Saturday 6 October 2018

Microsoft Project Task Types



Task Types


Task types need to be taken into consideration when the resource units are changed. The basic formula to calculate the work is
Durations * Units = Work

The default settings try to keep the work constant once it has been calculated.

If a resource has been added to a 2 day task, then the work will be calculated to 16 hours. Should the resource units be changed to 50% the duration would automatically be changed to 4 days. (So that the resource would be doing 4 hours each day for 4 days to keep the work at 16 hours)



To change the task type


1.     Double click on the task

2.     Select the Advanced tab

3.     Select the Task type required.





Where a resource has previously been allocated to a task

Fixed Units (default) – on changing the units the Duration will change. Fixed Duration – on changing the units the work will change.
Fixed Work – on changing the Duration the units will change to keep work constant.



Effort Driven?


When further resources are added to tasks how should the work be shared out. The default setting is effort driven, which means that by adding a second resource the duration will be reduced as the work is being shared out between the resources. If by adding a second resource the duration shouldn’t change, such as a drive to Manchester is not going to half in time by having 2 drivers in the vehicle, then the task should not be effort driven.
The setting for effort driven is a tick box next to the task types.



Changing settings



The default settings can be changed in Menu, Tools, Options, Schedule Tab

The default task type and whether tasks are effort driven can be changed for the project. The changes will only apply to any new tasks that have been added after the changes have been made. The tasks take the settings that are set when the tasks are created.
If the new settings should be standard on all new projects then click on the Set as Default button. By setting as default, this will not change the settings for any project plan that has already been created.



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