Scheduled Duration (task field)

The Scheduled Duration field shows the total span of active working time for a task as entered or as calculated by Microsoft Project based on start date, finish date, calendars, and other scheduling factors. Scheduled Duration is generally the amount of working time from the start to the finish of a task, not counting time between split tasks or nonworking time. For a manually scheduled task, this is the duration recommended by Project and is a read-only field. For an automatically scheduled task, the Scheduled Duration span is the same as the span in the Duration field.

Data Type    Duration

Entry Type    Calculated or Entered

How Calculated    If the duration is not entered in the Duration field for either a manually scheduled or automatically scheduled task, Project calculates the scheduled duration of a task by counting the amount of active working time between the scheduled start and scheduled finish of the task and enters that value in the Scheduled Duration field. If there is no recognized start or finish date, Project estimates a duration of one day.

You can type or select a value in the Scheduled Duration field for an automatically scheduled task, which updates the Duration field. For manually scheduled tasks, the Scheduled Duration field is read-only.

Best Uses    Use the Scheduled Duration field to review Project calculations for manually scheduled tasks. The span of time shown on the lighter-colored placeholder Gantt bars for manually scheduled tasks also reflects the scheduled duration.

Example    Chris is scheduled to work on the manually scheduled "Write proposal" task on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Jamie is scheduled to work on the "Write proposal" task on Wednesday and Thursday. Sean is scheduled to work on the "Write proposal" task on the following Monday and Tuesday. You want to be sure that the duration you've entered is accurate. You add the Scheduled Duration field to the table portion of the Gantt Chart view, and it shows that the working span of the "Write proposal" task, and therefore its scheduled duration, is five days (Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Monday, and Tuesday).

Remarks    The default duration for new tasks is estimated as 1 day (1d?). The question mark indicates that the duration is an estimate. Add a question mark to any estimated duration. Remove the question mark to indicate a committed duration. You can filter or sort by estimated durations.