Work/Actual Work/Remaining Work

[Joy]

This might not be a VBA question. We found the issue below when developing a
tool to automatically copy values, so I post it here.

Suppose I have a task with Work data:

Work Actual Work Remaining Work
15 0 15



1. If I update Remaining Work to 4, Work is updated to 4 accordingly. Then
if I update Actual Work to 11, Remaining Work is set to 0, and Work is set to
11.


2. If I update Actual Work to 11 first. I notice that Work and Remaining
Work do not change accordingly. Then I update Remaining Work to 4, and Work
is changed to 15 (=4+11), which works OK.


Why the order I enter values to the 2 fields (Actual Work and Remaining
Work) matters? Is there any way that can copy values whichever I update first?

 

[Andrew Lavinsky]

That's working as designed. Let's step through it.

Example 1:

1) Work = 15h
2) You set Remaining Work to 4h. In effect, this is stating that for this
unstarted task, Remaining Work =4h, therefore Work =4h as Work = Remaining
Work + Actual Work, and in this case, Actual Work is fixed at 0.
3) If you now set Actual Work to 11, you're basically stating that the task
went over budget, and the total work was 11 hours. Remaining Work was 4
from the prior calculation, but you've now said you've done 11 hours of work,
which yields a calculation of Work = Remaining Work + Actual Work, or X =
0 + 11, or X = 11.

Example 2:

1) Work = 15h
2) Actual Work = 11h. Remaining Work = Work - Actual Work, therefore Remaining
Work = 4. Note that Work will not change as it was set to 15, which is Actual
Work + Remaining Work. I am not sure why Remaining Work has not recalculated,
and suggest you recheck that, as I can't think of a reason why it would not
be calculating if automatic calculations are turned on.

Project is just calculating a three variable equation based on the variables
given. As you adjust one of the variables, Project fixes the second, and
calculates the third. The trick is figuring out which gets fixed, and which
gets recalculated at each turn.

I guess the question is what exactly are you trying to accomplish - then
we can identify the appropriate sequence of events that needs to happen.


- Andrew Lavinsky
Blog: http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/epm

 

[Joy]

Yeah, I think I might have turned automatic calculations off.
Thank you for the answer. That's really helpful!

I have another question:
Does the setting Default task type (Fixed Units/Duration/Work) under Options
-> Schedule help to fix Work values? I tested and found they have nothing to
do with the issue discussed...

 

[Andrew Lavinsky]

Not unless you have resources assigned. Task types control the impact of
Work edits on Duration or Resource Units.

If you had resources assigned and changed the task type to Fixed Units, then
editing Work as you had done would result in recalculated Duration.

Just remember the basic calculation: Duration X (Units X Person Hours Per
Day) = Work.

When you fix one variable through task types, you edit the second, and the
third variable is recalculated.

- Andrew Lavinsky
Blog: http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/epm