Troubleshooting

Scheduling Short Assignments in Fixed-Duration Tasks

How can I schedule a short assignment in a fixed-duration task without extending the duration of the task?

When you add a short assignment (one that could be finished before the other assigned resources finish) to a fixed-units or fixed-work task, Project schedules all the work at the beginning of the task, and the assignment finishes before the task finishes. But when you add a short assignment to a fixed-duration task, Project spreads out the work evenly over the duration of the assignment and reduces the units to reflect the reduced workload during each period.

If you want to concentrate the short assignment's work to the start, finish, or other point in the task duration, you have to edit the assigned work in the Task Usage view or the Resource Usage view. With one of the usage views displayed, select the short assignment and note the total work for the assignment in the Work column of the table on the left. Click the Go to Selected Task tool to scroll the timephased data for the assignment into view. You need to replace the distributed work in the grid with work concentrated in the periods you choose. The fastest method is to clear all the current work entries by typing q into the Work column for the assignment in the table. Then, type the work amounts you want to schedule into the time periods of your choice, until the total in the Work column is back to the original amount.