Re: Trying to understand MSP 2003/2000 behavior

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Jan,

I do not expect you to guess the parameters, they are exactly as I first
described (still being quoted in this post). Task 1 and Task 2 are
described in there (settings for both are identical). You said you assume a
"start not earlier than" constraint on Task 2- the constraint is Start As
Soon As Possible and the constraint date is 5/16/07, the same as Task 1.

Task 2 does not start at 12:00AM or 8:00AM for me, the two times you
mentioned. Also, Task 2 does not have 4 hours of work on Monday as you
mentioned- it has only 1 hour on Monday (see the pictures I posted).

The tasks are fixed duration, I understand that the duration can not change,
but why doesn't the resource keep working on the task for the remainder of
the week? It stops on Wednesday! If I started a 5d duration task on Monday
and assigned a standard calendar resource it works all week, 40 hours.

Task 2 is scheduled for Mon-Fri, that should be 40 hours using a standard
resource calendar! If you change Task 1 to start on a Monday it receives 40
hours of work- this is why I wonder why Task 2 does not receive 40 hours of
work- it starts on a Monday. It only receives 24 hours of work- 24 hours of
work matches Task1. Task 1 spans the weekend, I understand why there would
be no work on Saturday and Sunday. If this doesn't explain why I am looking
for an explanation on the split then I can give you exact steps as to what
I'm doing for multiple cases and you can see how the split shows up
sometimes and not other times (for instance, if you use a different
Wednesday then 5/16/07 sometimes the results are different).

I believe I listed all the parameters in my very first post. As a
programmer I understand that a single parameter could change the outcome. I
have re-entered this project probably about a hundred times by now, always
with the same results. I tried on a fresh install of Project. I would be
suspecting a buggy version myself but since I get the same results at home
as I do at work (two different versions), I am doubting it's my install.

Thank you for working with me on this Jan, I understand if you are
frustrated to the point of not wanting to help anymore! I'm almost
frustrated to the point of not asking for any more help but I still have
hope.

David



"Jan De Messemaeker" <jandemes at prom hyphen ade dot be> wrote in message
news:etCAmUInHHA.2296@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi,

Why do you want me to guess what you entered as parameters?
If I enter the parameters you clam, the task always starts at 12AM.
Don't look for a mysterious why in Project, look for the setting you may
have entered.
Unless you have a buggy version (wouldn't know which one would do this)

I did explain the split so no need to come back to that.
HTH

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project MVP
http://users.online.be/prom-ade
"David" <davidd31415@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:jdidnasiSZlVmM7bnZ2dnUVZ_sCinZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
That would make sense but Task 2 is exactly the same as Task 1- Start No
Earlier than 5/16/07. Also, the task starts at 4PM on Mon, not 12AM or
8AM. Here are two screenshots I've posted to try to help explain the
problem, I will provide something more detailed later...

http://img256.imageshack.us/img256/793/projectexamplemm0.jpg

Here you can see the "split" at the end of the task. Again, both tasks
were originally scheduled to start on 5/16/07. Other settings can be
read below.

http://img509.imageshack.us/img509/7881/projectexample2zk6.jpg

Here the allocation of the resources can be seen. Both resources are on
standard calendars and the task is on a 24/7 calendar. Notice the
resource only works 1 hour on Monday, 7 hours on Thursday and 0 hours on
Friday. This happens to be the same number of hours that the resource
works on Task 1!

These effects seem to change with different start dates. If I use the
Wednesday of a different week I get different results...

David



"Jan De Messemaeker" <jandemes at prom hyphen ade dot be> wrote in
message news:uGixGaDnHHA.4872@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Hi David,

I looked at the first of your "mysteries" and here is the explanation.
I hope the understanding may help you to undestand the others, too.

When i do exactly as you are told, Task 2 DOES NOT start on Monday - why
would it.
I have to assume that you entered a Start Not earlier than constraint
for Monday.
I also assume (it would have been better if you had given exactly what
you did) that you entered the constraint date as only the date, not the
hours.
Well then, Project cannot apply the constraint as such, because it
schedules everything by the minute.
It has to complete the constraint date with a constraint time, so it
takes the default of 12 AM.
That is why the tasks starts at 12 AM and not at 8AM.

It then schedules 4 hrs of work (the afternoon shoft of the resource)
then 8 hrs on Tue 8 hrs on Wed and the final 4 hrs on Thu.
Now against all odds you have told Project that it should not change
duration, so the task cannot but end on Saturday, 12AM
Thus the time between the end of Work (Thu 5PM) and the end of the task
(Sat 12AM) is represented by a split.

Hope this helps

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project MVP
http://users.online.be/prom-ade
"david" <davidd31415@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Xns992E87E1F761davidd31415yahoocom@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I am trying to understand certain MSP behavior which I have seen with
both
2000 and 2003.

The first thing I am trying to understand is why Project splits the end
of
fixed duration tasks in strange ways. Here is what I have done:

Settings:
Work starts on: Sunday
Default start time: 12:00 AM
Default end time: 12:00 AM
Hours per day: 24.00
Hours per week: 168.00
Days per month: 30

24 hr project calendar

Resource #1
Standard calendar
No availability configured

Task #1
Start date: 5/16/07
Duration: 5 days
Work: 0
Constraint date: 5/16/07
Constraint type: Start no earlier than
Predecessor(s): none
Successor(s): none
Lag: none
Type: fixed duration, effort-driven

Task #2
Identical to task #1.

---

After setting this project up I assign resource #1 to both tasks. The
work
field for both tasks is now 24 hrs. Task #1 starts on Wednesday and
ends
on Monday. Task #2 starts on Monday and ends on Saturday. Resource #1
is
scheduled for only 1 hr of work on Monday (for task #2). Task #2
splits on
Thursday after 7 hours of work and continue to show split (periods
instead
of a bar on the Gantt chart) until Saturday, at which point the task
ends.

Why does task #2 split at the end?

Why doesn't task 2 start on Monday at 8AM?


I have found that changing the tasks' start date changes this behavior.
If
I remove the resources and start both tasks on Monday 5/14/07 and
assign
resource #1 to task #1 then 40 hrs of work are performed on it over 5
days.
If I then assign resource #1 to task #2, 40 hrs of work will be done on
it
as well but task #2's duration changes to 7 days. The task starts at
4PM
on Monday and continues until the following Monday on which 7 hrs of
work
are scheduled. The "end split" no longer shows up.

Why does the duration of task #2 (fixed duration) change to 7 days?

I entered this last project setup again to be sure I described it
right. I
accidentally created the tasks as "Fixed Units" and after assigning
resource #1 to task #1 the task spreads out to over 2 weeks so that 120
hrs
of work are done.

Why doesn't the duration change here to show how many days have gone
by
between the start and finish dates? I thought that a 24 hr project
calendar would make a 5d duration 5 whole days.

I've worked with elapsed time before but in this case if I use 5 edays
instead then the resource is scheduled to work 24 hrs a day instead of
8
hrs per day as its calendar is configured.

I feel many of my problems are the result of trying to use 24 hr
calendars
along with standard calendars. I do not see a way around this as I am
trying to schedule a lab which contains equipment that does work 24/7
as
well as shifts of people.

Thanks for any help,

David










.

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