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Before starting a project, I currently estimate project costs using Excel. I enter the tasks along with estimated effort. The spreadsheet will have several rules of thumb for high level estimates, such as Total Transition Effort will be 40% of the Total Development Effort.

I was wondering If I could use MS Project instead of Excel for this planning exercise. Then when costs have been finalised, the high level project plan can be given to the project manager who refines it further as the project progresses.

In MS Project, is it possible to automatically set one task's duration (E.g. Transition) based on another task/summary task's duration (E.g. Development)?

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Hi Chris. Welcome to PMSE. I think you've got two questions - Planning in MS Project and auto task duration in MS Project - here. You might want to edit your question or split into two to elicit the most useful response from the community. – Willl Jan 31 at 9:50
@Ashok - If you add change this comment to an answer, I can upvote you!! – Chris Jan 31 at 16:26
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I did answer your question. However, a moderator converted it to a comment! I am not allowed to convert it as an answer. Learning the Stack Exchange process :) – Ashok Ramachandran Jan 31 at 17:31
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There is a previous thread here which dealt with a similar question of setting one task's duration based on some other parameter: Calculated duration in MS project task? You may find that helpful. – Ashok Ramachandran Feb 1 at 15:22

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