Milestone Duration Mystery

[Darrell]

I have not been able to find an answer to this so I will ask again.

I have seen several project schedules from several different project
managers where a tasks duration suddenly jumps out into the future without
anyone knowing why. I just worked with a PM who removed a generic resource
that was mistakenly assigned to a milestone and when the generic resource was
removed the duration changed to 1000 something days and the finish date went
to 2049 even thought the task had zero duration and zero work and zero
progress prior to removing the resource. What is causing this behavior?

Darrell

 

[Jim Aksel]

MS Project 2003 is on SP3
MS Project 2007 is on SP1 plus some additional updates
Make sure you are up to date. If the problem persists, let us know
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

Check out my blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com

 

[Darrell]

Jim,

Thx for the response.

Sorry about not providing enough info, frustration setting in <grin>. This
is 2007 with SP1 and all updates except for the December update.

I have seen this behavior off and on for some time now and thought it was
poor scheduling by a select set of PMs. However, a PM that I know is very
good with his schedule witnessed this and told me that after I pointed out
the issue he added the resource back to the task and the duration returned to
zero, when he again removed the resource the duration jumped to over a 1000
days.

I have not been able to repeat this behavior in a test schedule. I can only
speculate that it may come from some of the schedules that were migrated from
the 2003 server and people are copy and pasting old corrupted tasks into new
shcedules. Anyways, I am waiting for the next time it happens to be able to
see the change take place as witnessed by the earlier mentioned PM.

Darrell

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Jim,

Clutching at straws... I wonder if you've got a circular reference of
some sort. Check your summaries for precedence links and the assignment of
resources. You might like to see FAQ Item: 48 & 49 on the subject.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
Project MVP

 

[Darrell]

Mike,

The task I used in the example below has no Predecessors or Successors.
Wierd huh?

O.K…. I found another schedule with this behavior.

There is a task, “DMV IT approves e-Sticker Project Charter†for example, is
shows a duration of 596 days, “0†(zero) hours of work, starts Mon 1/21/08,
finishes Wed 10/10/11, is 100% complete and has no resource listed.

If… I add a generic resource with 0% units the duration changes to “0â€
(zero), the work remains at “0†(zero), the start date remains unchanged, the
finish date changes to Mon 1/21/08, and the % complete goes to “0†(zero).
Seems to be back to the original state; however, there is still a resource
with 0% units assigned to a milestone.

If… I add a generic resource with 100% units I get a Planning Wizard pop-up
that says “You moved task #94 of “Blah Blah Blah†to start Tue Sep 13, ’05.
This is before the project start date (Mon Sep 3, ’07).†Of course if I OK
the move the task jumps to Sep ’05, the duration remains at 596 days the work
goes to 4,768 hours, the finish date changes to Mon 1/21/08, and the %
complete goes to 0%.

I know this schedule was migrated from the 2003 server, and I suspect people
are copying and pasting tasks from these migrated schedules into new ones
perpetuating the corruption. Anyways, I am not sure what is happening here
but it would be nice to find the source so that I could KILL IT!! <grin>

Darrell

 

[Sean Hanson]

We received a separate Hot Fix for this from Microsoft that only helped
somewhat, it is still occurring. Seems to be with the units dropping to a
fraction of 1% and thus it wants to drive out the tasks to 2049. The product
handled assigning resources to Milestones to make them responsible for that
milestone in 2003 but did not like when these got migrated into 2007. You
likely will not see it on new schedules, only migrated. Why you would not see
it on a new test schedule. They said they would address it after Aug CU but
it is still on our open items list.
--
Sean Hanson

http://www.randsmanagement.com
Mass Resource Tool for 2007
Project Server 2007 Archive Tool
2007 ULS Log Reporting

 

[Darrell]

Sean,

Thanks for the info. I was pretty sure this was an issue associated with
migrated schedules. Now if I can get them to stop copy and pasting the
problem around like a plague!

Darrell

 

[Darrell]

I also found a schedule where the date for a task jumped out into the future
as a result of the PM assigning a resource to 8hrs of work at 0% Units. Seems
related.

Darrell