Actual Work field automatically filled in when assigning to Work f

[Tim Garvey]

I have a task called, of all things, "Project Management." I've basically
set up my tasks so that I spend 27 hrs per week on Project management, 5
hours a week on HR management, and 8 hours a week on MS Project Plan
Maintenance between now and August of 2010.

For the weeks of 1/24 and 1/31, whatever hours I schedule (enter in the
"work" cell in the Resource Usage View) for the Project Management task also
appear in the "actual" cell. So I have 27 hours scheduled and actual for
next week and the week after. This doesn't happen for this task for any of
the subsequent weeks going out to August of 2010.

The tasks are not closed (complete). Some are Fixed work and some are
fixed duration.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[vanita]

Hi

Somehow these two weeks would be coming in the realm of actual work done.

Check in the system what is the status date.

I hope it helps.
Vanita

 

[Tim Garvey]

Thank you for your post. That's an interesting point. A couple of thoughts.
It does not happen to all tasks, just to some. I cannot see any difference
between the tasks it is happening to and those it is not happening to. Also,
I am looking at the plan now, the status date is 1/30/09 and if I enter 10h
into Work for the week of 1/31 and 2/7 (weeks 1/31-2/6 & 2/7-2/13), it puts
10h into the Actual Work for 2/7. It does not put time into Actual Work when
I enter time into the Work field for 2/14.

So I don't see how the status date could be a factor, but if you have more
thoughts, please let me know.

The issue does impact the accuracy of the plans. Remaining work is not
correct, Work is not correct.... It would be a bigger problem if it happened
on more tasks, so I want to get to the bottom of it.

Thank you very much, Vanita.

Tim

 

[JulieS]

Hi Tim,

Pardon me for bumping in. I'm having difficulty understanding how
your plan is actually created. It sounds as though in addition to
other tasks, you have entered the Project Management, HR Management,
and Project Plan maintenance tasks but not directly assigned
yourself to the tasks at 67.5%, 12.5%, and 20% respectively?

From your initial description, you are manually entering the
estimated work into the Work field in the Resource Usage view? What
is your initial assignment level to the tasks? Are the tasks marked
any percentage complete before you start entering work? Is there
any percent work complete on the tasks before you enter the
scheduled work?

Also, what version of project (2000, 2003, 2007?) plus service pack
information would be helpful.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project

 

[vanita]

Welcome Tim

But, we don't seem to have solved your problem. Try to check in the tracking
table is this activity partially complete upto 2/7.

Also, best practice would be to assign estimated work to activities after
time scheduling and before saving the Baseline. After that when tracking
information is being input automatically estimated work would be taken as the
actual work or otherwise you may enter actual work if it different.

If the problem persists, you may send me the file and I may have a look at it.

I hope it helps.
Vanita

 

[Tim Garvey]

No need to apologize - I appreciate the help. Sorry for the delay in response.

The PM, HR and Project Plan tasks are assigned to the PM (I am not actually
the person maintaining this plan - we'll call him the PM). These are the
only tasks assigned to the PM.

Yes, the work is being manually entered into the work field. I am not sure
of the view, but I can find out if that's important. The assignment levels
(Units field) are as follows:
PM 109%
HR 17%
Proj Plan 25%

So they don't match the corresponding percentages for the time being entered
(27 hrs is 67%, 5 hrs is 12.5% and 8 hrs is 20%).

Yes, the tasks are partially complete - PM - 18%, HR - 17% and Proj Plan -
9%.

A clarifying questions.... You ask if the tasks are marked any percentage
complete before I enter work and scheduled work separately. I don't
understand the distinction. The PM is just entering hours into the Work
field. The Actual Work field is being updated automatically.

Thank you.

Tim

 

[JulieS]

Hi Tim,

My comments are inline.

No need to apologize - I appreciate the help. Sorry for the delay
in response.

The PM, HR and Project Plan tasks are assigned to the PM (I am not
actually
the person maintaining this plan - we'll call him the PM). These
are the
only tasks assigned to the PM.

Yes, the work is being manually entered into the work field. I am
not sure
of the view, but I can find out if that's important. The
assignment levels
(Units field) are as follows:
PM 109%
HR 17%
Proj Plan 25%

[Julie] If the PM resource in Project is assigned to the tasks,
then work already scheduled into the future and the person updating
the task, should be entering Actual Work, not Work. When a resource
is assigned to a task, Project calculates work and spreads the work
across the entire duration of the task. The assignment units you
note above are most likely not throughout the entire task but rather
are reflecting the actual work entries. I'm guessing you're seeing
the percentages in the Gantt chart view next to the task bars. If
the PM is continued to be assigned at the above percentages, s/he is
seriously overallocated. The question really is is there work
scheduled into the future on those tasks.

I suggest whoever is entering the work takes a look at the Task
Usage or the resource usage view. The view can be formatted to
should show both work and actual work. I would expected to see work
(scheduled) in the future and see Actual Work only recorded as it is
entered. When Actual Work is entered, Project will calculate
Remaining Work (Work - Actual). As more actual work gets entered,
the Work field remains stable but remaining work decreases while
actual work increases. This is also reflected in the % Work
Complete field.

So they don't match the corresponding percentages for the time
being entered
(27 hrs is 67%, 5 hrs is 12.5% and 8 hrs is 20%).

[Julie] Take a look at the Resource Usage or Task Usage view, is
there the appropriate amount of work scheduled on each task into the
future?

Yes, the tasks are partially complete - PM - 18%, HR - 17% and
Proj Plan -
9%.

A clarifying questions.... You ask if the tasks are marked any
percentage
complete before I enter work and scheduled work separately. I
don't
understand the distinction. The PM is just entering hours into
the Work
field. The Actual Work field is being updated automatically.

[Julie] I was trying to draw the distinction between work -- which
is really scheduled work + actual work and actual work. Again,
knowing what view is being used and which specific fields are being
updated will hopefully help us set this right.

Thank you.

Tim

[Julie] You're welcome Tim.