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One Day Activity - when does it end?

8 replies [Last post]
Tue, 2008-05-20 10:33
Bijaya Bajracharya
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If an activity takes one day to complete and it starts on 20 May, when does it finish? Everybody knows it finishes on the same day.

But why on earth Microsoft Project show start date of 20 May and Finish date of 21 May for that activity? The bar is fully within 20 May, though.

Does anybody has solution how to get the same start and finish date for one date activity?

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Replies

Wed, 2008-05-21 05:39
#1
Bijaya Bajracharya
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Trevor,

You have hit the problem at exact point. Thank you very much.
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Wed, 2008-05-21 05:36
#2
Trevor Rabey
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"Default Start time: 09:00
Default end time: 17:00"

Here, I think, is your problem.
Check the Project Calendar (Project, Project Information), which I bet is using the Standard Calendar and, if i can assume it is unchanged from the original, the day starts at 0800, there is a 1 hour break and and end of day at 1700, for 8 hours per day.
So, although your calendar for the project, task and resource allows for a start time of 0800, every time you create a task it starts at 0900 according to Tools, Options as above.
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Wed, 2008-05-21 04:56
#3
Darren Kosa
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Hi Bijaya,

As well as the excellent suggestions from Bertrand, Alexandre and Trevor, I would include another option. If the duration for the task is not a whole day (1.13 days instead of 1 day).

What you also need to bear in mind is, if any of the suggestions has happened previously in the schedule and the task you are trying to get to finish on the same day has them as a predecessor in some way, shape or form, then that naturally will affect your problem task.

I also recommend you alter the date format (Tools > Options > View) so that it includes time (Wed 21/05/08 08:00). It will enable you to spot any deviation in the Start / Finish times, once you have finished checking the Start / Finish times you can always change it back to you default view.

MS Project only cares about hours per day and 1 day duration is 8hrs NOT 24hrs. As an example Task B cannot start until Task A has finished:

Task A has a duration of 5.13 days
Task B has a duration of 1 days

If you have time showing in the Start / Finish fields you can immediately see the problem...

Task A starts Wed 14/05/08 08:00 and finishes Wed 21/05/08 09:02
Task B starts Wed 21/05/08 09:02 and finishes Thu 22/05/08 09:02

You would expect the finish time for Task B to be Wed 21/05/08 18:02, but the default finish time is set at 17:00. In this instance MS Project uses 62 mins from the next day to make up the 8hr total (the time from 17:00 to 08:00 is dead time and not used in duration calculation unless you use edays or 24hr calendar), it then has a knock-on effect on the task successors.

If you don’t show the time in your Start / Finish fields you will only see Task B starting Wed 21/05/08 and finishing Thu 22/05/08.

Regards,

Darren
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Wed, 2008-05-21 04:54
#4
Bijaya Bajracharya
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Trevor,

Tool, Option,Schedule shows
Show scheduling message (unticked)
Show assignment units as a: Decimal
New tasks: Start On Project Start Date
Durations is entered in: Days
Work in entered in: Hours
Default task type: Fiaxed Units
New taks are efforct drive (Ticked)
Autolink inserted on moved tasks (Ticked)
Split in progress tasks (Ticked)
Tasks will always honor their constraint dates (Ticked)
Show that tasks have estimated durations (Ticked)
New Tasks have estimated durations (Ticked)


Similarly Tools, Options, Calendar shows

Calendar options for ’Project2’
Week starts on: Monday
Fiscal Year starts in: January
Default Start time: 09:00
Default end time: 17:00

Hours per day 8:00
Hours per week: 40:00
Days per month: 20

They are all default settingss and I do not want to bother with start time and finish time in the schedule. Days are perfectly fine.
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Tue, 2008-05-20 20:52
#5
Trevor Rabey
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I tried it and the task starts at 08:00 and finishes at 17:00 on 20/05/2008.

You need to check:
Tools,Options, Schedule.
Tools,Options, Calendar.
Also check the Project Calendar and any Task and/or Resource Calendars in use.
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Tue, 2008-05-20 11:01
#6
Bijaya Bajracharya
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Try it yourself. You will still get 21 May as Finish Date.

I do not want to show time in my date column - most would not want it.

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Tue, 2008-05-20 10:51
#7
Bertrand GUERARD
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Hi,

Don’t you use elapsed days ?

exemple:
Task1 D:1 days S:20/05/08 08:00 F:20/05/08 17:00
Task2 D:1 edays S:20/05/08 08:00 F:21/05/08 08:00


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