Resource can't enter hours...

[Mark Byington]

I have a PM who has a team member that is unable to enter on a task they're
assigned to. The team member can view the task in their task center view,
but it is 'grayed' out not editable. I had the PM "re-publish" the task-same
result.

Viewing the task in Project Professional, it shows the resource assigned,
work hours, 0 actual hours, baseline hours = work hours. In short it looks OK
to me.

Any ideas?

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Mark --

Are any of the fields in the user's timesheet unlocked for editing on this
particular task, such as the % Work Complete, Actual Work, or Remaining Work
fields?

 

[Mark Byington]

Only 'Remaining Work' is editable...

Mark --

Are any of the fields in the user's timesheet unlocked for editing on this
particular task, such as the % Work Complete, Actual Work, or Remaining Work
fields?

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Mark --

Did you use these steps to republish the assignment:

1. Open the project in question
2. Select the task in question
3. Click Collaborate - Publish - Republish Assignments
4. Select the "Selected tasks" option at the top of the dialog
5. Make sure the tracking method in the dialog matches your organization's
tracking method
6. Select the "Overwrite actual work entered by resources" option
7. Click OK

Let us know if this helps.

 

[Mark Byington]

Thanks for your interest/help. I had to change the "Specify the default
method for reporting progress on tasks" back to 'Hours of work done per
day..' rather than
'Percent of work complete'. I was testing a theory to consistently have
tasks go to 100% complete when '0' is entered in remaining hours.

Using a task type of Fixed Units works, but if Fixed Duration and the task
finishes early, the task doesn't go to 100% Complete even with 0 remaining
hours (however, % work complete does). We don't often use Fixed Work as a
task type, so I'm trying to determine the best 'default' values to use.

Resetting the default tracking method and having the PM re-publish the
effected tasks fixed the original problem and the resource can now enter
hours.

Thanks again...

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Mark --

When work finishes early on a Fixed Duration task, you will usually see the
task split indicator (...) at the end of the Gantt bar. This indicates the
task work was completed earlier than the planned Duration of the task. The
% Complete value will not be set to 100% because % Complete field actually
computes the "percent of the Duration complete." Thus, if I have a 10-day
Duration task that is Fixed Duration, and the resource finishes the work in
only 6 days, the % Work Complete will be set to 100%, but the % Complete
value will only be set to 60% (6 days out of the original 10).

To rectify this situation, you simply need to change the Task Type for that
task from Fixed Duration to Fixed Units. Microsoft Project will then
recalculate the % Complete and show it at 100%. Hope this additional
explanation helps.

 

[Mark Byington]

Yes, I've discovered the "Fixed Duration" & % Complete vs. % Work Complete
situation through much "frustration and agony", but a lesson I won't soon
forget. I now have to 'eat my words' as I've been advising my PM's to use
"Fixed Duration' as the default task type. Looks like 'Fixed Units' will
serve our purposes more effectively.

Thanks again..

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Mark --

You are more than welcome, my friend!