Close Tasks to Update for Project Managers

[AmWall]

Project Server 2007 SP2

All PM's get an access denied error when trying to use the Close Tasks to
update, eventhough the permissions are set to allow, and no settings that are
explicitly denied to overrule the PM security group.
Any Ideas?

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

AmWall --

Welcome to an unfixed bug, or design oversight, or whatever you want to call
it. The only way to get this feature to work for members of the Project
Managers group is to add them to the Administrators group. I doubt you want
to do that, however; so basically, this feature is unusable in its current
state. And I do not know of any workaround to resolve this issue. Hope
this helps.

 

[AmWall]

Yes, this helps.
Thanks
Have been trying to resolve this for about a month now.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

AmWall --

You are more than welcome for the help, my friend! You can stop beating
your head against the wall on this issue and move on to something more
important.

 

[AmWall]

Great This is in the latest CU for Feb 2010, I had submitted an issue with
Microsoft for the secruity issue, and is now part of the Feb CU 2010 just
released.
Haven't applied Feb CU but if someone has please advise if this really does
fix the issue?

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

AmWall --

Why don't you apply the February CU and let us know if the issue is really
fixed. The lack of the Close Tasks to Update feature is a very cool
feature, if it only worked for PMs. Please let us know what you find.
Thanks!

 

[Barbara - Austria]

Hi AmWall and Dale,

I have already downloaded and will test tomorrow. I will let you know.

Regards
Barbara


Am 01.03.2010 18:45, schrieb Dale Howard [MVP]:

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Barbara --

Excellent! I would really like to know if this bug is fixed. It impacts
what we teach in our classes and what we recommend to our clients.

On another subject, Barbara, I have noted your participation in this
newsgroup, and the very good responses to peoples' questions. I want to
thank you for helping people and want to encourage your continued
participation.

 

[Barbara - Austria]

I am sorry, I can't tell since ...

Seems that I miss something or update is incomplete. That's what I did:
- installed KB978396 (WSS Server Package), KB978397 (Project Server),
KB980209
- tested 'close to update' without success, still didn't work
- created new group and category with security template to make sure
that there weren't any hidden permission changes - without success
- added 'Manage Time Tracking' since that was the permission needed to
get 'close to update' work and it did
- checked ULS and eventlog, no errors
- checked versions in DBs - all 4 of them have version number of
December (which was applied)
- deleted undo-disk of my VM
- installed KB978389 (WSS individual Package), KB978397 (Project Server)
- checked versions in DBs - all 4 of them have still version number of
December (which was applied)
- checked ULS and eventlog, no errors
- checked upgrade.log: '0 errors and 0 warnings encountered'
- checked in control panel, updates are listed there
- timestamp of installation files is February, so I didn't use December
files by mistake

Sharepoint configruation wizzard went trough without any errors (several
times).

I ran out of ideas.

I will retry tomorrow with fresh download files.

Regards
Barbara


Am 01.03.2010 20:21, schrieb Dale Howard [MVP]:

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Barbara --

I very much appreciate your thorough testing and the report on the results.
I suspect that you did nothing wrong at any point. Instead, I can only
assume that the Close Tasks to Update feature is still broken. Here's why:
the only workaround to get the feature working for members of the Project
Managers group is to grant them the Manage Time Tracking permission.
Because this permission is a powerful permission and is intended for Project
Server administrators only, most organizations cannot allow a PM to have
this much power in the system.

So, feel free to run additional tests, but I suspect your second round of
tests will yield the same result. Please keep us up to date on the results
of your second round of testing. And thanks for your thorough approach to
this matter!

 

[Barbara - Austria]

Hi Dale,

as I wrrote I am aware of the workaround 'Manage Time Tracking' which is
not useable at all since it is too powerful. So I ask users to use
unpublish to get a similar result.

I think that something went wrong by two reasons:
1. Close Tasks to Update did work with default permissions for project
managers at least until August 2008 (we had a big roll out that month
and I trained more than 40 PMs - and it is part of my training plan). So
something was changed by any update and I can imagine that it is
possible to change back.
2. Version is not changed in DBs - so something is incomplete (or MS
missed to update these tables with actual CU?)

I will give it another try with carefully watching ULS before asking on
Brian's blog.

Regards
Barbara


Am 02.03.2010 14:11, schrieb Dale Howard [MVP]:

 

[Barbara - Austria]

Short update: No news, after SQL SP3 installation and some more
additional installations of CU February. Installation runs through
without any errors but version tables are not updated. I need to think
what else I could try. Or let customers skip February and wait until
April. ;-)

Would like to hear when someone has successful installed as confirmation
that I need to search on my VM.

Thanks
Barbara

Am 02.03.2010 14:23, schrieb Barbara - Austria:

 

[Barbara - Austria]

With Brian's new post it seems that CU was installed successfully
(http://blogs.msdn.com/brismith/arch...e-project-server-database-versions-table.aspx).

Nevertheless 'Close Tasks To Update' didn't work in my tests. I have
even created a new instance to get default permissions for PMs.

Am 04.03.2010 17:51, schrieb Barbara - Austria:

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Barbara --

I cannot thank you enough for your thorough testing! Based on your
experience, I can only assume that this bug is not fixed. That is sad,
given how useful the Close Tasks to Update feature is for project managers.
Thanks again for your testing and for sharing the results.

 

[Barbara - Austria]

Hi Dale,

thanks for your compliments.
I need to test for our customers anyway, so there is now additional
effort to share my experience.

Moreover I still hope someone can confirm or disprove what I found to
get an idea if it make sense to move on.


Am 10.03.2010 14:41, schrieb Dale Howard [MVP]:

 

[AmWall]

Sorry, just saw the post requesting information.

I did complete testing in our environment, and yes the Close Tasks to Update
does work. I found that I could not test this function as administrator
security moved to Projec tManger, but had one of our PMs test the access.

Here's the result:
PM can Close Tasks to update for any project in the ERP. I tested this on a
Project at the top level of the RBS, and confirmed that the task was indeed
closed by checking a timesheet for adding this task.

Our PMs do have access to any project in the ERP so this is expected.
It works quite well if PMs are directed to access the function via the
Project Center since the project selected will appear already selected.

I also checked using the View Permissions in the Project Server Resource
Kit, but it still shows that PMS do not have access.

Great news, Close Tasks to Update now work.

 

[Barbara - Austria]

Hi AmWall,

congratulations!!! And thanks for sharing! I am really happy to read.

What has been different with my installation, since I even tested on a
clean instance in the same way you did? However, I will give it another
try with next CU.

Regards
Barbara

Am 27.03.2010 13:46, schrieb AmWall: