Project 2007 - Prevent marking a task complete.

[AndyW]

Hi folks, apologies if this question has already been asked before.

I have a project (with appropriate baseline) and have a task with an
estimate for 2 days duration (estimated duration). The task is taking 3
days and probably longer, however, when I enter in 3 days for "actual
duration", project marks the task complete and increases the estimate to 3
days.

I can do a view.tables.variance to see what the original work was as per the
baseline - which is one way of doing things.

What I actually want is for project to not change the original estimate to
the actual work performed (as I need these original estimate values) and I
really dont want it to mark tasks complete when they are not - on my project
tasks are completed when deliverables are signed off, not because some
arbitary piece of time has elapsed.

Is it possible to do this in project?

Regards
Andy

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

AndyW --

Your original Duration estimate is what you see in the Baseline Duration
field, so as you can see, the software did not change the Baseline Duration
value after you entered an Actual Duration value of 3 days. However,
remember this key fact about Microsoft Project:

Actuals always replace estimates.

When you entered 3 days in the Actual Duration field, the software replaces
the original 2 days of Duration with the new value of 3 days. You cannot
change this behavior, so you need to learn how to manage your expectations.
If the task is not completed, even after working for 3 days, you can enter a
Remaining Duration value greater than 0 days to show that there is still
work left to be done.

Hoep this helps.