Task End Dates

[Nate Birkholz]

When I create a task in Project, assign it a work value, and confirm the
duration, it has the task end at the same time as the next task starts. For
example, from my latest schedule:

Task Name Work Duration Start End
Task 1 16 hrs 2 days Wed 1/9/08 Fri 1/11/08
Task 2 8 hrs 1 day Fri 1/11/08 Mon 1/14/08

The tasks definitely start first thing in the morning. Is it possible to
have the tasks end on the day they really end?

The reason I ask is because it is a lot of extra work when I copy the
columns out of Project and paste them into Excel to give them to the team. I
have to go through and remove one workday from the Finish column.

 

[Nate Birkholz]

Just for clarity, the formatting seems to have messed that up. The first
column is Task Name, the second column is work, the third column is duration,
next column is Start, final column is end.

Task 1 16 hrs 2 days Wed 1/9/08 Fri 1/11/08
Task 2 8 hrs 1 day Fri 1/11/08 Mon 1/14/08

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Nate,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

This is frequently caused by a mis-match between working hours definition
and the calendars. You might like to see FAQ Item: 5. Default Working Hours

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

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

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

 

[Nate Birkholz]

Thanks, Mike. Unfortunately, that all seems to be set up correctly.

What Project seems to be doing is forcing tasks to be contiguous. So a task
lasts until the moment the next task starts. This way the tasks form a
"continuous" line instead of having a dashed line as each task ends for the
night. I am looking for a way to make it that dashed line, basically.

 

[Steve House]

Remember Project always records and tracks duration in minutes to the
nearest 10th and does NOT actually use units such as days, weeks, months at
all. It only displays those units as a convenience and any units you use
for entry are converted to and from minutes underneath the hood. You need
to look at the times associated with the start and end dates as well as just
the dates. You have a one day task that starts on Friday and ends on Monday
and you seem to feel that's in error. Well, it all depends on what TIME on
Friday the task starts...if your calendar is the standard default and your
task is 1 day, ie 8 hours, in length AND it starts at 8am it will show
finishing on Friday as well, at 5 pm. But if it starts at 10am, by the time
everyone leaves for the weekend at 5pm only 6 working hours will have
passed, leaving 2 of the required 8 hours still to go. No one can work the
weekend so that 2 hours has to be done Monday morning between 8 and 10. So
a 1 day task that starts when the workday begins finishes on that day but a
1 day task starting any later than the start of the workday finishes
sometime on the following workday. Go to the tool, options menu, view tab,
and set a date format that will display the time and it should become clear
what's going on exactly.

 

[Nate Birkholz]

Thanks, Steve. Here's what I see when I make that change:

Task 1 16 hrs 2 days Fri 1/4/08 9:00 AM Tue 1/8/08 9:00 AM
Task 2 8 hrs 1 day Tue 1/8/08 9:00 AM Wed 1/9/08 9:00 AM

My working time for the project is at the following location:
http://nateb.50megs.com/gfx/projwork.jpg

Just for surety's sake, here's the working time and availability for the
asset assigned to the tasks:
http://nateb.50megs.com/gfx/resowork.jpg
http://nateb.50megs.com/gfx/resoavail.jpg

Remember Project always records and tracks duration in minutes to the
nearest 10th and does NOT actually use units such as days, weeks, months at
all. It only displays those units as a convenience and any units you use
for entry are converted to and from minutes underneath the hood. You need
to look at the times associated with the start and end dates as well as just
the dates. You have a one day task that starts on Friday and ends on Monday
and you seem to feel that's in error. Well, it all depends on what TIME on
Friday the task starts...if your calendar is the standard default and your
task is 1 day, ie 8 hours, in length AND it starts at 8am it will show
finishing on Friday as well, at 5 pm. But if it starts at 10am, by the time
everyone leaves for the weekend at 5pm only 6 working hours will have
passed, leaving 2 of the required 8 hours still to go. No one can work the
weekend so that 2 hours has to be done Monday morning between 8 and 10. So
a 1 day task that starts when the workday begins finishes on that day but a
1 day task starting any later than the start of the workday finishes
sometime on the following workday. Go to the tool, options menu, view tab,
and set a date format that will display the time and it should become clear
what's going on exactly.

--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Thanks, Mike. Unfortunately, that all seems to be set up correctly.

What Project seems to be doing is forcing tasks to be contiguous. So a
task
lasts until the moment the next task starts. This way the tasks form a
"continuous" line instead of having a dashed line as each task ends for
the
night. I am looking for a way to make it that dashed line, basically.

 

[Nate Birkholz]

Argh, and here's what the resource usage chart looks like for the first tasks
in the chart:

http://nateb.50megs.com/gfx/resusage.jpg

What on earth is it doing? Every task is slightly shorter on the first day.

I just created a test project. I used all the default settings and work
times (used the wizard to set work times, accepted all defaults, all defaults
are factory). I then added the work column to the default view.

Then I added three tasks and set their work times: Task 1 to 8 hrs, Task 2
to 16 hours, task 3 to 8 hours. I assigned tasks 1 and 3 to "Person 1" and
Task 2 to "Person 2" by adding their names to the tasks in the Gantt view.

This is what I get:

http://nateb.50megs.com/gfx/tasks.jpg
http://nateb.50megs.com/gfx/resourceview.jpg

Thanks, Steve. Here's what I see when I make that change:

Task 1 16 hrs 2 days Fri 1/4/08 9:00 AM Tue 1/8/08 9:00 AM
Task 2 8 hrs 1 day Tue 1/8/08 9:00 AM Wed 1/9/08 9:00 AM

My working time for the project is at the following location:
http://nateb.50megs.com/gfx/projwork.jpg

Just for surety's sake, here's the working time and availability for the
asset assigned to the tasks:
http://nateb.50megs.com/gfx/resowork.jpg
http://nateb.50megs.com/gfx/resoavail.jpg

Remember Project always records and tracks duration in minutes to the
nearest 10th and does NOT actually use units such as days, weeks, months at
all. It only displays those units as a convenience and any units you use
for entry are converted to and from minutes underneath the hood. You need
to look at the times associated with the start and end dates as well as just
the dates. You have a one day task that starts on Friday and ends on Monday
and you seem to feel that's in error. Well, it all depends on what TIME on
Friday the task starts...if your calendar is the standard default and your
task is 1 day, ie 8 hours, in length AND it starts at 8am it will show
finishing on Friday as well, at 5 pm. But if it starts at 10am, by the time
everyone leaves for the weekend at 5pm only 6 working hours will have
passed, leaving 2 of the required 8 hours still to go. No one can work the
weekend so that 2 hours has to be done Monday morning between 8 and 10. So
a 1 day task that starts when the workday begins finishes on that day but a
1 day task starting any later than the start of the workday finishes
sometime on the following workday. Go to the tool, options menu, view tab,
and set a date format that will display the time and it should become clear
what's going on exactly.

--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Thanks, Mike. Unfortunately, that all seems to be set up correctly.

What Project seems to be doing is forcing tasks to be contiguous. So a
task
lasts until the moment the next task starts. This way the tasks form a
"continuous" line instead of having a dashed line as each task ends for
the
night. I am looking for a way to make it that dashed line, basically.

:

Hi Nate,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

This is frequently caused by a mis-match between working hours definition
and the calendars. You might like to see FAQ Item: 5. Default Working
Hours

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

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

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


Just for clarity, the formatting seems to have messed that up. The
first
column is Task Name, the second column is work, the third column is
duration,
next column is Start, final column is end.

Task 1 16 hrs 2 days Wed 1/9/08 Fri 1/11/08
Task 2 8 hrs 1 day Fri 1/11/08 Mon 1/14/08


:

When I create a task in Project, assign it a work value, and confirm
the
duration, it has the task end at the same time as the next task
starts.
For
example, from my latest schedule:

Task Name Work Duration Start End
Task 1 16 hrs 2 days Wed 1/9/08 Fri 1/11/08
Task 2 8 hrs 1 day Fri 1/11/08 Mon 1/14/08

The tasks definitely start first thing in the morning. Is it possible
to
have the tasks end on the day they really end?

The reason I ask is because it is a lot of extra work when I copy the
columns out of Project and paste them into Excel to give them to the
team. I
have to go through and remove one workday from the Finish column.

 

[Nate Birkholz]

Found it! The default start time for a work day is 8:00 AM. The default time
for a new project to start is 9:00 AM.

Carry on, nothing to see here.

 

[Steve House]

Your workday starts at 8, your task starts at 9. Thus 'Day 1 of Work'
starts Friday at 9, with the time from 8 to 9 just not counting for
anything. When folks go home at the end of the day Friday there's still an
hour left to go for 'Day 1' so that gets used up Monday between 8 and 9.
'Day 2 of Work' starts Monday at 9 and when Monday ends there's also still
an hour to go for Day 2. So the rest of 'Day 2' takes place on Tuesday
morning between 8 and 9. The weekends of course don't count at all. So a 2
day duration task that shows starting Friday finishes on Tuesday. If it
started Friday at 8 instead of 9 it would show finishing Monday.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Thanks, Steve. Here's what I see when I make that change:

Task 1 16 hrs 2 days Fri 1/4/08 9:00 AM Tue 1/8/08 9:00 AM
Task 2 8 hrs 1 day Tue 1/8/08 9:00 AM Wed 1/9/08 9:00 AM

My working time for the project is at the following location:
http://nateb.50megs.com/gfx/projwork.jpg

Just for surety's sake, here's the working time and availability for the
asset assigned to the tasks:
http://nateb.50megs.com/gfx/resowork.jpg
http://nateb.50megs.com/gfx/resoavail.jpg

Remember Project always records and tracks duration in minutes to the
nearest 10th and does NOT actually use units such as days, weeks, months
at
all. It only displays those units as a convenience and any units you use
for entry are converted to and from minutes underneath the hood. You
need
to look at the times associated with the start and end dates as well as
just
the dates. You have a one day task that starts on Friday and ends on
Monday
and you seem to feel that's in error. Well, it all depends on what TIME
on
Friday the task starts...if your calendar is the standard default and
your
task is 1 day, ie 8 hours, in length AND it starts at 8am it will show
finishing on Friday as well, at 5 pm. But if it starts at 10am, by the
time
everyone leaves for the weekend at 5pm only 6 working hours will have
passed, leaving 2 of the required 8 hours still to go. No one can work
the
weekend so that 2 hours has to be done Monday morning between 8 and 10.
So
a 1 day task that starts when the workday begins finishes on that day but
a
1 day task starting any later than the start of the workday finishes
sometime on the following workday. Go to the tool, options menu, view
tab,
and set a date format that will display the time and it should become
clear
what's going on exactly.

--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Thanks, Mike. Unfortunately, that all seems to be set up correctly.

What Project seems to be doing is forcing tasks to be contiguous. So a
task
lasts until the moment the next task starts. This way the tasks form a
"continuous" line instead of having a dashed line as each task ends for
the
night. I am looking for a way to make it that dashed line, basically.

:

Hi Nate,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

This is frequently caused by a mis-match between working hours
definition
and the calendars. You might like to see FAQ Item: 5. Default Working
Hours

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

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

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


message
Just for clarity, the formatting seems to have messed that up. The
first
column is Task Name, the second column is work, the third column is
duration,
next column is Start, final column is end.

Task 1 16 hrs 2 days Wed 1/9/08 Fri 1/11/08
Task 2 8 hrs 1 day Fri 1/11/08 Mon 1/14/08


:

When I create a task in Project, assign it a work value, and
confirm
the
duration, it has the task end at the same time as the next task
starts.
For
example, from my latest schedule:

Task Name Work Duration Start End
Task 1 16 hrs 2 days Wed 1/9/08 Fri 1/11/08
Task 2 8 hrs 1 day Fri 1/11/08 Mon 1/14/08

The tasks definitely start first thing in the morning. Is it
possible
to
have the tasks end on the day they really end?

The reason I ask is because it is a lot of extra work when I copy
the
columns out of Project and paste them into Excel to give them to
the
team. I
have to go through and remove one workday from the Finish column.

 

[Nate Birkholz]

Yep, stress+inattention=me being dumb! Thanks for your help!