MS Project 2013 - Manually set up the finish date ???

[NF]

Hi everyone, I apologize for the stupid question considering that autonomously time ago (at that time I was using MS Project 2010) I had solved the problem. But NOW with MS Project 2013 I cannot find the solution I urgently need.

Scenario:
Start date - April 1
Finish date - April 30
Duration - 60 days

I need to use 60 days as the duration, but I want to set manually the start and finish dates AND avoid automatic calculations by MS Project. MSP 2013 of course because I set up "duration=60 days" then overwrites the finish date April 30 and automatically calculates it as May 30 .
My requirement is: due to the fact that the task is assigned to 2 resources (100% booked for the task) then the agreed duration with the client (60 days) is expected to halve (30 days >>> 1st april>30th april).
Don't know if I'm making a wrong use of MS Project and someone could guide me on how to proceed if there were an approach more brilliant than mine...... BUT If my approach is correct, how can I avoid Project automatically calculating the Finish DATE?

Thanks so much

 

[SkipVought]

Hi,

You are confusing duration and effort: time and effort (man days, hours, whatever)

Skip,
[sub]
Just traded in my OLD subtlety...
for a NUance![/sub]

 

[NF]

Thanks SkipVought. But now I'm more confused sorry. So what I'm supposed to do, what the difference/meaning for DURATION and EFFORT in MS Prj? Said that, I'm looking for EFFORT as additional column and I can use ONLY "Effort Driven". Were you re. to it? Does it trigger some MS Prj feature?

Many thanks for your time

 

[johnherman]

The duration is not 60 days. The duration is April 1 to April 30. The EFFORT is 60 days. When you assign two resources to this task, it will shorten the duration from May 30 to Apr 30.

You can also FORCE MS Project by putting a constraint on your finish date - MUST FINISH ON.

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[NF]

Very clear johnherman, I understood the approach.
And how/where I can set up the EFFORT? Is it possible do do it?

 

[johnherman]

Effort is called Work in MS Project. You can also check the box Effort Driven.

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[JulieInMaine]

In order to have Work in Project, you need to create resources. Go to the resource sheet and add both resources. You will need to change the Project calendar as it is not 30 working days between April 1 and April 30. You will need to make every day a working day (to include Saturdays and Sundays). Assuming you mean that it is a total of 480 hours of work, you can assign the resources to the task and enter 240 hours of work for each resource.

 

[johnherman]

Here's how Project works. You can enter your resources first, as Julie suggested, or later, but you need to enter your resources. As Julie noted, there is a Calendar. By default, the Calendar is by Working Week and will not have any holidays. Each resource can have their own calendar so that individual vacations can also be accounted for within the project schedule.

Enter the tasks that need to be done. Adjust the start dates as necessary and enter the amount of work/effort that will be needed to accomplish the task. Assign the resources and MS Project will automatically calculate your duration. You can adjust the hours to move the duration back and forth.

Give that a try and let us know how you're making out.

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advanced cognitive capabilities and other marketing buzzwords explained with sarcastic simplicity