How to get Project to _not_ auto-update

Question

I have been tasked to use Microsoft project in a group assignment to help manage it, but I'm having trouble getting the durations and dates to not auto update.

I basically would like to have the whole week to be able to enter start and finish dates as well as the duration to show the exact time between them. I have changed the calendar work week to 24/7 for the project as well as for all the people in my group but still get the duration changing start and finish dates.

Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

You will not get Project not to update the dates based on task duration. For each task, the end date is calculated as the result of the start date + the duration (non-working days are ignored).

Why exactly do you need independant values for date and duration? Are you maybe trying to enter man-days as duration (So if three people work all day, that would make 3 days total)? If yes, then the column "Work" is the one you want.

Answer 2

I'm not sure what do you need. Could you add some more detail to your request?

So far, I can think about some options:

• Disable automatic calculation in MS Project Options configuration, and then press F9 every time you need to recalculate.
• Use Manual tasks, not automatic (MS Project 2010 and newer).
• Use elapsed durations (adding an 'e' before the time unit, e.g. "2 edays"), this consider duration without calendar restrictions.

But please clarify exactly what do you need.

Greetings.