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I'm in a group project at school. We built a MS Project file for our group, and set durations for all tasks. Everything is Auto-Scheduled. We also set up resources for ourselves to work on the tasks. For instance we have WBS task #1.1.1. This task has a duration of 7 days and has 10 hours of resources assigned to it. We then baselined the project file.

How do we enter the actual resources that were spent on that WBS item? Every time I enter something, it changes the duration or completion date. I just want the project file to know that we worked overtime on it (or under time). So that we can compare that to the baseline and keep a log of everything.

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  • There is a separate column for actual hours - add column and then search for "actual"
    – MCW
    Commented Jan 29, 2017 at 20:18

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If you want the task to remain at a constant duration no matter how much work is actually done on it, then you need to set the task to be 'Fixed Duration'. This setting is on the Advanced tab of the task information window (IIRC, I haven't got project in front of mw!). So setup the task, set the duration, then set the task to be 'Fixed Duration'.

Then add the 'Actual Work' column as Mark's comment suggests. Into this column put the actual work spent on the task as it accrues (i.e. you need to maintain your own total, it won't take separate blobs of time spent and add them up for you). As you add time to the task it will automatically calculate the %complete for you (based on the original effort calculated when you added the resources) but it will keep the duration of the task constant.

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  • Marv, That answered my questions but raised a slightly new one. Lets say I have Task 1 with a duration of one week. I set resources to it for 40 hours. The resource works 30 hours but has completed the task. How does Project know it's been completed? Can I manually adjust the percentage completed or will this change anything negatively?
    – Stephen Cavallo
    Commented Jan 30, 2017 at 22:27
  • @StephenCavallo Please ask further questions as actual questions so others can answer and respond accordingly.
    – Marv Mills
    Commented Feb 5, 2017 at 18:28

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