. Hopefully that forecast completion is well ahead of the deadline
date.