How to prevent actual work from affecting plan?

[Mattias]

Hi,

I do this:
1. Create new, blank project.
2. Create a task, set a duration of 5 days, and assign it a resource.
3. The resource usage now says 8 hours of work during the upcoming 5
days.
4. Edit the task information and set the unit resource assignment to
50%.
5. The resource usage sheet now says 4 hours of work.

All this is as expected. Now let's say I have this plan, but in
reality it turns out that the resource works 8 hours and not 4 hours
during the first day. So I enter 8 hours as "actual work" for the
first day. Now, the unit assignment for the task is suddenly up at
100%. However, the actual planned work remains at 4 hours per day.

I can change the unit assignment back to 50%, but it doesn't actually
change anything. Regardless of whether I set 50% or 100% unit
assignment, it doesn't affect the actual assigned work; it remains at
4 hours / day.

Is there any way I can prevent the actual work from meddling with my
planned assignment etc? What should I do at this point to get the
remaining assigned work up to 8 hours a day? Basically, the way I see
it, what's happened has happened. It's the future that I want to plan
for, not the past.

Thanks,
Mattias

 

[Dave]

But just because your resource worked more on the first day of a task,
it is not necessarily the case that that pattern will continue for the
remainder of the task.

If you think that will happen, then you will have to tell the
application as you then know something that it doesn't and which it
can't work out.

(I hope I've understood your question correctly).

 

[Jim Aksel]

Try setting a baseline. Tools/Set baseline...
After saving a baseline, you will have memorized the dates and work assigned
to the tasks as of the instant you set the baseline.

Set a status date (Ptoject/Project Information...). Now when you change
your actual work you can still compare that to Baseline Work. So insert
these columns: Actual Work, Remaining Work, Actual Start, Actual
Finish,%Complete, Baseline Work, remaining duration.

So, as of a specific status date, your task will have actual work completed,
and you can specify the remaining work left to go. Let Project fill in the
%complete for you (it will change as the duratin of the task expands.

Read up a little on task types as well (you can do that in the help). tasks
can eb fixed uits, fixed work, fixed duration.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

Check out my blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com

 

[Mattias]

Hi Trevor & Jim, thanks for your replies.

OK, so I've tried all of this but I'm still seeing the same problem.
Here are my revised steps:

1. Create new, blank project.
2. Create a task, set a duration of 5 days, and assign it a resource.
3. The resource usage now says 8 hours of work for each of the
upcoming 5
days.
4. Edit the task information and set the unit resource assignment to
50%.
5. The resource usage sheet now says 4 hours of work per day.
6. Tools -> Tracking -> Set baseline. Press OK.
7. Project -> Project Information. Set status date to today's date.
8. Go to tracking gantt, add actual duration and actual start columns.
9. Set actual start to today's date.
10. Go to task usage, enter 8 hours of actual work.

After doing this, the unit assignment of the resource has implicitly
changed to 100%, hence I am unable to explicitly change it so that the
remaining work days change to 8 hours / day. IMO the task type should
have no bearing on my ability to modify the unit assignment, and in
particular the "fixed units" type should, well, keep the unit
allocation fixed. Not automatically double the unit allocation.

Mattias

 

[JulieS]

Hi Mattias,

Perhaps this will help. The assignment unit that you are seeing in
either the Gantt chart or next to the resource's name in a task view
is the resource's *highest * assignment unit -- not the assignment
unit for the remaining scheduled work.

You should still see 4 hours per day scheduled for each day in the
Task Usage view which equates to the 50% assignment unit you
specified. The 100% is the highest assignment unit and is coming
from the 8 hours of actual work in an 8 hour duration. Try adding
the Peak Units field to the right side (timescaled) portion of the
view -- it will show you the highest assignment unit per day.

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project


Hi Trevor & Jim, thanks for your replies.

OK, so I've tried all of this but I'm still seeing the same problem.
Here are my revised steps:

1. Create new, blank project.
2. Create a task, set a duration of 5 days, and assign it a
resource.
3. The resource usage now says 8 hours of work for each of the
upcoming 5
days.
4. Edit the task information and set the unit resource assignment to
50%.
5. The resource usage sheet now says 4 hours of work per day.
6. Tools -> Tracking -> Set baseline. Press OK.
7. Project -> Project Information. Set status date to today's date.
8. Go to tracking gantt, add actual duration and actual start
columns.
9. Set actual start to today's date.
10. Go to task usage, enter 8 hours of actual work.

After doing this, the unit assignment of the resource has implicitly
changed to 100%, hence I am unable to explicitly change it so that
the
remaining work days change to 8 hours / day. IMO the task type
should
have no bearing on my ability to modify the unit assignment, and in
particular the "fixed units" type should, well, keep the unit
allocation fixed. Not automatically double the unit allocation.

Mattias