Project Plan in Minutes

[kaigray]

Hello,

Many of our projects are detailed in minutes rather than days or hours.
For instance, a hardware upgrade may affect customer downtime and each
minute outside a maintenance window will cost n dollars/minute.

How can I set Start and Finish in time rather than date? I try to
enter a time (3:30 AM for instance) and it converts it to a date.

I have looked through a number of postings and the FAQ but can't find
anything. If someone could point me i nthe right direction I'd
appreciate it.

Thank you,
Kai

 

[JulieS]

Hi Kai,

Project calculates to the minute. To view both date and time go to
Tools>Options and on the view tab, select a date format showing both dates
and times.

Hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie

 

[kaigray]

Julie, thanks so much. That was a huge help.

One other quick question. Should the Start and Finish times dictate
the duration? The reason I ask is that when enter in the the start and
finish times -- 12:05 AM to 12:10 AM on Sunday morning -- the duration
stays at 0 Mins. When I try to change the duration to 5 Mins. It
resets the Start and Finish to today's date. What am I missing?

Thanks again,
Kai

 

[Project Slave]

What is the task type ? is it effort driven ?
You can find these in task information > advanced tab

 

[kaigray]

It was listed at Fixed Unit. I changed it to Fixed Duration. In both
cases 'effort Driven" was checked. The change from Fixed Units to
Fixed Duration seemed to have cured it.

Thanks

 

[JulieS]

Hi Kai,

You're welcome.

Just a word of caution. Typing in start and finish dates/times constrain
the tasks. If you enter in a start date/time for a task in a project
scheduled from a fixed start date (in Project>Project Information) you are
setting a Start No Earlier than constraint. Typing in a finish date/time for
a task sets a Finish no earlier than constraint. As much as humanly possible
you want to set the Start Date of the Project (Project>Project Information),
enter your task durations (you can enter in minutes if you choose) and then
link the tasks together to drive the start date/time of the sucessor tasks.

I assume you also changed your calendar (Tools>Change Working Time) to set
Sunday as a working day?

Hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Paraphrasing Julie a bit. Start and Finish times are related to duration
but the driving force is opposite what you're looking at. A start time is
driven by the timing of the tasks that must come before the one in question,
the project start, and the availability of the required resources. It can
only occur at a time that is included as working time according to it's
calendar (if your calendar says the work day is 8 to 5, the only times that
are valid start times lay between those two times, attempting to schedule at
some other time results in the task moving to the first available working
minute). Then the required duration is added to the start time to compute
the finish time. While duration is the number of working minutes between
start and finish, it's not computed from finish mnus start. Instead, the
computed value is the finish and it is determined by start plus duration.