Number in Cost Column id Different than the Resource Work Amount

[Minhchau]

We've been using Project 2003 for about 5 months. I assigned a material
resource to a task at the rate of $1/hr. When the assigned work exceeded
$16,700,000, it showed only $16,666,667 under the cost column for the
assigned task, even the resource estimated cost still showed the correct
amount that I entered (ex: $28,000,000). This was the only resource for that
task, and there was no fixed cost.
Is there a cap on how much a resource can be assigned for each task? If
yes, is there a way that I can increase that cap?
Thanks,

 

[Brian K - Project MVP]

We've been using Project 2003 for about 5 months. I assigned a material
resource to a task at the rate of $1/hr. When the assigned work exceeded
$16,700,000, it showed only $16,666,667 under the cost column for the
assigned task, even the resource estimated cost still showed the correct
amount that I entered (ex: $28,000,000). This was the only resource for
that
task, and there was no fixed cost.
Is there a cap on how much a resource can be assigned for each task? If
yes, is there a way that I can increase that cap?
Thanks,

There is no cap. Are you sure you are looking at the Work and Cost fields
and not some other field like Actual Work or Actual Cost or some custom
field? There might be some confusion since you were talking about Work in
terms of dollars. I just want to make sure we are looking at the same
things.

 

[Minhchau]

It's not actual cost. I assigned a rate of $1/hr so the cost in dollars is
the same for the amount of work that I assigned to a resource. The cost was
correct as long as my work didn't exceed 16,666,667. For example: if I
assigned only 16,000,000 hours to the resource, the cost came out to be
$16,000,000. However, if I assigned 17,000,000 hours or any amount higher
than 16,666,667, the cost capped at $16,666,667.
Thanks,

 

[Brian K - Project MVP]

It's not actual cost. I assigned a rate of $1/hr so the cost in dollars is
the same for the amount of work that I assigned to a resource. The cost
was
correct as long as my work didn't exceed 16,666,667. For example: if I
assigned only 16,000,000 hours to the resource, the cost came out to be
$16,000,000. However, if I assigned 17,000,000 hours or any amount higher
than 16,666,667, the cost capped at $16,666,667.
Thanks,

What if you try this in a new blank project? Same thing?
can you setup a new task in the same project and do this?
What about a new resource with a $1 rate?
What version of Project are you using?
Im on Project 2003 Pro SP1 and am not seeing this problem.

 

[Minhchau]

I'm using Project 2003, SP1, but my project is from Project 2000 SP1
(Enterprise system). We converted all of these projects to Project 2003.
You were right that a new resource doesn't encounter this problem. However,
the resource I'm having problem with is an Enterprise resource. I cannot
delete or substitute this resource since it's being used by many projects.
Do I still have a way to resolve this issue?

 

[Brian K - Project MVP]

I'm using Project 2003, SP1, but my project is from Project 2000 SP1
(Enterprise system). We converted all of these projects to Project 2003.
You were right that a new resource doesn't encounter this problem.
However,
the resource I'm having problem with is an Enterprise resource. I cannot
delete or substitute this resource since it's being used by many projects.
Do I still have a way to resolve this issue?

It is this resource in every project they are in or just this one?

What happens if you change their rate to 0. reopen this project save and
close and then change it back to 1? Anything?

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Minhchau:

Could the behavior you're seeing be related to some characteristic of the
task itself. Have you reached the maximum amount of work possible give the
calendar or constraints affecting the task?

 

[Minhchau]

I did that, and it didn't change anything.

 

[Minhchau]

There's no constraint to the limit of work for that task. I checked it by
opening a new project in Project 2003, create a new material resource with
the same rate ($1/hr). When I assigned the new resource to that task, the
cost came out correctly, even the work exceeded 16,666,667 hr. Then I
assigned a material resource from Enterprise to the same task, and the cost
capped at $16,666,667 for any work exceeded 16,666,667 hr.
--
Minhchau Huyen
PMO, SacDOT

Minhchau:

Could the behavior you're seeing be related to some characteristic of the
task itself. Have you reached the maximum amount of work possible give the
calendar or constraints affecting the task?

 

[Brian K - Project MVP]

There's no constraint to the limit of work for that task. I checked it by
opening a new project in Project 2003, create a new material resource with
the same rate ($1/hr). When I assigned the new resource to that task, the
cost came out correctly, even the work exceeded 16,666,667 hr. Then I
assigned a material resource from Enterprise to the same task, and the cost
capped at $16,666,667 for any work exceeded 16,666,667 hr.

it was a material resource?

First Im not sure how you got a task with ONLY a material resource to even
let you enter work. Second, Im not sure how you got Project to let you
have a Material resource with a rate of $1/hr since Project does not allow
material resources to have /hr rates and they cant have material labels
that are hr, m, w, m, etc.

other than that you might try deleting the task and starting over with a
new task. There seems to be something about that task that is causing a
problem.

 

[Brian K - Project MVP]

There's no constraint to the limit of work for that task. I checked it by
opening a new project in Project 2003, create a new material resource with
the same rate ($1/hr). When I assigned the new resource to that task, the
cost came out correctly, even the work exceeded 16,666,667 hr. Then I
assigned a material resource from Enterprise to the same task, and the cost
capped at $16,666,667 for any work exceeded 16,666,667 hr.

OK I might have found something. you did not enter 1/hr for the rate. you
entered it for the Units when you made the assignment and you have another
non-material resource assigned, right? if that is the case and the task
was a fixed Units task and then you changed it to a fixed Work task it
might be possible to get it so that it froze the cost at whatever the
value was when you made the change. then edits to work would just kind of
go off into thin air and not adjust duration. That is the key. material
resources assigned at a per hour Units value go by duration NOT work. The
only reason that editing Work WAS adjusting the Cost of that resoruce was
because the task type you had allowed the edits to work to increase
Duration. When the task type was changed it stopped adjusting Duration so
it stopped adjusting Cost.

The same might also be true if the task started out as a fixed duration
task but i have not played much with that one.

How does that sound? Anything like what you have? What task type is your
task now?

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Minhchau:

Is it only one Enterprise Resource that's behaving this way or all of them?
If it's only one, then perhaps there's corruption in the resource record as
I can't reproduce your problem in a clean database. If it's all of them I'd
suspect a corrupt resource pool. The only limit I hit is 60,000,000 work
value per assignment. I took a single material resource defined at a rate $1
in the Enterprise Resource pool and assigned it to more than a Billion hours
across 17 tasks in a single plan and everything works as expected.

There's no constraint to the limit of work for that task. I checked it by
opening a new project in Project 2003, create a new material resource with
the same rate ($1/hr). When I assigned the new resource to that task, the
cost came out correctly, even the work exceeded 16,666,667 hr. Then I
assigned a material resource from Enterprise to the same task, and the
cost
capped at $16,666,667 for any work exceeded 16,666,667 hr.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

First Im not sure how you got a task with ONLY a material resource to even

let you enter work.

Split Window!

 

[Brian K - Project MVP]

Split Window!

Blast!

 

[Minhchau]

I'm sorry for the confusion. I assigned all my material resource at a rate
of $1 (not $1/hr). All my tasks are fixed duration, effort driven. All my
Enterprise material resources behave the same way. I tried to assign an
Enterprise material resource work by typing the number under work or units
(split screen), and got the same result (dollars capped at $16,666,667). I
didn't have the same problem if I create a new material resource in Project
2003.

If the resource pool (Enterprise) is corrupted when converted, is there a
way that I can fix it? I can't delete these resources since they existed in
many projects.

Thanks,
--
Minhchau Huyen
PMO, SacDOT

First Im not sure how you got a task with ONLY a material resource to even
let you enter work.

Split Window!

 

[Brian K - Project MVP]

I'm sorry for the confusion. I assigned all my material resource at a rate
of $1 (not $1/hr). All my tasks are fixed duration, effort driven. All
my
Enterprise material resources behave the same way. I tried to assign an
Enterprise material resource work by typing the number under work or units
(split screen), and got the same result (dollars capped at $16,666,667). I
didn't have the same problem if I create a new material resource in Project
2003.

If the resource pool (Enterprise) is corrupted when converted, is there a
way that I can fix it? I can't delete these resources since they existed
in
many projects.

Thanks,

You might try creating another resource with a slightly different name.
Then replace the 'bad' resource with this new resource on all the projects
using the Build Team From Enterprise dialog. just a thought.

 

[Minhchau]

I'll try that.
Thanks,

 

[Brian K - Project MVP]

I'll try that.
Thanks,

Actually, remember that doing this does not mean you should delete the
resource from the pool once the new one is assigned. you should mark them
as Inactive so they cannot be reassigned but keep them there so that the
record of wha they have done on the projects stays around.