Times for tasks dont add up

[katrina]

I want to represent the total time a task takes, I don't want to know
the time from start to finish as there may be non work time in there

sometimes it adds up substask time

sometimes it doesn't and just takes the longest task time within that
group

and now I am trying to figure out how I can represent a task that
might take 3 hours but I want to spread it over a week

any thoughts ... suggestions on how i can do this in project
thanks in advance

 

[JulieS]

Hi Katrina,

You are talking about two different, but related issues: duration --
which is the amount of time in working time between the start of a
task and the finish of the task, and work -- which is the labor or
effort expended by resources during the task duration.

Work is only meaningful when you have created resources and assigned
them to the tasks. It sounds like you want to add the work for the
tasks, not the duration.

To directly answer your question, you may certainly have a task of 1
week duration with 3 hours of work. Create the task and resources.
Make the task fixed duration and when you assign the resource, enter
the 3 hours of work.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project

 

[Steve House]

As a further nore, careful about mixing concepts. A task is a single
activity producing a sungle deliverable. Tasks never have subtasks. What
you are calling a "task" is in fact a summary task, an entry in your task
table that represents a rollup of the duraqtion, work, etc of a group of
related activities whose deliverables collectively form a larger
deliverable. If we were building a house we'd have an entry "Foundation"
representing that phase of the project. Wiithin it we'd have activities
such as "dig hole" "erect forms" "pour concrete" etc. "Foundation" is not a
task, it is a summary task. The individual component activities are the
tasks.

I know it seems picky to make the distinction but using the correct
terminology helps communication with your peers and understanding the
documentation and references.