Effort-based and duration-based projects

During project creation, you must define the project type as effort-based or duration-based. This determines the scheduling method that is applied to the project and the project activities. Effort-based projects are scheduled and tracked using the effort required to complete each activity. Duration-based projects are scheduled and tracked using the duration within which each activity must complete.

In effort-based projects, you schedule the project activities based on the number of work hours and the number of resources it will take to get the work done. During project execution, you can track both the progress and the number of hours that it takes for each of the assigned resources to complete the work. Based on this information, you can adjust the schedule as needed, such as assigning additional resources. Most software development projects follow the effort-based model. Although effort-based scheduling is more painstaking and time-consuming, it provides better information and metrics for you to make future project improvements.

In duration-based projects, you create a schedule based on how long it will take to complete each activity. You can monitor whether an activity is started or completed, and see how much of the scheduled duration has elapsed. Projects that are outsourced to vendors or contractors can be managed using the duration-based model. For outsourced projects, you are concerned about when the outsourced project will be completed and delivered, but not necessarily concerned about the effort that the vendor or contractor will expend on the project.

For both project types, you can monitor the overall timeline of the project through the planned and actual start and finish dates.

When you define a project type as effort-based or duration-based, all of the project elements and activities that you create are classified with the project type attribute. For effort-based projects, all elements are effort-based. For duration-based projects, all elements are duration-based.


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