Newbie - Enter "normal" task durations: 30-day 45-day etc
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From: Michael T on 11 Jan 2010 23:40 Many eons ago using an early version of Project, I could enter tasks of 30, 45, 60, 75 days, etc., duration to mean a month, month-and-a-half, etc., and the program understood I meant for these time blocks to span non-working days (weekends); so for example, a "30-day" task entered on May 1 would finish June 1. Fast-forward to the present day, and my Project 2007 interprets "30 days" to mean 30 *work* days rather than 30 calendar days. How can I use 30/45/60/75 etc., again and get the durations I used to? A few googlings hinted this'd be a setting in Tools> Options, but nothing there jumps out. Grateful for any clues or pointers to a good newbie FAQ. Michael
From: Sai on 12 Jan 2010 00:10 On Jan 12, 9:40 am, Michael T <chilledmonkeybrains...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > Many eons ago using an early version of Project, I could enter tasks of 30, 45, > 60, 75 days, etc., duration to mean a month, month-and-a-half, etc., and the > program understood I meant for these time blocks to span non-working days > (weekends); so for example, a "30-day" task entered on May 1 would finish June 1. > > Fast-forward to the present day, and my Project 2007 interprets "30 days" to > mean 30 *work* days rather than 30 calendar days. > > How can I use 30/45/60/75 etc., again and get the durations I used to? A few > googlings hinted this'd be a setting in Tools> Options, but nothing there jumps > out. > > Grateful for any clues or pointers to a good newbie FAQ. > > Michael Michael - To enter calendar days, you need go for elapsed days. Elapsed days ignores the distinction between working and non working time on calendars. So, instead of entering 30 days, type 30 edays. Refer: http://alturl.com/wcg5 Please let us know if this helps - Sai, PMP, PMI-SP, MCTS, MCT http://saipower.wordpress.com
From: Trevor Rabey on 12 Jan 2010 00:20 You're not pulling our legs are you? An eon is a long time, certainly back to sometime before software existed. You need to recalibrate your fuzzy recollection of how you think you remember it working eons ago, and your expectations of how MSP works now. Probably best to forget about the recollections and expectations and focus on here and now. 30 days has never been a calendar month and duration has always been working days as defined in the project calendar (or the task calendar if there is one). In Tools, Options, Calendar, the default is 1 month = 20 days (that's working days). This means that if you input 1 month as a duration, MSP converts it to 20 working days. You can change it but it is better not to mess with it and just input duration in days. If you input 45 days, the bar in the Gantt Chart runs through the non-working days but they aren't counted in the 45. The finish date falls wherever it falls, not on a particular date of a particular month. Suggestion: do not pursue your line of thinking on this or you will be annoyed and frustrated. -- Trevor Rabey 0407213955 61 8 92727485 PERFECT PROJECT PLANNING www.perfectproject.com.au "Michael T" <chilledmonkeybrains100(a)gmail.com> wrote in message news:OHXPyF0kKHA.3792(a)TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... > > Many eons ago using an early version of Project, I could enter tasks of > 30, 45, 60, 75 days, etc., duration to mean a month, month-and-a-half, > etc., and the program understood I meant for these time blocks to span > non-working days (weekends); so for example, a "30-day" task entered on > May 1 would finish June 1. > > Fast-forward to the present day, and my Project 2007 interprets "30 days" > to mean 30 *work* days rather than 30 calendar days. > > How can I use 30/45/60/75 etc., again and get the durations I used to? A > few googlings hinted this'd be a setting in Tools> Options, but nothing > there jumps out. > > Grateful for any clues or pointers to a good newbie FAQ. > > Michael
From: Trevor Rabey on 12 Jan 2010 00:23 Suggestion #2: if you don't want spambots to harvest your email address so that every huckster on the planet can send you junk advertising, don't use it when posting in newsgroups. Disguise it somehow, like: chilledmonkeybrains100AT - don't spam - gmail.com -- Trevor Rabey 0407213955 61 8 92727485 PERFECT PROJECT PLANNING www.perfectproject.com.au "Michael T" <chilledmonkeybrains100(a)gmail.com> wrote in message news:OHXPyF0kKHA.3792(a)TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... > > Many eons ago using an early version of Project, I could enter tasks of > 30, 45, 60, 75 days, etc., duration to mean a month, month-and-a-half, > etc., and the program understood I meant for these time blocks to span > non-working days (weekends); so for example, a "30-day" task entered on > May 1 would finish June 1. > > Fast-forward to the present day, and my Project 2007 interprets "30 days" > to mean 30 *work* days rather than 30 calendar days. > > How can I use 30/45/60/75 etc., again and get the durations I used to? A > few googlings hinted this'd be a setting in Tools> Options, but nothing > there jumps out. > > Grateful for any clues or pointers to a good newbie FAQ. > > Michael
From: spamboy6547 on 12 Jan 2010 10:28 On Tue, 12 Jan 2010 13:20:12 +0800, Trevor Rabey wrote: > You're not pulling our legs are you? > An eon is a long time, certainly back to sometime before software existed. > You need to recalibrate your fuzzy recollection of how you think you > remember it working eons ago, and your expectations of how MSP works now. > Probably best to forget about the recollections and expectations and focus > on here and now. > > 30 days has never been a calendar month and duration has always been working > days as defined in the project calendar (or the task calendar if there is > one). > > In Tools, Options, Calendar, the default is 1 month = 20 days (that's > working days). > This means that if you input 1 month as a duration, MSP converts it to 20 > working days. > You can change it but it is better not to mess with it and just input > duration in days. > > If you input 45 days, the bar in the Gantt Chart runs through the > non-working days but they aren't counted in the 45. > The finish date falls wherever it falls, not on a particular date of a > particular month. > > Suggestion: do not pursue your line of thinking on this or you will be > annoyed and frustrated. In addition to Trevor's good advice, I'll add a word or two of my own. A widely accepted heuristic in Project Scheduling is that tasks should be between 1 day and 10 days in length. Why? Shorter tasks are microplanning and will drive you crazy trying to track them all. Longer ones give resources the opportunity to blow out your schedule. What happens if at the end of 60 days on a critical task, you find out nothing has been accomplished? You're now 3 months behind schedule. It happens. You need a deliverable at least every 10 working days, if not more. That way, you know where you are. Unless of course, you trust every resource to never mislead you on progress reporting. In which case, you have much, much bigger problems than how M$ Project interprets durations! Hope this helps.
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