Hidden work problem

[Jose]

Hi all,

We're experimenting a weird situation with work redistribution. It seems
that some enterprise users (human resources) have "hidden" planned work that
prevents the work redistribution from working as expected.

So, when we assign a task to such user and automatic distribution is
enabled, the task is atomatically planned too far in the future, skipping
days when the user still has no assignments.

We might be doing something wrong, but we double checked everything and
still didn't find the cause of the problem.

Any hints?

 

[Jim Erwin]

Hi all,

We're experimenting a weird situation with work redistribution. It seems
that some enterprise users (human resources) have "hidden" planned work that
prevents the work redistribution from working as expected.

So, when we assign a task to such user and automatic distribution is
enabled, the task is atomatically planned too far in the future, skipping
days when the user still has no assignments.

We might be doing something wrong, but we double checked everything and
still didn't find the cause of the problem.

Any hints?

I am assuming this is PS07... Check the resource's calendar.
Resources can go into their Timesheet and click on "Plan
Administrative Time" feature, which will block out periods of time
that the resource won't be available to work, which will then push out
any tasks assigned to the user during that period. A typical use is
for when a resource will be on vacation, they are trained to use this
administrative time feature to make their calendar more closely
reflect reality by blocking off the time in PS.

 

[Jose Antonio]

Thanks for the response but it is not the problem.

In the resource availability view in PWA the days appears as available. Is
there any other way to check it?

Regards,
Jose

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Jose:

Are you translating the term "Work Redistribution" from a non-English
system? If so, we need to figure out what exactly you are talking about. I
suspect that you may be talking about "leveling." If so, it sounds as though
you may need to adjust the leveling settings to a finer granularity. Try day
by day or hour by hour and see if that makes a difference. Understand that
the only two things that leveling can do is delay or split tasks.

--

Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
For Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
For Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com

 

[Jose Antonio]

Yes, the problem appeared leveling the resource. But it is not a granularity
problem.
It is very easy to test. It works with all users except two. Both users have
days when you can't schedule work (different days). The leveling system
threat this days as "busy" or "unavailable" but there is no scheduled work in
any project in this days.
It is not calendar problem.

Regards,
Jose

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

You are certain that there are no calendar exceptions for these resources?
Is there any actual work in the system for the problem dates for these
resources?

--

Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
For Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
For Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

If it happens for these users for all projects, then we have to assume that
it is resource-related. I'm not sure where to dig next.

--

Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
For Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
For Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com

 

[Jose Antonio]

Finally we found the problem. There is a corruption in the Calendar
Exceptions binary field in the database. So.. the leveling process has
incorrect information.

Thanks.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Jose:

How did you uncover the corruption? I'm sure many can benefit from the
answer. Thanks.

--

Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
For Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
For Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com

 

[Jose Antonio]

We are still working on a perfect solution but there are some tasks that
corrected the problem:
- Delete the resource and create it again. This is the perfect solution but
I think it is terrible.
- Copy the 4 databases in SQL Server to new databases. Do a reprovisioning
with this new copies. This process corrected the problem with some users but
not always.

Regards,
Jose.