Approve Task Updates

[Koen Verwimp]

Hello,

If a team member creates a new task to a project, can i configure Project
Server to automatically approve these task update ? (not the project manager)

greetz,
Koen

 

[Ben Howard]

No, all updates have to go via the project manager (or status manager), so
you have to automate at this level.

 

[Koen Verwimp]

Ben,

Thanks for replying!
But what do you mean with automate at this level.
How can i automate this approval procedure?

Greetz,
Koen

 

[Ben Howard]

What I meant that the only automatation options are done not globally at the
Project Server level, but they are managed and run at an individual Project
Manager level.

Assuming you are using 2007, then to automate the approval, for each project
manager, within Task Updates, click actions, manage rules and then click New
Rule. You've got various options within each rule, and you can have multiple
rules.

The process is similar for 2003.

 

[Koen Verwimp]

I forgot the existence of the rules!

Thanks a lot !
Koen

 

[Ben Howard]

No worries. Enjoy!

 

[peckhart]

The "automatic" rule for approving tasks is hardly automatic since the user
status manager still has to go into approvals and clcik a run rules button.
Is there anyway to truely make approvals automatic without having to have
user intervention? There are many cases where the approavl process simply
gets in the way.

 

[Ben Howard]

Try checking the field "automatically run this rule".

 

[peckhart]

All the checking of the "automatically run this rule" does is allows it to be
run when you press the Run Rules button.

 

[Ben Howard]

Not only my system. So I have a rule that automatically accepts updates from
me, I don't have to run it, it runs automatically.

 

[peckhart]

I suspect the only tasks that automatically get updated are the ones where
you are the Status Manager (the one who created them) and the Resource
assigned. Fortunately Project Server is smart enough to automatically
approve Tasks created by you and updated by you. Try creating a task for
someone else and have them update it via PWA, you will see that the task does
NOT get automatically approved. It will sit there in your approval bucket
waiting to get "manually approved" or until you clcik on the Run Rules button
at which point it will, as Microsoft says, get "automatically" approved.
There is nothing "automatic" about a user having to clcik on the Run Rules
button.

 

[Ben Howard]

This obviously needs further investigation, as I have another rule that
excepts everything, and in this case all updates, regardless of who they are
from, are automatically excepted. This rule runs automatically, without user
intervention.

Its another case of trying to work out what the system does/is supposed to do.

 

[peckhart]

I would love to know how you did this. Based on my testing and what I have
read this is not possible without creating a cusotm process that runs in the
backgorund to act as a Project superuser and to run through all tasks and do
this programmatically.

How did you set thsi up?

 

[Ben Howard]

This was just set up in the UI. Note that it processes for All My Current
and Future resources, so you'll need to be using the RBS for this, or change
the category settings for My Resources.

 

[peckhart]

I have had it set to that and it still only approves tasks that I am the
Status Manager of.

Do you create all the tasks for your proejcts or do othes also create them?

 

[Ben Howard]

But that's correct. Each rule is effectively run by the user, and a user
only sees the updates for which they are the status manager. What we are
doing here is automating a single PMs approval process, so that he
automatically approves all his updates.

 

[peckhart]

Let me restate the issue. All users have the rule setup as you described to
approve task updates. The problem come sin when a task created by someone
other than the user who is making the update to a task submits the change.
The approval goes to the "Status Manager" or the person who actually created
the task. In our situation this is someoen different than the person making
the update to the task. Whne the taks approval request goes to the Status
Manager the automatic rules does NOT automatically run until the Status
Manger clciks on the Run All Rules button.

For example: If i create a task for myself in a project and make changes to
the at task it will automatically approve without me having to click on the
Run All Rules button. If I create a task for anotehr person in my group and
they update the task the approval comes to me (as Status Manager since I
created the task) and it does NOT get automatically approved unless I clcik
on the Run All Rules button in PWA.

I have yet to find a way to have task updates be automatically approved by
someone other than the person who created the task. In my mind clivking on a
the Run All Rules button is not automatic, it is manual.

 

[Ben Howard]

When you state this....

I have yet to find a way to have task updates be automatically approved by
someone other than the person who created the task.

.... this is not possible. Only the status manager can approve the update
(automatically or not).

In the previous post, when I said all his updates, I meant all the updates
that are awaiting to be approved by him, rather than his tasks, which I
assume is what you read... So, a PM can automatically accept all the updates
that have come to him (as he is the status manager) from the resources that
have updated the tasks in the my tasks page of PWA. This automatic
acceptance is done via the rules as I have described. It works happily for
me on several customer sites, and I would not envisage it working any other
way. I do not have to get PMs to run the rule as you describe.

 

[peckhart]

I can think of a lot of reasons why Tasks should automatically approved once
submitted, regardless of who they are (PM, Status Manager or anyone else).
This is a limitation of Project Server 2007 and is made worse by Microsoft
trying to pass off manual processes as "automatic". A click of a button, how
automatic is that?

I guess you are lucky enough to only have customers running project server
2007 in a perfect world where the Status Manager (PM in your case) is the one
creating and assigning the all the tasks, therefore allowing him to
automatically approve all the status updates.

Lucky you!

 

[Sam]

Ben,

I noticed that whenever you automatically approve updates through a rule
whether manual or automatic the update gets accepted but it doesn't publish
the update back to the project. To publish accepted projects via rules you
then need to go into the Applied Requests and Errors page, select each update
and then click the publish button for them to be applied to the project.
Needing to do this extra step almost makes approving updates via a rule a
more lengthy process than approving them manually without using rules.

Is anyone else experience this same problem and if so has anyone figured out
a viable solution?

Thanks,
Sam