Tasks that start early or finish late updated via Web Access 2007

[stevio]

In MS project 2007 you can update tasks that were scheduled to happen in the
future if they got done sooner than expected, and project will automatically
sort out moving this back to the status date.

These are the options that enable that (+ some sub options):
Move end of completed parts after status date back to status date
Move start of remaining parts before status date forward to status date

I cannot get the same behaviour using tasks updated using Web Access which
is critical to our deployment. If I update a task due to start in 6 months
time and mark it as 10% done, the result is a task starting in 6 months time
that is 10% done, rather than what I'd expected - a task marked as being 10%
done as of today (the status report date).

Thanks for any help, I suspect this is a simple once you know the answer..

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

stevio --

If you want to use the % Work Complete method of tracking progress, we
recommend that you add the Actual Start and Actual Finish fields to the My
Tasks page. This will solve your problem completely, although it requires a
little more work on the part of your team members. Without an Actual Start
date, Project Server 2007 assumes that the task started AS SCHEDULED. Hope
this helps.

 

[stevio]

Dale, thanks for your very quick reply - great forum

It is a requirement that we keep the developer input to an absolute minimum
or they will go back to using Wiki pages :-(

add the Actual Start and Actual Finish fields

Yes, I know that will work but I don't want our team to need to worry about
start and finish dates when giving updates - it'll go wrong. We also use the
days done/days remaining update process as % complete is not great for
software where its always 90% done!

Is there a way of getting this to work in the same way that MS project
itself does?

Steve

 

[Jonathan Sofer]

I have a feeling this will not work as you want because most likely task
updates from PWA are treated as actual hours per day regardless of what
tracking method you use on PWA.

So even though your resources are updating progress with % complete, it is
translated over in Project Pro as actual hours reported on a day by day
basis (as if you were entering actuals in through the Task or Resource Usage
views). This is my best guess, if anyone else has any insight please
respond.

Thanks,

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Steve --

No, there's no way to force the My Tasks page in PWA to act like Microsoft
Project 2007. That's why I recommend you use the Actual Start and Actual
Finish fields. Hope this helps.

 

[stevio]

Ok, thanks for your help. Amazingly simple thing for it not to do as it has
all the information it needs (status date, days done, days remaining).

Still, I will go for adding an actual start date and getting the developers
to add it the first time they update a particular task. Levelling should take
care of the rest.

I don't suppose there is a way of getting the web interface to insist on an
actual start date being added before allowing an update to be submitted?

Cheers,
Steve

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Steve --

There's no default way to force a user to enter an Actual Start date.
Therefore, you need to make this a training and performance issue with your
organization's team members. Hope this helps.

 

[stevio]

Posting in case anyone is interested.

I eventually worked around this annoyance by saving a kind of interim plan
using VBA on every project save. On project open (or on demand) this is
compared with the current data. Any changes are found are filtered into a
view automatically to show just the modified tasks and the user is given the
option to "Fix the damn update" for each task. If you says "Yes", this simply
removes the update (e.g. sets the days done/days remaining back to what they
were) and then it reapplies the update. This means that web updates now
behave as if you'd done them manually using the more intelligent algorithms
within Project Pro.

Stevio