Leaving a task unassigned

[Robin Rice]

We have EPK sitting on top of MS Project Server, so the answer may be a
little different from the standard project server answer. We cannot get
actuals entered against UNASSIGNED tasks to progress back to the project
schedule correctly.

Is it possible to leave a project task UNASSIGNED to any particular
resource, so that ANYONE who is officially assigned to the team itself can
enter time against it?

For example, we have a task called "Unplanned app dev work". We want anyone
who is part of the project team to be able to get in and enter time against
the task. Then we need to progress the task back to MS Project.

Any ideas would be welcome.

Thanks
Robin

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Robin --

Your situation sounds like a good use for an Administrative project, which
you could create a task called Unplanned App Dev Work. You will need to
build your team for that project and then assign all team members to that
task and then publish the project. Do know that administrative tasks have 0
hours of Work for each resource assigned to the task, which essentially
creates an "empty bucket" into which team members can enter their unplanned
app dev work in their PWA timesheet. They will update this task like any
other task and the PM can then process their updates into the administrative
project.

Just one idea of how to accomplish what you need. Perhaps the others have
some ideas for you as well. Hope this helps.

 

[John Sitka]

Create a Project server account (not Windows) to use a login for your reporting agents...
tell them the username and password.

When they go into PWA hit the Log off button then login under the project server account.
Record the actuals against that Project server account. then hit the log off button then use the link to the right to re login with
your windows account. Or just close and reopen PWA.

The whole thing is a manual impersonation, no need for an additional PWA licence as defined in the Open licence agreement. The
logical account does not define a CAL the physical person does.

So you are assigning those tasks to a resources, the non Windows accout created above.
You might not want to level that resource though as it may have a defined concept of "performance"