What is Task Duration?
A. Duration is an industry-specific word meaning the time it takes for a Task to be completed. In scheduling packages such as Microsoft Project, this time will be expressed in minutes, days, or weeks, etc. In Help-U-Plan’s approach to Gantt Charts, Task duration is the number of columns. This approach permits the use of any kind of text as column labels, instead of requiring these labels to be date-based. The result is that with Help-U-Plan’s graphic, the user has more freedom in the creation of the Gantt Chart. A second important aspect of Duration is that a Duration of 0 indicates a Milestone rather than a Task. Help-U-Plan (and most other scheduling packages) uses a separate symbol (we show a triangle) to represent Milestones. To represent Tasks, Help-U-Plan uses have been called ‘Sticks and Balls’. This is simply a combination of circles to represent Task beginning and end points, connected with a narrow rectangle. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Q.
