Questions on duration in Project 2007

K

krishnas

Hi,

I've following two questions on the duration calculated for a task:

1. When I assign resources to 80%, the duration is being shown in
decimal values like 23.47 days. How can I make project display it as an
integer rounded off to the nearest value?

2. When I reverted resource for task from 80% to 100%, the old computed
value for the parent task is still in decimal. For example, I have two
tasks that have 2 days of duration. The parent task is still displaying
fractional values. Pressing F9 didn't change it and I cant change the
value manually myself as it is not editable.

3. My management requires the effort to be in 100% as well as 80% to
recommend corrective actions. Is there a mechanism I can display two
columns for the duration for easier review of the plan.

Appreciate if someone can give me pointers on addressing this.

TIA,
krishna
 
D

Dale Howard [MVP]

krishnas --

1. There is no way to force Microsoft Project 2007 to round off a Duration
value to an integer. It actually tracks Duration values at the 1-minute
level, so it shows you precisely how long the Duration will take, using
values like 23.47 days.

2. The Duration of a summary task is NOT calculated by adding the Duration
values of each subtask. Instead, the Duration of a summary task is
calculated from the Start date of the earliest subtask to the Finish date of
the latest subtask. These dates not only depend on the Duration of each
subtask, but also on the task dependencies you set between the tasks, and on
any types of Constraints (such as Start No Earlier Than) on the tasks as
well. Based on your description, I suspect you might have Start No Earlier
Than constraints on one or more subtasks.

3. There is no rapid way to rapidly change the assignment Units value (100%
or 80%) on every task. Hope this helps.
 
A

Aviva Carmen, PMP, MCP

krishnas --

1.  There is no way to force Microsoft Project 2007 to round off a Duration
value to an integer.  It actually tracks Duration values at the 1-minute
level, so it shows you precisely how long the Duration will take, using
values like 23.47 days.

2.  The Duration of a summary task is NOT calculated by adding the Duration
values of each subtask.  Instead, the Duration of a summary task is
calculated from the Start date of the earliest subtask to the Finish dateof
the latest subtask.  These dates not only depend on the Duration of each
subtask, but also on the task dependencies you set between the tasks, andon
any types of Constraints (such as Start No Earlier Than) on the tasks as
well.  Based on your description, I suspect you might have Start No Earlier
Than constraints on one or more subtasks.

3.  There is no rapid way to rapidly change the assignment Units value (100%
or 80%) on every task.  Hope this helps.

Krishna,

Dale's points are great. Here are some additional comments, in case
you want to explore further:

1. I suspect you have the 'Type' set to Fixed Units. Insert the Type
column (right-click on a column heading, click Insert Column). Change
it to Fixed Work or Fixed Duration (whatever makes sense for that
task), then change the Duration to an integer. If all the subtasks
have integer Durations, the Summary task is likely to as well. Try
that, or feel free to send me the .mpp and I'll analyze it for you.

The default 'Type' in MS Project is Fixed Units. To change the default
on your projects going forward (for projects that haven't been created
yet), from the Tools menu, select Options. On the Schedule tab, for
Default Task Type, change it to Fixed Work. Click the button 'Set As
Default'.

2. As Dale alluded to, the columns Duration, Work, etc on Summary
Tasks are rollups / calculated fields, and therefore not editable.
Neither is the 'Type' field on Summary Tasks; it's always Fixed
Duration. Playing with the subtasks will affect the Summary Task,
though. Make sure you have the columns 'Type', 'Work', and 'Duration'
showing, so you can see what's going on, and adjust the numbers.

3. For this question, it sounds like management wants to compare
timelines given 2 scenarios: What if I assign people at 80% of their
time, vs. assigning them at 100% of their time? How long will the
project take? What is the critical path? Is that correct? If I'm
understanding the question correctly, please feel free to write me for
some suggestions. (e-mail address removed). Or, explain it more fully in
this forum, and I'll answer here.

- Aviva
 

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