Setting task duration to minimum number of days

[Richard Spooner]

I need to set the duration of an ASAP task (which has predecessors and
successors) to a minimum of three complete working days. I can't see how to
do it!

The requirement is for an external review process. Examples, assuming a
Mon - Fri, 8 am - 5 pm calendar:

1. If the review task could start at noon on Mon, the finish time should be
5 pm on Thu (allowing three complete days of Tue, Wed, and Thu - the extra
five hours on Mon is a bonus!)

2. If the task could start at 8 am Fri, the finish time should be 5 pm Tue
(Fri, Mon, Tue provided for).

3. If the task could start at 8.01 am Fri, the finish time should be 5 pm
Wed (Mon, Tue and Wed provided for - extra time on Fri is a bonus.)

I cannot set absolute dates as constraints, as I need to move the start date
as the planning and implementation occurs. I am using Project 2003 Standard.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[John Jensen]

Richard,
Using a standard Duration of 3 working days, scenarios 1 and 3 in your
example will put the finish date at "odd" times, namely noon on Thursday
for case 1 and 8:02 Wed for case 3. I am not aware of any quick way to
set up a variable Duration by simply using modified linkages. What you
want can be accomplished with a simple VBA macro and possibly with
formulas in custom fields (I'd have to play with the latter to see if it
is really possible).

For the macro approach I would look at the task Start date. If it is
anything other than 8:00:00 am, reset the Start date to the following
day. The revised Start date with a normal 3 day Duration will get what
you're after.

Hope this helps.
John

 

[John Jensen]

Richard,
I apologize for a slight error in my earlier post. For the macro
approach, the code needs to find the delta duration from task start to
the end of the first day if the Start time is later than 8:00:00. This
fractional day duration should then be added to the nominal 3 day
duration. No change is made to the Start time because everything is set
by the modified Duration.

John