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Combining 2 duration columns to get one Finish date
I am looking to combine 2 "Duration" columns. One will be the contractual duration and the second column will be a delay column i.e. material, weather, man power etc. I don't need a lead time or lag time. I am looking to be able to "add" up these 2 columns and have it so my finish date adjusts using both columns.
Thanks for any help!
Well, it will report that plumbing was starting 10 days later but that's Start Variance, not Duration Variance.
Sorry but you can't add something to the finish date without increasing the Duration field, unless you also change the Start field. Duration is the difference in working days between the start of a task and the finish of a task, unless there is a split, then task duration only tracks the scheduled working days where the span of the split is excluded. For example, in the screen shot below, framing for building one was going along swimmingly for the first three days, then over the weekend a storm blew in and delayed further framing for 3 days. That 3 days is entered into a custom Duration field (Duration1 renamed as "Delays") and a split is applied to the framing task. Note the task Duration field still shows the original 20 days but the split delay shifted the schedule to the right by those 3 long rainy wet days (yuck). If other delays occur, additional splits can be applied. The advantage here is the the delay is graphically very apparent but you could, as Dale suggested, make an entry in the Task Notes field why the split occurred.
So how do you do a split? It can be done manually via Task > Schedule group > Split task icon and then hovering your mouse over the start of the split and pulling it over the 3 days. Or, it could be done programmatically with VBA, enter the delay, run the macro and boom! there it is.
Is you head spinning yet?
John
21 Replies
Bear in mind that duration in Project doesn't accomplish anything (except for paint drying, concrete curing, wounds healing, etc.), it is simply the span of time during which a task is performed. Work is what gets things done. I think you should be concentrating on the planned work versus actual and remaining work and Project has fields for each of those metrics.
Are you familiar with Project's baseline functionality? When a plan is developed and ready for execution, saving that plan in Baseline fields provides a comparison point for how the plan actually unfolds. It sounds like you want to compare the original plan (i.e. "contract duration") with the current schedule (i.e. reality) and the Baseline Variance field provides that, if you save a baseline before starting.
The finish date is determined by the current schedule (i.e. changes in the plan as a result of how things unfold during plan execution).
Hope this helps.
I just noticed Dale suggested I could do what you want with VBA and indeed I could but I believe you're going down the wrong path.
John
- I do use the baseline function and add new baselines at major milestones but I am wanting to be able to see the "contractual duration" and then look at the column beside it and see how many working days I have added to a task due to weather or material delays.
Lets say roofing started and we are 2 days in out of 4 days total and it happens to rain for 2 days. Instead of changing my overall duration from 4 to 6, thereby "deleting" my contractual date from the schedule, I would like to add a "Delays" column and add 2 days to that. Then I would like to make it where the finish date is able to add those 2 columns together ( 4 Day contractual and 2 day weather delay) to come up with my start and finish dates.
Thanks- MSprojecthelpme,
Please explain more about this "contractual duration". I've never heard of such a thing, contract requirements for critical dates or finish date but never duration. Are you telling us each and every task has a contractual time span requirement?
If you saved a baseline you will not be "deleting" anything from the schedule. As I explained before, the whole point of a baseline is to provide a comparison of the original (contract?) schedule with the current schedule. So your "delays" column is the Duration Variance field.
Even if I wrote a VBA macro to do the manipulation you want the end result would be no different than simply updating the current schedule by increasing the schedule duration.
What am I missing?
John
- MSprojecthelpme --
There is no way to do what you seek using a formula. You would need to use VBA to accomplish this. My colleague, John, is a VBA expert. I suspect he will be able to assist you with this. Hope this helps.- I am unfamiliar with VBA. Can you send me some info?
Thanks
