Finishing dynamic task changes work fields

[SonOfPirate]

I have a schedule that was purposely created to be dynamic in that I only
entered the initial work for each task then setup the schedule using
dependancies and constraints. Once the schedule has been created, I set a
Baseline so I have something for comparison later as things change. When a
task is begun, I set the Actual Start value and periodically update the
Actual Work field based on timesheet submissions. When the task has been
completed, I set the Actual Finish value.

Seems pretty straight forward except that the Work and Actual Work fields
change when I set the Actual Finish value.

For instance, I create a task that is expected to take 4 hours to finish.
My default Duration is in hours, so the Start and Finish Dates setup
properly. I set the Actual Start date to 5/8/09 and begin accruing hours in
the Actual Work field. If I accrue 3 hours (Actual Work), then set the
Actual Finish to 5/25/09, Actual Work changes to 4 hours and Duration is 96
hrs?. I don't want the Actual Work value to change!

Even more confusing is the case when, using the same setup, I accrue 4 hours
(in Actual Work) then set the Actual Finish date to 5/25/09. In this case,
the Actual Work (and Work) fields change to 64 hours?!?!?

Can someone shed some light on what is going on here? I can understand the
Duration value changing when I reset the Actual Finish date, but why is the
Actual Work value changing? And in the first case, why doesn't Work change
to match Actual Work when the task is "closed" by setting the Actual Finish
date? In my mind, the Actual fields should be immutable with the exception
of the Start-Finish-Duration relationship.

 

[Dennin Smith]

When a task is marked 100% complete or the actual finish date is entered it
assumes that any outstanding work still associated with the task was
completed, so if you had done 3 hours of a 4 hour task it would assume that
the last hour was completed and mark this as done. Hence the actual work
changes from 3hrs to 4 hrs. If the actual finish date is a few days later
than planned it will associate the work of the task with the duration and add
extra work hours. It assumes that you worked on all of those days. Unless you
had set the task to Fixed Work.

I would recommend that you change the way that you update your tasks. Switch
to the Task Usage view and add the Actual and Remaining Work columns. Also
add the Actual Work row to the right-hand portion of the screen. (Right-click
in the Details column in the yellow portion of the screen and add the Actual
Work row from the Detail Styles option.) Capture the actual hours on the
actual days that they were completed in the "timesheet" portion on the
right-hand side of the screen. if you have done 3 hours and the task is then
complete simply change the remaining hours to zero. Remember that the Work
and the Actual work will then be 3 hrs, so you will need to compare with the
baseline work value if you want to determine if the task took longer or
shorter than planned. Hope this helps.

 

[SonOfPirate]

It does help some. Unfortunately my hands are somewhat tied in how we update
the tasks because we are using the Project file in conjunction with Team
Foundation Server. So, we have the ability to define what fields are mapped
to TFS fields but can't get any more advanced than that.

The way TFS manages time, through an add-in, is by accruing the
CompletedWork field and decreasing the RemainingWork field. These are mapped
to ActualWork and RemainingWork respectively. We also map the TFS work
item's ClosedDate to the ActualFinish field in Project. So, as time is
entered into the TFS timesheet, the CompletedWork value increases and the
RemainingWork value decreases. We "refresh" the Project file which updates
the ActualWork and RemainingWork values from the TFS database. When a task
is completed in TFS, it's ClosedDate is set which updates the ActualFinish
date in the Project file the next time we "refresh".

Obviously, our goal would be for these fields to match reality. If we put
in 3 hours of work but it took 2 weeks to complete, we would want the
Work/ActualWork fields to reflect the 3 hours of work, the ActualFinish date
to be correct and Duration to be 2 weeks.

Is there a better way to map these fields, or maybe additional fields we
should be mapping, to better accomplish what we are after? Would simply
switching to Fixed Work make a difference?