Re: How do we define "fixed duration"?

[Joel Cron <jacron randann com>]

Maurice van der Pot wrote:
> I've sent a mail to the submitter of the bug and this was his reply:
>
>   
> > Maurice van der Pot wrote:
> >     
> > > I was looking at the bug you submitted and started a thread on
> > > planner-dev to find out what I need to do. Could you take a look and let
> > > me know (either directly or through the planner-dev list) what it is you
> > > expect from fixed-duration tasks?
> > >       
> > In software development, there are certain tasks that are of fixed
> > duration but that various people participate in (and therefore their
> > time is not available for other tasks).  One such example is a
> > code-review.  I allocate a two week period where the entire team is
> > busy for X% of their time on doing a code-review.  It doesn't matter
> > how many people I have assigned for the task, it always lasts 2 weeks.
> > By 2 weeks, I mean 10 work days, so it doesn't include weekends.  It
> > also doesn't matter if some people on the task are on vacation for
> > some time within the task, the task's duration is independent of any
> > individual's schedule.
> >
> >     
> > > Some things to consider:
> > > - weekends
> > >       
> > I don't count weekends. but it would seem to me that some people might want to 
> > include weekends.  For example, someone who has a "let the paint dry for 5 days" 
> > task.  Such a task should take 5 real-days (not 5 working days.)
> >
> >     
> > > - vacation days of the assigned resource
> > >       
> > Resources (the number of, their % allocation, and their vacations) should not 
> > affect the duration of a "fixed duration" task.
> >
> >     
> > > - holidays
> > >       
> > I think this is equivalent to the weekend case above.
> >
> >     
> > > - different working hours for the assigned resource (e.g. 12:00 - 16:00)
> > >       
> > I'm not sure what you mean.  I think an example might help.  Going back to my 
> > code-review example, I'm letting a number of individuals provide feedback for 
> > code-review for a 2 week period (10 working days).  Some of the people assigned 
> > to the task may work 8 hours / day with a lunch, and others may be part-time 
> > workers who work 4 hours / day without a lunch.  None of that matters, the task 
> > must only last 2 weeks (10 working days).
> >     
>
> The way I see it we now already have 2 different situations:
>
> 1) a task that will go on no matter what (e.g. drying of paint).
>    It needs to continue during weekends, nights, etc. 
>
> 2) an activity for which a certain amount of time is alotted. People
>    will be assigned to participate for a certain percentage of their
>    time (nr of units).
>
>    We should take the number of hours in a day from the project
>    calendar.
>
>    In this case we can calculate work to be the total sum of units spent
>    by all assigned resources during this period. If either the nr of
>    units for a resource or the duration is modified, we should
>    recalculate work. We should probably make work read-only (!).
>
> Are there more types? Kurt, you suggested a task to be done during
> curing of concrete, but isn't that more of a finish-to-finish
> relationship between the work and the curing?
>
> What I'm looking for is a type of task for which duration & work have
> been filled in by the user and for which units should be recalculated.
> I'm hoping there is no such task.
>
> How this will be implemented, I'll save for later.
>
> Maurice.
>
>   
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joel