How Long Will All These Tasks Take?
The next step can be the most difficult part of scheduling. You need
to look into your crystal ball and give your best guess—er, informed
estimate—of how long each project step should take. You can find entire
books on this subject alone.
Here are the steps for defining the duration of tasks:
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Click the Duration cell for the first pizza work task (“Buy the food”).
You can enter durations for summary tasks only if you’ve set their task mode to Manually Scheduled .
For auto-scheduled summary tasks, Project calculates the duration for
you from the duration of the subtasks. Milestones, by definition, have
zero duration.
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Enter the length of time (duration) you or your buddies think it will take to do that step (Figure 10).
You can enter durations in minutes (m), hours (h), days (d), weeks
(w), or months (mo). Type the number followed by the abbreviation for
the unit you want to use. For example, type 3d for 3 days or 6h for 6 hours.
Note
If you don’t type a unit, then Project uses the unit specified in
the “Duration entered in” Project option. Choose File→Options, select
the Schedule tab, and then choose the units in the “Duration is entered
in” drop-down list.
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Repeat step 2 for each task in the project.
When you’re done, the schedule shows how long it should take to prepare for your party, as Figure 11 illustrates.
For most projects, you have to tweak your schedule to meet project objectives, such as finish date, budget, or scope.
Now, save your hard work so you can come back to it later. You must save Project files, just like any document or spreadsheet.
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Choose File→Save.
The Save As dialog box appears. If you’ve saved the project file before, then the Save dialog box appears.
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In the “File name” field, type a name, and then click Save.
Project saves the file in the location you specified.
As you work on your project, remember to save early and save often.
Pressing Ctrl+S to save a Project file is so fast that you can make it
a habit in no time.
Congratulations! You’ve created your first project.
