Microsoft project elapsed months

To rectify this situation and maintain one continuous critical path we access schedule options advanced features, Figure 7. In the advanced project option dialog. Look down below to the last setting. Microsoft Project elapsed time lag is a useful feature that helps model the seven day a week nature of material cure.

The definition of critical tasks, however, will require adjustment. Set the definition of critical tasks to 2-days or less on a five day workweek calendar and 3-days or less on a four day workweek calendar.

Another approach is to model the cure time as an actual task with a 7-day workweek calendar, but with no resource assignments.

With this method you will still have to adjust the definition of a critical task, accordingly. Our demonstration Microsoft Project schedule is in Figure 1. Figure 4 Our elapsed time modifier helps us fine tune the schedule by more accurately modeling the material cure time. Figure 5 Now our disconnected critical path problem occurs, Figure 6.

Figure 6 The situation is our concrete cure process concludes Friday night. If I enter a Duration value of 10 eDays , the schedules the task for 10 consecutive hour calendar days , ignoring nonworking time on weekends and company holidays.

Notice that the Design 2 task finishes two days earlier than the Design 1 task because of the Elapsed Duration value I entered for the Design 2 task. Again, this is because Microsoft Project scheduled the Design 2 task in Phase for 10 consecutive hour calendar days, while the software scheduled the Design 1 task for 10 consecutive working days. Figure 1: Design 2 task has an Elapsed Duration value. For example, consider the schedule shown in the Task Usage view for the resources assigned to the Design 1 and Design 2 tasks.

Figure 2: Duration entered in Days and eDays. Remember that this task has a regular Duration value of 10 days. Remember that this task has a Duration value of 10 eDays , which is an Elapsed Duration value. Keep in mind that you can assign equipment resources to tasks with an Elapsed Duration , but you should not assign human resources to this type of task.

Another consideration with using Elapsed Durations is understanding what happens when you enter a Duration value in eWeeks instead of in eDays. Microsoft Project responds as follows:. Figure 3: Duration entered in Weeks and eWeeks. The final consideration with using Elapsed Durations is understanding what happens when you enter a Duration value in eMonths instead of in eDays. If you look at a calendar, you can see that some months have 30 days, other months have 31 days, one month has 28 days or 29 days in a Leap Year.

To overcome this inconsistency in the number of days that constitute a month, Microsoft Project defines a month as 20 working days. You can find this definition by clicking the File tab, clicking the Options tab in the Backstage , and then clicking the Schedule tab in the Project Options dialog.

If you're estimating that far head, the relative differences between months is unimportant. Why not select the month to be 22 working days and you won't be far off.

You can then re-adjust when you are nearer the day. Was this reply helpful? Yes No. Sorry this didn't help. Thanks for your feedback. A very basic question hopefully.