Resource submitting zero hours worked on a task doesn't update Pro

[Christina]

MS Project 2003, PS 2003

Say you have a resource assigned to a task that should be completed over the
course of 2 days and takes 4 hours of work. The resource enters 0 hours of
work for each day they are assigned the task since they were pulled to work
on a higher priority task. Once the resource submits this task update
(indicating no work has been done), the PM does not receive this as a task
update to approve. The result is that the work on the task doesn't get
re-allocated and reflects as PAst Due.

However, if the Resource enters 1 hour in Actual Work the first day, and
zeroes for the rest of the week, and submits the update, the PM can approve
the update, and the remaining 3 hours are reallocated for the following week.

In the first situation, if the resource enters a note to indicate why the
work wasn't done, it appears this "counts" as a real update and the PM
receives the update for approval.

Is there any way for the resource's entry of 0 hours across a time period to
be processed without a note being attached to each update? We are not at a
point where we can standardize how often task updates are submitted to limit
them to, say, once a week. I have requested notes be attached to explain
variances but it's not second-nature to our resources yet.

Thanks!
Christina

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Christina --

I believe you are seeing the default behavior of Project Server 2003. If a
team member enters 0h every day on a task, beginning with the first day of
assigned work, the system DOES NOT set an Actual Start date on the first day
and reschedule the uncompleted work. The only way that Project Server 2003
sets an Actual Start date on the task is if a team member enters some Actual
Work on the first day of the task. After that, if a team member enters 0h
on any successive day, the system automatically reschedules the uncompleted
work. To work around your issue, I would recommend you do two things:

1. Ask your team members to add a Note to any task with an expected Actual
Start date, but which the team member was not actually able to start.

2. Teach your PMs how to reschedule uncompleted work from past time periods
into the current time period using the steps in the following FAQ:

http://www.projectserverexperts.com/ProjectServerFAQKnowledgeBase/RescheduleUncompletedWork.aspx

Hope this helps.

 

[Christina]

Hi Dale-

I had a feeling that was the case. I have used the Reschedule work function
on some projects and it has helped quite a bit. But not all of our PMs are
familiar with it yet. I will add this to the internal procedures I am
developing, as well as encouraging resources to enter notes to document
variances.

As always, thank you for your quick reply and assistance!

Christina

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Christina --

It is refreshing to hear that you are developing a set of internal
procedures for using Project Server 2003. This gives you a greater
possibility of success with this tool. If you have not done so already, I
would strongly encourage you to provide formal training for your project
managers and team members. Hope this helps.