Sub Task Length

[Diggers]

hello,

I have the following problem. I am trying to create a project plan that will
show the following.

I have a Main Task that should last 4 months. So starts September 1st and
finished December 31st. This task has 3 sub tasks which will take place
during those 4 months, however the length my work in the subtasks is as
follows:

Task1 lasts 20 days
Task2 lasts 10 days
Task3 lasts 10 days.

For the life of me I cannot get the main task to show 4 months and then the
subtasks to show 20,10 and 10? Has anyone any idea how this can be displayed
in MS Project?

Thanks

 

[John]

hello,

I have the following problem. I am trying to create a project plan that will
show the following.

I have a Main Task that should last 4 months. So starts September 1st and
finished December 31st. This task has 3 sub tasks which will take place
during those 4 months, however the length my work in the subtasks is as
follows:

Task1 lasts 20 days
Task2 lasts 10 days
Task3 lasts 10 days.

For the life of me I cannot get the main task to show 4 months and then the
subtasks to show 20,10 and 10? Has anyone any idea how this can be displayed
in MS Project?

Thanks

Diggers,
First of all, what you are calling the "main task" is not a task at all
- it is simply a summary line of the performance tasks under it. And
since it is a summary line it's duration is displayed as the total
working time between the start of the earliest task under it to the
finish of the latest task under it. If you have Task 1,2 & 3 as 20, 10 &
10 days duration respectively and they are all linked start to finish,
there is no way the summary line will span 4 months. It will shows a
total of 40 days working time duration, as it should.

In order to have the summary line show 4 months duration, the duration
of the subtasks will need to increase appropriately or you will need to
insert a lag between each subtask. But I have to ask, why do you think
the summary line will be 4 months long if the performance tasks under it
don't take that long? What it your goal?

John
project MVP

 

[Diggers]

Thanks for the response John,

what I am trying to do is plan out a EU wide project which has 3 other
partners. The 4 months is the total length of time the task will take. The
task is broken in to 3 sub tasks and if you add up all the hours each partner
has it will add to 4 months. My companys part is only 40 days. Maybe the best
solution would be to put the tasks of all the partners in?

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hoi,

Since the duration of a summary task (what you call a task) stretches from
the start of the first task (what you calml a subtask) to the end of the
final one, you indeed have to show all teh "subtasks" in order to show the
coirrct length for the "task" (the summary task)

Hope this helps,

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[John]

Thanks for the response John,

what I am trying to do is plan out a EU wide project which has 3 other
partners. The 4 months is the total length of time the task will take. The
task is broken in to 3 sub tasks and if you add up all the hours each partner
has it will add to 4 months. My companys part is only 40 days. Maybe the best
solution would be to put the tasks of all the partners in?

Diggers,
FIrst, why do you want to show the total duration if your company is
only doing 40 days worth? Unless you are responsible for the whole
project, I suggest you limit your schedule to your tasks only.

If you really want to show the total duration, then yes you will need to
include some type of placeholder "task" (i.e. the effort from the other
3 partners) to show the other 40 days. Your 40 plus their combined 40
gives 80 which at 20 days/month is 4 months.

John
Project MVP

 

[Steve House]

In addition to my companion's comments, I might mention that a 4-month
duration task starting 01 Sept WILL NOT end 31 Dec. Project does not use
the normal civil calendar for durations - the basic unit of duration is not
the normal days, weeks, or months of the normal calendar we use every day
but rather it is the working-time minute. Non-working time is complete
ignored when measuring and calculating durations. Units of days, etc, get
converted into minutes and the normal conversion factor for months is based
on an average of 20 work days per month. Using the default calendars and
conversions, a 4 month task beginning 01 Sept ends 19 Dec; should it go to
31 Dec it will be ~4.4 months. 4 months = 4 * 20 days * 8 hours per day *
60.0 minutes per hour. The task ends after that many working time minutes,
defined as working time by the Project Calendar, will have transpired. Days
off, holidays, non-working time when the resources go home to eat and sleep,
etc, are all deducted from the 24 hour civil day.

HTH