How Do I create a task tied to both start and finsh of the project?

[mjohnson289]

Using MS Project I need a task that begins when the project begins and ends when the project ends but has a specific amount of work. An example might be the task of managing the project. There would be say 20 hours spread over the life of the project. I would like the end date to move with the last task in the project (changing the duration) but leave the work the same (i.e. the resource usage is modified). Can this be done?

 

[cche]

Hi, I'm no MS Project expert, but I took a class once.

I don't know how to allocate a fixed number of hours over the life of the project.

You can create a recurring task though, say for updating the project docs on a regular basis. The MS Project help system explains exactly how to do this better than I can.
I use this to show time for project meetings, producing status reports, etc.

Hope this helps...
-- Hugh

 

[elizabeth]

Since I haven't had a need for this, could I ask why? If I want a task that is the same as the length of the project, I make the first task the project itself, and ever other task a subtask of that (or a subtask of a subtask, etc.), I'm not sure if this is what you mean.

 

[mjohnson289]

Perhaps I'm going about this wrong. However, what I'm trying to do is inlcude in the project a fixed budget task (say 100 hours) that would be expended over the life of the project regardless of how long the project lasts. For example, a task of managing the project (the task), by a project manager (the resource) who is not dedicated to the project but will spend an estimated 100 hours (the effort) over the life of the project doing periodic reviews, status reports, etc. This effort starts when the project begins and is complete when the project ends (the schedule). Putting in the resource and the effort, the program creates an end date which is not the end date of the project. adjusting the percent of the resource is helpful but if the project schedule changes the complete date of the task remains the same.

 

[Guest_imported]

Are you using Project 2000? If so, you could go to tools options. Go to the view tab and at the bottom choose Project Summary Task.

This will add a task 0 to the project which will be the duration of the entire project.

I do not believe that you will be able to assign a resource to the Project Summary Task and since work is associated with a Resource you may not be able to do what you want regarding work.

If the Project summary task doesn't let you do this, you may want to just insert a task at the top and indent all of the other tasks under it. I believe it will then allow you to assign a resource to it.

If I'm not really understanding your question, let me know.

 

[elizabeth]

I get you now. Sounds like you need to continue to break down your WBS (Work Breakdown Structure). The schedule tool (in this case, MS Project) assumes you have completed a WBS and identified each task, with a corresponding duration, and any dependencies. In this way, you ienter a task at a high level of the WBS such as "Project Management" and then the next layer you enter indented underneath that with each PM subtask, and the start date and duration and dependencies for each. If you want to have meetings weekly, you would enter that as a separate (recurring ) task each week. If you want a review meeting or other activity at given milestones, set that up as as dependent on the milestone. As you enter each subtask with it's duration, the schedule tool tells you that you have a total of 20 hours, not the other way around.

 

[mjohnson289]

I appreciate your responses and I don't think I can do what I'm trying to do. My projects are planned by effort (work) not by schedule (duration) so I put in the effort and the resource and let Project tell me the schedule. That is, I know this task will take about 30 person hours to complete and the person who will work it will be able to spend about 20% of their time on it so what's the finish date?

The particular problem I'm having is that a project management task will continue as long as the project is being worked. Even if I break it down or use recurring tasks, those tasks will have a fixed end date yet as long as the project is active the resource must be scheduled.

If while the project is being worked and the work is not proceding as planned (a critical path task takes longer than planned) MSProject will push the schedule out for the project. I'd like the schedule for the project management task to move with it since the resource will still need to be scheduled until the project is complete.

Prehaps I have to go in and manually re-budget more resource to the task to accomidate the change in schedule. I just thought there ought to be a way to reflect this type of thing in Project.

Anyway, thanks for your responses.

 

[elizabeth]

You're right, MSProject will only push out the schedule when the project goes long, it will not assign additional hours/resouces; the PM has to assign additional resources manually.

But if you want to show the resource's start and end data as being the same as the project, without changing the effort, you can assign them to a task such as Project Management, with a subtask such as Initiation that starts on the first day of the project, and another subtask such as Close Out, that has a finish-to-finish dependency on the last task(s) in the project.

 

[ponderworks]

There is a way to do exactly what you want with MS Project however it will require that you write your own VBA function that will measure out the amount of time from the beginning to the end of the project and insert tasks to cover the periodic "project management" you are doing. Should the end date change, the code could be initiated automatically to determine how much additional project management time is required and add the appropriate task or tasks to accomplish it. Needless to say, this is rather an advanced MSProject skill. Based on my own experience with this capability, the MSProject schema and collections are not well documented. But I do know it will work. It just may be more of an ordeal than you were hoping for. If I come up with another way, I will post it here.

 

[mjohnson289]

Thank you all for your input on this. Actually I have written VB and VBA applications to work with MS Project but I'm not sure my need is great enough to warrent that level of effort. I will probably go with elizabeth's solution to use to sub tasks tied to each end of the project.

I really thought that this type of task would be needed in almost any project and I figured I just didn't know how to get to it. It supprises me that it's not directly possible and the there are apperently few who see the need for it.

Oh, well thanks again.

 

[elizabeth]

Personally the reason I have no need for it is that (1) I need to track resource hours so it is defeats the purpose to avoid adding hours/tasks manually and (2) the kinds of tasks you're talking about are my personal responsibility, and at this time (all 3 of my current projects are under $1 million) it isn't necessary for me to enter many of my own tasks into the schedule. I can see how it would be useful to others though. You might want to call MS Project Support at Microsoft if you have it, and ask for a solution or request it in the next version. I once had an Access problem and a tech a MS support was so intrigued he wrote a patch for me.

 

[dpb289]

I know this is alittle late May to July but if you go into the Gantt View and right-click on the bar and select split, you can split your task as many times as you like across the full duration of the project.