project task hours

How to Estimate Project Time and Cost

This chapter touches on best practices for estimating projects and being prepared for inevitable change requests . Get ready to learn a whole new set of project estimation techniques because you’re about to become the best project estimator in the business.

What is project estimation?

Project estimation is the process of forecasting the time, cost, and resources needed to deliver a project. It typically happens during project initiation and/or planning and takes the project’s scope, deadlines, and potential risks into account.

Why is cost estimation important in project management?

Every business has a budget and wants to know if a project is worth the costs before they invest in it. 

A project estimate gives you and your stakeholders a general idea of how much time, effort, and money it’ll take to get the job done. That makes it easier to build a feasible project budget and plan so you can set your team and organization up for success.

Easy drag and drop features with templates for faster scheduling. Plan a project in minutes, collaborate easily as a team, and switch to calendar and list views in a single click.

How to estimate project cost and time in 7 easy steps:

• Know your team’s expertise & job responsibilities
• Understand how your company's PM process works
• Study project estimation techniques and trends
• Use historical data to create better project estimates
• Ask detailed project questions to improve cost estimation
• Use a WBS to get granular with your estimate
• Assign hourly estimates to tasks and people in TeamGantt

Step 1: Know your team's expertise & job responsibilities

Want to be better at estimating projects? Sometimes project managers focus too much on the numbers and not enough on the people. 

Good project estimation techniques are built on solid working relationships. That’s because, the more you know about someone’s work and process, the easier it is to estimate their work.

Invite your team to be part of the estimation process.

A stronger understanding of—and collaboration with—your team will help your projects come in closer to your project budgets.

Here’s the thing: To estimate projects successfully, you MUST engage in the work. Having a solid understanding of what each and every team member actually does on a daily basis can help you avoid problems down the road.

Get to know each team member's tasks and skill sets.

If you really want to know how or why someone does their job, just ask them! As a project manager, one of the best things you can do is be genuine and honest about what you don’t know. It might sound silly, but most project managers feel like they’re supposed to know everything. You don’t, and that’s okay.

Remember: It’s better to admit what you don’t know and ask questions from the get-go. This not only gives you an opportunity to connect with your team on an individual level. It also helps you understand the inner workings of different types of projects—and their appropriate budgets. After all, figuring out the steps one person takes to create a deliverable will work wonders in helping you calculate a true and accurate project estimate.

Step 2: Understand how your company's PM process works

Once you’ve got a good grasp on who does what and how, it's time to move on to the next step of project estimation: understanding how work gets done in your organization.

Figure out how all of your project’s moving parts fit together—or could fit together.

You may work for a company that abides by a singular method like Agile or Waterfall . In that case, study that process, know all your dependencies, and run with your estimates. 

Does your organization prefer a hybrid approach with room to experiment? Make it your mission to understand how things are done and what might happen to your project schedule if you shift things around. For instance, if you work in construction project management , will painting baseboards before installing carpet have a huge impact on the quality of work or time needed to get the job done?

Have conversations with the people who have a stake in your project.

Do everything you can to understand your process, but don’t just read a book or a manual. Feel free to ask how, why, and when things are done. The more you know, the better you can strategize with your team or clients to find alternate ways to make project estimates work and save on effort.

Include your team in any discussions related to project estimation.

Be sure to talk about the process you’d envision taking on when estimating projects, as it will impact how you think about effort and scope. You never want to sign on for a project your team isn’t invested in.

Step 3: Study project estimation techniques and trends

No matter where you work, things will change. A career in project management means you have to always stay on top of trends, changes, and deliverables in your industry. It isn’t easy, but it’s worth it because it will directly affect your success as a project manager.

So how can you improve your project estimation process?

Approach your job as though it’s continuing education.

Read relevant trade publications, websites, and blogs. Attend training and networking events. There are growing numbers of local meetups and conferences on project management and estimation.

Learn different ways to estimate projects.

It’s also important to understand different approaches for estimating projects so you can determine what works best for you. Here are a few project estimation techniques you may want to learn more about:

• Top-down estimating : This estimation technique takes a broad look at the project as a whole, then breaks the total estimate down into major phases of work. It’s typically used when you have limited information about the project to work from.
• Bottom-up estimating : The bottom-up approach is considered more accurate than top-down estimation because it starts with a detailed list of tasks and estimates each step. Individual task estimates are then combined to create an overall project estimate.
• Analogous estimating : This top-down technique compares the current project to similar past projects to quickly produce a general project estimate. 
• Parametric model estimation : Parametric modeling also uses past projects to inform new project estimates. It takes forecasting a step further by applying past data to current project specs for more accurate cost estimation.
• Three-point estimating : This approach estimates a project based on 3 different scenarios: best-case (or optimistic), worst-case (or pessimistic), and most likely. Estimates for all 3 scenarios are then added up and divided by 3 to generate a simple average.

Step 4: Use historical data to create better project estimates

Without a doubt, historical data can help you with new projects. When history’s documented, you can analyze the information to help you create better estimates. 

Start by asking your team to track their time on tasks.

This will give you a better sense of a project’s overall level of effort. It’s not about playing big brother to make sure people are doing their work. It’s being honest about what it takes to get the job done while also being profitable.

Of course, every project is unique.  But seeing how long your team spent on a certain task or deliverable will give you a sense for estimating a similar task on a new project.

Check your tracked time, and use it to create a realistic project estimate. 

If nothing else, review your project history to make sure you’re not habitually underestimating project costs or hours.

As project managers, we tend to underestimate project tasks, thinking we’re doing our clients and team a favor. But underestimating a project does everyone a disservice and causes stress when budgets and timelines go over their estimates.

Use project baselines to compare estimates with actuals.

You can mark your originally planned schedule, compare it against your actual work as the project progresses, and note where there might have been issues and how those issues might have impacted your level of effort. This will help you determine where you have room to improve your estimation of certain project tasks.

Step 5: Ask detailed project questions to improve cost estimation

Whether you’re estimating a project based on a Request for Proposal (RFP), a discussion, or a brief written message, you need to know every possible detail of the project before you can provide a realistic estimate.

Take time to understand your project's triple constraints.

These are the things that could cause your project to go over budget: time, cost, and scope. If you keep track of these 3 things, you’ll be a better project estimator. You can use our online gantt chart software to help estimate your RFP.

Ask questions that help create an estimate based on what your clients need—not what you think they need.

Here are some questions that can help you estimate project time and budget more accurately. This list could go on and on depending on the level of information you’re provided.

• What’s the goal of the project?
• How will you and your client determine if the project is successful?
• What returns will you and your clients see as a result of the project?
• Who will participate from the client side?
• What range of services does the project require?
• What’s your client’s budget for the project?
• Is there technology involved? If yes, what is the technology?
• Does your client employ anyone with expertise on the topic?
• What is the timeline for the project, and will your client require your services after your work is complete?

Be persistent, and get the answers you need. 

If your client isn’t inclined to answer every question, take it as a sign. If answering important questions now is too much to help you form a good estimate, will being a good partner when the project is underway be too much for them too? 

Use your judgment in this respect. Not every estimate becomes a real project, so not every request needs to become a real estimate.

Step 6: Use a WBS to get granular with your estimate

A work breakdown structure (WBS) is a project planning technique that breaks a project into smaller components. Creating a WBS for any plan or set of tasks helps you get granular about the work that needs to be done on any given project. 

If you can map it all out and estimate each element, you should be able to create a solid project estimate. Learn how to create a work breakdown structure for your projects, and download a free WBS template.

Break your project down into phases, tasks, and subtasks. 

This step provides a framework for detailed cost estimation, as well as guidance for schedule development and control. Our example shows a basic WBS for a common deliverable—moving to a new house! Notice the tasks and subtasks we’ve taken into consideration. Is anything missing?

Apply a time estimate to each component in your WBS.

If you estimate your projects based on units—whether it be weeks, days, or hours—using a WBS will help you quickly understand if your project estimate will exceed the intended budget. Let's take our project estimation example further and assign estimated hours to each step. 

Example: Pack current house - 8.5 days total

This estimate includes the time needed to wrap objects, pack boxes, and prep for movers. Here’s how the estimated timing breaks down by room:

• Kitchen - 1 day
• Bathroom - 0.5 days
• Bedroom 1 - 0.5 days
• Bedroom 2 - 0.5 days
• Living Room - 1 day
• Dining Room - 1 day
• Basement - 2 days
• Garage - 2 days

This exercise can be extremely helpful during the sales process when a client tells you they have X dollars to spend. You can easily map a set of tasks or deliverables to something that works for both the dollar amount and the client’s goals.

Just remember, it could change when you dig into the actual work. (Time estimates should be based on a combination of experience and hypotheses.) 

Use your WBS to negotiate project cost and scope.

If a potential client comes back and says your project estimate is more than they want to spend, lean on your WBS to find opportunities to scale back. This enables you to create a project estimate that maps to a specific budget, while also working out a solid set of project requirements .

For instance, I could likely remove the cleaning step from my moving WBS to cut down the time and cost (though someone might be unhappy about that). 

Step 7: Assign hourly estimates to tasks and people in TeamGantt

Using these project estimation techniques as a foundation for your project will help you with the final step: turning it into a project plan . TeamGantt gives you a more formalized way to outline your WBS and calculate a project’s time and effort.

List out your project tasks , and add the estimated hours.

If you’ve organized your project into phases, TeamGantt will automatically calculate the total estimate for each task group as you enter hourly estimates for individual tasks.

Then assign resources to tasks in your project plan. 

From there, you can schedule people and tasks against other project work.

Estimating projects and tasks in TeamGantt

Let’s take a closer look at how hourly estimation works in TeamGantt so you know how to add and assign estimates to your tasks and teams.

How to add Estimated Hours to a task in TeamGantt

First, make sure Estimated Hours is enabled on your project by going to Menu > Project Settings > Enable Hours and selecting Yes . (Note: Hourly estimation is only available on Advanced plans.)

Once you’ve confirmed hourly estimation is enabled on your project, you’re ready to add estimates to tasks in your gantt chart. To assign hours to a task, simply click into the text field in the Estimated Hours column, and enter your estimate:

Don’t see the Estimated Hours column for your project? Click View > Estimated Hours to enable this column on your gantt chart.

How to assign estimated hours to your team

One of the biggest benefits of using hourly estimation in TeamGantt is being able to determine your team's workload more accurately. To do this, you’ll need to take project estimation one step further by adding estimated hours to the people assigned to the tasks. 

There are 3 different ways to add hourly estimates to people or labels . It all depends on your particular project scenario.

Option 1: Assign both users and estimated hours to a task at the same time.

• Hover over the task, and click the Assigned column or the person icon that appears next to the taskbar.
• Next, select the resources you'd like to assign to the task, and enter either the Avg Hours/Day or Total Hours . (The other field will populate automatically.)

Option 2: Add estimated hours after users have already been assigned to a task.

• Hover over the Estimated Hours column, then click into the text field to enter the total estimated hours for the task.
• A pop-up window will appear, asking if you'd like to adjust the hours for the users/labels assigned the task. If you select the checkbox before clicking Yes or No , your preference will be noted for all future instances. (You can adjust this preference anytime by going to My Preferences .)

Option 3: Assign people to tasks after estimated hours have already been added.

• First, hover over the task, and click the Assigned column or the person icon that appears next to the  taskbar.
• Next, click either the Fix button at the bottom of the user assignment window or simply select users to assign hours to.

Note: When a task's length is changed—for instance, a 2-day task is extended to a 4-day task or vice versa—you'll be prompted to choose between increasing/decreasing users' assigned hours accordingly or leaving the daily assigned hours as-is. Learn how to set your hourly scheduling preferences.

How to use Estimated Hours to determine team availability

Now that you’ve assigned estimated hours to your team, you'll have an even better understanding of how busy everyone is. Just click the Availability tab found at the bottom of your project's gantt chart, and toggle to Hours Per Day :

Any day that includes over 8 hours of work will automatically be highlighted in red to indicate a potential overload. 

Sign up for a 30-day trial, and try TeamGantt with hourly estimation for free.

Build your project estimation confidence with practice

Ready to dig in and estimate a project of your own? Start with some practice so you’ll feel confident in your estimating skills.

Create an example project of your own, and list out all the steps that go into completing it. Then run it by one of your team members to see what they think. Did you miss anything? Did you underestimate the hours? Doing a test run will help you prepare for your first real estimate or hone your project estimation skills for your next one.

There’s no right or wrong way to create a project estimate. Your approach to estimating projects will include a mixture of project knowledge, historical review, client inquisition, and a ton of gut instinct.

Estimate your project in minutes

Learn how easy project estimation and planning can be with TeamGantt. Try TeamGantt’s Advanced plan free for 30 days! ‍

Home » Blog » How to estimate effort hours for a project (what you should consider)

How to estimate effort hours for a project (what you should consider)

Solid effort and cost estimations are the basis for a successful project. That’s why you should go about effort estimation with great care.

In this article I’ll show you how to estimate manpower in a project. We’ll look at different methods and pitfalls you need to be aware of.

The reasons why estimates are often wrong

Do you know why estimates often turn out ot be completely wrong? It’s mainly because the scope and requirements were not 100% clear. Project teams rush into a project without taking the time to fully understand the customer’s requirements .

Later when the project is already going full steam, the team realizes that what the client wanted is actually a lot more complex. And tasks that were estimated with 5 days suddenly take 10 days or more. Or effort explodes, like for this poor guy:

A sloppy requirements analysis isn’t the only reason for bad estimates. Another reason is overconfidence.

Often the underlying reason for this is the desire of team members to impress their manager. Write an entire piece of software?  “Easy, I can do that in three days!”.  Don’t take such statements seriously and challenge them instead. You are not participating in a competition for the shortest time. You want to get realistic estimates !

I’ve create the following overview which shows you the factors that determine the quality of your estimations. Apart from your knowledge and experience in the subject matter, also any assumptions you make can influence your estimations. The assumptions could be wrong and consequently, your estimations too.

Also, keep in mind that pressure may affect your estimations negatively. If you are under pressure to deliver a project plan that’s bad because you’ll be less attentive to the details of the project and you’re more likely to deliver inaccurate estimations.

Things get worse when you have an overly optimistic boss who is putting pressure on you.

Who should estimate effort?

Any effort estimation should be made by the person responsible for the task. Not by the management, not by the client and not by other parties which don’t have the required expertise.

The project manager can help in the process to get a solid estimation. He can challenge the numbers. He can give context about the task and how it ties in with the overall project. He can ask other experts for a second opinion. And he can add contingency to make up for overly optimistic estimations ( read more on how much project buffer you need ).

But the effort itself should always be calculated by the person in charge.

Do you have a clear scope?

You must have a clear picture of what the project is supposed to deliver. In other words the project scope must be fixed. If you’re still unsure on what is expected from the project, go back and clarify with your stakeholders.

Make a list of tasks

I always start with a list of the tasks that need to be performed. It can be a simple Excel file like in the following screenshot.

For bigger projects you may want to create a work breakdown structure (WBS)  first. It gives you an easy to grasp breakdown of the project deliverables and work packages. And then you can derive the necessary tasks from there.

One important point is that each task should be clearly defined. What work does the task involve? Where does the responsibility start and where does it end? Does the task include rework? If yes, how many cycles? These are questions you need to sort out first.

I also recommend you wait with estimating work until you’ve assigned a responsible person to every task. You can’t really make good estimations without involving an expert. Also, making the estimation part a mutual task creates the buy in that you need so much. You don’t want to adhere to an estimation that someone else has made for you.

Here’s another idea I want to share with you:

Why not begin with a study?

The biggest challenge to coming up with accurate predictions of labor effort is that we are usually still too far away from the actual project that it’s almost impossible to make good estimations. Coming up with estimates for tasks feels like playing Russian roulette. It could be totally wrong!

How can you deal with this situation?

One of my favorite approaches to this challenge is to make a small study before the actual project. A study is a “micro project” usually taking no more than 4-8 weeks. And its purpose is to take a closer look at the requirements, determine the scope and to get super solid cost and effort estimations.

The findings from the study are then used to plan the full project.

I encourage you to start with a study whenever possible.

My favorite estimation techniques

Depending on the work you’re looking at, you can use a different estimation technique. Some techniques are more suitable for specific planning challenges while others can be used in most circumstances.

Here are my favorite estimation techniques:

Ask the expert

Task breakdown.

• Learning from other projects
• Optimist / pessimist view

We already touched that method. You ask the person in charge — the one who’s going to do the task — how long he or she thinks it is going to take him or her. That’s usually the best estimate you can get!

Keep in mind that the quality of estimates you get largely depends on the quality of input you provide. The more specific the description of the task, the more reliable the estimate will be.

Here’s an example:

unspecific:  “ How long will it take you to upload the customer data to our IT system?”

specific:  “ We have a list of 45’789 customer addresses that need to be uploaded to the system. We’ve checked the data and removed duplicates. If we provide you the data in the right format, how long will it take you to upload?”

Make your guess: which request will give a more accurate estimate?

The bigger and more complex a task, the harder it is to make reliable estimations. Instead of hoping your predictions will be right, it is better to break those tasks down into smaller pieces. Then estimate each piece separately and add up the values.

This method is also called bottom-up estimation.

Imagine you had asked your technician how much time he would need for getting WiFi set up in a hotel. He would have looked at the building from outside and would have made a superficial guess: “Probably around two days” .

But a break down of the job into subtasks would reveal that the entire installation would take around 3 days. That’s a 50% margin of error!

And this is just a simple example and the extra day spent wouldn’t be too much of an issue. But imagine you are coordinating bigger tasks that involve dozens of person days, such as the assembly of a machine, the construction of a building or the development of software. Bad estimations for a single task can easily tank your entire project!

Learn from other projects

You may find it hard to make reliable effort predictions if the project or task is completely new to you and you can’t rely on past experience.

For those cases it’s a good idea to look for similar projects that you can take as a reference:

• Are you aware of any projects that are similar to yours?
• Do you know anyone who’s worked on a similar task or project?

If you don’t have a reference project to look at, you can do some research on the Internet and get in touch with other project managers who might be able to help you.

For example you can go to LinkedIn groups or other online discussion boards and see if somebody has done a similar project. If so, these people can give you input for your task estimation.

I’ve written a long post about the many ways to get help for setting up your project . Go read it

Let the optimist and pessimist speak

There is an easy way to improve your estimations: Let a number of people estimate the effort for the same task. Then take the average or median value from the resulting estimations.

This estimation method produces more reliable predictions because it takes into consideration the experience and psychology of a group of people and avoids bias from your own work.

Some people have more experience in the issue. They see things you forgot to consider in your initial estimation.

The other benefit of this method is that it balances out any bias caused by optimism or pessimism of the person estimating.

Estimations should be based on assumptions

Think about this: We are only able to make estimations if we make assumptions about the environment we are operating in. If we assume certain things to be true. For example:

• We assume a certain level of skill for the people performing the task.
• We assume that external conditions like weather or traffic will be as expected based on past experience.
• We assume that the tools we are using (like cars, trucks, computers or machines) will behave as reliably as we know it.
• We assume that team members will live up to their responsibilities.

Whenever you make an estimation you subconsciously assume that certain things are true. For example, if you are tasked to deliver goods from Chicago to Memphis you believe it will take the normal 8 – 9 hours that Google Maps is giving you.

You assume fair weather conditions and normal traffic.

So, your estimation should be linked to the underlying assumptions:

“We estimate delivery to take 8-9 hours, assuming good weather and normal traffic.”

Always communicate your assumptions to the client and to your management. This way you won’t look like a fool when something changes and effort rises dramatically for a task. Ideally you have set clear assumptions the estimation is based upon.

Then if conditions change — such as a winter storm coming up that leads to traffic issues — you can say to the client: This wasn’t expected and it is not within our control. Thanks for your understanding .

Conclusion: How to make hour estimations that you won’t regret having made

When estimating project hours, your first step should be to get a good understanding of every task that needs to be performed. The second step is to make reasonable assumptions for the process behind each task as well as the conditions a task is performed under. Finally you ask your experts in the project for effort estimations.

Keep in mind that estimations are always guesses and don’t expect to be right all the time!

Hi! I’m Adrian, founder of Tactical Project Manager and Ex-Project Manager with over ten years of experience in project management. Led large-scale IT implementations and business projects. I started Tactical Project Manager to offer you a straightforward and pragmatic approach to project management, enabling you to lead any project with confidence.

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What is a task? and how to get more of them done

While the word “task” might bring about feelings of despair related to chores or undesirable actions, this is usually related more so to the way you have to manage your time than the task itself.

In this article, we’ll do a deep dive into tasks, show you the best ways to break down larger projects into them, while covering efficient approaches to manage and distribute tasks.

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What is a task in a project?

In project management, a task is a work item or activity with a specific purpose related to the larger goal. It’s a necessary step on the road towards project completion.

For example, it could be something as complex as a mobile app bug fix.

Or it could be something as simple as photocopying the latest brochure for distribution.

Single tasks are typically assigned to a single person or team, while the larger project could be a company-wide endeavor.

The task may or may not include a start and end date or a series of subtasks—this all depends on the complexity of the project at hand, which could be related to industry.

How do you break down a project into smaller tasks?

Even long term Scrum projects that last  11.6 weeks on average make use of task management to get their work done efficiently and effectively.

Part of task management includes creating manageable workloads, considering task dependencies, and of course, communicating across teams to avoid double work or roadblocks.

To avoid these issues, you need some way to break down the high-level project deliverables and goals into tangible tasks.

In the next section, we’ll show you two of the most popular methodologies, Waterfall, and Scrum.

Work Breakdown Structure

The work breakdown structure (WBS) is the official method of breaking down projects in the PMI Guidebook.

To figure out how to break the entire project into tasks, you first need to divide it into the actual deliverables required to hand over the final product or result to the client.

For example, if you’re planning to make a mountain bike, you can break that down into the frame, handlebars, pedals, wheels, chains, and so on.

( Image Source )

You also need to work out the dependencies of the project (aka which deliverables require another one for completion).

If we were to simplify the WBS, the section on manufacturing the bike frame might look something like this.

Of course, each item contains multiple tasks such as sourcing vendors, reviewing designs, picking materials, and more.

But if you assign these tasks to teams who have the necessary skills to complete all of them, that’s what the top-level plan might look like.

If you use an Agile framework, like Scrum, you won’t bother breaking down the entire project into detailed tasks at an early stage. Avoiding this large-scale exercise in prediction is one of the primary principles of Agile.

Instead, you’ll focus on planning out a deliverable increment of your product in Scrum sprints . These are 2–4 week periods of focused work dedicated to delivering a working product version of the final deliverable.

The basis for planning out these iterations is a backlog of features or user stories (functionality from the user’s perspective). You may also have a product roadmap to outline the long-term product direction as well.

The product backlog is continually pruned and optimized before, during, and after sprints. Even if you’re not planning software projects, you can often single out elements that you can deliver in increments.

Before each Sprint, you meet with your team and stakeholders (invested parties) to discuss which user stories are the most important. You select a few items and create a dedicated sprint backlog .

Each user story is then further divided into tasks, and team members take ownership of the specific tasks they can handle.

It’s not ideal for all organizations or projects, but it’s an antidote against micromanagement in complex projects.

What size should a project task be?

So how granular should you get? What should the scope and length of the task in your project be?

It depends on the size of your project and your PM framework, but here are some rules of thumb.

The 8/80 rule for WBS

In traditional project management, a rule of thumb is that no task should be shorter than 8 hours or longer than 80 hours in the WBS.

That’s why the PMI recommends keeping tasks between 20–80 hours in the WBS.

Your individual teams can then have more granular task boards to manage their own to-do lists and/or break 2-week tasks down into daily sub-tasks.

Task length in Scrum

While user stories generally have no specified length, they’re often broken down into manageable chunks, usually one workday or less.

The official Scrum Guide doesn’t use the word tasks, but instead uses the term work unit:

“ Work planned for the first days of the Sprint by the Development Team is decomposed by the end of this meeting, often to units of one day or less. ”

On a Scrum board , you can use story points (at monday.com, we equate 1 SP to a workday) to estimate the length of the task.

Tasks shouldn’t require more than one resource

When you break down deliverables into individual tasks, time isn’t the only consideration. The best approach is to make sure the person (or resource) who’s assigned the task can complete it from start to finish.

For example, a graphic designer could create a wireframe for an app, but wouldn’t be able to create a working prototype.

So you should split the larger deliverable of a working feature prototype into wireframe/design and development (at the very least).

For larger companies, a resource could be an entire team that includes designers, developers, and software testers. In which case, you don’t have to get as granular when planning and assigning tasks.

Accurately estimating task durations

The best way to predict the duration of tasks is to involve the actual resources who will handle the task in the planning process.

You don’t need to switch to Agile or Scrum to make this happen. You just need to involve the actual project implementers in the planning process, not just management.

Not only can they help with task durations, but they can also help with dependencies and expecting potential bottlenecks.

What is the best way to organize project tasks?

There are hundreds of different frameworks and methods for managing projects and breaking them down into tasks.

A few stand out because of their efficiency and ease of adoption and have become popular as a result.

Let’s take a closer look at these industry-leading options.

Waterfall refers to the traditional “predictive” project management approach. It’s called predictive because you plan every phase of the project from start to finish before even getting started.

The reason it’s called waterfall is that the projects are planned to follow a sequential order.

First, you start out by figuring out the requirements of the project. What deliverables do you need to deliver a finished product?

Then you move on to designing and creating (implementing) it. Finally, you verify that the product works as intended, and launch it. The last stage includes the long-term maintenance of the product.

While berating waterfall is a popular pastime among younger management professionals, it has its place.

For physical products with a lot of dependencies and high costs associated with actual production time, mapping out the entire project in detail can be the best approach.

Instead of a specific methodology, Agile outlines a core set of values and principles to apply to your projects. As a result, Agile is an umbrella term that covers many different methodologies and frameworks .

The most famous principle is to deliver working iterations of your project frequently. That’s in contrast to planning out an entire product from start to finish like with waterfall.

Lean, like Agile, is not a specific framework that details a project management approach. Instead, it refers to a management philosophy with a core set of principles.

The focus of Lean is eliminating waste in processes throughout each stage of production. The execution is what controls the outcome, after all.

Fixing bottlenecks between departments to speed up the final assembly is a good example.

Not to be confused with Agile, which is more about high-level concepts and principles, Scrum is an actual framework for project management.

It outlines clear rules, meetings (ceremonies), and deliverables (artifacts), not just values.

For example, Scrum teams should only include a maximum of 9 regular team members. Daily Scrum meetings should only last 15 minutes.

The entire process of designing and completing a sprint is laid out in detail. That’s what makes the Scrum framework so useful for teams that want to implement more Agile principles into practice.

How to use a project management platform for effective task management

Instead of slowing down your managers and teams with an inefficient process, take advantage of the latest task management software .

monday.com is a digital workspace with all the functionality a project manager could ever want, wrapped in a package that’s actually easy to learn and use.

Pick the framework or methodology you want to work with

If you want to reach a completely new target level of productivity, basic task management won’t cut it. You need to introduce a project management framework that goes beyond daily tasks.

Luckily, monday.com makes it easy to make the switch. We offer dedicated templates for everything from WBS to Scrum.

Develop the high-level project roadmap

For consistent results, you should develop a high-level project roadmap. It will help guide all decisions and priorities as the project progresses.

Get more granular with a WBS and other task boards

This is where you break the larger goals into smaller deliverables and start to establish the workload for each team or department that’s involved.

It should outline the overall process but may not specify every activity or task, depending on the scale of the project.

But it’s not the best for planning individual tasks within the involved teams or departments.

Which is why monday.com also offers more basic task boards that these teams can use to manage the day-to-day.

You can easily divide larger items into smaller subtasks and assign them as well.

Use integrations and automations to automate menial tasks

If you want to perfect your workflow , it’s not enough to create some new task boards. You also need to eliminate repetitive menial tasks.

For example, with our smart integrations, you can automatically update a card or create a new task when you receive an email or message.

It’s a useful feature for a wide variety of teams and use-cases. For example, your software team could get a new task with every bug report.

By automating menial tasks, you give your managers and team the time and space to focus on crucial high-level decisions.

Keep managers up to speed with dashboards and reports

Want to see at a glance if tasks are being completed on schedule, or which people (or teams) are available for last-minute work?

You can easily create and customize a dashboard that will give your managers instant access to all the information they need.

Master your tasks

Breaking down a project into tasks and assigning them effectively requires a bit of balance.

Finding the framework that works best for your industry and internal workflows and pairing them with the tips above can help you find the happy medium of management and autonomy that will allow your teams to thrive.

Whichever you choose, monday.com has the right templates and tools to help your projects succeed.

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Project Scheduling: How to Make a Schedule

This guide is presented by projectmanager, the project scheduling software trusted by 35,000+ users. make a project schedule now..

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What Is a Project Schedule?

How to make a project schedule: in-depth.

• How to Maintain Your Project Schedule During Execution

What Are Project Scheduling Tools?

Benefits of online scheduling tools, must-have scheduling software features, creating a project schedule in projectmanager, best practices for the project scheduling process, project schedule vs project plan, project scheduling key terms, get a free 30-day trial of our project scheduling software.

A project schedule is a timetable that organizes tasks, resources and due dates in an ideal sequence so that a project can be completed on time . A project schedule is created during the planning phase and includes the following:

• A project timeline with start dates, end dates and milestones
• The work necessary to complete the project deliverables
• The costs, resources and dependencies associated with each task
• The team members that are responsible for each task

Project schedules are created and tracked with project scheduling software, which has key features that allow project managers to monitor the progress of tasks, resources and costs in real time. They can also assign work, link dependent tasks, view dashboards, allocate resources and more.

ProjectManager, for example, has online Gantt charts for scheduling tasks and resources, but also team management features and reporting tools for a comprehensive project management platform.

What’s Included in a Project Schedule?

Project schedules are created during the project planning phase and are crucial to the creation of a project plan , where the schedule plan, schedule baseline, deliverables and requirements are identified. The project schedule is designed to guide the project team throughout the execution phase of the project.

Then, during the execution phase, the schedule baseline is compared against the actual project progress. The following are included in the creation of a project schedule:

• Deliverables
• Task start and end dates
• Task dependencies
• Project calendar
• Work packages
• Task duration and project timeline
• Resource availability
• Schedule risk analysis

Project Schedule Steps

When creating a schedule you can use a project schedule template, which offers project schedule examples and a project schedule spreadsheet for free. But a template can only take you so far. A project schedule is not just a standard timetable that works for every project.

There are different project scheduling techniques and project planning tools involved in the scheduling process. Also, every project has different resources, timetables, scope considerations and other unique variables that must be considered in the schedule management plan.

Using project management software integrates the schedule into other project management tools, such as Gantt charts , dashboards and reports to monitor progress, as well as kanban boards to manage workflows. Whichever path you choose, these are the steps to create a project schedule :

• Create the schedule plan for your project
• Define who has authority over the schedule
• Identify start and end dates for project activities and tasks
• Figure out task dependencies
• Sequence activities and tasks chronologically to create a project calendar
• Estimate needed resources and resource availability
• Determine duration of activities and tasks
• Build project schedule
• Monitor and control the schedule throughout the project life cycle

Free Project Schedule Template

Need help getting started with your project schedule? Try ProjectManager’s free schedule template and practice adding tasks, phases, dependencies, resources and more in a live Gantt environment.

On the left-hand side the various phases of the project are outlined. These can be color-coded to make it easier to distinguish one phase from another. Under each phase are the tasks associated with it, including assignees, due dates and other resources needed to execute the scheduled tasks.

The visual timeline to the right is where things get interesting. You can see the entire project in one place, dependent tasks can be linked and milestones added to indicate important dates.

What Are the Project Scheduling Techniques?

Estimating the duration of project tasks as accurately as possible is key to creating a realistic schedule. To do this requires the use of various project scheduling techniques.

Project managers can interview their team and other stakeholders to get their perspective on how long certain tasks can take, and can refer to historic data from similar past projects.

Additionally, project managers can use project scheduling techniques to increase the accuracy of their time estimates and minimize schedule risk. The critical path method (CPM) is an equation that shows the longest possible timeline for the project. The Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) also visualizes the flow of tasks for better estimates but shows task dependencies as well.

Project managers will also use schedule compression techniques such as project crashing and fast tracking which can reduce the schedule duration without impacting the project scope. Simulation, resource-leveling heuristics, creating a task list, using a project calendar and using a Gantt chart are all other tools that can help with estimation, collection and tracking of project tasks.

A work breakdown structure (WBS) shows how many tasks and deliverables there are to get to your final deliverable. It’s a network diagram that has your project goal on top with “branches” underneath that show all the steps needed to get you there. This tool makes sure you don’t leave out anything when devising your schedule. A workback schedule is another technique that allows you to break down the project scope and identify all the tasks, activities, deliverables and milestones.

Regardless of your preferred scheduling methods, you need a tool designed to accommodate them equally. ProjectManager’s Gantt charts allow you to create timelines, apply a work breakdown structure and automatically calculate the critical path. Need to cut down on the white noise and view specific information? Filter for exactly what you want to see, whether it be incomplete tasks, overdue tasks, tasks assigned to certain team members or anything else you like.

Project scheduling occurs during the planning phase of the project life cycle. When beginning to put together a schedule for your project, you should ask yourself four things to start:

• What needs to be done?
• When will it be done?
• Who will do it?
• Where will it be done?

The answers to these four questions will greatly inform your project schedule moving forward, as you’ll use this information to plan start and end dates, link activities, set the duration, create milestones and manage resources.

Follow these steps to create a project schedule of your own!

1. Create the Project Scope

The project scope statement is created during the initial planning. It’s a document that contains the specific goals, deliverables, features, budget, etc of your project. All of the tasks needed to complete the project successfully are listed here (which requires understanding the stakeholder’s requirements.)

Be thorough when putting a task list together, you don’t want to leave anything out. By using a Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) you can organize these activities and lay them out in order of completion. Understanding task dependencies and their sequence are very important for schedule management.

2. Establish the Sequence of Tasks

Tasks are the small jobs that lead to the final deliverable, and it’s fairly crucial to map out the sequence of those tasks before diving into them. Oftentimes a task will be dependent on another to start or finish. You don’t want to get halfway through a task before you realize you can’t complete it due to hanging objectives.

3. Group Tasks

Once you’ve collected your tasks and have them in proper order, you should take the opportunity to divide your tasks by importance. You need to know which is critical to the project implementation schedule and must be done first and those less important that can be done if there’s time. You could use a priority matrix to facilitate this process.

Then, break your tasks down with milestones that relate to the five project phases—initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and close. Organizing your tasks with milestones makes it easier to track progress , and gives your teams a sense of accomplishment that boosts morale and productivity.

4. Link Task Dependencies

Some tasks can be done simultaneously, but some tasks are dependent on others to start or finish before they can start or finish. These task dependencies must be mapped out in your schedule to keep you aware of them, or you risk bottlenecks and blocking your team.

5. Find the Critical Path

The critical path is a method for scheduling tasks in a project to find those which are critical to the success of the project. This allows you to make smart choices about tasks that can be ignored if time and costs become constrained. This method is commonly used for schedule risk analysis. Software that can find the critical path for you can make this step a lot easier.

6. Assign Resources

Resource management and project scheduling are closely related. Every task on your schedule should have the related resources and costs associated with completing it. Tasks aren’t done on their own, and without mapping the resource availability to each task you’re in danger of going wildly over budget. With resources attached to tasks, you can more accurately plan your team’s time and keep their workload balanced.

How to Manage Your Project Schedule During Execution

Once you’ve got all the pieces of your schedule together, the last thing you want to do is manually punch it into a static document like a Google sheets or a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. A schedule maker can automate much of the process for you.

There are project scheduling tools on the market that are great for simple scheduling duties, but when you’re leading a project, big or small, you need a tool that can adapt to the variety of scheduling issues you’re going to need to track. Watch the video below to learn how scheduling software can help you lead your project to a successful conclusion, or continue on to read our full walkthrough.

Project scheduling tools are used to help managers organize and execute their project’s tasks and resources within a given budget. Software offerings range from rudimentary to sophisticated and provide users with a wide spectrum of features that facilitate the scheduling of their project.

Software devoted to scheduling a project can assist in the larger role of planning and estimation of the duration of each task. Outside of scheduling, software can also include tools that manage costs, budget, resource allocation, collaboration, communication and reporting.

Using online scheduling software means that project managers can make data-driven time management and resource management decisions. When they see that there’s a bottleneck or some block preventing team members from moving forward on their tasks, they can quickly reallocate resources and keep the project on track.

Managers and teams can work better together with the right online scheduling software and manage resources and budgets to keep the project running smoothly. Those are the big benefits, but not the only ones when using online scheduling software. Here are others:

• Build detailed plans for your projects
• View all your work on task lists and project calendars
• Get status updates to stakeholders
• Create task lists for yourself and your teams
• Manage start and end dates for your tasks
• Manage workload and reallocate work
• Monitor performance in real time
• Edit with drag-and-drop scheduling

Scheduling software that has the following features will give you the most power to effectively manage your project.

Get Tasks Organized on a Timeline

Projects have lots of tasks, and they need to be organized on a timeline to create a workable schedule. Gantt charts are a visual tool that can collect all your tasks, prioritize them, link those that are dependent on one another and even break the larger project into manageable phases.

Monitor High-Level Progress

Once your project schedule is executed, you need to keep a close watch on performance to stay on track. Dashboards are a window into progress that act like an instant status report, showing percentage of tasks complete, project variance, workload and more.

Balance Your Team’s Tasks

Keeping on schedule means allocating your resources smartly. Knowing how many tasks your team is assigned is crucial. If some are overallocated and others have too few tasks, the schedule suffers—as well as morale. You want to be able to reallocate their assignments.

Generate Fast and Insightful Data

Stakeholders have a vested interest in the success of a project, and must be regularly updated on its progress. You do that by quickly creating reports on tasks, costs, project variance, etc., and sharing them at stakeholder presentations. Filtering shows the information you want to see.

Facilitate Teams to Work More Productively

Teams need the right tools to execute the schedule on time and within your budget. Getting them to work better together is important. Look for features that allow team members to comment at the task level, attach files and share data with each other.

Have a Centralized Repository

Projects have a lot of paperwork. These documents are referred to throughout the life cycle of the project, and need to be easily accessible. Having a scheduling tool with unlimited file storage means you can keep everything in one place, and get to it fast when you need it.

Project scheduling software organizes your tasks on a timeline, considers the resources you have to complete the project and manages all those parts to keep the project on track.

ProjectManager is an award-winning scheduling software that integrates plans, timelines, budgets, communication and more to give you greater control over your project schedule. Sign up for a free 30-day trial of our software , and follow along to build an ideal project schedule.

Initiate Your Project

Set up the project before you start scheduling. In this initial phase, you set up your schedule plan, budget, resource schedule and the general timeline in which you have to produce your final deliverable.

Add the budget to create a baseline to compare to what you actually spend when executing.the project.

Define Tasks

Project scheduling is all about managing your tasks. As we covered earlier, tasks are the small jobs that lead to your final deliverable. Defining those tasks is the first step towards proper project management .

Import a task list from any spreadsheet, or use our built-in templates to get started. Add durations and due dates to those tasks to set them on a timeline on the Gantt.

Block Calendar

ProjectManager allows you to manage your project calendar in real time. Take note of the dates that your team can or cannot work. These are your holidays, paid time off and other such dates that must be established before you can create your schedule.

Set holidays in the software, both global and local, to know your team’s availability. This is most helpful in managing remote teams. Outlining your typical working days is the best first step if you don’t have the other information readily available.

Set Task Dependencies

Avoiding bottlenecks and getting the work done on time are the primary reasons you’re thoroughly scheduling your project. You’ll want to link dependent tasks to ensure the work flows smoothly.

Connect the dependent tasks in your project by dragging one task on the Gantt onto the other. A line will appear, and from there, you can set what type of dependency these two tasks have.

Assign Team

Teams are your most valuable resource. They do the work that gets the project to the finish line. For optimal efficiency, you need to get the right team member working on the right set of tasks.

Assign team members tasks from any of the multiple project views. For further direction, you can attach detailed descriptions, priority levels and costs associated with tasks to help your team track and complete them.

Monitor Progress

Once the schedule is set and the project is in the execution phase, managers will want to stay attuned with what’s going on without getting in the way of their team. Tracking project metrics allows you to catch issues and resolve them before they become projects.

Get a high-level view of the project with our real-time dashboard. We collect project data on time, cost, workload and more, and automatically calculate and display it in colorful, easy-to-read graphs and charts.

Manage Resources

Knowing your resources and keeping them balanced leads to a more productive and happy project team.

Use our workload page to see how many tasks your team is assigned. The color-coded chart makes it easy to see who is overallocated, and you can reallocate their workload without leaving the page.

Adjust Plan

Schedules are living documents. As internal and external forces play on a project, you need a fast and easy way to adapt. Being flexible helps you prevent slippage .

Drag and drop tasks to new start or end dates on our online Gantt chart to easily edit your schedule. All changes are instantly reflected throughout the software.

Keep Stakeholders in the Loop

Stakeholders are the people with a vested interest in the project. They need to know what’s happening, and keeping them informed of your project progress is one of your key responsibilities.

Generate reports on project variance, tasks and more with a single click. You can quickly filter through results when presenting the report to stakeholders to assist in responding to their questions.

Keeping your project on track and within budget requires a good schedule. That means creating a schedule that is both reliable and that meets the requirements of your project. To make sure your schedule is the best it can be, follow these best practices.

Thoroughly Collect Project Tasks

The last thing you want is to miss a critical task after you’ve created your project schedule. Making sure every task is accounted for and lands in the right place to get the project done on time is hard enough, without trying to squeeze in tasks missed. A work breakdown structure is a great tool to make sure you capture every step on the road to your deliverable.

Be Realistic

When developing your project schedule, it’s important to set reasonable durations for your tasks. It should be measurable, of course; short, if possible, but with room for changes if needed. To do this, you need to take a deep look at your resources and your team’s capacity to complete the work. The more you do this on the front end of a project, the less issues you’ll have once it starts. Remember that you can use project management tools and techniques such as the critical path method (CPM) or PERT charts to help you estimate time more accurately.

Have Float in Your Schedule

Float is the amount of time a task can extend before it negatively impacts the final deliverable. You want to have some amount of float in your schedule to give you the wiggle room you’ll need as changes occur. But you don’t want too much float! That’s usually an indication that there is something amiss with your schedule.

Constantly Assess the Critical Path

The critical path is the way to see which of your tasks are essential to reaching the final deliverable, and which can be sidelined if time and cost become issues by charting the project’s earliest possible completion. But know that the critical path can change during the execution of your project, so you need to go back and check it regularly.

Keep Track of Project Scope

Things change is a project. That’s unavoidable. Not responding to these changes, however, is irresponsible. Monitoring your project scope, and adjusting tasks and schedules to keep your project on track, is what managing a schedule is all about. Take note of how scope changes impact your project timeline , and if the change gets in the way of meeting your final deliverable.

To wrap this up, we’ll end with some disambiguation between two related concepts; though related, a project schedule and a project plan are two different things. The project plan is the larger, grand-scheme blueprint on how the project will run. The project schedule focuses on the details on how that will get done.

The project plan is an outline that explains how the project will be managed. The project plan comes first, and the project schedule often falls under its larger project umbrella. You can’t create a project schedule without first having the large strokes of the project painted out in your project plan. Once the plan is approved, then the schedule can be added, with specific dates, duration, assignments, resources, etc.

The project schedule is made up of the specific tasks and due dates for each. It’s a timeline for the project for when the tasks will be started and completed. The schedule is more an estimation based on historical data, experience, etc. The schedule is fluid, and changes throughout the project. The plan remains the same. It defines the project goal, scope, resources needed, costs, etc. Only once these have been established can work on a schedule begin.

Another difference between the project plan and schedule is that the plan doesn’t necessitate the use of project management tools . Since the project plan is mostly a series of documents, you can just use a word processing program. However, project schedules usually run on project management software tools, with features such as Gantt charts .

• Project Scheduling: Project scheduling is a project management process that consists of creating and managing a schedule to organize the tasks, deliverables and milestones of a project on a timeline. The project schedule defines the duration, start and end dates for activities and is used by project managers for resource management, task management and team management purposes
• Schedule Plan: A schedule plan or schedule management plan , is a component of the project plan that defines how the schedule will be developed, monitored and controlled. It also establishes the scheduling methodology and scheduling tools used to develop the project schedule. The complexity of the schedule plan varies depending on the project. The schedule plan is also referred to as the schedule management plan.
• Schedule Baseline: A schedule baseline is the approved version of the project schedule in the schedule plan. Once the project execution phase starts, the actual start and end dates of tasks will be compared to those established in the schedule baseline to measure performance and keep the project on track. The project schedule may differ from the schedule baseline because it changes as the project progresses.
• Schedule Performance Index: The schedule performance index is part of earned value management and its a measurement that lets you know whether you’re on or behind schedule.
• Schedule Variance: Schedule variance (SV) measures whether a project is on track by calculating the difference between actual progress against your projections.
• Resource Schedule: Consists in including resource availability and capacity planning considerations when developing a schedule. That means planning tasks on a timeline based on the resources and constraints associated with each.
• Project Calendar: A project calendar establishes the working days and hours that are available for scheduled tasks. It allows project managers to make schedule management decisions based on the time available on the calendar. A project calendar is part of the schedule plan.
• Schedule Crashing: Schedule crashing is a project scheduling technique that consists in shortening the project schedule duration by expediting the execution of critical path activities by adding more resources, such as team members or equipment. The goal is to reduce the schedule duration without affecting the project scope.
• Priority matrix: A priority matrix is a time management tool that allows project managers to prioritize tasks by evaluating the impact and effort associated with them. It’s similar to the Eisenhower matrix in terms of structure, but the priority matrix scales and quadrants are designed for project management.
• Workback Schedule: A workback schedule is a project scheduling technique that allows project managers to break down the life cycle of a project by analyzing its timeline in reverse order. Similar to reverse engineering, this process allows them to have a different perspective about the project’s stages, tasks, deliverables and milestones.

Scheduling is one of the more difficult jobs in project management, but coordinating delivery dates on your estimates can be streamlined and made more efficient when you employ the tools in ProjectManager , a cloud-based software.

From interactive Gantt charts, resource and workload management that can be easily integrated to a real-time reporting dashboard , you’ve never had a tighter hand on your project schedule.

See why tens of thousands of project teams in organizations as diverse as NASA and the Bank of America use our tool to keep on schedule. Take a 30-day free trial of our software today to try these powerful tools for yourself.

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Project Scheduling Resources

• Project Scheduling Software
• Gantt Chart Software
• Project Calendar Template
• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Template
• Gantt Chart Template
• Work Schedule Template
• Project Charter Template
• Project Management Trends (2022)
• 6 Tips for Better Schedule Management
• How to Create a Project Management Schedule (Example Included)
• The Ultimate Guide to the Critical Path Method
• The Ultimate Guide to Gantt Charts
• How to Make a Construction Schedule
• How to Schedule Multiple Projects

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Twproject: project management software,resource management, time tracking, planning, Gantt, kanban

Twproject is a full featured web based project management software that gives you full visibility and control over your projects.Twproject is also a time tracking software, a bug tracking software, a project planning software.

How to calculate work hours in a project

Time Tracking: 5 reasons why it is crucial in project management

1. track and estimate work time, 2. helps bill suppliers correctly, 3. helps better manage project teams, 4. helps create a work record, how to track hours worked.

Pen and paper

Digital clock

Time tracking software, calculate hours worked on a project: choose project management software, time item customization, track working hours, report creation.

Calculating how many hours are worked on a project helps track productivity and costs related to each activity.

Also, this information will allow the project manager to keep track of the workload of each team member and eventual inefficiencies.

In this article, we will examine why time tracking is key in project management and the different methods used to calculate hours worked .

Time tracking allows project managers to calculate the total number of hours needed to complete a particular task.

Also, this information allows estimates and projections to be drawn for future similar jobs.

Time tracking helps create accurate invoices for your suppliers by preventing errors in hourly reports and allowing timely payment.

Monitoring time helps business leaders efficiently manage their teams to boost overall productivity and that of each employee.

Project managers can get detailed insights using the right time-tracking tool.

Time-tracking reports are helpful when stakeholders ask for more details about a project.

Furthermore, this documentation also helps explain how many resources are needed for a specific project.

Thus, it is vital during auditing or when undertaking massive projects.

There are several methods for keeping track of hours worked, from the most basic to the most technologically advanced. Here they are:

The (now obsolete) pen-and-paper method involves writing down the start and end time s of work on a piece of paper.

This somewhat basic method is mainly used in small businesses with very few employees and are usually family-run.

This solution hardly guarantees accuracy regarding the hours and minutes worked reported.

Furthermore, it can reduce the productivity of the individual responsible for manually checking these documents.

As you understand, this is a completely unsustainable method for a more structured business.

This device digitally “prints” the time and date of the start and end of work time on the employee’s personal time card.

To use this, simply hold the card close to the device’s sensor, automatically sending the data to the employee’s card stored within a time calculator program, usually managed by HR.

Some electronic clocks may require a PIN or fingerprint to log data.

In this way, the work shift and any overtime hours can be calculated in an accurate and prompt manner.

Time tracking software installed directly on a PC or mobile device is a modern way to calculate the number of hours worked .

After logging into the system and clicking the button to clock in and out, the website server will record the data.

Most software has a tracking option to ensure the time worked is logged correctly.

The solutions discussed above for time tracking can be effective in some cases. However, the accuracy and effectiveness of project management software such as Twproject are unparalleled.

Look at all the ways you can do it.

Project management software such as Twproject allows you to create time entries manually or using an automated tracker.

The first solution allows employees to select a task and manually enter, in an Excel-like sheet, the time spent working on it.

This way, the employee can focus entirely on their work and input hours spent on that task at a later time.

The second solution, instead, involves using a timer that automatically records the time spent on each task.

With a simple click on the playback button within the software, it will be possible to start recording the time spent on any activity.

With this solution, however, employees must remember to pause this timer during breaks.

Twproject allows you to monitor the worklog entered in real-time, highlighting any overshoots relative to the plan.

You can pinpoint the hours worked by task, project, or collaborator.

A project management software should allow the worklog to be filtered and data extracted according to different criteria.

This will help create timeline reports that are very useful not only for the project manager but also for stakeholders.

Forgetting to enter the hours worked corresponding to some activities can happen.

However, good project management software must have a built-in feature to remind you to enter the time spent working where it is missing.

Only in this way effective and truthful project management will be possible.

Twproject’s streamlined approach for managing timesheets helped with user adoption as the Advance team found it so easy to track their time.

To sum up, calculating the number of hours worked on a project is important for tracking productivity, appropriately managing costs, and promoting a positive work environment.

As we have seen, there are several methods for recording time worked, yet the efficiency of Twproject in time tracking is unparalleled.

Plan your work and manage your time effectively.

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• Project schedule

How to create an efficient project schedule

Browse topics.

Delivering quality products faster and more frequently can be challenging for businesses with multiple products, stakeholders from cross-functional disciplines, and deadlines that customers count on. An efficient project schedule consists of everything necessary to complete the project within a specific timeframe, including start and end dates, milestones, dependencies, and real-time status updates. It simplifies overall project execution and leads to more successful project outcomes.

This guide discusses the benefits of using a project schedule, the steps to create one, and techniques to follow to optimize project completion.

What is a project schedule?

A project schedule provides your project's clear, up-to-date status, including tasks, assignments, dependencies, and milestones. Project scheduling software, such as Jira , helps teams break complex blocks of work into smaller, easier-to-manage tasks, improving dependency mapping , resource planning , and the accuracy of delivery dates.

Components of a project schedule

The project schedule is essential to the project life cycle . It efficiently communicates important information at a glance, using easily understood visual elements:

Visual timelines , such as Gantt charts, keep everyone in sync. Jira’s interactive timeline allows you to add epics, map work items, identify dependencies, and track releases.

Tasks and milestones break down the work necessary to complete the project. Grouping tasks in a logical sequence with dependencies allows you to set milestones and keep the project on track.

Durations and dependencies help project managers estimate milestones and overall completion dates. Tracking dependencies can help identify and overcome bottlenecks early in the project life cycle.

Budget summaries show the project spend-to-date against the budget. Linking the budget summary to the project plan helps manage expenses and allows project managers to adjust as needed throughout the timeline.

Resource tracking shows assigned team members for each task in the timeline, providing confidence that resources are adequate and not sitting idle.

Links to the project plan help team members reference goals, scope, process, and methodology.

Why use a project schedule?

Project management schedules help keep the project on track. Some of the benefits of using a project schedule include:

Clarity and direction keep the team focused on the purpose and how a successful outcome benefits customers and the business.

Time management improves with sequenced and defined work, increasing production.

Resource allocation becomes more straightforward with smaller, sequenced tasks that don’t overburden team members.

Risk management is more effective because it’s easier to see roadblocks and lagging tasks earlier in the project.

Steps to create a project schedule

Understand the project’s goals before creating a project schedule. Your project plan includes important information about the product you’re building and why. During this process, a core value of Agile project management , team collaboration helps ensure you include all work, identify dependencies, and estimate accurately. Use this foundation to create the project schedule using the steps below.

Define tasks and milestones

Break large blocks of work into smaller tasks that you can estimate easily. Identify the dependencies of each task, which will help with sequencing. Group similar tasks into milestones, but be ready to rearrange them later.

Sequence tasks

Determine the order in which to complete the tasks. Consider dependencies. Use project scheduling tools to visualize the project flow from start to finish. Sometimes, teams work backward to sequence tasks.

Estimate task durations

Estimating task durations can be difficult, but breaking work into smaller tasks makes it easier. Collaborate as a team to ensure your estimates are neither aggressive nor too liberal. Experienced team members usually have a good idea of how long a task will take.

Assign tasks to team members

Assign team members based on skill and availability. Be ready to move tasks around to avoid assigning everything to one or two people. Identify what tasks to work on concurrently rather than sequentially. For example, reorder a standalone task with no dependencies that’s part of the last milestone if resources are available in the first milestone.

Finalize the schedule

Before finalizing the schedule and beginning work, submit it to the project sponsor for review. If the timeline is shorter, this process may involve trimming the project scope to meet market demands or breaking the project into additional phases.

After adjusting the scheduled work to satisfy business needs, the project moves from planning to execution, and the team gets to work.

Share and monitor

The last step before work begins is to share the project schedule with stakeholders. This ensures everyone agrees on the timeline and knows how to stay up-to-date.

Continually monitor progress. Project scheduling tools such as Jira make identifying completed or lagging tasks easy. Encourage the entire team to monitor the project schedule and raise issues early. Adjusting the schedule for unexpected or missed tasks as soon as they arise keeps the project moving forward.

Techniques for project scheduling

Project scheduling tools and templates help break large projects into manageable, trackable tasks. It’s an effective and efficient way to create and monitor your project schedule.

Jira provides the building blocks to help you see the project through to successful completion:

Boards help the project team plan, visualize, and manage the work by displaying individual cards—or pieces of the work—that you can move into different areas of the workflow.

Dashboards provide a single view of all projects, assignments, and achievements for efficient progress monitoring.

Templates , such as the pre-configured project schedule template , provide essential elements for quickly transitioning from project plan to project schedule.

Here are some techniques for efficient project scheduling.

Gantt charts

Project managers often use Gantt charts because they provide a visual representation of the project timeline . The chart shows when each task begins and ends, along with its dependencies, to offer a holistic view of the entire project.

Task lists provide a simple yet effective way to identify all necessary work and organize the activities to complete it.

Calendars help manage time-sensitive tasks and deadlines, such as stakeholder meetings, expected material deliveries, and user acceptance testing. While calendars do not include resource assignments and dependencies, they help keep high-level processes on track.

Create a project schedule in Jira

Understanding the elements and techniques of efficient project schedules helps you move projects across the finish line. Keeping stakeholders informed, juggling multiple workstreams, and meeting deadlines doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Jira’s timeline feature helps teams plan projects, define work, and track progress from idea to release.

With Jira, team members know what they’re working on, how it fits into the business goals, and where the product is going. It provides the flexibility to respond to changing priorities while keeping projects on track. Jira is purpose-built to manage the challenges of project schedules and more successfully.

Get started with Jira

Project schedule: Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a project schedule and a project plan.

A project plan outlines the project goals, policies, methodologies, and procedures. It’s a higher-level document that informs the project schedule. The project plan usually includes scope, cost, and overall timeline. 

The project schedule encompasses all the milestones and tasks necessary to deliver the planned project in an established sequence, with dependencies and assignments.

What are common challenges in project scheduling?

Common challenges in project scheduling include estimating the duration of tasks and sequencing the work so that some resources aren’t overburdened while others are left to wait.

Visual timelines allow you to view the project as a whole and adjust the schedule to optimize resources. Fostering a collaborative team environment helps identify dependencies, and enlisting the team’s collective experience helps refine estimates.

How does a project schedule contribute to project success?

A well-developed project schedule identifies the tasks needed to complete the project, makes monitoring the status and milestones easier, and allows teams to identify roadblocks early. For example, if a task depends on implementing a new technology, but integration lags due to quality issues, you can see the risk as soon as it appears. This allows you to make decisions faster, improving your chances of keeping the project on schedule.

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Project roadmap

Create an effective project roadmap for clarity and success. Learn components, examples, and best practices.

Project Scheduling Software [6 Top Solutions]

Optimize project timelines with powerful scheduling software. Streamline tasks, meet deadlines, and enhance team productivity seamlessly.

7 Best Project Time Tracking Software [2024]

Project time tracking can recover $50,000 or more per employee per year in billable time. The “trick” is to ditch manual spreadsheets and use a project time tracking tool instead. This article compares and reviews the best project time tracking software.

We talked to agency owners, project managers, and operations directors to understand how different teams used our favorite tools and which tools were best for which teams.

What is the best project time tracking software?

Each tool we reveiwed has its own pros and cons and focuses on different aspects of managing a productive project team.

Here’s what we found:

• Toggl Track : best for focusing on productivity and profitability
• Everhour : best for managing client billing 
• ClickUp : best for feature-rich project management
• Harvest : best for quick and accurate time-based invoicing
• Clockify : best for timesheet-style time tracking
• Timely : best for automatic time-tracking for busy teams
• My Hours : best for simple, focused time tracking

Key features we looked for in the top project time tracking tools

The right tool depends on your team’s needs and goals. For our rankings, we focused on four categories: 

• Time tracking : the tool should offer accurate and easy time tracking for employees and projects.
• Project management : the tool should enable teams to manage project workflows, tasks, billable hours , and performance. 
• Team management : the tool should improve team productivity and workloads through real-time data and insights. 
• Insights and reporting : the tool should allow managers and CEOs to understand and optimize profitability and productivity by setting project budgets , understanding time spent, expenses, etc. 

1. Toggl Track

Our Verdict — Best for teams focused on planning and profitability.

Price: FREE. Paid plans start at $9/user/month.

Toggl Track is one of the OG time tracking software that helps teams track project performance and profitability in real-time—while aggregating historical data for better scoping, budgeting, and forecasting on future projects. 

Its powerful insights on labor costs, workloads, cost projections, and more make it the best for planning and profitability.

The Best Part:

• Project and profitability Insights paired with easy-to-use seamless time tracking give you hard data to manage projects confidently. 

The Worst Part:

• The popular billable hours feature is only included with paid plans , so you’ll have to upgrade to integrate your tracked time with invoicing.

Get it if you want simple, intuitive time tracking and actionable insights to improve productivity and profitability. 

We recommend you start with the free,  30-day trial of Toggl Track Premium , and then stick with Premium after the trial if you’re using most of the features, or downgrade to the Starter Plan if not.

Toggl Track is best for project managers and agency CEOs who want to increase their team’s productivity while improving project profitability . 

Top Features

• Employee time tracking offers the most sophisticated calendar view compared to other apps we tried, making it easy to plan and track time. 
• Project time tracking helps you manage your team’s workload and assess project profitability and performance with real-time data. 
• Intuitive, easy-to-use UI means your team can get up and running with Toggl in just a few minutes—slashing onboarding time and ramping up productivity immediately. 
• Budget alerts and custom labor costs let you easily track a contractor or employee’s cost with the amount of billable work they’re completing and alerts you when you’re nearing your budget cap for each project. 
• In-depth project dashboards and reporting features summarize time tracked by employee, client, project, date range, project profitability, budget, and more, so you can understand where your team spends their time and how to improve efficiency.  
• Dozens of integrations allow you to track time natively from your browser or other productivity or work apps—no more browser switching or forgetting to start your tracker.

Toggl Track offers four pricing plans:

• Free: Free for freelancers and micro-teams. 
• Starter: $10/user/month for small teams needing additional tracking and billing features.
• Premium: $20/user/month for growing teams and agencies who want more team management, forecasting, and reporting capabilities.
• Enterprise: Custom pricing for large organizations that need customizable solutions. 

Annual plans provide a 10% discount. 

Time tracking your team will love and use!

Trusted by 70,000 businesses and over 5 million users worldwide.

2. Everhour

Our Verdict — Best for managing client project profitability and billing

Price: FREE. Paid plans from $5/user/month.

Everhour is a simple time tracking app with billing, budgeting, and forecasting features. We think it’s best to ensure client projects are profitable because of its budget visibility and alerts, flexible billing, and other billing and invoicing features.

• Budgeting and billing tools allow you to see project profitability in real-time, and set alerts when you’re nearing your project budget.
• Time tracking is not as granular as other solutions. In addition, the iPhone app is still in Beta, and there isn’t an Android app. 

Get it if you want to track time specifically to manage employee timesheets , project costs, and bill clients, and if you don’t mind, stick to the web app for time tracking. 

Everhour is best for small- to medium-sized businesses that want to use time tracking to increase the profitability of client projects. 

• Integrations with apps like Asana and Trello, so you can make it easy for team members to keep their hours logged no matter where they’re working.
• Board and list views let your team visualize their to-do lists and project progress in whichever way they like.
• Interactive scheduling lets you plan projects based on resource availability, scheduled time off, team performance, etc. 
• Custom task rates and project estimates so you can see how much time is left in a project compared to the budget available and the cost of the remaining time. 
• Create invoices based on time and expenses tracked within Everhour, or integrate with Quickbooks, Xero, and other accounting software for seamless billing and payments. 

Everhour offers three pricing plans:

• Free: Free for freelancers who need lightweight personal time tracking.
• Lite: $6/user/month for small teams who still want to manage invoicing and billing.
• Team: $10/user/month for teams who want full functionality.

Annual plans provide up to a 15% discount.

3. ClickUp 

Our Verdict — Best for feature-rich project management 

Price: Starts at $5/user/month. Free plan available for individuals

ClickUp is a feature-rich project and time tracking tool that makes team collaboration easy with integrated docs, wikis, whiteboards, and chat functionality.

Growing teams and agencies that are scaling quickly will love it for its collaboration features, project and team management tools, and integrated time-tracking.

• ClickUp is extremely feature-rich, but it’s also intuitive and customizable —making it easy to use everything you need and nothing you don’t.
• The time tracking is a bit clunkier (especially on mobile) , and some of the reporting features are limited when it comes to revenue, labor costs, and project profitability.

Get it if you want a time-tracking tool that allows you to manage projects and collaborate with your team all in one place and if you don’t mind a bit of a learning curve when onboarding. 

ClickUp is best for growing and larger teams who want an all-in-one project management, time tracking, and collaboration tool.

• Time tracking within each task, so team members don’t have to log time separately. This also keeps multiple team members’ time organized within each task or project. 
• Templatized and recurring tasks save your team time and keep your projects progressing. 
• Collaboration tools keep projects organized and remote teams on the same page. ClickUp offers native docs, wikis, async video messages, chats and more that integrate with your tasks and projects. 
• Customizable dashboards with real-time tracking and reporting for project and time tracking, team workloads, business insights and more. 
• Automation capability for processes , workflows, and basic tasks so your team can spend less organizing and tracking work, and more time doing it.

ClickUp offers 5 pricing plans:

• Free Forever: Free for individuals and micro-teams who need simplicity. 
• Unlimited: $5/user/month for small teams looking for a feature-rich tracker. 
• Business: $12/user/month for mid to large-sized teams looking for more advanced reporting, tracking, and workflow management. 
• Business Plus: $19/user/month for large organizations that work across multiple teams. 
• Enterprise: custom pricing based on team size for large corporations who need specialized features, custom capacity, HIPAA compliance or other customizations. 

Annual plans provide a discount of up to 45% off monthly rates.

Our Verdict — Best for quick and accurate time-based billing

Price: Starts at $11/month for paid plans, with a limited free option.

Harvest is a time-tracking software for teams that seamlessly integrate invoicing and expenses into the tool. Its team management, invoicing and expensing features make quick and accurate time-based billing a breeze. 

• Offers invoicing and expense features tied to projects and provides dozens of integrations. 
• Team management and reporting functionality is limited compared to other time tracking tools. 

Get it if you want a lightweight tool that allows you to invoice based on your time, without overloading your team with complicated interfaces and features.

Harvest is best for small teams who want to keep track of time, expenses, invoicing, and payments all within one tool. 

• Multiple options for simple time tracking , such as the web app, mobile app, or Chrome extension. 
• Turn tracked time and expenses into invoices right within Harvest. With its integrations, you can make payments streamlined too. 
• Visibility into team members’ capacity so you can easily see who’s close to capacity, who’s overbooked, and who might need more work. 
• Automated reminders help you keep your team accountable for time tracking and timesheet logging. 
• Integrates with 50+ other tools , so your team can work seamlessly across your entire tech stack.

Harvest offers just two pricing plans:

• Free: Free for individuals who need a simple time tracker.
• Pro: $12/user/month for small teams.

Can’t decide? Read our in-depth comparison of Toggl Track vs Harvest for the exact details of how they compare feature-by-feature!

5. Clockify

Our Verdict — Best for timesheet-style time tracking

Price: FREE. Paid plans start at $4/user/month.

Clockify is a time tracker and timesheet app that easily manages your team’s projects and workload. Its simple interface, project forecasting, and scheduling features make it the best choice of timesheet-style project tracking apps.

• Advanced timesheet tools make it easy to balance employee workloads and time off without slowing down project timelines. 
• The free version has minimal features , so you’ll have to pay for the full experience. In addition, some users note that the UI isn’t as intuitive or engaging as other time trackers. 

Get it if you want timesheet functionality with built-in and automatic time tracking, and don’t feel you need complex project management features or integrations.

Clockify is best for project-based teams who want a timesheet app that offers scheduling and forecasting to keep projects on track while managing team’s workloads. 

• Timesheets can populate automatically based on tracked time throughout the week, or team members can log time manually. 
• Ensure projects stay on track and assign work appropriately without overloading team members using Clockify’s insights on employee bandwidth. 
• Manage team and project performance with visual comparisons of forecasted vs. tracked time. 
• See current and forecasted project data so you can track progress and performance based on tracked time. 
• Integrate with shared devices with the ‘Kiosk’ feature to allow employees to clock in and out easily from a shared device, like an on-site iPad. 

Clockify offers five pricing plans:

• Free: free for basic team timesheets and time tracking.
• Basic: $4/user/month for small teams who don’t need a lot of features like scheduling or invoicing.
• Standard: $5.50/user/month for teams who need to manage the full spectrum of timesheet management.
• Pro: $8/user/month for teams who want to use scheduling and forecasting tools to improve budgeting and productivity.
• Enterprise: $12/user/month for large teams who need advanced customization.

Annual plans provide a 20% discount.

Need more info on Clockify? Read our in-depth comparison of Toggl Track and Clockify , where we get into the exact details of how they match up feature-by-feature!

Our Verdict — Best for automatic time-tracking for busy teams

Price: Starts at $9/user/month

Timely is an AI-powered time-tracker that automatically tracks time based on your team’s web and desktop activity, making it effortless to bill accurately for client projects and visualize real-time project progress. Busy teams who want to reduce tedious admin work will love its hands-off project time-tracking and AI-powered tools.

• Timely’s Memory app automatically tracks activity in the background, creating automatic time logs so employees don’t forget to log or start and stop timers. 
• Time tracking may not be as granular as manual trackers. For example, if you spend 1 minute in Gmail responding to an email, Timely may not catch that—it’s also quite expensive.

Get it if you want automatic time tracking that’s easy to adopt and start with, so your team can literally “set it and forget it.”

Timely is best for busy teams who want to track time effectively to manage projects, without asking employees to manage time tracking manually.

• Automatic time tracking populates employees work based on browser and desktop activity, making adoption easy and ensuring employees keep track of every billable minute.  
• Intuitive “drag and drop” design allows employees to simply drag and drop to sort automatically tracked time into project categories. 
• Automatic “memory” time logs are private to each employee , so employees can share only relevant web and desktop browsing with their team—no creepy employee surveillance or monitoring. 
• AI-powered timesheet creation helps draft accurate timesheets for employees based on automatically tracked time, saving time and improving accuracy. 
• Project and team health dashboards help you visualize project time, team capacity, budgets, and more in real time. 

Timely offers four pricing plans:

• Starter: $11/user/month for small teams who need the basics.
• Premium: $20/user/month for mid-sized and larger teams who want to manage more complex projects, budgets and team requirements.
• Unlimited: $28/user/month for teams who need additional customization or support.
• Unlimited+: custom pricing for enterprise support. 

Annual plans provide at least 20% off monthly rates.

7. My Hours

Our Verdict — Best for a simple, focused solution

Price: Free, with paid plans starting at $8/user/month.

My Hours is a simple time tracking app that allows teams to automate timesheet recording and reporting while staying on top of project budgets. It’s the best for those looking for a simple, focused solution because of its uncluttered design that mimics project time tracking spreadsheets . 

• Simple time tracking , in either a daily or weekly timesheet view, mimics spreadsheet-style tracking for an easy transition to a simple automated solution.
• Reporting and forecasting features are limited compared to other apps we tested.  

Get it if you want straightforward time tracking without a lot of add-ons.

My Hours is best for small businesses that want a simple solution that allows them to upgrade from manual spreadsheets to a focused time tracking app.

• Simple weekly timesheet view allows employees to input time manually or track it automatically with a timer. 
• Set up project budget estimates and track the percentage of budget used based on tracked time. 
• Create templates for common tasks to keep projects moving forward without the tedious admin work. 
• Project hierarchies help you keep everything organized with projects, sub-projects and tags.
• Export timesheets and reports of billable hours for client invoicing or reporting. 

My Hours offers just two pricing plans:

• Free: free for freelancers or teams who need simple time tracking.
• Pro: $9/user/month for teams who need billing and team management features (only included in Pro plan).

Annual plans provide a 10% discount.

The bottom line

So, which is right for you? That depends on your primary goals and project time tracking needs. To recap, here are the best project time tracking tools based on functionality: 

• Toggl Track — best for teams improving productivity and profitability
• Everhour — best for managing client billing and profitability
• Clickup — best for growing teams needing feature-rich project management
• Harvest — best for quick and accurate time-based billing
• Clockify — best for timesheet-style time tracking
• Timely — best for automatic time tracking 
• My Hours — best for simple, focused time logging

Our top pick is Toggl Track if you’re looking to optimize the productivity and profitability of client projects, or Clickup , if you’re looking for feature-rich project management and collaboration alongside time tracking.

Sean is a Content Marketer at Toggl. He's been involved in SEO and Content Marketing since 2017. Before working for Toggl, Sean ran SEO at a digital marketing agency—so he's all too familiar with time tracking and project management.

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Take a peek at our most popular categories:

Duration in Hours

Is it possible to set the duration of tasks in hours?

Some of us want to use GanttProject to plan a day !!! Personally to do it, i removed weekend and use gantt project like a unitless program. you can assume each day is a year, week, day, hour, minutes or second like you want.

But it would be better if programmers offer to add different calendar with hour:min:sec.

Have a nice day.

Is there a feature request email, page, link, sticky, something where we can request this feature?

This enhancement is addressed in this ticket .

Hello, I have the same problem and have found this document ( http://sti.discipline.ac-lille.fr/Ens-Scienc-et-Techno/documents/electroctechnique/gestionchantier/52_Logiciel_GanttProject_version_chantier_EPID_DUNKERQUE.pdf ) (in french) about a version of ganttproject that has been configured to work with minutes. I’m looking for this version. If some one have a copy it shall be great.

Hello, Finally, I have found the version that work with minutes You can find it on http://pedagogique-ge.com/course/view.php?id=18 It is ten years old!

Sure, I’d like to be able to use GP to plan my working day. i need hours, minutes. Second are not important. thanks in advance.

Hello, These guys have made a nice job. It shall be great if Ganttproject team can correct in this 2008 versions all the bug they have corrected from this date

• those guys did not publish the sources (this is enough per se)
• quick prototype hack is by far not a complete feature, and
• source code changes, and merging in patches made by someone else 10 years ago is a good way to stop your current work for another couple of years

Hello, 1 For sure, they must have published 2 Please take a look at the result it is a little more than a prototype. It works as well as Ganttproject in 2008! 3 I understand your point, but perhaps the principle they have used to go through the problem can be adapt to the actual version.

Hello, Is crowdfunding a possible solution ? You need some help and a lot of people want to use Ganttproject professionally. I need the hour duration evolution too and, like many others, I would participate financially to this evolution.

Time is the issue, not money. If there is a highly qualified software engineer who is willing to spend a lot of his time on open source project, we can pay him. The problem is that such engineers, me included, usually are pretty busy with their own life and projects.

In excel each date have a julian serial number start in 1900

1st january 1900 is day # 1

at this point you can use math to remake all the standard calendar

like 43466 is 1st january 2019 00:00:00 each day can be subdivide in decimal to know hour min and second.

With this simple mathematic you can put hour, minutes and second etc and simplify the database because you only save serial number with maximum of 9 bits precision decimals instead of date.

Any news for my request?

If you want to receive updates, please subscribe to the ticket which was linked above: https://github.com/bardsoftware/ganttproject/issues/225

Spoiler: currently there are no updates.

Since apparently using days as the unit is so deeply commited in the codebase, this workaround:

can be improved very much if the bar above the gantt chart could be set to display “days elapsed since start of project” instead (or additionally) of the calendar dates.

This seems like a feature that would not require such deep changes to the codebase, and even benefit general use of GanttProject.

I’d appreciate this feature too.

Change the default task duration unit

In Project, the default task duration unit is days, but you can change it to be minutes, hours, weeks, or months:

Choose File > Options .

In the Project Options dialog box, choose Schedule .

Under Scheduling options for this project , in the Duration is entered in list, select a duration unit.

To use the same setting automatically in all future projects, select All New Projects in the Scheduling options for this project list.

Change the default time unit for work

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Task with duration and no hours

I am trying to add a task to my project. The task is assigned to my customer. I want to give them 30 days to complete the task and I don't care how many hours it takes them. Other than the 30 day duration, the hours do not affect my project. How do I do this? I cannot figure it out.

• 3 Are you trying to figure out how to use some tool? Jira? MS Project? Your question is too unclear to be answerable as it is. Please clarify. –  RubberDuck Commented May 24, 2017 at 23:23
• Welcome to PMSE. Please add some additional context, including what you've tried and why that's not working for you, or your question may be put on hold until it's revised. –  Todd A. Jacobs ♦ Commented May 25, 2017 at 15:14
• Why does it matter if hours are loaded? It might be a metric your customer would be interested in. Also, if you do not want their costs to affect your budget, load those resources with a $0.00 cost rate in the resource table. Hours in the schedule will not affect your ability to measure performance against your baseline. –  David Espina Commented May 27, 2017 at 10:26
• It is throwing off my tracking to internal budget hours I am trying to stick to. –  Marisa Commented May 31, 2017 at 21:05

I assume you are using MS Project. These are some ways to do what you want.

• Create a 30-day task but do not assign any resource. The task will be displayed and treated like any other task but since it has no resources assigned, it will have zero work hours.
• If you need to assign a resource (for reporting / filtering purposes), then you can use a material or cost resource. Neither of those resource types require work hours. I’d prefer to use a cost resource, because that way I could define the task’s related cost.
• Since it is a task that will be carried on by your customer, then maybe you do not need to monitor the task progress. In this case, you can use a simple milestone to indicate the task’s finish date.

Note that the first two options use a 30-day task with no work, while the third option uses a milestone with no work and no duration. This means that in the first two options, the task will have certain weight for the percent complete calculation (“% complete” MS Project field) while the third option will not.

None of these options will have influence over “% work complete”, though.

Hope this helps.

• Thanks for the reply. I am going to try to create the first two options. I am thinking that the 2nd one may just be what I want. –  Marisa Commented May 31, 2017 at 21:07

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