What to do with a task that all I care about is duration.

[djhurayt]

We have some tasks that are in our project that all we know (and/or care
about) is that it will take X days for them to complete. How should we treat
this task? We do not want any hours assigned to it because it is hours that
do not have any internal costs associated with them (as far as our department
is concerned). This Engineering Gantt has task in it that other departments
or vendors must perform. If we set it as “fixed duration†with zero hours
and have a resource (department or vendor) assigned to it the Gantt chart bar
does not show up. All we get is a zero hour vertical bar with a tracking
line that starts at the location that would be the end of the task. however
when the task does not have a resource assigned to it the bar shows like a
normal (if there is such a thing in Project) task.

 

[Jack Dahlgren]

The easiest thing is not to assign a resource.

If you want to keep track of who is responsible for the task use the
"Contact" field or something similar.

An alternative is to set the cost for the resource at $0, and assign as
normal. That way you see the work, but there is no cost associated with it.

-Jack Dahlgren

 

[vanita]

Hi

I also agree with Jack's advise that do not assign resources to these tasks.

Resources are assigned when we need to monitor the resource availability,
productivity and cost of the project through resource cost. You may insert a
'Text' field, rename it as 'Responsibility' through 'Customise fields' option
and write the names of responsible people for each activity.

I hope it helps.
Vanita

 

[Gary L. Chefetz]

Alternately to the other fine suggestions: If all you want to do is avoid
accruing costs, then set the resource rate to zero dollars or use an
alternate rate table for the resource that is set to zero. This way you can
show the resource without affect cost.