Are these Microsoft Defects or install/config issues?

[Tartaglia]

I have just completed a very basic installation of Projct Server 2003 SP1
using a highly regarded MS Certified Partner Implementation consulting
company. Can anyone tell me if the following sound like defects of the MS
software:

1. When hovering the mouse over the gantt bars associated with a very simple
"open" Portfolio Model, a "bubble" pops up at the cursor location showing
dates like "<Month> <day>, 2049" which has no relation to the two test
projects I was modeling (each about 3 mos long starting n the summer/fall
period of 2005).

2. When trying to create a Project view definition in PWA I am unable to
control the width of the fields selected for display in the view. The "auto
fit" option apears to work but my attempts at customizing the field widths to
a specific number of pixels produces inconsistent and unexpected results.
E.g. I cannot change the width of the Task Name field, setting the width to
40 or 80 produces the same display.

3. Attempts to modify the Gantt Formatt for "gantt 1" have been
unsuccessful, some of the definitions for styles work as expected (Milestone)
while others like the "Normal Task" display style produces no image for
normal tasks in my schedule.

4. When saving/publishing a project for the first time from an enterprise
template, wherein custom enterprise task text fields were set in the template
to a particular value from a value list definition, PS prompts for specific
tasks that do not have the required information in the custom enterprise task
text fields. Each time the specific tasks in the project schedule, PS flags
as being in error, are different. I have several times, re-saved the
template after individually setting each task to a value in the value list
for the various enterprise custom text fields and then attempted to create a
project from the template again, to no avail.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Tartaglia:

I'll give some of these a shot:

1) Not enough information provided to give you an answer. Know that
12/31/2049 is the end of all time according to Project. If you tell it to
calculate dates to the maximum value, this is how far Project can go.

2) Regardless of what you're displaying, to some degree, the content of the
fields determines the display width. For instance, if you set the width to
50 pixels for a graphical indicator, the contents of the field do not push
the display to be larger. In this case, a very small display width works. 80
pixels is hardly enough room to display the first four letters of a project
name, so you might expect these displays to behave badly when trying to
compress them. If you want to hide the project name, put it at the end of
the list.

3) Can't see what you're doing, so it's hard to say what you're experiencing
here. Could your tasks be critical and taking on that definition instead of
"normal" as you might assume?

4) Once again, I'd need to see the procedure you're following to comment
more.

 

[Tartaglia]

Gary,

First thanks for responding so quickly. I would love to be able to giv
emore slear examples of the problems I'm having but they really beg for some
screen shots...is there anyway I could send you some? If not I'll try to be
clearer...

1. Project A has two sequential tasks, 5d each, one resource on each,
Project B is the same and both start on 8/22/05. Both are included in a
Portfolio Model where I choose to keep current dates and assignments and only
use resources from within the Model. I then "Open" the model where a gantt
chart shows one bar for each project. I hover the mouse over either one of
the gantt bars and I see the following:

Type: Summary
Start: Fri 12/31/2049 11:59 PM
Finish: Fri 3/30/1984 2:08 PM

2. I have created a project task view called "Std_Gantt" in PWA Admin:
Manage Views and included the follwoing columns for display ID, Task Name, %
Complete, Base Start, Base Finish, Start, Finish, Act Start, Act Finish. By
default all fields are set to "Automatically fit this field to width". If I
attempt to change one of the fields (e.g. Task Name) to "Field Width: 200
(pixels)", save changes and then goto the project view and select the view,
there is no change. I then change the value to 500 (pixels) and again
nothing changes. Making similar changes to the Base Start field correctly
changes the width of the field displayed in the view.

3. It appears that your response below is correct. Even though in
MSPPro2003, when designing Gantt bar styles, a task is classified as both
Normal and Critical (they are not mutually exclusive types) and the styles
defined just overlay each other based on the overall gantt bar styles
definition order, it apears that PWA does not work the same way, a task is
either Normal OR Critical. Thanks.

4. I have tried to recreate this issue this morning in order to provide you
more details, but was unable to recreate (although while the Certified
Implementation consultants were on-site we experineced the problems several
times), I guess that's good for now...if I experience again I will document
more thoroughly.

Thanks for everything and please provide anymore inisght you may have
regarding #1 &#2 above, givne the extra details.
--
Tartaglia
PM Consultant

Tartaglia:

I'll give some of these a shot:

1) Not enough information provided to give you an answer. Know that
12/31/2049 is the end of all time according to Project. If you tell it to
calculate dates to the maximum value, this is how far Project can go.

2) Regardless of what you're displaying, to some degree, the content of the
fields determines the display width. For instance, if you set the width to
50 pixels for a graphical indicator, the contents of the field do not push
the display to be larger. In this case, a very small display width works. 80
pixels is hardly enough room to display the first four letters of a project
name, so you might expect these displays to behave badly when trying to
compress them. If you want to hide the project name, put it at the end of
the list.

3) Can't see what you're doing, so it's hard to say what you're experiencing
here. Could your tasks be critical and taking on that definition instead of
"normal" as you might assume?

4) Once again, I'd need to see the procedure you're following to comment
more.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Tartaglia:

The date behavior in the modeler smacks of classic I can't resolve your
dates symptoms we see when the scheduling engine is given impossible to
resolve scheduling facts. I think we'd need more than screen shots to find
the issue, but I think you might stumble across it just as easily.

Gary,

First thanks for responding so quickly. I would love to be able to giv
emore slear examples of the problems I'm having but they really beg for
some
screen shots...is there anyway I could send you some? If not I'll try to
be
clearer...

1. Project A has two sequential tasks, 5d each, one resource on each,
Project B is the same and both start on 8/22/05. Both are included in a
Portfolio Model where I choose to keep current dates and assignments and
only
use resources from within the Model. I then "Open" the model where a
gantt
chart shows one bar for each project. I hover the mouse over either one
of
the gantt bars and I see the following:

Type: Summary
Start: Fri 12/31/2049 11:59 PM
Finish: Fri 3/30/1984 2:08 PM

2. I have created a project task view called "Std_Gantt" in PWA Admin:
Manage Views and included the follwoing columns for display ID, Task Name,
%
Complete, Base Start, Base Finish, Start, Finish, Act Start, Act Finish.
By
default all fields are set to "Automatically fit this field to width". If
I
attempt to change one of the fields (e.g. Task Name) to "Field Width: 200
(pixels)", save changes and then goto the project view and select the
view,
there is no change. I then change the value to 500 (pixels) and again
nothing changes. Making similar changes to the Base Start field correctly
changes the width of the field displayed in the view.

3. It appears that your response below is correct. Even though in
MSPPro2003, when designing Gantt bar styles, a task is classified as both
Normal and Critical (they are not mutually exclusive types) and the styles
defined just overlay each other based on the overall gantt bar styles
definition order, it apears that PWA does not work the same way, a task is
either Normal OR Critical. Thanks.

4. I have tried to recreate this issue this morning in order to provide
you
more details, but was unable to recreate (although while the Certified
Implementation consultants were on-site we experineced the problems
several
times), I guess that's good for now...if I experience again I will
document
more thoroughly.

Thanks for everything and please provide anymore inisght you may have
regarding #1 &#2 above, givne the extra details.