Actuals changed by MS Project

[pibergeron]

Hello all -

We're using Ms Project 2000, in a standalone fashion. We (try) to
track work by entering time phased actual work on assignments.

We have multiple cases where for reasons not understood, MS Project
changes the actual work that was entered in the time phased schedule.
Although the total actual work isn't necessarily changed (I can't be
sure at this time), the actual work winds up being spread across
different time periods than originally entered. We suspect that these
unexpected changes to the actual work are the result of our necessary
changes to the scheduled work. But this is very frustrating because
the natural expectation is that entered work is fact, and because of
that, all and any planning changes to the schedule shouldn't change
these facts. As a result, the faith in the product has decreased, and
a general scare has developed among PM's who have actually become
hesitant to change the schedule for fear of uncontrolled changes to
actual work entered. So we wind up with schedules that don't reflect
the reality of the work to do and have become in all practicality an
overshoot for simple project accounting.

So we need help understanding how Project handles time phased entered
actual work and the (counter intuitive) effect of schedule changes on
these actuals. At this time, I would have difficulty explaining the
different scenarios that cause these situations: we are that much out
of control. But I still wanted to submit the problem to the group,
because any insight on it might help us. I also need to ask: is there
such a thing as a primer on the caveats of tracking project progress
and performance thru time phased actual work on assignments?

Thanks in advance for any help on this.

Pierre Bergeron

 

[John]

Hello all -

We're using Ms Project 2000, in a standalone fashion. We (try) to
track work by entering time phased actual work on assignments.

We have multiple cases where for reasons not understood, MS Project
changes the actual work that was entered in the time phased schedule.
Although the total actual work isn't necessarily changed (I can't be
sure at this time), the actual work winds up being spread across
different time periods than originally entered. We suspect that these
unexpected changes to the actual work are the result of our necessary
changes to the scheduled work. But this is very frustrating because
the natural expectation is that entered work is fact, and because of
that, all and any planning changes to the schedule shouldn't change
these facts. As a result, the faith in the product has decreased, and
a general scare has developed among PM's who have actually become
hesitant to change the schedule for fear of uncontrolled changes to
actual work entered. So we wind up with schedules that don't reflect
the reality of the work to do and have become in all practicality an
overshoot for simple project accounting.

So we need help understanding how Project handles time phased entered
actual work and the (counter intuitive) effect of schedule changes on
these actuals. At this time, I would have difficulty explaining the
different scenarios that cause these situations: we are that much out
of control. But I still wanted to submit the problem to the group,
because any insight on it might help us. I also need to ask: is there
such a thing as a primer on the caveats of tracking project progress
and performance thru time phased actual work on assignments?

Thanks in advance for any help on this.

Pierre Bergeron

Pierre,
OK, let's get a few things clarified.

First, I assume you have the latest update for Project 2000 installed -
as I recall that is SR-1. Correct?

Second, when you say you are entering time phased actual work, I assume
you are referring to the Actual Work field on the Resource Usage view.
Correct?

Third, I assume schedule changes, when required are only made to task's
effort beyond the status date, and by status date I mean in this case
the current date of the latest entered actuals. For example, assume you
have entered actual work values as of 4 Aug 2008. Changes to the
schedule are not being made to task effort prior to that date. Correct?

Fourth, I assume you have calculation set for automatic. Correct?

Fifth, are you using leveling (i.e. Tools/Resource Leveling)?

Sixth, do you have links on summary lines?

Seventh, do you have resources assigned to summary lines?

As you indicate, different scenarios can affect how Project schedules
and tracks tasks. I tried a simple set of 5 linked tasks. Each task was
of a different type (i.e. Fixed duration, fixed units & fixed work). I
assigned one resource per task. I entered actual work for a couple of
days on each assignment. Then I changed the remaining work for each
task. Task duration changed as did the spread of the remaining work, but
at no time did the value of actual work change.

Let's see what your response to the above clarifications/questions
yields and then we can go from there. It may be necessary for you to
send me your file so I can analyze it myself. Would that be a problem?
If we do get to that point, I'll provide an e-mail address.

John
Project MVP

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Project does change the timephasing of Actuall Work when you manually change
the start date of a task with already registered actual work. Don't change
start dates (as you say, consider actuals as fact) and I think your problems
will be over.

HTH

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[pibergeron]

Pierre,
OK, let's get a few things clarified.

First, I assume you have the latest update for Project 2000 installed -
as I recall that is SR-1. Correct?

Second, when you say you are entering time phased actual work, I assume
you are referring to the Actual Work field on the Resource Usage view.
Correct?

Third, I assume schedule changes, when required are only made to task's
effort beyond the status date, and by status date I mean in this case
the current date of the latest entered actuals. For example, assume you
have entered actual work values as of 4 Aug 2008. Changes to the
schedule are not being made to task effort prior to that date. Correct?

Fourth, I assume you have calculation set for automatic. Correct?

Fifth, are you using leveling (i.e. Tools/Resource Leveling)?

Sixth, do you have links on summary lines?

Seventh, do you have resources assigned to summary lines?

As you indicate, different scenarios can affect how Project schedules
and tracks tasks. I tried a simple set of 5 linked tasks. Each task was
of a different type (i.e. Fixed duration, fixed units & fixed work). I
assigned one resource per task. I entered actual work for a couple of
days on each assignment. Then I changed the remaining work for each
task. Task duration changed as did the spread of the remaining work, but
at no time did the value of actual work change.

Let's see what your response to the above clarifications/questions
yields and then we can go from there. It may be necessary for you to
send me your file so I can analyze it myself. Would that be a problem?
If we do get to that point, I'll provide an e-mail address.

John
Project MVP- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

John,

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I'll try to give you the necessary
clarifications.

1- I'm not sure what release we're running, but it doesn't seem to be
SR-1. In the "About Microsoft Project", I see (9.0.2000.0224)

2- Correct

3- As I said, we have many instances of the problem, my answer here is
not for all of them. Right now, I'm looking at one particular instance
for which I have two copies of the schedule: one with the correct
actuals, the second with actual work data modified by MSP in periods
before the time it was actually entered. In that particular instance,
the schedule changes were numerous (planning of a new phase),
primarily added tasks and relationships, that got leveled by MSP. The
problem task I'm looking at shows the same start date in both
schedules. This task has 2 assignments.

4- Correct.

5- Yes, as stated in item 3.

6- Sometimes. In the instance related in item 3, there are none on the
summary task of the problem task.

7 - Sometimes (rarely). In the instance related in item 3, there are
none.

So there you go. I also tried simple testing to try to find scenarios
where MSP changes the actual work data, but have not succeeded either
in narrowing one down. Yet.

John, thanks for your sollicitude. I appreciate your suggestion that I
eventually send along my mpp’s for your review. Does that mean that
you’re of the opinion that my situation is unexpected, meaning that I
will in fact have a hard time finding literature on the subject of
what to avoid when tracking a project at the time phased work of
assignments?

Pierre

 

[pibergeron]

Hi,

Project does change the timephasing of Actuall Work when you manually change
the start date of a task with already registered actual work. Don't change
start dates (as you say, consider actuals as fact) and I think your problems
will be over.

HTH

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620










- Show quoted text -

Jan, thanks for the reply. That's good advice, and I'll make sure we
follow it.

I unfortunately have instances where actual work data got changed on
assignments of tasks that have not changed start dates. There must
also be something else causing this.

Pierre

 

[mikecrews00]

Hello all -

We're using Ms Project 2000, in a standalone fashion. We (try) to
track work by entering time phased actual work on assignments.

We have multiple cases where for reasons not understood, MS Project
changes the actual work that was entered in the time phased schedule.
Although the total actual work isn't necessarily changed (I can't be
sure at this time), the actual work winds up being spread across
different time periods than originally entered. We suspect that these
unexpected changes to the actual work are the result of our necessary
changes to the scheduled work. But this is very frustrating because
the natural expectation is that entered work is fact, and because of
that, all and any planning changes to the schedule shouldn't change
these facts. As a result, the faith in the product has decreased, and
a general scare has developed among PM's who have actually become
hesitant to change the schedule for fear of uncontrolled changes to
actual work entered. So we wind up with schedules that don't reflect
the reality of the work to do and have become in all practicality an
overshoot for simple project accounting.

So we need help understanding how Project handles time phased entered
actual work and the (counter intuitive) effect of schedule changes on
these actuals. At this time, I would have difficulty explaining the
different scenarios that cause these situations: we are that much out
of control. But I still wanted to submit the problem to the group,
because any insight on it might help us. I also need to ask: is there
such a thing as a primer on the caveats of tracking project progress
and performance thru time phased actual work on assignments?

Thanks in advance for any help on this.

Pierre Bergeron

Pierre ~ How are you statusing your schedule? If you update the task
using "Update as Scheduled" MSP will change your actuals. We also
track actuals in MSP and to avoid this issue, input the acuals, and
then use "Reschedule Work" to status the task.

Hope that helps

 

[pibergeron]

Pierre ~ How are you statusing your schedule?  If you update the task
using "Update as Scheduled"  MSP will change your actuals.  We also
track actuals in MSP and to avoid this issue, input the acuals, and
then use "Reschedule Work" to status the task.

Hope that helps- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Mike, I'm not entirely sure what action you mean by "Update as
Scheduled" and "Reschedule Work". Let me remind you we use MSProject
2000 (the french version, to make matters worse...). In case that's
what you meant, let me tell you we don't status the task using either
the Update Tasks Form, or the Update Project Form. The status is the
result of the actual and remaining work being entered on task
assignments. Actual work entry is furthermore time phased.

Pierre

 

[John]

John,

Thanks for the thoughtful reply. I'll try to give you the necessary
clarifications.

1- I'm not sure what release we're running, but it doesn't seem to be
SR-1. In the "About Microsoft Project", I see (9.0.2000.0224)

2- Correct

3- As I said, we have many instances of the problem, my answer here is
not for all of them. Right now, I'm looking at one particular instance
for which I have two copies of the schedule: one with the correct
actuals, the second with actual work data modified by MSP in periods
before the time it was actually entered. In that particular instance,
the schedule changes were numerous (planning of a new phase),
primarily added tasks and relationships, that got leveled by MSP. The
problem task I'm looking at shows the same start date in both
schedules. This task has 2 assignments.

4- Correct.

5- Yes, as stated in item 3.

6- Sometimes. In the instance related in item 3, there are none on the
summary task of the problem task.

7 - Sometimes (rarely). In the instance related in item 3, there are
none.

So there you go. I also tried simple testing to try to find scenarios
where MSP changes the actual work data, but have not succeeded either
in narrowing one down. Yet.

John, thanks for your sollicitude. I appreciate your suggestion that I
eventually send along my mpp¹s for your review. Does that mean that
you¹re of the opinion that my situation is unexpected, meaning that I
will in fact have a hard time finding literature on the subject of
what to avoid when tracking a project at the time phased work of
assignments?

Pierre

Pierre,
It looks like you have update SR-1 installed. The version number you
provided is the same as what I have and I do have the SR-1 update
installed.

From you answer to question 3, it almost sounds like you might have some
file corruption. If you have two copies of the same file and one
displays the issue and the other doesn't, I'd suspect one file to have
corruption.

I haven't used leveling extensively but that shouldn't be changing any
actuals. However, you could try turning leveling off and see if it makes
a difference.

Even though the tasks where your issue is seen doesn't have links or
resources on summary lines, both of those should be avoided. Go to our
MVP website at, http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm, and take a look at
FAQs 48 & 49.

If you have the French version, it won't do any good to send me the
file. I work strictly in English. However, at least one of our other
Project MVPs does work with the French version. Maybe he will see this
post and add his thoughts.

John
Project MVP

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

BTW, j'ai aussi la version en Français installée. Vous pouvez m'envoyer le
fichier.
jandemesATprom-ade.be
Bien à vous,

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

Hi,

Project does change the timephasing of Actuall Work when you manually
change
the start date of a task with already registered actual work. Don't change
start dates (as you say, consider actuals as fact) and I think your
problems
will be over.

HTH

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability
check:http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf<[email protected]>
wrote in message










- Show quoted text -

Jan, thanks for the reply. That's good advice, and I'll make sure we
follow it.

I unfortunately have instances where actual work data got changed on
assignments of tasks that have not changed start dates. There must
also be something else causing this.

Pierre

 

[pibergeron]

Hello all -

We're using Ms Project 2000, in a standalone fashion. We (try) to
track work by entering time phased actual work on assignments.

We have multiple cases where for reasons not understood, MS Project
changes the actual work that was entered in the time phased schedule.
Although the total actual work isn't necessarily changed (I can't be
sure at this time), the actual work winds up being spread across
different time periods than originally entered. We suspect that these
unexpected changes to the actual work are the result of our necessary
changes to the scheduled work. But this is very frustrating because
the natural expectation is that entered work is fact, and because of
that, all and any planning changes to the schedule shouldn't change
these facts. As a result, the faith in the product has decreased, and
a general scare has developed among PM's who have actually become
hesitant to change the schedule for fear of uncontrolled changes to
actual work entered. So we wind up with schedules that don't reflect
the reality of the work to do and have become in all practicality an
overshoot for simple project accounting.

So we need help understanding how Project handles time phased entered
actual work and the (counter intuitive) effect of schedule changes on
these actuals. At this time, I would have difficulty explaining the
different scenarios that cause these situations: we are that much out
of control. But I still wanted to submit the problem to the group,
because any insight on it might help us. I also need to ask: is there
such a thing as a primer on the caveats of tracking project progress
and performance thru time phased actual work on assignments?

Thanks in advance for any help on this.

Pierre Bergeron

For everyone still keeping an eye on this post, be advised that I
found out that SOME of the MSProject changed time phased actuals is
due to me changing the calendar working time. I had had the need to
change it because the default 8 hour day - which didn't represent our
actual 7,5 hours day - started giving me unrealistic "% available"
statistics. I neglected to restrict this change to coming months, so
MSProject (seamingly) tried to reallocate the actual work to respect
this new reality. Although I don't understand how he went about it,
many of my actuals that were entered on a daily timeframe (and
originaly spread evenly during that day) were changed, and the new
actual work done during each of those days differs slightly from the
original actual daily work entered.

That said, I still have other changed actuals that can't be explained
by this change of the calendar working time. Jan offered to look at my
(french) project files. I've sent him two of them to let him have a
stab at these other cases of MSProject changed actuals.

Stay tuned.

Pierre

 

[John]

For everyone still keeping an eye on this post, be advised that I
found out that SOME of the MSProject changed time phased actuals is
due to me changing the calendar working time. I had had the need to
change it because the default 8 hour day - which didn't represent our
actual 7,5 hours day - started giving me unrealistic "% available"
statistics. I neglected to restrict this change to coming months, so
MSProject (seamingly) tried to reallocate the actual work to respect
this new reality. Although I don't understand how he went about it,
many of my actuals that were entered on a daily timeframe (and
originaly spread evenly during that day) were changed, and the new
actual work done during each of those days differs slightly from the
original actual daily work entered.

That said, I still have other changed actuals that can't be explained
by this change of the calendar working time. Jan offered to look at my
(french) project files. I've sent him two of them to let him have a
stab at these other cases of MSProject changed actuals.

Stay tuned.

Pierre

Pierre,
Thanks for the follow-up. Hopefully Jan will post what he finds out.

John
Project MVP

 

[pibergeron]

For everyone still keeping an eye on this post, be advised that I
found out that SOME of the MSProject changed time phased actuals is
due to me changing the calendar working time. I had had the need to
change it because the default 8 hour day - which didn't represent our
actual 7,5 hours day - started giving me unrealistic "% available"
statistics. I neglected to restrict this change to coming months, so
MSProject (seamingly) tried to reallocate the actual work to respect
this new reality. Although I don't understand how he went about it,
many of my actuals that were entered on a daily timeframe (and
originaly spread evenly during that day) were changed, and the new
actual work done during each of those days differs slightly from the
original actual daily work entered.

That said, I still have other changed actuals that can't be explained
by this change of the calendar working time. Jan offered to look at my
(french) project files. I've sent him two of them to let him have a
stab at these other cases of MSProject changed actuals.

Stay tuned.

Pierre- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Upon further analysis, I now believe that all my cases are related to
me changing the calendar working times. I think that MSProject simply
has an inexplicable (and wild) way to redistribute the actual work
when one does that, so I don't think that we need to spend more time
on this issue.

Now for posterity, if one of you MVP's want to include that issue on a
FAQ, I'll be happy to contribute.

Thank you all for your support.

Pierre

 

[pibergeron]

Upon further analysis, I now believe that all my cases are related to
me changing the calendar working times. I think that MSProject simply
has an inexplicable (and wild) way to redistribute the actual work
when one does that, so I don't think that we need to spend more time
on this issue.

Now for posterity, if one of you MVP's want to include that issue on a
FAQ, I'll be happy to contribute.

Thank you all for your support.

Pierre- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

More information for anyone interested in this topic.

I noticed that some of my projects had changed actuals, but not all.
Trying to understand why, I pushed the investigation. Here's what I
found out.

We are using resource pooling (sharing). Consequently, I had changed
the calendar on the ressource pool project file. What I did was on the
default calendar: I selected all week days, and changed the daily
working times for those days, which then bore "Nondefault working
time". When I did that, MSProject applied the change to the working
time of all week days in THE ENTIRE calendar. The next time I opened
the shared resources projects and synchronised with the resource pool,
MSProject changed the calendar for all resources of the shared
projects. In doing so, MSProject started to apply changes to the
actual work otherwise entered, to reflect the "new" working time.

OK. So that's good for understanding what happened. Now, what should I
have done instead, and more importantly, how can I fix it so that the
yet unaffected shared ressource projets don't wind up with the same
problem the next time I sync them with the resource pool?

Well, here are further findings I've made. When altering a calendar
working times on general days (not specific days), MSProject seems to
apply the changed working hours to all the calendar dates from the
beginning of the project. Unless there has been actual work entered in
the schedule. In that case, MSProject seems to restrict the calendar
changes to upcoming dates only (regardless of the date of the
timephased actual work). And by upcoming dates, I mean all dates from
the "current date" on (as specified on the project information
screen).

In the end, here's what I did to change a calendar working times of
the resource pool project, so that only forthcoming dates are
modified, and actual worked times are not altered by MSProject.

1. Make sure that all links to the resource pool project are removed
2. Although it normaly isn't the purpose of a resource pool project,
add one task, assign it to any resource, and enter some actual work.
Ensure that the date for the actual work is at least as old as the
first actual work of all resource sharing projects that use the pool.
3. Change the "Current Date" field of the Project Information screen,
to the date from which you want the working times to be changed.
4. Change the calendar working time, as desired. MSProject should
apply the changes only on forward dates, as specified in step 3.
5. Delete the task created in step 2.
6. Return the "Current Date" to its original value
7. Re-establish the resource sharing links to the resource pool
At step 7, in each resource sharing project file, the changed
calendars should be applied to the project file, without MSProject
altering the actual work already entered in the project.

The above has been my experience, and my way to resolve the situation.
It would be a good thing if someone else could corroborate my findings
and suggested actions, so that anybody looking for information on this
sort of problem can be confident that what I've listed here are proper
conclusions.

Pierre