Actual Work - Distributed in Future

[Mike Kleiman]

While analysing one of our MS Project 2007 plans, I noticed that one of the
resources has Actual Work entries for future dates - all the way through
April, 2008. This doesn't seem possible and definately isn't legitimate e.g.
he hasn't worked those hours yet and they shouldn't be in the plan as actuals
- IMHO.

We do have a timesheet tool that automatically updates daily actuals onto
our plans and my first thought was that this individual processed future
timesheets and somehow got them through the approval process and got the
hours progressed down to the plan. I ruled this out because this individual
is not ahead on his timesheets.

Microsoft Project automatically distributes planned work but does it do
anything automagically that might explain how future actuals could be present
in the plan?

I appreciate your help.

Mike Kleiman

 

[Mike Kleiman]

We can ignore this one... I identified how it can happen....

Changing % Work Complete in the Gantt view autopopulates the actual work and
distributes it across the task start/end span with respect to predicessors /
resource availability and I'm sure other stuff.

Regards,

Mike

 

[JulieS]

Hi Mike,

Congratulations on working it out -- I was just about to post some
information that I hope you'll still find useful. When you assign
resources to tasks Project will spread work for that resource at an even
spread across the duration of the task. For example, a three week
duration task with a single resource assigned at 25% will cause project
to spread the 30 hours of work across the 21 days at an even rate of 10
hours per week.. If during the first week, the resource simply reports
actual work of 20 hours, but you supply no further information, Project
will assume the resource has already worked on the task for two weeks
duration.

You need to look further into how your actual work is being imported.
It sounds like it's just being "bulk" imported and not timephased.

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

 

[MaryK]

You refer to "further information" - what other field(s) should be updated to
stop Project from pushing actual work into future time periods?

Thanks!

 

[JulieS]

Hi Mary,

I'm afraid I don't understand your question. My "further
information" was related to Mike's specific query relating to
imported data.

As I noted in my reply to Mike, if you simply enter a % complete
project will base the actual duration based upon planned progress.
If you need to record that a resource worked more actual hours per
day (or week) than was planned, you need to work with timescaled
work -- not just % complete.

Are you using Project server? What release? What service pack? If
you are using Project Server, you'd be better served by posting your
complete question to the project server newsgroup. If you are not
using Project server, please tell us specifically more about your
situation.

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

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Julie refers to information telling Project WHEN the 20 hours of work took
place
You can enter actual work by period (day, week, depending on the minor
timescale) in Task Usage or Resource Usage view: right-click on the right
part and select Actua Work.


--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf