PWA users can enter time against closed tasks.

[Al]

Why does the tool allow you enter time against a close task in All Task
display mode? Really hoping the solution is not a best practice approach...
We are in managed time period so user cannot enter time when the period is
closed but they can be in a open reporting period, display all tasks and
enter time against closed tasks.

What is the best approach to prevent users from entering time against closed
tasks? This maybe a best practive type of answer but here is the senario..
Resource are now hip to the fact of displaying All Task in the Task View as
opposed to displaying Current Task (which is set to only allow 10 business
days in advance). When PWA users are in the All Task View, the system allows
them to enter in time against closed tasks which comes down to project
managers mining their task updates and rejecting the tasks on closed tasks.


Current Task View does not show completed task:
Set Current tasks to display. (Configured to 10 days ahead)

All Task display shows completed task and allow you to enter time against
them:
Set All tasks to display.

Notice the timesheet cells are open and allows edits to the completed time....

Any ideas on an approach? I was thinking to force all users to use the
Incomplete Task filter which will show only task they need to work on in the
current and all task view... The downfall is that once a task is complete.
They cannot see the total hours entered for a task unless the choose the All
task display and All task filter...

Why does the tool allow you enter time against a close task?


Please let me know if further clarification is needed.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Al --

By default, team members can enter time against a completed task.
Furthermore, there is no way to prevent this action other than making it a
training and performance issue.

The fact that you are having problems with this issue reveals that it is a
process issue rather than the failure of the software. If your team members
are entering time against closed tasks, have you asked yourself why they are
doing this? For example, ss this because they are finding additional work
related to a task after the task is already completed, but have no other
task against which to enter the additional work? Once you determine why
they are doing it, you should respond with an appropriate process for them
to follow in this situation, and then train everyone how to do it correctly,
and finally hold them accountable for their performance in this area. Hope
this helps.

 

[Al]

I kinda thought it would be a best practice solution to resolve. I think
this issue is deeper than training and performance because I was told by
multiple partners and trainers resource time can't be entered against closed
tasks. We will chalk this up as a hard learning experience because it was a
nightmare for me today. Figuring out how to prevent this is my battle at the
present time. Management wants to eliminate user from entering time against
the task the same as closing the period. I will sent them your email as the
solution. Do I have permission to forward your reponse?

I know they will make me come up with a permanent functionality in the tool.
Sound like the project manager will need to look all task ids instead of the
date range when peforming Task Updates. If the task id is before a certain
number, they should reject the task. What do you think?

Below is an email response from an EPM Solutions Training specialize (based
out of CA) who had the same assumptions as I did.

Offline response :
Hi Al,

Good to hear from you. I was under the impression that those Tasks should
not be available for update (they shouldn’t be white editable cells). So this
certainly comes as a surprise to me.

I well need to do some research on this one, as I think this could be
classified as a bug. I certainly hadn’t realized that this was the behavior
you would see in the Timesheet.

Let me do a bit o research and get back to you. It might not be until next
week that I have any additional information on this one, as I may have to
ping some current and previous colleagues for some information.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Al --

Unfortunately, your multiple partners and trainers are wrong. Perhaps they
were referring to the use of Managed Time Periods in Project Server, but
even that will not prevent users from entering work against a completed
task. It will only prevent them from entering time in past closed time
periods or in future unopened time periods..

Yes, you have my permission to forward my e-mail message to your managers.
I hope they listen to ME better than they listen to YOU!

Regarding your suggestion for what the PM's should do, I stand my ground
that this is a training and performance issue for team members. You are
making more work for your PM's when the problem is being caused by team
members, and by a possibly-flawed process that causes them to enter time
against closed tasks. By the way, you never answered my question about why
your team members feel compelled to enter time against closed tasks. What
is their reason for doing so?

Also, regarding your message from the EPM consultant, he is absolutely
wrong. This is not a bug. It is a default feature of both Microsoft
Project and Project Server. Even if this is bad news, I hope this helps.

 

[Al]

To answer your question. It was a one time error on behalf of the resource
which happened to a high profile project. Multiple predessors were linked to
other tasks link to the one task the team member entered time against while
viewing All Task Display. The tasks was fixed work, effort driven which
changed the end date of the task. It was a mistake we want to have the tool
prevent if possible. I spent one day trying to figure out what happend and
entering time against closed tasks was the Root Cause. 1 of 230 Resources =
..004% Non-complaint but caused much damage. This does not meet our criteria
to send a broadcast message to our end users. I've already spoken with the
resource but this is hind sight when the Project Admin has no control to
prevent. Our resources are trained to request additional hours for a task and
only touch the remaining work field when a task is completed early.

I opened up the can of worms because we train Team Members to always be in
Current Display in Task View because we did not want them to enter in time on
task more than 10 days out and this prevent them from entering time against
closed task in Current Display View. Team Members were complaining and
reporting hours were falling off their Current Task view. Well the tool is
designed this way to remove complete task in you current view. The only way I
know to see current period total hours (including completed task) is to
switch to All Task Display. This opened the can of worms because resources
want to see all the time they enter before they submit and update tasks.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Al --

Ouch! What a painful process. Hang in there, my friend. At least you now
know the default behavior of Project Server. Let us know if you have more
questions.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Al:

To my knowledge, there's no such thing as "closed" tasks in Project. Closed
time periods, yes, closed tasks, no. The best we have is "allegedly
complete."<g> So what to do? You might consider writing a SQL query to
remove what your business defines as "closed tasks" from the resource task
view. Essentially, you want to flip the same bit that gets flipped when a
user clicks the hide button in the My Tasks view. We've got a similar
example on our site that you can modify for this purpose:

http://www.projectserverexperts.com/Shared Documents/deletecancelledtasks.htm