inserted project hours out of sync

[abc123]

I work with several project files that are all managed by different PMs. I
would like to consolidate these into one master file for reporting, etc. To
do this, I select all of the projects that I would like to insert, uncheck
the link box, and click insert. This then inserts the subprojects into the
master. I end up with the following problem.

The hours on the right hand portion of the screen (the timephased portion)
are not the same in the master as they are in the original files. This is
only happening with 3 out of the 17 projects that are being inserted. The
other 14 project's hours are exactly the same between master and subproject.
I do not want the hours in the three projects to change at all. I want the
master project to reflect all of the original subproject files exactly.

I really appreciate your help, as I have been banging my head against the
wall for quite some time now trying to figure this one out.

 

[John]

I work with several project files that are all managed by different PMs. I
would like to consolidate these into one master file for reporting, etc. To
do this, I select all of the projects that I would like to insert, uncheck
the link box, and click insert. This then inserts the subprojects into the
master. I end up with the following problem.

The hours on the right hand portion of the screen (the timephased portion)
are not the same in the master as they are in the original files. This is
only happening with 3 out of the 17 projects that are being inserted. The
other 14 project's hours are exactly the same between master and subproject.
I do not want the hours in the three projects to change at all. I want the
master project to reflect all of the original subproject files exactly.

I really appreciate your help, as I have been banging my head against the
wall for quite some time now trying to figure this one out.

abc123,
When you say the "hours" are you talking about duration hours or work
hours? They are completely different. For lack of more information about
the files, I suspect that the 3 files that show a problem have a
different calendar than the other files. This could cause the duration
of tasks to be re-calculated when the static master is created.

Just a guess.
John
Project MVP

 

[abc123]

Thanks for you help, I checked, and the projects are all using the same
standard calandar. I am unsure of what you mean by duration hours and work
hours, but as I said before I am concerned with the right hand portion of the
task usage screen where the hours are broken out by week.

 

[abc123]

I dug a little deaper, and it looks like the start dates of my the projects
are being changed when I insert them. Any suggestions?

 

[John]

I dug a little deaper, and it looks like the start dates of my the projects
are being changed when I insert them. Any suggestions?

abc123,
First of all, there are two main fields in Project that might normally
express data in hours. One is the Duration field, the other is the Work
field. Duration is the working time (defined by the Project calendar)
between a task's Start and a task's Finish. It is the estimated amount
of time during which the task will be worked on. Work is the number of
hours one or more resources will actually spend completing the task.
Often the two value are the same (i.e. a single resource is assigned
100% to the task). However, the two values may also be completely
different (i.e. a resource only needs 20 hours to complete a task over a
span (duration) of 5 days (40 hours)).

The Task Usage view (right hand side) shows timescaled values for Work.
Duration is not timescaled. If the schedule changes when the subprojects
are inserted, then it is very likely the Work hours will also change.

You mentioned that the start dates of your inserted projects are
changing when they are inserted. You are creating a static consolidation
(when you uncheck the "link to project" box in the Insert window). A
statically consolidated master file is a single individual file made up
of the subprojects that were inserted. With a dynamically consolidated
master (default - "Link to project" is left checked), the master does
not actually contain the subprojects, rather the master only contains
pointers to the individual subprojects.

OK, so what does all of that mean? In a regular Project file, all tasks
will start on the Project Start Date unless they either have a link to
another task or have a constraint (e.g. Start-no-earlier-than). When a
static master is created from individual subproject that have a
different Project Start Date from the master, the subprojects will take
on the Project Start Date of the master. For example, let's say your
individual subprojects all have a Project Start Date of 5/1/06. Then you
create a new master with today as the Project Start Date. When the
suprojects are inserted into the new master, their unconstrained and
unlinked tasks will take on today's date, effectively altering their
schedules and hence their work hours (at least for any tasks with no
actual progress).

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[abc123]

Thank you so much for your help John. It was the project start dates that was
causing the problem. Too bad I stayed up all night last night trying to get
this figured out. I should've just gone to bed and read your post this
morning.

Thanks again

 

[John]

Thank you so much for your help John. It was the project start dates that was
causing the problem. Too bad I stayed up all night last night trying to get
this figured out. I should've just gone to bed and read your post this
morning.

Thanks again

abc123,
You're welcome. You should be aware that one of the requirements given
the developers of Project is that it would rob precious sleep from 50%
of the users.....(grin).

John