Start Date Change from My Tasks

[Jim Sipe]

When a user modifies the start date in My Tasks and published to the PM, the
correct dates show in the "change acceptance" window; however, the new date
does not show correctly in the client task start date field. The gantt chart
does show that the task has been delayed (with a dotted line) with the task
starting at the new start date. The dotted line starts at the old start
date. Changing finish dates appear to work correctly.

Suggestions

 

[Jim Sipe]

Sorry . . . running PS 2007 with June CU.

 

[Andrew Lavinsky]

Your best bet is to either train users not to change those dates or to lock
them down using the advice from MS Project Experts:

http://www.projectserverhelp.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=11

I've also added fields for Estimated_Start or Estimated_Finish in some deployments.


- Andrew Lavinsky
Blog: http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/epm

 

[Ben Howard [MVP]]

What is the task type?
Is there a constraint?
Is there a predecessor dependency?
Does this only happen if you move the start date forward, or backward?

 

[Gary L. Chefetz]

Jim:

This is a common misunderstanding about how this feature works. You need to
keep in mind that your resource is changing the task at the assignment
level. So, apply an assignment view such as Task Usage or Resource Usage,
and you should see the new date for the assignment. These changes do not
roll up automatically because you can have multiple assignments on a task
and Microsoft obviously didn't want to delve into the business logic to
control the rollup. So, you have a couple of choices:

1) Live with the discrepancy between task planned start and assignment
planned start (doesn't look pretty on the Gantt chart)
2) Roll up the new start date to the task level manually
3) Create a macro to do the rollup - keeping in mind that if there are
multiple assignments on the task, that you need to handle the logic

 

[Jim Sipe]

OK, it all makes sense now. Thanks for everyones help on this.

Jim

 

[Gary L. Chefetz]

Jim:

The good When the user posts an actual start date, the dates
automatically true-up.