Tasks update alerts are sent to all resources

[Uttkarsh Kalia]

Hi All,
I am using EPM 2007 with SQL Server 2005 on small scale deployment.

Problem: Project Manager publishes certain tasks in a plan, task update
notification emails are going to all the members in the team.
I would like to have notifications on task updates to be sent only to the
resource assigned for that particular task.

Example, a task start and end date changed, I want to publish only that
particular task in the plan, and I want a notification to be sent to the
resources assigned for that task only.

Steps performed:
1. Open Project Professional login to the Project Server.
2. Open exiting published project plan and make changes to a task activity.
3. Insert Column Publish and from tasks id 1-3 select NO.
4. Task ID 4 select YES and Publish the project plan.

Any suggestions or recommendation will be highly appreciated.

Thanks in Advance!

UK

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Uttkarsh --

Unfortunately, what you are seeing appears to be the default behavior of
Project Server 2007. Whether this is a bug or by design, either way it is
very annoying. The avalance of e-mails from Project Server 2007 begins to
feel like spam to team members and they will probably end up deleting every
message they get from Project Server. My advice is to teach team members to
deselect the option for e-mail notifications about schedule changes, but
leave the option selected to be notified about new tasks or new projects.
This options are found under Personal Settings - Manage My Alerts and
Reminders. Hope this helps.

 

[Uttkarsh Kalia]

Hi Dale,

Thanks for your comments. To deselect the option for e-mail notifications
about schedule changes, and leaving the option selected to be notified about
new tasks or new projects. This will not work in real-time any organization
who invest in implementation of Project Management tool, they will definitely
be interested to see changes if any on the project activities directory or
indirectly.

What I understood is there can be another possible cause for this is in user
projects when many resources are assigned to the same task. One resource
makes an update to their assignment, and in a task this may change the task
(finish date usually) so the default behavior is to notify all resources on
the task of the change.

Furthermore, email notices were going out to resources that had not
submitted any work for their assignments. If a resource submitted actual
work that changed start date of the administrative task, resources that had
not submitted any updates yet will get their scheduled start date change and
receive an email notice that the manager has made a change to their
assignment. If new updates are submitted now that are later than the current
start the resources should not get an email except for the resource
submitting the update.

However let’s take a scenario if project manager just amend one task details
e.g. Task A to Task AA and select the option of publish only this particular
task and there is only one resource assigned. Also I like to mention that
there are no changes on the duration or start/finish date for this project.
System still sends alerts to all the resources assigned to this particular
project which is bazaar.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Uttkarsh --

Like I said in my previous post, this appears to be the default behavior of
Project Server 2007, annoying or not. I know of no way around this problem
other than selecting the option for receiving alerts about task changes,
which you said won't work in the real world. Hope this helps.