Changing Durations

[bgriffwork]

In our implementation of Project Server, we default our activities to Fixed
Duration/Effort-driven off. In several cases, we have seen Duration
increased dramitically (for example, Duration was originally 3 months, and it
gets increased to 6 months), and scheduled work spread evenly over the
increase duration. Has anyone else seen behavior like this that was casued
by Project Server? We have not been able to determine if this is being
caused by our users, something in our setup, a bug, or some other reason.

By the way, we are running Project Pro 2003 SP1. Our internal systems group
and some consultants have also not been able to explain this behavior, and
they suggest that SP2 could solve this problem.

 

[Mark Everett | PMP]

Barry -

If it was baselined and if you look in the Resource or Task Usage view,
do you see that the actual work was much less than the planned work.
If that is the case, and especially if several days go by between
timesheet entries (e.g., perhaps only a few hours in one week, then
several days elapse, then a few more hours), this will force the
remaining work to build up in excess of what can be accomplished during
the fixed duration. When the duration increases, the remaining work is
spread out over the new duration.

I suspect that the actual hours being recorded are less than (and less
regular than) what was planned. If the plan was baselined, you can
verify this.

Hope this helps,
Mark Everett
www.quantumpm.com

 

[bgriffwork]

Hi, Mark, glad to hear from you again.

I would expect that behavior if end of the task was near and the remaining
work was "squeezed" into a small remaining duration. However, we're seeing
this well before the scheduled end of the task. Our "production" projects
are a year long, scheduled to end in March of 07, and this behavior is
already happening (11 months before the end of the task). It's very strange,
and nobody here can seem to peg it.

 

[Mark Everett | PMP]

Barry -

Can you send me an .mpp of the file in question? Paul P. hasn't asked
me that question yet.

Mark Everett
www.quantumpm.com