Proof MS-Project written by Husbands

[acquinas]

In new project, using Gantt view, create a new task- call it "Clean Out Garage". Double-click to bring up task information, and under [Advanced] tab, ensure task is of type "Fixed Units" and "Effort driven" is enabled. Assign 2 resources to task: Husband at 100% and Wife at 100%. Ensure you enter the Husband as the first reource (i.e., appears at top of list). Change duration to 5 days, and to keep things simple, start the task on Monday of the next week.

Click [OK] button and note that task is displayed at 5 days. Now bring up task information again, and on "Resource" tab change Wife's percentage (in Units column) from 100 to 50%. Click OK. Note that duration will have changed to 10 days.

Under View menu item, click on "Resource Usage". Notice that only wife is working during the 2nd week. Now nobody but a husband would think that- even though they put their full 40 hours the week before- they are going to get away with laying in a hammock all day while their wife works her hours cleaning out those last few items in the garage rafters. Since this *is* indeed the way MS-Project is displaying the hours, it proves that husbands must have done the programming.

WHAT I'M REALLY WONDERING....
is why doesn't MS-Project show the husband working 8 hours on Monday, and 4 hours on Tuesday so as to complete the task as soon as possible; that is 7 days duration, not 10?? This behavior also happens if in creating the task you choose "Fixed Work" as the type instead of "Fixed Units'.

 

[RichG]

I repeated the steps you described three-times but did not get your results of the husband’s work spread over a duration of 7-days. My results showed the husband completing the task in 5-days, not 7-days. I can not explain how the husband’s hours were spread over 7-days if his Work and Units remained at 40 hours and 100%. In my tests, the husband completed the 40-hour task in 5-days working 100%. The wife completed her 40-hour task in 10-days working 50% of her time. (4-hours per day)

I would try your test again on a fresh project and see if you get the work spread over 7-days again. The Husbands time should be distributed over 5-days in the 1st week (8-hours per day) if the Constraint type is ‘As Soon as Possible”. Let me know,

 

[nicholr]

After reading some help files, I figured out that it assumed BOTH Husband and Wife had 40 hrs of work to do. It assumed this by assigning both resources when the task was initially created. If you create the task with just the Husband and set it to 5 days duration, then add the Wife at 50%, the duration drops to 3.33 days. If you check the resource useage, the Husband will have 8 hrs of work per day and the Wife will have 4 hrs of work. I believe this is what you wanted it to do.