On my project we are not doing detailed resource planning, so although we will assign tasks to an individual I want to be able to specify the start and end date and then know the elapsed duration. We will know the amount of work. We may have entered some completion time.

I want to be able to:

• know the start & end dates and change them - without changing the % complete if it has been completed. this will be because we have extended the time but it will still be as complete as it already is
• record the man days and the elapsed days.... is this possible

For example here is a task:

• starts 1st Jan
• ends 31st Jan
• elasped 31 days
• 8 man-days work
• Fred is assigned
• It is 20% complete

We are going to end the end date to 14th Feb. The man days are still 8 and the completion is still 20%. I don't want them adjusted.

Is this possible?

Thank you................ liz

Hi Liz,

I'm afraid the scenario isn't going to work. % Complete is a duration measurement - so if you change the finish date (increase duration) Project will automatically drop the % complete. Even with manually scheduled tasks, changing the finish date to a later date will drop the % complete.

You may be able to come closer using % Work complete and fixed work tasks. If you set your tasks as fixed work - and you adjust duration - project simply recalculates assignment units.

Julie

Julie,

thank you, that seems to work. Can you explain the difference between the two complete fields?

Also related to this, if I am changing all my tasks to follow this practice of fixed work & %work complete then I am wondering how I can force the duration to "reset" to either estimated (with a ?) or actually any other chosen unit. This is a general problem that I stumble on where, for example we want to show elapsed days and the task is currently man-days, how do we force to use elapsed without loosing the current date settings.... does this make sense?

Hi Liz,

I'm afraid I don't follow your new question. By definition, duration is in working day - omitting non-working time such a Saturday and Sunday.

The man-hours you are referring to are usually called "work" and is based upon resources assigned to tasks. It is very possible to have a task with a fairly long duration but lower amounts of work.

The two complete fields are the % complete which is a duration field calculated = (Actual Duration/Duration)*100.

If you have a 10 day duration task, and you've complete 6 days, the percent % is 60%.

% Work complete is a work calculation:
(Actual Work/Work)*100

In most circumstances as % complete changes, % work complete would change as well. Where there may be a difference is a task that has a work contour where the task may start with 1 person but as the task progresses additional resources perform work.

I hope this helps.

Julie