MS project 2002 sums work incorrectly

[Staffan Nilsson]

I have added a column for work ("arbete" in the swedish
version, do not know if it is actually called work in the
english one) and added the no of hours needed to complete
each sub-activity.

When project sums up these hours from the sub-activities
to a higher level, it calculates them
completely wrong! Does anyone know how to get around this
problem??

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Staffan,

Welcome to the Microsoft Project newsgroup

I think you're mixing up Work ( the number of manhours required to do the
task) and Duration (the amount of calendar working periods between the start
of the task and the finish of the task). Duration of the Summary task is
the number of working periods (days normally) between the start of the first
task to begin and the last task to finish If they all start at the same
time, the Summary Duration will be the same as the longest task. If they
are all spread as a single chain, Duration will equal the sum total of each
individual task.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[Guest]

Hi!

No, the problem is with work (no of manhours), not
duration. The problem is that the calculated work for the
summary task is not the sum of the work for all its sub-
tasks!!!

As an example, last time I checked, 40+40+40+20+20 was not
200, something that project seems to think.

Either there is something about the work property that I
do not understand, or projects simply can not add
correctly.

/Staffan

 

[Steve House]

Have you by any chance assigned any resources to the summary task itself?
If you do, the work will be added in on top of the total work of the
subtasks. Never, ever, assign resources to summary tasks, with the sole
exception of the semi-summary task representing a recurring task.

 

[Mike Glen]

Have you accidentally assigned any work to the Summary task? If not, you
could send me a bit of the project (zipped if possible) and I'll have a look
at it.


Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[Staffan Nisson]

Aha!
It seems that I did assign resources to the summary tasks
by mistake. By removing these, everything works well.

My confidence in basic math and my understanding of the
world is again restored ;-)

Thank you Mike and Steve for your help!

/Staffan