Pls Help - Task Duration vs. Total Calendar Time

Please explain how to do the following:
Show that a task takes a certain amount of time (e.g., 8 hours) BUT those 8
hours will span a 2-week period.

For example, it may take 3 hours to obtain scope approvals, but I want to
note that I estimate that to complete those 3 hours of work to obtain
approvals will take/span 5 days (one week).

Mike
Mon Oct 31 03:22:21 CST 2005

Hi Sandra,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup :)

You might like to have a look at my series on Microsoft Project in the
TechTrax ezine, particularly #11 - Task Types, at this site:
http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc or this:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=ArticleSearch&AUTH=23
(Perhaps you'd care to rate the article before leaving the site, :)
Thanks.)

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on :)

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

SondraP wrote:
> Please explain how to do the following:
> Show that a task takes a certain amount of time (e.g., 8 hours) BUT
> those 8 hours will span a 2-week period.
>
> For example, it may take 3 hours to obtain scope approvals, but I
> want to note that I estimate that to complete those 3 hours of work
> to obtain approvals will take/span 5 days (one week).

Steve
Sun Nov 06 12:20:30 CST 2005

Duration is the time between when you do the first bit of work on a task and
when it is complete and the work may or may not be continuous. If that time
span really is 2 weeks yet it will be done in bit and pieces scattered out
over the full 2 weeks but occupying a total active work time of only 3
hours, you can deal with it as an average and say you're working on it 3/80
or about a 2% effort level. OTOH, if most of the work is up-front preparing
the submission, and the majority of that two weeks is just waiting for the
mail to come, as it were, I'd do it as a "submit proposed scope" task with 3
hours duration linked to a milestone "approvals received" and insert a
2-week lag time in the link between the two. Most of the time I think the
second method is the clearest model of what is actually going on.

--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs


"SondraP" <SondraP@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:EDACBA8B-1ED8-4A29-ABA1-C4D88C3C9ECD@microsoft.com...
> Please explain how to do the following:
> Show that a task takes a certain amount of time (e.g., 8 hours) BUT those
> 8
> hours will span a 2-week period.
>
> For example, it may take 3 hours to obtain scope approvals, but I want to
> note that I estimate that to complete those 3 hours of work to obtain
> approvals will take/span 5 days (one week).