Cannot remove a resource from a task

[Christina]

MS Project 2003, Project SErver 2003

Just when I thought I understood the nuances of when/ how to remove a
resource from a task, I experience a situation that has me thoroughly
stumped. This is long but I wanted to be very thorough.

Situation:
I have a task that has 2 resources assigned to it.
Duration = 1 day
Work = 1 hour
Task was set to Fixed Units, Effort Driven
Resources are each 50% allocated to the task, therefore scheduled for .5
hours each.

I find out that the work was completed by one resource (in .5 hours) and the
second resource is not needed. Therefore, my plan was to remove the
unnecessary resource from this task. The first resource had submitted her
update and it was approved, reflecting her assigned was 100% complete and the
task as 50% complete. The second person had not entered anything at all and
was showing as 0% complete.

What I did:
Open project and go to Task Usage View
Zeroed out remaining work for the 2nd resource (noticed that % Work Complete
was 100%, not 0% as I would have expected)
Republished only his assignment and overwrote work entered by him (he had
not entered any updates at all).
Selected the task and clicked on Tools/ Assign Resources to select the
resource I wanted to remove
Received a message saying that there are already actuals associated with
this task and did I really want to delete them.

Confused, I said No and just left the second resource assigned to the task
with 0 work assigned. Since the first resource had completed all of the work
for the task, the task shows as complete.

My question is: Why did the task say there were actuals reported when I
tried to remove just the resource that did no work (and absolutely did not
update anything in their timesheet)? Is it because there were actuals
reported by another resource and their work was considered "complete"? And
since the task had been effort driven, Project would have wanted to assign
the 2nd resource's work to the first?

I ran into this same situation with a task that had 3 people assigned. Also
effort driven. Tried to zero out one resource's assignment. The 2nd
resource was complete and the 3rd had no actuals reported yet. After zeroing
out the 1st resources's RW, I tried to remove them from the task and noticed
that project was also asking me how I wanted to divide up the remaining work.
I said to reduce work since the task required less resources. I then
received the same message about actuals already being reported and did I want
to delete them. I said no. The resource I removed from the task
re-appeared. I republished the task and noticed that the resource I had
initially removed and subsequently re-appeared was now receiving a new
assignment.

Please help me to understand this behavior. I am creating internal
procedures for PMs and need to be able to explain why this is happening.

Thank you in advance!
Christina

 

[Chak]

Hi Christina,

The reason is, you assigned two resources on single task. Actual work
is associated with single task in your case.

There are actuals assigned to that task as first resource submitted
the actual work. So when you are removing the second resource, MS
Project says there are actuals associated with the task and you got
prompted to delete or not.

You did correct thing by selecting "No" on delete actual work prompt.

Alternatively, you can set Resource availability as 0 % for second
resource, it is equivalent to removing the resource from the task.

Thanks
Chak
http://www.epmcentral.com

 

[Christina]

Chak-

Thank you for replying! That does make sense. To be sure I understand,
does that mean that if I had wanted to replace the first resource with a new
resource, I would not be able to do that if any actuals were entered on the
task? I have been told that a best practice for replacing a resource is to
close out the original assignment first, remove the original resource from
the task, and then add the new resource. If any actuals were entered, even
if by a different person, I would not be able to "replace" the resource,
correct?

This is probably a dumb question, but how would I set Resource Availability
to 0%? Just change the % effort to 0% on that task? Or are you saying to
change it at the project level? I was thinking that if it's the latter, I
wouldn't be able to assign them to any task in the schedule. And, Project
doesn't let me change availability for a resource within a project. Only
from the Enterprise Resource Pool.

Thanks!
Christina

 

[Chak]

Christina,

I mean to say Units not Resource availability.

As you know, you can set the Units in Task information window under
Resource tab.

Thanks
Chak

 

[Jonathan Sofer [MVP]]

Christina,

I think the reason you are getting this message is because when you zero out
remaining work on a resource that has done zero work, it leaves a 0 under
"Work" and under "Actual Work" for that resource assignment on the first day
of the task. Include "Actual Work" in the time phased section of the task
usage view and you will see what I mean. So then when you try to remove the
resource, the system detects that there is an entry value of 0 under "Actual
Work" and it treats it as a valid value. If it was blank it would not treat
it as a value.

If the resource never did any work on the task and you plan to delete that
resource's assignment, you should not zero out remaining work but rather
just remove the resource. You will get the end result that you want. i.e.
if the task is effort driven, the work that you are removing will be
re-distributed to the other resources on the task. And if your task is not
effort driven the total work for the task will be reduced appropriately.

Zeroing our remaining work is appropriate only if the resource has already
done some of the work they were planned to do and you want to keep that on
record. And in that case, you would not delete that resource's assignment.

Hope this helps.

 

[Christina]

Jonathan-

First, thank you so much for adding your comments. This has been so
confusing

Originally we tried the procedure you mentioned. But we have seen several
issues if a resource is removed without "closing out the assignment" in that
the assignment still shows up in the resource's timesheet, even though the
task no longer reflects them as being assigned to it in the Project itself.

The result is that we have ended up with many "orphaned" assignments. But
perhaps there was a step that I was missing.

So, in the situation I mentioned, if I had selected the task, gone to Tools/
Assign Resources and removed the person from the task, the work would have
been reduced or redistributed. Then, I would need to republish New and
Changed ASsignments, which should send a notification to the resource that
they have been removed and places an "X" in their timesheet, yes? So should
their timesheet show 0 hours of work scheduled and 0 hours remaining? When
we have seen the orphaned assignments, the person's timesheet still reflects
the originally scheduled time. So I'm wondering where we went wrong.

Thank you!
Christina

 

[Christina]

That makes sense. Thank you!!

Christina,

I mean to say Units not Resource availability.

As you know, you can set the Units in Task information window under
Resource tab.

Thanks
Chak

 

[Jonathan Sofer [MVP]]

Christina,

I think the timesheet for the resources will show an "X" next to the
assignment to show that it has been deleted but it will probably still show
the originally scheduled time. When you say orphaned assignments do you
mean ones that show as "X"ed or are they still showing as active
assignments? The former is probably working by design and the latter would
indicate an issue somewhere.

If you are concerned with resources seeing old "X" (deleted) assignments and
the originally schedule work as well then try this process instead on a
project:

1) Go to the "Resource Sheet" view
2) Change the "Booking Type" of the resource to "Proposed"
3) Republish Assignments (Choose only selected tasks if you want to remove
the assignment for specific tasks, otherwise entire project)
4) Follow process below where you remove the resource via the Tools>Assign
Resources
5) If the resource is still on other activities, it is a good idea to change
the "Booking Type" back to "Committed"
6) Re-publish Assignments again just to be safe.

 

[Christina]

Thanks Jonathan-

I have noticed that I don't receive the message asking me if I really want
to delete actuals if I am removing a resource from a task where no work has
happened AND they are the only resource assigned to that task.

So I think I will try what both you and Chak suggested to see if it provides
the expected results. Once I feel comfortable of the procedures to follow in
a given situation, I will incorporate all of this into our procedures.

Thank you so much for your help!
Christina

 

[Christina]

Hi Jonathan-

I recently changed the Booking Type for resources in a project in an attempt
to remove all assignments from resource timesheets. This worked for all
tasks except for deleted tasks where there was remaining work. So I'm
wondering if we would still need to "zero out" remaining work on tasks where
the resource is being removed.

Christina

 

[Christina]

Sorry... hit Post before I was done.

I was going to ask if Deleted assignments will still show up in the
resource's timesheet (assuming they haven't already hidden them) when their
Booking Type in the project is changed to Proposed? Meaning that they would
still need to manually "hide" the deleted tasks/ assignments.

 

[Shawn Everingham]

Christina,

I am enjoying reading this post, as I have also struggled with this
situation you presented so well.

What bothers me, is that you have two different opinions on how to fix...but
that's another story...

If you are just trying to get these tasks off of a resource timesheet (so
their timesheet isn't pages long or their my tasks view isn't pages long...)
try the publish column in your project. Unpublish tasks you don't want a
resource to see and publish tasks you want resources TO see.

Not sure if that adds complexity to this issue for you or not..but throwing
it out there.

I am copying this post into a document for future reference. Thanks! and
good luck!

 

[Christina]

Shawn-

I'm sorry... I just now noticed your post.

This may be a silly question, but what is the procedure for "unpublishing" a
task? I wasn't aware this was an option and sounds like something that could
make my life much easier!

Christina

 

[Gary L. Chefetz]

Christina:

In any task view, such as the Gantt Chart view, add the Publish column to
the view. Set the publish field to NO for the task, and publish the project
plan. This will "unpublish" that task.

--
----------
Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
Project Server Training: http://www.projectservertraining.com
Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com
Project Server Help Blog: http://www.projectserverhelp.com

 

[Christina]

Gary-

Thank you! This will be a great "tool" to add to my toolbelt

Christina

 

[Christina]

Gary- perhaps I spoke too soon. I tried inserting this field but I cannot
find Published in the list of field names. Is this only available in MSP
2007?

Christina

 

[Gary L. Chefetz]

Yes, Christina. We have to assume that you are using the latest version
unless you specify otherwise. This is why I usually do not respond to me-too
posts. See: http://www.projectserverhelp.com/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?ID=5

Let us know what your setup looks like.

--
----------
Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
Project Server Training: http://www.projectservertraining.com
Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com
Project Server Help Blog: http://www.projectserverhelp.com

 

[Christina]

Hi Gary-

I'm sorry. I didn't think to re-state our environment when I replied. I
included it in the very beginning of the post since I have read many posts
urging the need to disclose this information. I know that it makes it
difficult for people to respond without knowing the version.

We are on MSP 2003, PS 2003

Christina

 

[Christina]

Jonathan-

I'm not sure if you will see this... but I have tried this procedure several
times with the same result. The assignment does not come off of the
resource's timesheet. There is not an "X" next to the assignment, even
though I did receive the message stating that a notice to the resource
telling them they were removed from the assignment. So unfortunately, I have
a couple of orphan assignments that I can't fix. :-( I think I will go back
to changing Units to 0% unless someone is able to offer an alternative
procedure.

Thanks for your help, though.
~Christina