[kplato] Duration less than a day? (was: request)

[Mark Tombs]

On Thursday 04 November 2004 10.03, Dag Andersen wrote:
> On Torsdag 04 november 2004 09:27, Mark Tombs wrote:
> > On Thursday 04 November 2004 09.23, Dag Andersen wrote:
> > > On Onsdag 03 november 2004 21:56, Claus Agerskov wrote:
> > > > On Wed, 3 Nov 2004, Mark Tombs wrote:
> > > > > Can the duration be less than a day? Claus wrote :
> > > > >
> > > > > "Duration is the calendar time of a task."
> > > > >
> > > > > If a task starts and finishes on the same day, it has a
> > > > > duration of 1.
> > >
> > > How do you handle tasks with estimates that isn't multiple of
> > > days? In general, how do you calculate a project like this?
> >
> > Thats where I think I and, it seems, the rest of the world have a
> > different terminology ;) For me, Duration != work. The hours,
>
> Ok, I understand that, but eventually somebody is going to do the work
> so I'm trying to figure out the connection.
>
> > estimate, work, whatever you call it, is seperate from the
> > duration. A task can start and finish on the same day, have
> > duration of 1, but an estimate of 1 minute, if you like. Now that I
>
> Hmm, so in this case the resource doing the work will have 1day-1min
> free time, or a workload of 1min/1day?
> You probably don't use tasklinks then, you define all 'dependencies'
> by setting start- and/or endtimes?
> What do you do if you have 2 tasks that depends on each other but that
> can be done in 1 day?
>
> > write it like that, it doesn't seem to make much sense, but its how
> > I've always worked. Maybe I should just be quiet now, as everyone
> > else seems to disagree with me.
>
> No, no, if you are working that way, it must make sense, probably
> others do the same somewhere.
> We'll see if we can incorporate different ways of working without
> making things impossible to understand.
>
> > > > Or?
> > > >
> > > > Duration is the time period from start timestamp to the end
> > > > timestamp and can be measured in the time unit you want.
> > >
> > > That's how I see  it, too.
> > >
> > > > In some projects minutes can be crucial but in others months or
> > > > - years even - are usable units for duration.
> > > >
> > > > Personal I would have the duration saved in seconds so I can
> > > > choose the time unit I want when I will see the duration.
> > >
> > > It's saved in milliseconds, in a 64 bit int.
> > >
> > > > The most enjoyable greetings
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > kplato mailing list
> > kplato at kde.org
> > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kplato

Maybe I should tell you what I have been using as a scheduler. I work for a 
partner to Niku, who produce enterprise portfolio management software. Their 
history is as a producer of project management software (or rather they 
bought ABT, who had a history as a producer of project management software). 
Some of you may know ABT Workbench, once called Project Manager Workbench 
(PMW). Its been around for donkeys years in various forms, and Niku have now 
open-sourced it (well, bits, anyway) so you can get it and try it yourself at 
www.openworkbench.org. 

It's Niku's flagship product, Clarity, that I want to integrate kplato with, 
as a replacement for workbench. 

Workbench doesn't allow you to set the start time of a task, and I've never 
heard anyone complaining yet ;) The resource knows how many hours / minutes / 
seconds she is supposed to work on a task on which day. I still don't see how 
controlling the duration of a task to the minute helps you; in Workbench, the 
duration is simply the number of days covered by the task, no more or less 
than that. Its the assigned work that matters, and the assigned work that you 
can control to the second. 

/Mark