Project Actual Time is not right in PWA

[Anthony]

When I publish an existing project plan to the project server (using the
import process), all the actual time entered in the project plan gets divided
into weird fractions for tasks. For example, if Task A has 10 hours for Work
entered and is imported, when I look at the time sheet for Task A, the 10
hours look like 2.3, 5.5, 2.2 spread out over several days or weeks. I just
want it to show that Task A, when imported, has 10 hours of actuals already,
and that any time entered from the PWA will append to the 10 hours. I don't
understand all this fraction of hours crap its doing. Thanks

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Anthony:

Project does a lot of things with actual work depending on how its entered
and what the task characteristics are. How was your existing time entered?
It sounds like you're using fixed-duration tasks. Is that the case? Are all
tasks fixed-duration or only some?

 

[Anthony]

Everything is set to fixed work....or at least it should be. If they need to
be changed, then will that fix it?

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Anthony:

I'm trying to explain the hour distributions, but you haven't answered my
questions. So, all I can tell you is I don't know.

 

[Anthony]

Sorry. I was so busy, I didnt fully read your response. Prior to importing
and publishing the tasks (using the Overwrite Actuals Entered..option),
actuals were manually tracked and entered into Project 2003 (client). The way
the project plan is set up, tasks are broken into "levels", that is, tasks
roll up to a larger task, which is usually the team name, sub team, or
overall task... like so:

Accounting Team
|_
| Fix Finance Plan
| |_
| Task 1
|_
Task 2

Task 1 and Task 2 are fixed work, but when I select Accounting Team or Fix
Finance Plan, they are Fixed Duration, and it wont allow me to change it. I
didn't make the project plan, I inherited it...ugh..

Hope this helps you help me. Thanks

 

[Anthony]

Upon further testing this is what I found. When I look at the time sheet for
a resource who has actuals entered in the project plan and not the PWA, their
actuals are distributed on the time sheet across the entire task life which
is why its showing weird fractions of hours, but since it spans the entire
life of the task, there are fractions of hours in every single row in their
time sheet. So if the time sheets says 2.33 hours (existing actuals) and they
do 4 hours of work, they have to enter 6.33 hours to keep the numbers right.
Is there a way to avoid this?

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Anthony:

There are logical explanations for everything the system does with work and
actual work values. Your system is behaving as designed. You still haven't
told me how you entered the time into the project plan, so I still can't
give you the distribution logic. I'd guess that your work was entered in a
single value at the task level, which forces Project to spread it across the
working time. Badly tracked, half-baked projects don't make very good import
fodder for Project Server. The key for you is to learn how the scheduling
engine behaves so that these things aren't so mysterious.

 

[Anthony]

Time for all tasks that were in progress prior to importing into project
server was entered like so:

Task A: Baseline = 80hrs, Work = 80hrs, Actual Work = 50hrs, Rem. Work =
30hrs

Resource Name | Units | Work | Ovt. Work | Baseline Work | Act.Work| Rem.Work
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
John 20% 40hrs 0 40hrs
20hrs 20hrs
Mary 20% 40hrs 0 40hrs
30hrs 10hrs

This is using the split view in Project (client) with the Enterprise Gant
Chart in the top pane and the Task Form showing resource work in the bottom
pane. If this doesnt answer your question as to how time is entered, then you
are going to have to help me out with what level of detail you want or
rephrase your question. I know everything happens for a reason in project.
Believe me, if I had the option, we would start the project plan over from
scratch and do it right, but my client doesn't agree so much because they
want it now to at least be able to track time because the current manual
process is overloading the project manager. Also, can you recommend any good
books to better understand how the scheduling engine works? Once we get this
working, the clients project manager owns this, but I would like to know how
the scheduling side works for future use. Thanks!

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Anthony:

As I suspected, you entered the time at the task level, rather than the
assignment level, so the system has no choice but to spread the work across
the task duration. Your totals will be correct, your distributions will be
funky. What you need to do is remove any of the actual work that got spread
into the future, back to the past. To control this, you should apply the
task usage view.

 

[Anthony]

I will try that. Thanks for all your help with this.

 

[ProjectAnalyst]

Gary, could you explain how to enter time at the assignment level versus the
task level? I'm not sure I see the distinction.....
Thanks.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Actually, when I started the conversation, I thought Anthony might have
working in the Gantt Chart view, so I mis-spoke, what I should have said is
at the day level. If you expose the actual work field in the task usage
view, you can enter time where you want it. If you enter time in the split
window display, which is an assignment-level summary field, you're entering
a total, whereby the software must distribute the work like cream cheese on
a bagel. If you enter it at the task level, or actual work field exposed in
say the Gantt Chart view, you're entering it at the task level which causes
the application to spread the work among the resources and across the task
duration. Either of the latter methods can cause actual work to get posted
into the future. The task usage view is the "timesheet" view included in the
Project client. You can also use the Resource usage view to accomplish the
same thing.

 

[ProjectAnalyst]

This solves a huge problem for me, if I understand it properly.

What I'm hearing is that I should be entering durations against individual
resources instead of against the task summary, and this will avoid the
spreading of actual time into the future (in weird equal increments).

If I've got this right, you've made my day, week, ,month and quarter.
Thanks.