Avoid frustration when updating your project plans! Follow these easy steps to make your updates a breeze!

1. Adjusting Existing Tasks
Getting The Results You Want with
MS Project 2010

2. Adjusting Existing Tasks
Updates can seem tricky in MS Project and are frequently the source of frustration
for many people. Whenever you make an update, MS Project seems to do
something else and you don’t end up with the change you intended.
There are rules you’d need to follow to get MS Project to respond the way you
intend it to and once you learn what they are and when to apply them, you’ll be
able to update your projects quickly and without frustration!

3. Step 1
Change the value in the Task Type field, if necessary. (Project initially sets the Task Type to Fixed Units)
To keep the duration of the task you are adjusting the same, choose “Fixed Duration”
To keep work the same and the duration to change, choose “Fixed Work”

4. Step 2
Uncheck the Effort Driven checkbox, if necessary.
To re-distribute the current total Work among the assigned resources, turn on the
Effort Driven checkbox
To change the total Work when adding/removing resources, turn off the Effort Driven
checkbox

5. Steps 3, 4 & 5
Step 3: To add a resource, choose a name in the Resource Name field.
Step 4: If you don't want to use the resources max units, type a value in the Units field
Step 5: If you don’t want Project to calculate the work based on task Duration and
Units, type a value in the Work field
4 5
3

6. Saving Your Updates
When you are finished, restore the original settings in the Task Type field and the
Effort-Driven checkbox, then click OK (or Save) to complete the assignment and
calculate the fields.

7. Smart Tags
When you change a scheduling value, a Smart Tag indicator appears, offering you
options based upon how your change affects the other two scheduling formula
elements.
Click on the tag to see more options.

8. Changing Task Types
and you change the…
Duration Units Work
Project
recalculates
FIXED WORK WORK UNITS the…
DURATION
If the
task type FIXED WORK WORK DURATION DURATION
is
FIXED UNITS UNITS DURATION DURATION