Cannot Publish New and Changed assignments for Entire Project

[SMAMurrayPM]

All,

This issue seems simlar to one Valerie posted on May 10, but she never
seemed to get an answer. Maybe you all can help me now.

It seems that when I come near to the completion of a project, I suddenly
cannot publish new and changed assignments for the entire project. If I
select an individual task with changes, then Collaborate > Publish New and
Changed Assgnments, I can publish that individual task. However, as soon as
I select "entire project" from the list box at the top of the screen, the box
disappears, and the tasks are not updated.

The only time that all changed tasks will upate for me is if I am in the
Collaborate > Update Project Progress screen, I accept updates, and then
click OK to the dialogue box asking if I want to save changes and publish.

I just tried the Republish Assignments option, and I get the same behavior.

I am using MS Project Server 2003 and MS Project Pro 2003. Any help you can
give would be appreciated!

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

SMA...

I see this happen when a particular task or assignment record becomes
corrupt. If you're not using managed time periods, you might try saving the
project as an mpp file, delete the project on the server, and then use the
import wizard to move it back onto the server. You then need to go to
Collaborate > Publish > Republish assignments selecting the check box option
to overwrite actual work in the timesheet. This should clear up the
publishing. Let us know how it works for you.

 

[SMAMurrayPM]

Hi Gary,

I did as you suggested, and the problem remains... but now all the tasks are
gone from the server of course! Now my team won't be able to update their
time until I can republish.

It looks like I can republish one task at a time... but ouch. VERY time
consuming.

Any other ideas?

Thanks,

SMA

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Do not despair, we'll get this one fixed. Try this therapy and let's see if
it makes a difference:

http://www.projectserverexperts.com/Shared Documents/BinaryRebuild.htm

 

[SMAMurrayPM]

Thanks Gary - I will try this first thing tomorrow morning. I wrote a little
macro to help me individually publish the tasks. At least everyone can update
time tonight. Thankfully the project I was working with was a smaller one -
but I do have larger ones with the same problem.

Tomorrow I'll try the binary rebuild and see if it resolves the rest of the
problem.

I appreciate your prompt replies! I'll be back on the board tomorrow to let
you know how it goes.

Thanks,

SMA

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

We should also try to figure out why this is happening.

 

[SMAMurrayPM]

Gary,

Great news! That therapy worked . I put that URL on my favorites.

That's a pretty easy fix too.

I would LOVE to know why this happens to my projects. I'm sure it is
something I'm doing, but I haven't been able to figure out what triggers it.

I do use the assignment delegation feature with my FMs, and sometimes they
want to change the delegation to someone else. So, I change the assignment
back to the FM for them to re-delegate. Another thing I do regularly is
change the remaining work after project status meetings. Do either of those
raise red flags to you?

Do you have any other ideas as to how I am corrupting tasks?

Thanks so much for your help!

SMA

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

SMA:

The way you handle the delegation changes may very well be part of it.
Zeroing out remaining work and republishing those tasks shouldn't cause any
harm. Why don't you detail your process for the delegation changes.

 

[SMAMurrayPM]

Let's take my QA staff as an example. I assign all QA tasks initially to the
QA FM. He then delegates as he see's fit through PWA. Days or Weeks later,
changing priorities may cause the FM to want to change a delegation from QA1
to QA2.

I open Project Pro, connect to the server, and open the project. I go to
the tasks's information window, and click the Resources tab. If no actual
work has yet been reported on the task, I simply change the resouce name from
QA1 to the QA FM. Click OK, then Collaborate > Publish New and Changed
assignments.

If actual work was reported on the task, I add the QA FM to the resource
list. Then I go to View > Task Usage. I change QA1's remaining work to 0,
then put all the remaining work in for the QA FM. Collaborate > Publish New
and Changed assignments.

The QA FM is then free to delegate the task again.

Does any of that sound fishy?

Thanks,

SMA

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

When you're replacing a resource on a task that has already started, the
best way to do this is to use the Replace button in Assign Resource dialog
box. First of all it's a lot easier than the method you're using, and the
system takes care of the remaining work reassignment for you. Try it in the
future.

I've not encountered a situation where assignments were ping-ponged quite
this way, so I wouldn't be surprised if it had something to do with it. If
you have a sandbox or training instance to work with, you could try testing
this some more to see if you make the problem surface in a controlled
environment.

 

[SMAMurrayPM]

OK - I'll give that a shot.

I appreciate all your help!

SMA

 

[Ztypical]

I have a similar situation. Can you confirm that the binary rebuild process
referenced will work for my problem?

My problem is: I update/add/modify a task for project 'A'. I select
'Collaborate/Publish/New and Changed Assignments'. The task shows up in the
window, and I say, ok, publish the change. During this process, I re-save
the project .mpp file on the server. I then open the Web Access side, and
the update is not made. I re-open the mpp file, and the update is shown
there--the two do not match. I try to republish, but it does not list as a
changed assignment, because it appears that Project thinks it already
published it. I also get no results if I publish all assignments.

I perform the same work on another project, and it does successfully change.

Does this point to corruption of the project 'A' data, and if so, should I
follow the same process described in the link?

Thanks in advance,
Michael



Our network is running Project 2003.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Michael:

It might work for you. In these cases it's best to save the project as an
xml file first, delete the original from the server, and then import it back
to the server before forcing the binary rebuild.

 

[Ztypical]

We followed the process listed on the on the Experts link below to do a
binary rebuild, but it did not fix the problem. I retried all processes
below, including republishing all tasks, but changes made to the mpp files
(from both before and after the rebuild) are not shown in the server views.

What else can I try?

Thanks for your help,
Michael