What is the Sync To Protected Actuals for in MSPS 2007?

[JenStover]

Is this feature solely for the purposes of syncing up with the values in PWA
in the event Actual Work gets inadvertently deleted from the Resource Usage
view?

1 - if that's all it's for -why don't they just not allow us to delete
Actual Work:?
2 - if it is for more than that, can someone please let me know!
3 - how would i be able to easily tell that the two were out of sync to know
to use the feature?

Thanks!

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

JenStover --

The feature is the same in Project Server 2007 as it was in Project Server
2003: to require that all task updates be accepted from PWA and to prevent
project managers from manually entering or deleting progress in their
Microsoft Project plans. Is your organization actually using this feature?
Let us know.

 

[JenStover]

IN 2003 we absolutely used it to get AWP and AW in sync after they got out of
sync (which they ALWAYS did). They'd get out of sync in a variety of ways,
mostly by PMs marking tasks as 100% Complete without removing Remaining Work.

We actually found that these out of sync projects caused problems in
multiple ways from data getting to the cube to actual data migration to MSPS
2007.

I get why we had the feature in 2003, as we used it. But we needed it
because it was really easy to inadvertently alter AW and get the two out of
sync. And it was really easy to tell when they were out of sync because we'd
just put the two columns next to each other in a view.

I had high hopes because AWP was gone and thought that would be the end of
this problem. But it seems it is still a problem because the feature exists.
I just have no idea how i'm going to know when to use it because I don't
know how to tell easily if they're out of sync or not.

Are there situations where a PM would WANT to change actuals in the plan?
And that's why they still allow it?

Thanks for your help.

Jen
Scratching my head again.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Jen --

The answers to your questions lie with how your organization manages
projects, so I doubt I can answer them for you. If your organization
requires the use of Managed Time Periods, then your PMs cannot enter any
actual progress manually in the Microsoft Project plan, with the exception
of Milestones. If your plans are getting out of synch, then you have a
people and process issue, rather than a software issue. Hope this helps.

 

[JenStover]

We are not using Timesheets nor managed periods. Our PMs can update actuals
in the Resource Usage view or by marking something 100% complete. Of course
its a people and process problem but the tool doesn't prevent it from
happening so I'm back to manually finding where the problem exists so that I
can fix it.

So I go back to my question: does anyone know how I can tell if the actuals
are out of sync?

Thanks.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

JenStover --

If you are not using Managed Time Periods, then the "out of synch" situation
is not relevant. I'm curious why you are asking this question in the first
place. Are your users seeing "out of synch" messages? And are your PMs
remembering to publish their projects after they manually enter progress?
Let us know and we will try to help.

We are not using Timesheets nor managed periods. Our PMs can update
actuals
in the Resource Usage view or by marking something 100% complete. Of
course
its a people and process problem but the tool doesn't prevent it from
happening so I'm back to manually finding where the problem exists so that
I
can fix it.

So I go back to my question: does anyone know how I can tell if the
actuals
are out of sync?

Thanks.

 

[JenStover]

Thanks for sticking with me on this.

I initially asked why the feature is even there because I couldn't figure
out how the out of sync situation would even be created if Actual Work
Protected was gone. Unfortunatley, that out of sync is created under the
circumstances mentioned earlier (manually adjusting % Complete for
non-milestones and fat fingering in Resource Usage). In either case, Actual
Work no longer matches what My Tasks has in it and we are then out of sync.
And yes there is a pop-up on the MS Project side that tells us this but it
can easily be ignored. I would LOVE for the users to avoid the behavior that
creates it in the first place, but it's going to continue to happen.

Once I realized we can still create the condition of being out of sync, I
started trying to find a way to easily identify where we are out of sync.


--
JenGoSto

We are not using Timesheets nor managed periods. Our PMs can update actuals
in the Resource Usage view or by marking something 100% complete. Of course
its a people and process problem but the tool doesn't prevent it from
happening so I'm back to manually finding where the problem exists so that I
can fix it.

So I go back to my question: does anyone know how I can tell if the actuals
are out of sync?

Thanks.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

JenStover --

Now I'm really confused! Are you the Project Server administrator for your
organization? If so, please do the following:

1. Log into PWA with administrator permissions.
2. Click Server Settings - Task Settings and Display.

In the Project User Updates section of the page, have you selected the
"Restrict updates to Project Web Access" option, by chance? If so, you are
using one part of the Managed Time Periods functionality. With this option
selected, the system only allows a a PM to update progress into an
enterprise project by accepting task updates from PWA. The only exception
to this is that the PM can manually enter progress on Milestone tasks.

So, do you have this option selected? If so, that is the source of the "out
of synch" error messages your users are seeing. And if, so, why are you
using this option if your PMs need to manually enter progress in their
Microsoft Project plans? Let us know and we will try to help.