Task Duration Calculation

[ChrisCo4]

Hi all,

I'm having difficulty with WF tasks calculating the durations I need.

For example, when I set a task duration of 1 Month: WF calculates it from 4/1/20 to 4/23/20...which is only 17 business days, when I need it to be closer to 20 or 21 (5 working days per wk).

And when I plan even longer tasks, it skews dates even more.

For example, when I set 3 months: WF calculates it from 4/1/20 to 6/9/20..but I'd need it to be closer to the beginning of July.

The calendar I'm using is scheduled from 8-6 M-F, so I'm not sure if this is impacting this but I'm really just trying to get it closer to actual dates because as you can see from the 3mo scenario, timing would be off close to about 3wks which isn't good!

Thanks for your help!

[skyehansen]

hi Chris, you're correct. The calendar you're using is scheduled for 5 10-hour days. Workfront doesn't seem to work well with schedules that aren't for a 40-hour work week or an 8-hour day, and I can't say that I've ever found a way around that.

I do get slightly better results when I program a 2-hour lunch break into each day on the schedule, since this brings the total hours back to 8 for each day. But obviously you might not want to do that if it's not true.

[LeighHa]

My team was just discussing the same, but slightly different, issue last week. The only other reference to this was from 2016, so thank you Chris 🙂

Project Preferences - Typical hours worked=8, typical days worked=5.

So when we give a task a 5-day duration, we notice it's calculating from 8am the first day until 12pm the fifth day and starting the next task at 12pm same day. It wasn't allocating a full work day, so it was shortening our timeline. Timeline based on Simple Calculation.

It appears I'm going to have to change our typical hours worked to 9 hours to accommodate an 8-5 work day.

I welcome any other suggestions too.

[skyehansen]

could you maybe send in a screenshot of how your schedule is set up (in the setup area) as I'm having problems picturing it.

[LeighHa]

Here you go, Skye. Looks pretty teenie, so hopefully you can click and open.

[skyehansen]

Thanks Leigh. I think what would help me picture it more is what you have in these two areas:

For the setup area (yourworkfront . my . workfront . com / setup), what you have as a schedule (is it 8 hours in here? does it start at 8AM?)

For the specific project settings, what do you have in the schedule field (is it the same name as your schedule in your /setup area?)?

[LeighHa]

It looks like your image, but 8:00-5:00, M-F. Would it help if I made it 8-12 and 1-5 each day and excluded the 12-1 hour?

[skyehansen]

Yup, I think so. Sounds like you have a 9-hour day in your schedule, and if your project settings say to calculate on an 8 hour day then probably these two settings will combine to give you the result you're seeing. Put in a lunch break and see if that solves anything.

[LeighHa]

Thank you, Skye!! That info may help solve Chris's problem too!

[skyehansen]

I'm hopeful! Obviously things would be different if he honestly did want a 10-hour day. If everyone in the company wants a 10-hour day we could just set the project preferences to calculate on a 10-hour day. But it makes it hard if most of the company is an 8-hour day and then there's this one team working 10 hour days.

[ChrisCo4]

Hi Skye and Leigh,

Firstly, thank you for the engagement on the thread!

Glad to know I wasn't crazy in attempting to edit both the calendar and the project settings, because I definitely tried many different combinations of these two, to no avail!

The timing I'm using is based off manufacturing production scheduling within cosmetic / consumer goods. For example, if our procurement teams says something will take 12wks, we take that literally as 12 calendar weeks (7d/wk * 12w = 84d total) vs. 12 work weeks (5d/wk * 12wk = 60d total).

Essentially, I'd like my WF task durations to align with the date finder tool found here: https://www.amazon.com/Date-Finder-Rotating-Calendar-Calculator/dp/B00GS8C0EC