Plotting Gantt chart of any field other then default "Duration" fi

[Zcema06]

Hi

I am using project 2003.
As you know the "duration" field is calculated from the end and start dates
entered, a gantt chart of the "duration" is then plotted.
I have created a new column (field) called Actual Duration (in hours) and I
would like project to plot the gantt chart of the Actual Duration column and,
update the start and end dates from the Actual duration column instead of
doing so from the default "duration" field.

Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks.

 

[John]

Hi

I am using project 2003.
As you know the "duration" field is calculated from the end and start dates
entered, a gantt chart of the "duration" is then plotted.
I have created a new column (field) called Actual Duration (in hours) and I
would like project to plot the gantt chart of the Actual Duration column and,
update the start and end dates from the Actual duration column instead of
doing so from the default "duration" field.

Any help will be appreciated.
Thanks.

Zcema06,
Are you aware that Project already has an Actual Duration column? There
should be no reason to create your own.

Gantt bars are set up under Format/Bar Styles. Using that, you can
pretty much set up the bars any way you want. Just remember, bar styles
lower in the list override bars at the beginning of the list if there
happens to be a conflict.

Updating of the Start and Finish fields is already accomplished by
Project. If a task starts on its schedule start date (i.e. a non-zero
value is entered into the % Complete field), Project will enter that
date in the Actual Start field. The same is true for the Finish field.
If, on the other hand, a task does not start on its schedule date, the
user can manually enter the actual date into the Actual Start field.
Project will then update the Start field to agree. Again, the same is
true for the Finish and Actual Finish fields.

It sounds like you are trying to do scheduling tracking processes that
are already contained in Projects scheduling algorithms.

John
Project MVP

 

[Jack Dahlgren]

The Gantt chart is drawn from start to finish for tasks. It does not use
duration at all.
Thus, simply from your "actual duration" column alone, project can not draw
a bar. A bar will need a start and finish date. If you can derive them
somehow and store them in one of the available fields (start1-start20,
Date1-20 etc) then you can draw a bar between them.

-Jack Dahlgren

 

[Zcema06]

Thank you both for your replies.

I agree that I need to define my start and finish date but my "actual
duration" is derived from a formula of "(Quantity) / (Production rate /
hour)", thus my "actual duration" is in hours.
How can i link my "actual duration" time with the start and finish date
fields?
That would mean that the link between "duration" and the start and finish
date would be broken. Is that possible?

Zcema06

 

[Zcema06]

Thank you for your reply.
I dont think I explained my issue clear enough, please read my post to Jack.

Zcmea06

 

[Jack Dahlgren]

Think about it this way.

You have a map.
There are two cities on the map. Call one "Start" and the other one
"Finish". The time to travel between the two is the duration.

Now, you have some way of measuring how much fuel you expect to use. Call
that "Quantity" and you have an idea of how fast your car burns fuel - call
that "Production Rate". From this you calculate an amount of time that your
car will run. Call that time "Actual Duration"

Now, time to draw lines. In the first case, you draw a line from "Start" to
"Finish". In the second case, you know the length of the line, but have no
idea where to draw it.

If you can make some assumptions (perhaps the start for the actual duration
line is the same as the start of the duration line...?) then you can do some
math and calculate the finish for the actual duration line, but the simple
fact is that a duration without some known starting point or finishing point
can not be drawn. You need to find a way to derive a date given the
information available about the task. Once you have an algorithm, people
here can probably help you implement the custom fields necessary for it to
work.

-Jack Dahlgren

 

[John]

Thank you for your reply.
I dont think I explained my issue clear enough, please read my post to Jack.

Zcmea06

Zcmea06,
Our replies are based on the information we are given. More info
generally gets a better reply. In this case I think Jack summed it up
very nicely in his second reply.

John
Project MVP