Project Duration

[DHenningsen]

I am really new to this program. I have created a project and I am wanting
to change my duration period from a five day a week duration to a 24 hour
duration?
I have tried to change my working time to a 24 hour but that does not seem
to keep when I go back and check it, and it does nothing to the information
in my duration field.
Can someone please help? i sure it is easier than I am making it.

THX

 

[DavidC]

Hi,

First thing to clarify is that ALL your tasks can be accomplished at any
time during the day, and you say you want to change from a "Five day a week
to 24 hour duration" These are two different concepts. First how many days
per week can be worked, and how many hours per day can the tasks be worked.

Perhaps if you can clrify these first I can then perhaps guide you into
setting up project to achieve the end result. remember though that these
settings will determine how quickly your project can be finished and that
must reflect reality. Hence if you are not working shifts then do not use 24
hour days.

Hope this helps

DavidC

 

[salgud]

Hence if you are not working shifts then do not use 24
hour days.

I have a somewhat different approach. I don't use 24 hr days when working
shifts, I use three 8 hr shifts instead. I do use 24 hr days for things
like machinery, which can, and often does, run 24/7 except when down for
maintenance. There are always variations on all these themes.

Nonetheless, your question is confusing. You need to give us more detail so
we can help you.

 

[DHenningsen]

Sorry for the confusion. Like I said I am new to the program.

The type of schedule I have created is one for a construction project. I
have a task that is specific for a phase of the project such as the
"construction phase". The period of time I have entered is a start date of
3/9/09 and a finish date of 3/9/10. The value I am getting for the duration
is 262 days. I want it to read 365 days. I hope this helps.

 

[salgud]

Sorry for the confusion. Like I said I am new to the program.

The type of schedule I have created is one for a construction project. I
have a task that is specific for a phase of the project such as the
"construction phase". The period of time I have entered is a start date of
3/9/09 and a finish date of 3/9/10. The value I am getting for the duration
is 262 days. I want it to read 365 days. I hope this helps.

261 working days is one year. Durations in Project do not count non-working
days. I'm guessing you haven't entered your holidays into your calendar
under "Tools, Change Working Time" or your duration would be less by the
number of holidays.

Bigger problem. Project doesn't work very well when you specify both Start
and Finish dates. In fact, you can't in the "Project, Project Information"
dialog box. So my first question is, where did you enter both a project
Start and a project Finish date?

Better to enter a project Start date. Then enter the list of tasks required
to accomplish the project, their duration estimates, and the links between
them. Make sure all the links are there and correct, and that no false
links are inserted, by you or by Project. Project will then tell you how
long it takes to do your Project. It may not be what you like, most likely
not a year. But it will be the best estimate you have at this point of how
long it will really take. One of it's primary functions is to dispel our
illusions and get us off de Nile.

To avoid Project creating false links, go to "Tools, options" and select
the "Schedule" tab. Near the bottom, turn off "Auto link inserted or moved
tasks". Now Project probably won't sabotage your best efforts at a
meaningful schedule.

If the resultant schedule is much more than a year (261 days duration), you
should google this NG for information on Attacking the Critical Path. Might
want to look up a bit about the Critical Path first.

Project is not entirely intuitive. Scheduling is a discipline, one not
learned overnight. If you want to get the full benefit of using scheduling
software, you'll need to invest some time. If you're too busy to do so, my
advice is to use Excel for your scheduling instead. Much simpler,
straightforward and intuitive and will conform to just about any system you
devise. Project won't.

Hope this helps in your world.

 

[DavidC]

Hi.

What you need is a duration which ignores weekends and holidays. The best
example is concrete curing where it matters not whether it is a weekend or a
holiday it just keeps curing. In this case use elapsed days (ed). These
ignores the calendar. Now if you assign 365ed to your task it will give you
a date 365 calendar days from the start date. Remember though that it still
may not give you exactly the same end date as you would expect, but that may
be because of leap year.

another option is to use (emo) which is simply elapsed months. Either way
you should achieve what you need without confusing the issue with 24 hr days.

Hope this helps

Regards

davidC