Abandon Work

[Jeff Lovelace]

Our group recently converted to MS Project Server 2003. In our new
environment, the project manager can not adjust actuals. The question I have
is how does a project manager go about "abandoning work" that will not be
done? The plan I'm working on has been baselined, is active and has actual
time posted against it. I thought the appropriate approach would be to zero
out the Units for each resource assigned to the given task. This does adjust
the remaining hours to zero. The % Work Complete shows 100%, but the %
(Duration) Complete shows < 100%. I can not change the % Complete value to
100% or I get an error indicating my project plan and timesheets are out of
sync. Without changing the % Complete to 100%, the task will not close out
and I don't get credit for the work (from an earned value metrics
perspective). Changing remaining duration to zero also generates the same
out-of-sync error message.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Jeff:

You don't want to zero-out the units, you want to simply set the remaining
work to zero.

 

[Jeff Lovelace]

Gary, unfortunately this generates the same error message "Your action may
result in actuals in the project becoming out of sync with the actuals
updated from timesheets." I had tried this previously. With the new 2003
environment, the project manager can not touch remaining work, % complete,
actual work or any other values that would be tied to the timesheet. If the
project manager does so, it'll generate this error message. Every time you
open or publish the plan, you'll continue to get this error message until you
sync your project plan with the timesheets..in which case, its sets the value
you changed back to its original state (or value).

 

[Nana]

Have your resources zero out the remaining work for those tasks in PWA
since the project managers cannont adjust actuals and your are using
managed timesheets (the reason you are getting the "out of synch"
message)

 

[dclarcq]

Hi Nana,

I have the same problem as mentioned. How can the PM adjust their project
plan, can they set the work to equal actual work? Is their further
documentation as to what will activate the "out of sync" error? I find it
hard to believe that a project manager can't change the plan without input
from the resources.

Any help is appreciated,

DClarcq