Entrar
Microsoft.com
 
Microsoft
 
 
 
Microsoft >
> 
> 
Project 2007 not recognizing task calendar

Answered Project 2007 not recognizing task calendar

  • terça-feira, 22 de maio de 2012 16:49
     
     
    Entrar para Votar
    0

    Working in MS Project 2007, and have followed instructions carefully for creating and assigning a task calendar (24hrs instead of project calendar 8-5), but the assigned calendar (24hrs) is not being received correctly by MS Project. 

    Here's a brief summary of the problem:

    Project Calendar is set to 8-5pm, 7 days a week

    Majority of tasks are in days using the project calendar (no problems)

    PROBLEM: Tasks that are in hours have been assigned a 24 hour calendar (I have assigned the task calendar using the task information advanced option and a the calendar column created using the insert column command)., 12-12am, 7days a week (used MS 24hr and created 24hr calendar)

    but the results reflect the (8-5) project calendar even though a task calendar has been assigned. 

    Please HELP!

     

Todas as Respostas

  • terça-feira, 22 de maio de 2012 17:00
    Moderador
     
     
    Entrar para Votar
    0

    Do you have resources assigned to the tasks?  If so, Project will, by default, only schedule the task for working time in common between the task and resource calendars.  So, if your resources are still on the 8-5 pm schedule, the task will be scheduled for the working time that both the resource and task calendar have in common.

    To force the task to obey the task calendar, double click on the task to show the Task Information dialog and select the "scheduling ignores the resource calendar" option next to the task calendar drop-down.

    I hope this helps.

    Julie

     
  • terça-feira, 22 de maio de 2012 17:13
     
     
    Entrar para Votar
    0

    Julie,

    No resources assigned. 

    The "scheduling ignores the resource calendar" was already selected.  I deselected and reselected with the hope of shaking things up but no change in results.

    Thanks,

    Dan

     
  • terça-feira, 22 de maio de 2012 17:26
    Moderador
     
     
    Entrar para Votar
    0

    Hi Dan,

    Thanks for the update.  You mention that the tasks you have assigned the 24-hour calendar to are showing in hours.  That should not have anything to do with the schedule.  Are you showing time as well as date information in your project?  (Tools > Options, View tab - date format).

    Does pressing F9 help?  Are there any constraints (other than ASAP) on the tasks?  You note "the results reflect the (8-5) project calendar" -- what did you expect to change?  The duration of the task will not change but the finish date/time will.

    Julie

     
  • terça-feira, 22 de maio de 2012 19:13
     
     
    Entrar para Votar
    0

    Julie,

    The tasks assigned the 24hour calendar have spans that I input in hours instead of days because most of them are sub-tasks that complete within a 24 hour period.

    I am just showing date information in my project. Pressing F9 did not seem to change anything.  What is function F9 assigned to do?

    Summary tasks (out-dented one level) for the aforementioned sub-tasks tasks have a span that totals in days (MS driven) and does not total assigned hours correctly with a 24hour calendar assigned.   I've pasted a sample of my problem below to better describe the results I'm getting.  The green box contains tasks and summary tasks with expected results based on their assigned calendar and the red box is self explanatory:

    Thanks,

    Dan

     
  • terça-feira, 22 de maio de 2012 19:57
    Moderador
     
     Respondido
    Entrar para Votar
    0

    Hi Dan,

    Thanks for the picture -- it truly is worth 1000 words.  This is a common area of confusion.  The definition of a "day" in your project file is 8 hours.  It is set in Tools > Options, Schedule.  That definition applies to all tasks regardless of the calendar applied.  So, your task with a 24-hours calendar is 24 hours but the definition is still 8 hours = 1 day, so 24 hours = 3 days.

    There is nothing wrong you just need to stop talking "duration" and start talking start and end dates in projects with a mixture of calendars.

    F9 is the recalculation command and is sometimes needed if calculation is set to manual. (which it shouldn't be).  Also, summary task durations are not the sum of subtask duration, it is the calculated span from the start of the earliest subtask to the end of the latest subtask.

    Julie


     
  • terça-feira, 22 de maio de 2012 22:22
     
     
    Entrar para Votar
    0

    Julie,

         Thanks for the update.  I understand what you've written, but I believe there may be more going on.  Please take a look @ the screen prints below and let me know your thoughts.

    Picture 1 & 2 = tools>change working time>    selected 24 hour calendar and then options within the change 24hour calendar working time, but the settings in options are set to the project calendar 8-5 instead of 24hrs.

      

    Picture 2 = changed the settings in options to 24 hour days and 168 hour weeks. The same activities that I sent in my previous posting, but now the 12+4+4+4hr tasks roll up to 1day in the summary task (exactly what I expected when I started this adventure :) Unfortunately, the entire project is now on 24 hour days, which is not the desired result.  When changing options within the change working time window for a specific calendar, shouldn't the changes be for that specific calendar only?

     
  • quarta-feira, 23 de maio de 2012 00:23
    Moderador
     
     
    Entrar para Votar
    0
    No the options (hours per day, hours per week) apply to the entire project, not just tasks controlled by the task calendars.  So you'll need to pick one definition of hours per day and hours per week.
     
  • quinta-feira, 24 de maio de 2012 18:19
     
     
    Entrar para Votar
    0

    Julie,

         Seems odd that MS would include the project calendar options for the entire project in a window intended to offer the user the ability to assign a specific calendar to standalone tasks, but apparently that's what they've done.

         With the software calculating in 8 hour increments as you've written above, (@ least for the span column when the project calendar is set to 8-5), instead of 24 increments as assigned for specific tasks, your level one tasks span column will total more calendar days to accomplish them than you really need.

    I know you wrote:

    "Also, summary task durations are not the sum of subtask duration, it is the calculated span from the start of the earliest subtask to the end of the latest subtask."

    but when I changed the project calendar to 24 hours days my example on row 528 changed from 3 days to 1 day, while the start stop columns stayed unchanged.

    Seems we're still not there, but maybe it's just me.  Not being argumentative, just trying to make sense of the results.

    Thanks,

    Dan

     
  • quinta-feira, 24 de maio de 2012 18:56
    Moderador
     
     
    Entrar para Votar
    1

    Hi Dan,

    No worries about the argumentative piece -- I didn't write the software so I don't have any personal attachment to people's reactions to it :-)

    I don't quite follow your comment -

    Seems odd that MS would include the project calendar options for the entire project in a window intended to offer the user the ability to assign a specific calendar to standalone tasks, but apparently that's what they've done.

    The settings for project options (hours per day, hours per week) are in Tools > Options, Schedule tab and the ability to assign task calendars is in the Task Information dialog window.  Where specifically are you referring to?  You assign calendars to an entire project in Project > Project Information.

    The confusing bit is that you may have a different project calendar, different definition of hours per day and hours per week, different task calendars and of course, different resource calendars.

    So - let's take a couple of examples to see if this helps:

    Project start date May 21

    Standard calendar 08:00 to 17:00 with one hour for lunch. Working days are Monday through Friday

    Summary task Start date: May 21 at 08:00  - Finish date May 28th 17:00 - duration = 6 days

    Task 1 - Start date Monday May 21 08:00  - Finish date Tuesday May 22 17:00 duration = 2 days

    Task 2 - Start date Wednesday May 23 08:00  - Finish date Thursday May 24 17:00 - duration = 2 days

    Task 3 - Start date Friday May 25 08:00 - Finish date Monday May 28 17:00 - duration 2 days

    I now assign the 24 hours calendar as a task calendar to Task 3

    The start date is Thursday May 24 at 17:00 and the finish date is Friday May 25 at 09:00.  The duration is still 2 days.

    The two days duration really means 16 working hours because the definition of a day = 8 hours.  So Task 3 now starts at 17:00 pm on Thursday even and runs for 16 hours until 09:00 on Friday.

    The summary task still starts on Monday May 21 at 08:00 (the start of Task 1) but now ends Friday May 25 at 09:00 (the finish of Task 3).  The duration of the summary task is now 4.13 days.  The calendar driving the definition of the summary task is the project calendar where the working time is only 8:00 to 17:00.  So 4 days is Monday through Thursday at 17:00 pm and the .13 of a day is 08:00 to the finish at 09:00 on Friday morning.  The summary duration is not counting from 17:00 on Thursday through 7:59 am on Friday morning -- to the project calendar -- that is non-working time.

    And of course, to make things more confusing the 2 days duration of the 3 subtasks now adds up to less than 6 days?  It all has to do with the calendars.

    Also - do not confuse Duration with work.  Work is performed by resources.  So a task with 2 days duration could have 3 people assigned each working 16 hours for a total work value of 48 hours.  Summary tasks will sum work from all subtasks -- it is just that the duration value will not necessarily be the sum of the subtask durations.

    Does this help or have I just confused you further?

     
  • quinta-feira, 24 de maio de 2012 22:43
     
     
    Entrar para Votar
    0

    Julie,

         I'd like to talk with you rather than write if possible 650-852-4158.

    Thanks,

    Dan

     
  • sexta-feira, 25 de maio de 2012 12:05
    Moderador
     
     
    Entrar para Votar
    0

    Dan,

    I'm on the east coast of the US -- it appears as though you are in CA?  I'm not available on Friday.  How is Tuesday for you?

    Julie

     
  • sexta-feira, 25 de maio de 2012 17:43
     
     
    Entrar para Votar
    0

    Julie,

          Tuesday would be great!  BTW, I discovered that if you change JUST the summary task's (row 528 above) calendar from 24 hours to the project calendar 8-5, the span total calculates correctly for it's sub-tasks below (1day instead of 3days).

    See picture below:

     

     
  • sexta-feira, 25 de maio de 2012 22:13
    Moderador
     
     
    Entrar para Votar
    0
    I think we do need to talk this out -- changing task calendars to make things appear correctly will get you in trouble eventually.  Let me know what time span would work for you on Tuesday -- I am 3 hours earlier than you -- but let me know what span works for you in your zone and I'll make the adjustment.
     
  • quarta-feira, 30 de maio de 2012 14:09
     
     
    Entrar para Votar
    0

    Just as a note of clarification.  In my opinion there is a flaw in how Microsoft Project calculates the "Duration" field.   It is possible to setup a task (with Task or Resource calendar) to have 24 hrs of work done in a single calendar day.  However in both Project 2007 and Project 2010 the "Duration" field will have a value of 3 days.  As Julie said this is becuase the "Duration" field is calculated base on the number of work hours per day.

    Hope this shed some light on the subject.

     
  • quarta-feira, 30 de maio de 2012 15:25
    Moderador
     
     
    Entrar para Votar
    0
    Fletcher --
     
    Julie is totally right.  Microsoft Project 2010 uses a single formula to calculate the Duration of every task.  This formula is:
     
    Duration = Work/(Hours Per Day x Units)
     
    There is one single Hours Per Day setting for every project.  You find the Hours Per Day field on the Schedule page of the Project
    Options dialog.  Microsoft Project 2010 uses the Hours Per Day value to calculate the Duration of every task in the entire project,
    EVEN if the task has a Task Calendar applied as in your case.  So, if you have 24 hours of Work scheduled for a single day, the
    software calculates the Duration as:
     
    Duration = Work/(Hours Per Day x Units)
    Duration = 24(8 x 100%)
    Duration = 3 days
     
    Although in your opinion you may regard this as a flaw, it is how Microsoft Project 2010 calculates the Duration for every task.
    Hope this helps.
     
     

    Dale A. Howard [MVP]
    VP of Educational Services
    msProjectExperts
    http://www.msprojectexperts.com
    http://www.projectserverexperts.com
    "We write the books on Project Server"