Fill down on recurring tasks acts weird!?

[Helene]

I have created a recurring task, and entered resources and work on the first sub-task of 10 (2 resources, 4 hours each, which creates a value of 8 hours in the Work field, which is just what I want). When I copy or fill down the resources and work to the rest of the sub-tasks, the values change - - work converts to 16 hours, rather than 8. The duration is 4 hours, the units assigned to each resource is 100%. Can anyone help??
Thanks
Helene

 

[John Beamish]

i tried it but was unable to replicate your problem.

When you created the recurring task did you make certain to set the
duration to 0.5d? If you left it at the default 1d then Project will show
results as you described them.

JLB, PMP

I have created a recurring task, and entered resources and work on the
first sub-task of 10 (2 resources, 4 hours each, which creates a value
of 8 hours in the Work field, which is just what I want). When I copy
or fill down the resources and work to the rest of the sub-tasks, the
values change - - work converts to 16 hours, rather than 8. The
duration is 4 hours, the units assigned to each resource is 100%. Can
anyone help???
Thanks,
Helene

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[Helene]

Thanks for your response John. I just went in a did another test of this to make sure I had set the duration to .5d (actually I thought I had initially set it to 4h but I'm guessing that should not make a difference)

Same thing happened.

I entered the resources (2 of them) for the first sub-task - H, 100% units, 4h work and C, 100% units, 4h work. It came up just right. Then I tried to copy just work and resources from the task entry table (I tried 2 ways - first using the Copy/paste and then using the little anchor box that shows up in the lower right corner of the highlighted boxes) and the work increased to 16 hours and the resources box shows h[200%], c[200%].

(I explain all that in case I left something out last time and your settings are different from mine)

The task type is fixed units, and effort driven is unchecked

Maybe I need a patch!
Thanks
Helene

 

[Helene]

I figured it out ... I have to make each of the sub-tasks fixed units, effort driven. Then if I copy resources/work, Project doesn't increase (double) the hours. I'm pretty sure I don't understand that, but trial and error on all the different task types/effort-no effort driven combinations got me the result I wanted

Thanks
Helene

 

[Helene]

Ah! I don't know if I discovered a bug (unlikely) or if this is a feature

My options say that new tasks should be effort-driven. Regular tasks are. When I create a recurring task, the sub-tasks are NOT effort driven (I have to manually make them so!)

Any thoughts about that? Sound like a feature

Thanks
Helene

 

[John Beamish]

I have the same settings and mine work fine.

If you want, we could have one last "go" at this. Make a note,
step-by-step, click-by-click of everything you do. Post that and I'll
compare/contrast it with my sequence.

JLB, PMP

Ah! I don't know if I discovered a bug (unlikely) or if this is a
feature.

My options say that new tasks should be effort-driven. Regular tasks
are. When I create a recurring task, the sub-tasks are NOT effort
driven (I have to manually make them so!).

Any thoughts about that? Sound like a feature?

Thanks,
Helene

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[Helene]

Hey John, thanks for sticking with me on this

I have it working as long as I change the effort-driven flag on the sub-tasks to "Yes"

I'm curious - if you have your options set to New Tasks are Effort Driven (Tools, Options, Schedule tab), do the sub-tasks under an inserted recurring task default to effort driven? Mine do not, and I have to change them manually. Once I do that, the copy/paste (fill down) command works fine

Thanks
Helene

 

[John Beamish]

On my system right now, new tasks default task type is Fixed Units and the
"effort driven" box is checked.

When I inserted a new recurring task, each sub-task is Fixed Units and is
NOT effort driven.

When I inserted a new task, that task is Fixed Units and IS effort driven.

I changed it so that the "effort driven" box is UNchecked.

When I inserted a new recurring task, each sub-task is Fixed Units and is
NOT effort driven.

When I inserted a new task, that task is Fixed Units and is NOT effort
driven.

This "sort of" makes sense. The classic example of a recurring task is
the status meeting. No matter how many people you assign to the meeting,
it isn't going to finish sooner. (In fact, meetings might be an Inverse
Effort Driven task: the more people you assign, the longer the meeting
will take!)

JLB, PMP

Hey John, thanks for sticking with me on this.

I have it working as long as I change the effort-driven flag on the
sub-tasks to "Yes".

I'm curious - if you have your options set to New Tasks are Effort
Driven (Tools, Options, Schedule tab), do the sub-tasks under an
inserted recurring task default to effort driven? Mine do not, and I
have to change them manually. Once I do that, the copy/paste (fill
down) command works fine.

Thanks,
Helene

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