Fixed work vs Fixed Units with effort driven on?

Question

Hi all, new MS Project user here (2019 version) with some noob questions... 🙂

What is the difference (if any) between the Fixed Unit work type with effort driven enabled vs Fixed Work? From what I've read it seems that both will hold the amount of work constant and adjust the duration if resources are added or removed, so aren't they basically the same thing then?

The majority of my tasks will have a flexible duration and an estimate of how many work hrs each task should take to complete. In some cases, I will be able to assign multiple resources and in others i won't. In either case, I'd like Project to recalculate the duration. In this scenario, does it matter whether I use Fixed Work or Fixed Units with effort driven enabled?

Thanks,

Joe

john-project · Answer

Joe,I suggest you take a look at this article. Then if you have additional questions, we'll be glad to help..https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/change-the-task-type-for-more-accurate-scheduling-b0b969ad-45bc-4e9e-8967-435587548a72&nbsp;Or, you could add the Type field as a column in the Gantt Chart view. Then hover your mouse over the field heading and hit F1 to bring up Project's help topic on that field.John

joe1250 · Answer

Thanks&nbsp;John-project&nbsp;, thanks for the reply!&nbsp;I have read that as well as many other articles and watched several youtube videos, but I still don't really get it... turning on the effort-driven functionality freezes the amount of work from recalculating in the Fixed Unit type... right? so doesn't this basically make the fixed unit with effort-driven enabled function the same as fixed work? at least in so far as my tasks will generally be determined by resources and work and I will rarely (if ever), be setting fixed durations?&nbsp;Basically, I'm hoping to be able to put in the amount of work and the amount of resources and have Project determine how long everything will take...&nbsp;&nbsp;

john-project · Answer

Joe1250,Yeah that's basically correct, effort driven on a fixed unit task will give the same result as a fixed work type task.Project's scheduling engine is based on this simple formula:Duration = Work/UnitsSo if you have a fixed amount of work and add or remove units (resources), the duration will decrease or increase accordingly.John

Forum Discussion

Fixed work vs Fixed Units with effort driven on?

3 Replies

Resources