Summarizing tasks not adding up.

[tshad]

My summary tasks are not working correctly(as far as I can see).

In the following the Windows Service task is showing as 156 hours and the 3 task it is summarizing = 88????
The Testing and Installation task is showing 32 when it should be 28???

Task Hours Pred
1Project 280 hrs
2 Initial Setup 92 hrs
3 Create Excel Xref 80 hrs
4 Document and Status 12 hrs 3
5 Windows Service 156 hrs <---
6 Create XSLT routines 48 hrs 4
7 Special handling 24 hrs 6
8 Run various xml pages 16 hrs 7
9 Testing and Installation 32 hrs <--
10 Initial testing 8 hrs 8
11 Resolve issues 8 hrs 10
12 Final Testing 4 hrs 11
13 Installation 8 hrs 12

What is happening here?

Thanks,

Tom

 

[MT_PMP]

tshad,

Your problem may be a combination of things. If you are able, I would be
happy to take a look at the file itself. You can send it to me at
(e-mail address removed). I should be able to do a quick once-over and find
it.

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Tom,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

It could be a number of things. Have you assigned resources? Have you levelled? Have you applied different calendars? What Project version and SP are you using? Have you entered Durations or Work hours?

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



My summary tasks are not working correctly(as far as I can see).

In the following the Windows Service task is showing as 156 hours and the 3 task it is summarizing = 88????
The Testing and Installation task is showing 32 when it should be 28???

Task Hours Pred
1Project 280 hrs
2 Initial Setup 92 hrs
3 Create Excel Xref 80 hrs
4 Document and Status 12 hrs 3
5 Windows Service 156 hrs <---
6 Create XSLT routines 48 hrs 4
7 Special handling 24 hrs 6
8 Run various xml pages 16 hrs 7
9 Testing and Installation 32 hrs <--
10 Initial testing 8 hrs 8
11 Resolve issues 8 hrs 10
12 Final Testing 4 hrs 11
13 Installation 8 hrs 12

What is happening here?

Thanks,

Tom

 

[salgud]

My summary tasks are not working correctly(as far as I can see).

In the following the Windows Service task is showing as 156 hours and the 3 task it is summarizing = 88????
The Testing and Installation task is showing 32 when it should be 28???

Task Hours Pred
1Project 280 hrs
2 Initial Setup 92 hrs
3 Create Excel Xref 80 hrs
4 Document and Status 12 hrs 3
5 Windows Service 156 hrs <---
6 Create XSLT routines 48 hrs 4
7 Special handling 24 hrs 6
8 Run various xml pages 16 hrs 7
9 Testing and Installation 32 hrs <--
10 Initial testing 8 hrs 8
11 Resolve issues 8 hrs 10
12 Final Testing 4 hrs 11
13 Installation 8 hrs 12

What is happening here?

Thanks,

Tom

You Summary duration is not the sum of the durations of the subtasks, it's
duration is calculated as the difference between the Early Finish date of
the latest subtask minus the Early Start date of the earliest staring
subtask. Only if the subtasks are linked in sequence and there are no
outside links would the Summary line duration be the total of the subtasks
duration, a rather rare occurence in the real world.
Hope this helps in your world.

 

[tshad]

You Summary duration is not the sum of the durations of the subtasks, it's
duration is calculated as the difference between the Early Finish date of
the latest subtask minus the Early Start date of the earliest staring
subtask. Only if the subtasks are linked in sequence and there are no
outside links would the Summary line duration be the total of the subtasks
duration, a rather rare occurence in the real world.

In my case, this is the real world.

I just want to be able to track progress on a project or multiple projects
where the subtasks are linked in sequence.

I want the subtask to just add up the tasks below it. So it is easy to show
to clients the amount of work that was done (by percentage - not absolute
hours. So that a task is about 30% done, or 100% done).

Thanks,

Tom

 

[tshad]

"Mike Glen" <glenATmvps.org> wrote in message Hi Tom,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

It could be a number of things. Have you assigned resources? Have you levelled? Have you applied different calendars? What Project version and SP are you using? Have you entered Durations or Work hours?


I have assigned resource. Although it is only one resource - developers. Haven't leveled. Not concerned with calenders - just duration. I am just saying the Starting Duration is 100 hours, I have 40% of the work complete and the remaining work is 60 hours and the Work complete if 40 hours.

Version of Project is: 2003 (11.0.2003.0816.15).

Thanks,

Tom

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



My summary tasks are not working correctly(as far as I can see).

In the following the Windows Service task is showing as 156 hours and the 3 task it is summarizing = 88????
The Testing and Installation task is showing 32 when it should be 28???

Task Hours Pred
1Project 280 hrs
2 Initial Setup 92 hrs
3 Create Excel Xref 80 hrs
4 Document and Status 12 hrs 3
5 Windows Service 156 hrs <---
6 Create XSLT routines 48 hrs 4
7 Special handling 24 hrs 6
8 Run various xml pages 16 hrs 7
9 Testing and Installation 32 hrs <--
10 Initial testing 8 hrs 8
11 Resolve issues 8 hrs 10
12 Final Testing 4 hrs 11
13 Installation 8 hrs 12

What is happening here?

Thanks,

Tom

 

[John]

"Mike Glen" <glenATmvps.org> wrote in message
Hi Tom,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

It could be a number of things. Have you assigned resources? Have you
levelled? Have you applied different calendars? What Project version and
SP are you using? Have you entered Durations or Work hours?


I have assigned resource. Although it is only one resource - developers.
Haven't leveled. Not concerned with calenders - just duration. I am just
saying the Starting Duration is 100 hours, I have 40% of the work complete
and the remaining work is 60 hours and the Work complete if 40 hours.

Version of Project is: 2003 (11.0.2003.0816.15).

Thanks,

Tom

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



My summary tasks are not working correctly(as far as I can see).

In the following the Windows Service task is showing as 156 hours and the
3 task it is summarizing = 88????
The Testing and Installation task is showing 32 when it should be 28???

Task Hours Pred
1Project 280 hrs
2 Initial Setup 92 hrs
3 Create Excel Xref 80 hrs
4 Document and Status 12 hrs 3
5 Windows Service 156 hrs <---
6 Create XSLT routines 48 hrs 4
7 Special handling 24 hrs 6
8 Run various xml pages 16 hrs 7
9 Testing and Installation 32 hrs <--
10 Initial testing 8 hrs 8
11 Resolve issues 8 hrs 10
12 Final Testing 4 hrs 11
13 Installation 8 hrs 12

What is happening here?

Thanks,

Tom

Tom,
Did you perhaps enter the start and/or finish dates directly? If so, you
set a constraint on every task and that effectively negates the links
between tasks. Entering dates manually totally defeats the reason to use
Project for scheduling. Dates in Project should be determined by an
initial start milestone (the Project start date), the duration of tasks,
and links between tasks. Project then calculates all start and finish
dates based on that information.

John
Project MVP

 

[Steve House]

You said below that "I want the subtask to just add up the tasks below it.
So it is easy to show to clients the amount of work that was done" Remember
that work and duration are two entirely different things. Work on subtasks
is additive to the summary but duration of the subtasks is not. I have 5
subtasks each taking 1 day requiring 8 hours of work. If I link them in
sequence the duration of the summary task is 5 days and the work is 40
man-hours. But if I don't link them, the duration of the summary task is
ONE day while its work remains at 40 hours. Or consider, a summary task
with 2 subtasks, each 1 day duration, 8 hours work. The two subtasks are
linked FS with a 5 day lag time between them. The summary task's DURATION
is 7 days but the work is 16 hours. Duration of a summary is always
computed as the calendar time between the moment the earliest subtask starts
and the time the latest subtask finishes. And because work and duration
measure different things, % Complete and % Work Complete are also two
different metrics.