% allocations have a mind of their own - HELP!!

[Ben Goldberg]

I have a section in my plan called PRODUCTION SUPPORT and
under it several tasks like MEETINGS, PHONE CALLS, Etc..
Each resource is assigned to these tasks at 5%, but for
some reason this % allocation keeps changing on it's own.
I make a change somewhere else in the project and these
allocations change. This is driving me crazy - what am I
doing wrong!?

The tasks are all set up as fixed units which I thought
meant that Project would never adjust them on its own.

Ben

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Hello Ben,
Need some more details :
- "a change somewhere " : what change and where ?
- are your tasks Effort Driven ?

Gérard Ducouret

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Ben,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

When you say "under it" do you mean indented? If so, then you have made the
Production Support task a Summary task. As such, it now measures the working
time between the start of the first indented task to the end of the last.
Hence, if you change any of the lower level tasks in any way that changes
the first date or the end date, then the Summary task will adjust
accordingly.
You might like to see my Series of lessons in the TechTrax ezine,
particularly Microsoft Project: Lesson Two on Outlining:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=154

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on )

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[Ben Goldberg]

I'm not even sure what changes cause this to happen. I'm
trying to narrow this down, but it's a very big and
complex plan and I don't notice immediately when the
change occurs.

My tasks are not effort driven.

Ben

 

[Ben Goldberg]

Thanks Mike. "PRODUCTION SUPPORT" is a summary task, but
that's not the task with the problem. MEETINGS for
instance, is indented under PRODUCTION SUPPORT and the %
allocations in MEETINGS changes when I make changes to
tasks that are not "under" PRODUCTION SUPPORT (they are
under another summary task).

I don't think this has anything to do with summary tasks
and indenting (although I could be wrong).

Ben

 

[Rob K]

Ben

Could you give us a clear example of what's happening? Such as: when I do this, resource 1 and resource 2 go from 20% on "Meetings" to 30%. Or something of that sort.
If the changes are occuring when you're assigning resources to other tasks, then you may have an allocation problem. You stated the task you were making changes to wasn't a sub-task of your "Project Support" summary task, but does it coincide date-wise with the "Meetings" task? Are you assigning the same resources to both? Project may be leveling for you. I'm not really sure and I could be reading this problem entirely the wrong way. More information would be helpful

-Rob K

 

[Mike Glen]

Check that you don't have any spurious links between these tasks or any
constraints that might cause such changes. Have you got levelling set to
automatic?

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP