sub tasks not duration not adding up correctly

[Bob Day]

Using Project 07 pro...

I wish to enter a reoccurring task, like "Email Weekly Progress Update".
The mechanics of doing this is very simple, and it creates a header with,
for example, 12 sub tasks under it (for a 12 week project).

The problem is the duration on the sub tasks, and every task after this
reoccurring task header, rolls up to a total duration for this reoccurring
task header which
makes no sense.

If you set duration for the sub tasks "Email Weekly
Progress Update" to 0, then they become milestones, which you don't want,
and that doesn't stop the other tasks from rolling up.

This looks very confusing, showing a huge number for the "Email Weekly
Progress Update".

Example

Total Task Duration 8d
Task 1 Duration 8d ("Email Weekly Progress Update")
Sub Task Duration 1h ("Email Weekly Progress Update")
...
Task 2 Duration 5d
Task 3 Duration 3d

How do I get task 1 ("Email Weekly Progress Update") to not reflect all the
tasks below it in duration (just its own sub tasks would be OK). Based on
the documentation it should not.

Thanks
Bob

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Bob,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

Project defines Duration of a summary to be the number of working days from
the beginning of the first task to the end of the last task. Hence the
large figure. You can't control this, but you could format the cell to have
a white font.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for Project Tutorials

 

[Steve House]

The duration of a summary task is the time between when the earliest
starting subtask starts and the latest finishing subtask ends. In your
case, the recurring task duration is not the sum of its component task
activity but rather the total time between the start of the 1st "Email
Update" task and the end of the last one. There's nothing wrong with your
plan, that is the way it ought to be, implicit in the definition of
duration. Don't confuse total duration with total work in these situations,
they are not equal. If I have 52 one hour tasks recurring once a week, the
total duration of the series is about 1 year while the total work that has
taken place is 52 hours.