Resource Pool and Standard Calender Changes

[Mark E]

Hello,

I have many sharer files / projects linked into a resource pool. It has
been decided to more accurately reflect what a working day is. So I changed
the default standard calendar / standard working time to reflect a 6.5 hrs
per week (from 8hrs), and 32.5 hrs/week (from 40hrs).

All my projects are fixed duration, so I assumed that none of the durations
would change within any of the sharer files / projects linked to the pool.
This was correct for the tasks that did not have any work complete on them
(ie: 0% for % work complete). In other words, if a task had > 0% work
complete then the duration for that task would be recalculated.

Is there a way to stop it from recalculating? What am I missing? I don't
want to have to go back and adjust all those tasks that could potentially be
adjusted. Thanks!

Mark

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi Mark,

Within Project all durations and Work values are stored in minutes
When you have entered the durations they have been translated into minutes
before Project did anything with it.
Fixed Duration applies to this number of minutes (and BTW this task type
only plays a role when changing resources on the taks)
When there is less time per day to work this number of minutes more days
will be needed.

You could make a new file with the right working times, (DO NOT FORGET
Tools, Options, Calendar!) and copy-Paste the Name and durations fields.

HTH

 

[Mark E]

Jan,

Thank you very much for the explanation! Do you know why the duration would
only recalulate on tasks that had some work complete?

Mark

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi Mark,

First, remember a line from my previous post:
(DO NOT FORGETYou did, didn't you - I mean that you left the definition of "a day" as is

That means that even if the working time per "true day" is reduced to 6
hours, for MS project the exotic, nonstandard time unit (!) called "a day"
is still equal to 480 minutes.
Do read
http://mvps.org/project/faqs.htm,
faq 5: Default Working hous for a complete explanation.

This explains why duration does not seem to change fro tasks with 0%
complete (but do look at start and end times of the task- they will not fit
with the duration shown)

As for semi-completed tasks, they will now show an irregular work pattern: 8
hours for the part that had been completed before the calendar change (most
of the time Project DOES NOT change actuals) and the remaining work is
rescheduled and Project will come up with a differnt duration.

I'm not on a mood to find out exctly how Project calculates this because it
is a situation that should NOT occur. When I teach Project, one of the very
first messages is

BEFORE ENTERING ANY TASK OR RESOURCE, SET THE PROJECT CALENDAR AND TOOLS,
OPTIONS, CALENDAR RIGHT.

That's why I advise you to start afresh with a new project...

HTH