Work vs. Duration

[GeneGoldman]

I need to have a task with a duration of x days, and have multiple
resources assigned to the task for varying hours. The total work will
not equal the duration.
Whenever I reduce the work on any resource in the Resource Usage
sheet, MSP reduses the duration of the task. How do I adjust work
without affecting duration?

 

[JulieS]

Hello Gene,

Temporarily set the task as fixed duration, and uncheck effort
driven. Create the task with x duration and then when you assign
work for each resource, Project will calculate the assignment units
necessary to balance the work over the duration.

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

"GeneGoldman" wrote in message
news:796bc937-6954-4092-9816-f8bc4f77021c@r36g2000prf.googlegroups.com...

 

[Jim Aksel [MVP]]

In addition to Julie's great answer, you can also manually distribute the
work (non-linearly) by using the Task Usage view (View/Task Usage...). You
will need to make the task Fixed duration non-effort driven just as Julie
states.

Jim Aksel, MVP

 

[Gene]

Tried that. All my tasks are fixed duration, effort-driven off,
scheduling ignores resource calendars. No matter where I adjust,
changing work causes duration to change.
Other ideas?

 

[JulieS]

Gene,

Are you using task calendars which have odd working times? Even
with fixed duration tasks, non-working time can adjust the schedule
(usually finish date). Please give us an example of what you are
trying to do and include details like the definition of working time
in your task calendar.

Julie

Tried that. All my tasks are fixed duration, effort-driven off,
scheduling ignores resource calendars. No matter where I adjust,
changing work causes duration to change.
Other ideas?

 

[Gene]

Nothing exotic. We took a 5-day calendar and added some company
holidays as non-working time. Both the tasks and resources are
assigned the company calendar.
We take a task, set a duration and assign a resource. No problem.
Fixed duration, effort-driven off, schedule ignores resource
calendars.
If we adjust the resource hours in the resource usage view, the
duration changes. If we reset the duration, the resource loading
resets.
The tasks are "paint drying" type tasks, Activities that go on whether
or not any hours are being charged.

 

[JulieS]

Hello Gene,

My comments are inline.

in message

If we adjust the resource hours in the resource usage view, the
duration changes. If we reset the duration, the resource loading
resets.

[Julie] Sorry Gene, I'm not seeing that. I've created a 4 day
duration task which starts on Monday at 08:00 and finishes Friday
17:00. The task is Fixed Duration, non-effort driven. Two resource
assigned (Gene 10 hours, Julie 6 hours.) The initial spread in the
Resource Usage view is 2.5 hours per day for Gene and 1.5 hours per
day for Julie. In both Project 2003 SP-3 and Project 2007 SP-1
editing the work on each day is not altering the finish date, nor
the duration of the task. I can completely remove the last day of
work hours for both resources and still have the task duration stay
at 4 days. The Gantt bar ends is a ..... but the duration and
finish date are still Thursday at 17:00

Are you by chance changing **Actual Work** and not work?

The tasks are "paint drying" type tasks, Activities that go on
whether
or not any hours are being charged.

[Julie] Generally, I would not enter paint drying tasks -- they
aren't tasks, they are a lag applied to the F to S link between
painting coat one and painting coat two.

 

[Gene]

If we adjust the resource hours in the resource usage view, the
duration changes. If we reset the duration, the resource loading
resets.

[Julie] Sorry Gene, I'm not seeing that.  I've created a 4 day
duration task which starts on Monday at 08:00 and finishes Friday
17:00.  The task is Fixed Duration, non-effort driven.  Two resource
assigned (Gene 10 hours, Julie 6 hours.)  The initial spread in the
Resource Usage view is 2.5 hours per day for Gene and 1.5 hours per
day for Julie.  In both Project 2003 SP-3 and Project 2007 SP-1
editing the work on each day is not altering the finish date, nor
the duration of the task.  I can completely remove the last day of
work hours for both resources and still have the task duration stay
at 4 days.  The Gantt bar ends is a .....  but the duration and
finish date are still Thursday at 17:00

Agreed, on other project (2007) files, I get the same results. On this
one, however, something is wrong. I may have to rebuild the file.

Are you by chance changing **Actual Work** and not work?

Nope, work.

The tasks are "paint drying" type tasks, Activities that go on
whether
or not any hours are being charged.

[Julie]  Generally, I would not enter paint drying tasks -- they
aren't tasks, they are a lag applied to the F to S link between
painting coat one and painting coat two.

Agreed, but in this case there will be work done, and charged, during
the time, it will just vary from day to day and week to week. Even
with paint drying, someone has to monitor it, check for smears, make
sure the "Don't Touch" signs are up. Minimal LOE, but fairly
continuous and requiring tracking.

Thanks for your help. We may have to do some kind of workaround for
this.

 

[JulieS]

Hi Gene,

Inline.
"Gene" wrote in message

Agreed, on other project (2007) files, I get the same results. On
this
one, however, something is wrong. I may have to rebuild the file.

If this is occuring only on one project, then it's possible the file
has become corrupt. I was unable to create a circumstance where
changing the work was changing duration on a fixed duration task.
See if any of the steps at FAQ 43 at
http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm bring any joy. Obviously, try on a
copy first.

Thanks for your help. We may have to do some kind of workaround for
this.

You're welcome Gene. Good luck and post back if you have further
questions or discover something else going on in this one project.
Julie
<snip>

 

[hadjionm]

Hi,

I don't see why you need to assign this task to any calendar. Usuall
tasks are assigned no calendar, and the effect of any holidays M
Project automatically takes from the "Standard (Project Calendar)".

You would assign a task a calendar of its own, and switch off th
dependence on resource calendars, if for some reason it needs to run t
a different calendar to all other tasks (e.g. weekend work).

Set up your holidays in the Standard (Project Calendar)
Try selecting no calendar for this task.
Make it fixed duration.
Switch of effort driven.

Regards Matthe

 

[JulieS]

Hi Matthew,

I agree in that I couldn't see any reason from Gene's post to assign
a task calendar. Apparently he did as that is the only circumstance
where the option "scheduling ignores resource calendars" comes in to
play. Why he chose to make that decision, I don't know.

Julie

 

[Gene]

Exactly correct.
We're trying to make this work (while becoming convinced that there is
some sort of problem in the file), everything is - and has been from
the first - fixed duration, effort driven off. My thinking was that
something in the resource was at play, and the only way I could see to
confirm or verify that is to ignore the resource schedule. The only
way to do that is to set a calendar for the task - even if it is the
default calendar.
[sigh]
It didn't work.
I'm going to continue to monitor this thread for new input, but we
have been forced to use a workaround (create a hammock task) in order
to get back on line. So, while the urgency is reduced, my curiosity
won't rest until I understand what is at fault here. Any input is more
than welcome.

Thanks
Gene

 

[Gene]

Exactly correct.
We're trying to make this work (while becoming convinced that there is
some sort of problem in the file), everything is - and has been from
the first - fixed duration, effort driven off. My thinking was that
something in the resource was at play, and the only way I could see to
confirm or verify that is to ignore the resource schedule. The only
way to do that is to set a calendar for the task - even if it is the
default calendar.
[sigh]
It didn't work.
I'm going to continue to monitor this thread for new input, but we
have been forced to use a workaround (create a hammock task) in order
to get back on line. So, while the urgency is reduced, my curiosity
won't rest until I understand what is at fault here. Any input is more
than welcome.

Thanks
Gene

 

[JulieS]

Gene,

If you'd care to, you're welcome to zip the file and send it to me.
No guarantees, but I'll take a peek and see if I can spot the
trouble.

My email is prjng [at] maine dot rr dot com.

remove spaces and replace [at] with @ and dot with .

Give me some details in the message about what specific tasks are
causing the trouble.


Julie
"Gene" wrote in message
Exactly correct.
We're trying to make this work (while becoming convinced that there
is
some sort of problem in the file), everything is - and has been from
the first - fixed duration, effort driven off. My thinking was that
something in the resource was at play, and the only way I could see
to
confirm or verify that is to ignore the resource schedule. The only
way to do that is to set a calendar for the task - even if it is the
default calendar.
[sigh]
It didn't work.
I'm going to continue to monitor this thread for new input, but we
have been forced to use a workaround (create a hammock task) in
order
to get back on line. So, while the urgency is reduced, my curiosity
won't rest until I understand what is at fault here. Any input is
more
than welcome.

Thanks
Gene

 

[hadjionm]

Hi Gene,

Have you tried to recreate the task, and then delete the original
task?

Send me the file if you like and I can have a look at it as well, at
Matthew.Hadjion [at] anz [dot] com

Regards Matthew