Task Assignments in PWA

[Dave N.]

I have 40 enterprise projects. I have 10 resources to assign to tasks. My
tasks are all fixed duration, not effort driven.

I have a 40 hour task with a duration of 60 days. I assigned 4 resources to
this task. Project divided the 40 hours among the 4 resources (10h each).
How can I allow up to 40 hours to be worked by any one of these 4 resources?
If one resource works 10 hours today, the task will be considered complete
for that resource and will not show up in PWA after they have worked 10 hours.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Dave N --

Open the project in question, then click Window - Split. Select the task in
question in the upper pane, then set the Work to 40 hours for each resource
in the lower pane. Make sure the Effort driven option is not selected in
the lower pane, and then click OK. Hope this helps.

 

[Dave N.]

The only problem with this approach is that my planned work increases for the
committed resource and the task. The task is a 40 hour task. Can I change
the task type to handle this?

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Dave N --

I believe I misunderstsood you when you said the task was a 40-hour task. I
thought you meant each team member would work 40 hours. To solve your
problem, here's what your team members would need to do while tracking work
on this task (and probably all tasks in your system):

1. Enter Actual Work on this task during each reporting period
2. If the Remaining Work has dropped to 0 hours, but the task is not
completed, increase the Remaining Work to a number greater than 0 hours
3. Update the project manager with the latest actuals

The key to this process is to train your team members how to adjust the
Remaining Work value on any task that is not completed, but on which the
Remaining Work value has calculated to 0 hours. Hope this helps.

 

[Dave N.]

Thanks Dale. This answers my question.

Dave N --

I believe I misunderstsood you when you said the task was a 40-hour task. I
thought you meant each team member would work 40 hours. To solve your
problem, here's what your team members would need to do while tracking work
on this task (and probably all tasks in your system):

1. Enter Actual Work on this task during each reporting period
2. If the Remaining Work has dropped to 0 hours, but the task is not
completed, increase the Remaining Work to a number greater than 0 hours
3. Update the project manager with the latest actuals

The key to this process is to train your team members how to adjust the
Remaining Work value on any task that is not completed, but on which the
Remaining Work value has calculated to 0 hours. Hope this helps.

 

[Dave N.]

I found that by choosing to view "All Tasks" on the sidebar menu, that you
can still enter time against a task that is considered completed. This is
what I was actually looking for. I don't want to increase the planned work
if I don't have to.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Dave N --

Yes, that works, too. Many people use the "Current tasks" option because
they don't want to see every task on their timesheets, but the down side of
using this feature is that it hides completed tasks.