REPOST: 'partially completed tasks with a deadline' acting strange...

[Guido van Gemerden]

This is a repost of an earlier question. I didn't get an answer... and i
need it sooooo badly.

Hi all,

who can help me with this one:

Scenario
1. Create a new project planning from the end (date: december 31th, 2007)
2. Create a task with a duration of 64 hours.
3. Assign this task a deadline with date december 30th, 2007

Strange issue:
1. Mark this task completed for 75%

Questions
1. Why does this task suddenly end AFTER december 31th, 2007?
2. Why is this task being split?

This happens in both Project 2003 as Project 2007

Do you have answers? Enlighten me! Maybe it's not the application, but
something about my thinking...


Yours

Guido

 

[Jim Aksel]

I can reproduce the behavior, but cannot explain it. The behavior does not
happen when there is no deadline date. Also try Tools/Options/Calculations.
There you have options of how to deal with incomplete work and how it will be
treated with repsect to the status date. Make sure you have set a reasonable
status date.

As an alternative: If you want Project to schedule tasks according to a
specific finish date, apply either a Finish No Later Than, Finish No Earlier
Than, or Must Finish On constraint. You can set task constraints on the
Advanced tab of the Task Information dialog box. When using this technique,
you may need to visually inspect your schedule to see if any links between
tasks are violated (they can sometimes snake back on themselves if
constraints are forced).


--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for FAQs and more information
about Microsoft Project

 

[Guido van Gemerden]

Thanks for the reply Jim,

More specific: I am a trainer, and a student found this 'strange behaviour'.
Now I am curious too. I don't understand this behaviour and cannot explain
it. But I have to next monday....

I don't need an answer for this student how to avoid it, but why this
behaviour happens. Maybe someone at MS?

I just cannot explain it.... It is not logical...

.... need .... more .... logic ....

Guido

 

[Jim Aksel]

Perhaps it is an anomoly or "feature" of the code. Sometimes we spell "bug"
the same as "feature." I agree the behavior is unexpected and I cannot
rationalize why such behavior would be correct. For certain, the code is
doing what it was programmed to do ... I wonder if this scenario was a test
case.

I play college professor sometimes. A question like this would stump me
too... Perhaps your answer could be, "You may have found a bug. I checked
online with several colleagues and they could not offer a logical
explaination either. They concurr that the behavior does not appear rational.
Although my colleague said there is no documented bug report in the system,
softare does contain unexpected behavior sometimes. If any of my colleagues
or I locate a more reasonable answer, I will see if I can get you a weblink
for additional information."

The reason why I think this may be unexpected behavior... create a project
with finish on 30 NOV 2007, 5 day task, deadline 30 NOV. Set the status date
for 26 NOV 2007. Now claim %Complete as "On Schedule" which is 60%. The
remaining work moves to after the deadline... but an "on schedule" condition
should allow the work to remain in place.

If they push back, give the student an assignment to document it as a
potential bug to microsoft. You can do so at this link:
https://connect.microsoft.com/feedback/default.aspx?SiteID=235
Have them report back to the rest of the class.



--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for FAQs and more information
about Microsoft Project

 

[Guido van Gemerden]

He Jim

how about this explanation, using your example:

When you enter the taks as 60% complete, you do not mean 'duration of the
task' completed for 60%, you mean 'the ammount of work' has been completed
for 30%. So instead of marking this task as completed for 60% in the
'%Complete' column, you should enter the 60% in the '%work complete' column.

Now I can explain it. It's not logical to tell a task has been completed for
a specific duration, it's about the amount of work that is completed. THAT
is what you want to show in the diagram.

unfortunately, the information from this column is not shown in the
Gantt-chart by default. So you also have to change the layout of the
Gantt-chart...

Yours,

Guido