Discussion on:

Microsoft Project tutorial: Duration and Task Types

Brian,

Most Project materials I use in classes start with the simple, easy-to-understand things, like listing tasks, entering resources, etc. You hit Tech Republic readers with the most difficult part of Project first--without really explaining that the reason the work-duration-units problem exists is because two of the pieces are given in units with the same name. Both work and duration are stated in time units. If only it were possible to change the units to work(time) and duration(time).

I agree that most materials start out with the VERY basics. But I think that understanding the Work-Duration-Units formula is the single most important think for new users of Project. I cover the entry of tasks and the other more basic parts later on.

I wanted to make sure that if someone only read one of the four parts of this series that they would get the basics of the formula. Then, with that in hand they will be better equpped to handle the other parts.

Thanks for the input though. Ialways want to hear what readers have to say

Brian K

You wrote:
"1 day Duration = 8 hours Work /100% Units
...
If we set the task to Fixed Work, then the same change in Units [to 50%] would cause Project to adjust the Duration value to 0.5 days."

But, wouldn't this second scenario cause the Duration value to increase to 2 days rather than decrease to 0.5 days?

Yes, that should read that the duration will change to 2 days if the Units are changed to 50%.

That is a big typo!

Thanks for the edit!

Brian K

Sooner or later..a real novice had to add to this little dialog...so here I am. I guess I am a "project manager" of sorts. All I want to accomplish here is a new branch of our small company in another part of Texas. I've decide to layout this office expansion in Project 2003.

Any suggestions?? What other resources can I utilize to make this proeject a success?

Keith

majicwun@hotmail.com

Sometimes, it helps if we learn the core
concepts first rather than the details of
how to create tasks. I have hardly used
Project but I benifited from the author's
explaination. If he starts with the task
creation and all one gets bogged downwith
the details and eventually misses the difficult or fine points.

at least not from TR.

Maybe if this series s being aimed at a brand newbie then you are right. However, if someone has the basics under his belt then reiterating them would be a waste oof time at best.

I found the level of complexity and presumed level of understanding to be bang on.

I have found it difficult to understand the MS Project Help in regard to the use of the effort driven flag.

I have taken the text from today's 'Project' edition of the newsletter entitled 'Review of Task Types' and edited it to incorporate the effects of having the task effort driven flag on('Y') or off('N'). I am using MS P 2000 but I believe 98 is the same.

"Fixed Work

* If you edit Work, then Duration is recalculated (Effort Driven Flag ?Y? ? ?N? N/A)
* If you edit Duration, then Units are recalculated Effort Driven Flag ?Y? ? ?N? N/A)
* If you edit Units, then Duration is recalculated (Effort Driven Flag ?Y? ? ?N? N/A)

Fixed Units

* Editing Work will recalculate Duration (Effort Driven Flag ?Y? or ?N?)
* Editing Duration will recalculate Work (Effort Driven Flag ?Y? or ?N?)
* Editing Units will recalculate Duration (Effort Driven Flag ?Y?)
* Editing Units will recalculate Work (Effort Driven Flag ?N?)

Fixed Duration

*Change Work, and Units are recalculated (Effort Driven Flag ?Y? or ?N?)
* Change Duration, and Work will be recalculated (Effort Driven Flag ?Y? or ?N?)
* Change Units, and Work is recalculated (Effort Driven Flag ?N?)
* Change Units (# of Resources) and Units per Resource are recalculated (Effort Driven Flag ?Y?)"

As can be seen from above the Effort Driven flag changes the basic rules. Is there a more definitive answer to the use of this flag?

I knew that title would get your attention. Anyway, I've found it easiest to determine when to use the Effort-Driven flag when thinking of it this way. Suppose your task was to make a baby... no matter how many women you put on the "job" it's still going to take 9-months. So, if your task is going to take x amount of time no matter how many people you put on the job, then it's not driven by the amount of effort applied to it. Because, no matter how hard you push, that baby ain't going nowhere for 9-months.

The Effort Driven check box does not change how Project responds to changes. Only the Task Type does. I.e., if the Task Type is Fixed Duration and you change Work, the Units will always change, re of how the Effort Driven check box is set.

Hello, I have a PP and am trying to edit the fixed duration of a summary task. Any suggestions on how to do this?

This is a great idea for a series of articles. Project can be confusing and often frustrating for users.

It mentions in the article that Project often does things "on its own". That is often what I find most frustrating about using Project. I hope the next articles in the series discusses some instances when Project will automatically change things, even if you don't want it to.

I've always been interested as to how Project actually worked. The formula itself actually makes sense as if a '1 day/8hr' project will take longer to complete (by one person) if all his or her time is not 100% dedicated to the task. I already seepotitional pitfalls with assuming that '1day=8hr' formula.

It is extremely difficult to pinpoint "what percentage" of a consultant's day was dedicated to a particular task. It could be 50% (4hrs) based on initial reports; however, could turn into a 16hr fiasco. Project software is only as good as the information and reporting that goes into it. Human factors and its adjustments must be made to "an information system" as needed.

Project allows you to define what '1 day' means in terms of hours. By default it is 8 hours and that is what I used in my examples. you can define your day as 9 hours or 7 or 16!

As far as pinpointing how much time it will take your consultant: It IS very hard. That is the point of having estimates as good as you can get and then timely status reporting to see the impacts of any delta between your estimates and reality. If you get these reports and get the data into MSP you can use it to seehow the delta will affect the rest of the plan.

There is always more to learn and this is particularly true with MSP

Brian Kennemer

This is definately a great idea for a series of articles. When I came to work here, they were attempting to launch major projects (a 3yr project even), without any planning of resources. Obviously when it came down to it, they had no idea when the project would be completed (especially when you have to factor in any setbacks and delays).

I have started using project with great results, even for smaller projects.

I've used Project with some success for a wide variety of projects. One feature that *sounds* very useful is Resource Levelling, but the results using it have never passed the common sense test.

I'm hoping this series will address how to use Resource Levelling successfully or the conditions under which Resource Levelling will return reasonable adjustments to the project.

Resource Levelling is always a gotcha for me.

In particular I would like to see procedures for using resource levelling once a project has started.

I generally use a top down approach to planning, and concentrate on detailed planning only for the next few weeks.

I have the same resource assigned by group and individually; Project doesn't seem to like this at all.

I have some tasks that I want to tie down, so I mark them as 'Do Not Level' in priority, but other tasks can float.

Resource Levelling usually results in massive( 800% ) overcommitment for some tasks and massive (150 day ) delay for others.

Basically, any help on resource levelling effectively for projects in progress would be great.

I always turn off resource levelling. I'm not sure if where I work is unique, but my resources have real jobs too, and fit in project work around them. So, I might give a network manager a task that will take 5 minutes but she might say that she cando it in the next four weeks. So I put the task at 4 weeks to get the dependencies right, but this means - with resource levelling on - I can't give that network manager any more tasks in those four weeks. The alternative is to say that I have 200% of a network manager at my disposal, but then it all gets a bit silly.

It's great to see how others are really using Project. Resource leveling has not really worked for me ... it either depicts how few staff resources I have to get a project done (which I know from the onset), or demands a lot of project management time to handle 5-15 minutes worth of effort.

Generally speaking, I love most of the other aspects of Project; it allows you to customize the data that is captured, to represent it in a number ways (from very detailed to summary) ... I haven't been able to successfully control final formatting of exported reports generated in HTML (after customizing output).

Just great!

I Think the idea of publishing this kind of articles is great, I hope you don't limit your tutorial to just 4 articles.

Regarding your article I think you could try to use more examples in order to facilitate the understanding of the effects of managing fixed work, fixed units or fixed duration.

On the other hand, maybe you could give us some recomendations on when to do what. I mean I your view, under what circumstances could or should be used fixed duration, fixed time orfixed work? What kind of tasks you recommend to manage with which of this variables tied up? What is the default?

Anyway I think the article helps to enhance my understanding of how MSP works, thank you very much!

Hi ,

The article is good but doesn;t cover the complete aspects of how and what Project will calculate .

For example the calculation also depends on the setting " Effort Driven " .

and also the calculation varies when we change units ( modify percentage allocation ) or when we add or remove units.

If we try to really put on paper what really MS Project calculates based on the task type and effort driven setting we will get a 4X5 matrix .

I just wanted to share this informationas without this explaination the article is incomplete.

Regards
Mahesh Kumar
Hyderabad
Baan Company

For example, I am creating a project plan template. I want a review meeting to always start the day after the draft of the document was completed - whether it was completed at 9:00 a.m. or 5:00 p.m.. If it's completed at 5:00 p.m. and I use the contstraing FS+1 day, a 2-hour meeting will start at 5:00 p.m. the next day and complete at 10:00 the following day. I just want to make sure that the meeting occurs in its entirety the next day no matter what time the document draft is completed. Is there a way to do that automatically via MS Project? I have MS Project 2002.

Thanks.

How do I reduce the duration from 47 days to 41 days?

This is a great explaination, however, I have a question here.
What if the work is 20 hours, and the duration is 40 hours, but if a resource spends varialble numbers of hours across all the 5days(8hours/day). The units in this case is 50%. As per the MS project the time of the resource is equally divided/distributed thought the week. Can this distribution vary or be divided into unequal part with the sum equal to the work(in this case 20hours.)?

Hi,
I have the following problem: i have the resource that is allocated for a task (at the begining) 50% of effort. Then getting close to the end of the task the effort of the resource has to be assigned to 100%. Is it possible to do that in ms project?
The final result should be one part of the task 50% another part 100% of resource's effort.
Thanks in advance.

Gerda

I am not a resource, please call me person?

I believe I understand how Work, Duration and Units interact with each other. I'm having an odd problem, though. For my task, I've selected Fixed Work (8 hours). Project (2003) then correctly calculates 1d? for Duration. When I add a resource at 40%, Project also correctly calculates 2.5?d for Duration. However, when I remove that resource, the Duration remains the same and only changes again if I assign a different resource. Is there a setting to force the Duration to recalculate upon deletion of an assigned resource?