Closing Tasks and keeping them closed.

Gina · May 10, 2006

Hello,

I have a question regarding closing tasks on Project Server. Currently our
plan is a fixed duration plan due to the type/nature of the project. When i
need to close a task with actual hours applied, the task will close.

Using Project server, I will then publish and Sync the plan to make sure i
have everything updated. I can close a task no problem when i have actual
work applied. However the issue I am running into is tasks not closing or
staying closed out when no actual work was ever assigned or remaining work
was zeroed out becuase no work was necessary to complete the task.

I close the task and then go to publish it and the task will re-open up. I
have changed the task type to fixed work as sometimes that helps. However it
doesn't matter what the task type is. The tasks keep re-opening.

I was told to go into PWA and do an "Adjust Actuals' to resources on those
tasks. However i get an error message that says my login has expired, even
though i just logged into PWA.

Has anyone ever seen this issue within Project Server? An if so, What did
you do to keep tasks closed. Currently is keeps showing we have tasks due
but are truly not due. Should of been closed 3-4 months ago. But keep
re-opening.

HELP.

Thank you in advance.

Gina

tonyzink · May 11, 2006

Hi Gina --

I have a few questions for you...

1. If you are using the "Adjust Actuals" feature and synchronizing,
then I assume that your Project Server is configured to use Managed
Timesheet Periods... is this correct?

2. What exact steps are you taking when you attempt to close tasks?
There are different methods that you can use, depending upon your
Project Server configuration and the nature of your tasks.

3. What is the Service Pack level on your Project Server and on your
copy of Project Professional (desktop)?

Thanks!

Tony Zink
========================================
http://www.msprojectreporter.com
http://www.pmreporter.com
http://www.sharepointreporter.com
http://www.msofficereporter.com
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========================================

Gina · May 11, 2006

Hi Tony and Thanks. Any other ideas, I am open to trying.

Please see answers below:

tonyzink said:
Hi Gina --

I have a few questions for you...

1. If you are using the "Adjust Actuals" feature and synchronizing,
then I assume that your Project Server is configured to use Managed
Timesheet Periods... is this correct?

Yes I am using the Adjust Actuals Feature and Sync'ing up with Project
Server. I would assume that since we are using Project Server for time
entry, I would say Yes.

2. What exact steps are you taking when you attempt to close tasks?
There are different methods that you can use, depending upon your
Project Server configuration and the nature of your tasks.

I have done several things:
Example
1) I use a split screen in the Gantt Chart view, click on the task to be
closed, verify remaining hours to be zero, and in percentage complete, type
100% or go to my tool bars and click on 100% complete. (all done with Fixed
Duration Task Type)
2) Using split screen in Gantt Chart view, Click on task to be closed,
verify remaining hours to be zero, change task type to Fixed Work, type in
100% for % complete, and/or clicked on 100% complete button on tool bar.

3) I have even added a column called Actual Finish, Typed in actual finish
date to the close task(s).

ALL actions then require to publish the updates and save the work plan back
to the server.

Once it publishes, tasks re-open. I have even tried to change the task type
to fixed units with no luck.

3. What is the Service Pack level on your Project Server and on your
copy of Project Professional (desktop)?

On my puter- MS PRO- SP2, on server - SP2 will be installed on the 17th of
May.

tonyzink · May 12, 2006

Hi Gina --

When closing resourced tasks (tasks which have resources assigned),
reducing Remaining Work to 0hrs should close them... assuming that some
actual work hours have been applied. When closing non-resourced tasks,
marking 100% complete should do the trick.

Speaking of resourced and non-resourced tasks, this brings up another
question: Are you only assigning resources to "regular" tasks, or are
you also assigning them to milestones or summaries?

The service pack could be causing your grief; the levels on the server
and the desktop should be up to date and should match. However, in this
case, the current service pack level for Project Pro is SP2, and for
Project Server SP2a (these work together).

Good luck!

Tony Zink
========================================
http://www.msprojectreporter.com
http://www.pmreporter.com
http://www.sharepointreporter.com
http://www.msofficereporter.com
http://www.dotnetreporter.com
========================================

Gina · May 12, 2006

Thanks Tony,

I totally agree with what your saying. These are tasks, It is policy here
that you never assign a resource to a summary or milestone task within a work
plan. PM Standards suggest the same.

Some tasks i have a resource assigned with 0 remaining work and other tasks
i have no resource assigned. Either way, you are correct that it should stay
closed.

I am hoping this issue gets fixed when our server gets updated next week. I
had to hold off on putting SP2 on due too another patch that wasn't part of
SP2 workstation. Once i put taht one, then i updated to SP2.

Do you have any other ideas of the cause besides the conflict of unmatch
SPs.

One thing i have learned about MS Project, if it seems logical and simple,
it doesn't work.

thank you , gina

Nate · Jun 7, 2006

Hello Gina:

We ran into what sounds like a similar situation whn we migrated from non
managed to managed time periods.

We were running Sp1 clisent and server and after MTP was deployed any time a
PM would synch to protected actuals closed tasks would reopen. Soecifically
any tasks that had a resource with scheduled work but no actual work reported
and some fixed duration tasks that may or may not have had resources with
work scheduled and not reported.

After some digging, I discovered a post SP1 client side hotfix that seems to
have taken care of these (and other) issues.

The hotfix is dated January 13, 2005 and I will post the kb number when I am
able to get at my corporate machine.

You can also lok for "resource contour flat" in the ms kb.

Hope that the information helps,
--Nate

Gina · Jun 7, 2006

Thanks Nate,

I am fully upgraded to SP2 now, but have not looked at closing tasks
recently due to a re-org of the work plan due to a new PM for the program.

Please let me know about the KB number so I can look for it. I am very
curious to see if that works and then I want to present it to our other team
members.

Gina

Jen@Aurora · Jun 8, 2006

Hi Gina - We experienced the same problem with our enterprise system. We
spent months on the phone with microsoft support trying to get them to
understand the problem. After we finally got to someone in Seattle she took
our problem to the software developers. We were up to date on all service
packs and hotfixes and still experiencing the problem. Microsoft promised a
post SP2a hotfix that will fix this problem. We have been waiting on this
hotfix for months. In the mean time we add [Closed] to the task name of
every task that should be closed and allow the remaining work for resources
with 0 actual and 0 remaining work to change to 1 hour. We also added an
enterprise flag field that shows the task is complete so we can filter the 1
hour of remaining work out of microsoft access reports we pull from our OLAP
cube.

Gina · Jun 9, 2006

Jen,

I know that with SP1 there was an issue with 1 hour adding to a task when
you zeroed out hours and try to close it. The patch is on MS website
"Project2003-KB837240-FullFile-ENU.exe or
Project2003SP2-KB887620-FullFile-ENU.exe" that will solve the additional
hour/close task out issue.

With server version, I have been finding a lot more different issues than i
did with the stand alone version. This can be a frustrating process as our
company hasn't added some of the flags as necessary.

I have also found closed work plans re-open. Have you seen that issue too?

Gina

Jen@Aurora said:
Hi Gina - We experienced the same problem with our enterprise system. We
spent months on the phone with microsoft support trying to get them to
understand the problem. After we finally got to someone in Seattle she took
our problem to the software developers. We were up to date on all service
packs and hotfixes and still experiencing the problem. Microsoft promised a
post SP2a hotfix that will fix this problem. We have been waiting on this
hotfix for months. In the mean time we add [Closed] to the task name of
every task that should be closed and allow the remaining work for resources
with 0 actual and 0 remaining work to change to 1 hour. We also added an
enterprise flag field that shows the task is complete so we can filter the 1
hour of remaining work out of microsoft access reports we pull from our OLAP
cube.

Gina said:

Thanks Nate,

I am fully upgraded to SP2 now, but have not looked at closing tasks
recently due to a re-org of the work plan due to a new PM for the program.

Please let me know about the KB number so I can look for it. I am very
curious to see if that works and then I want to present it to our other team
members.

Gina

Click to expand...

bgriffwork · Jul 28, 2006

Hi, Gina.

Our implementation is experiencing the same thing. We have Fixed Duration
plans, and when activities are % Work Complete 100, sometimes % Complete is
not 100. We were told that we should use Tools > Tracking > Update Tasks and
set Remaining Duration to 0. Sometimes this seems to work, but when the
plans are closed and reopened, the tasks are no longer % Complete 100. Is
this similar to what you saw?

Can you describe your final solution? Was it a software patch?

Gina said:
Jen,

I know that with SP1 there was an issue with 1 hour adding to a task when
you zeroed out hours and try to close it. The patch is on MS website
"Project2003-KB837240-FullFile-ENU.exe or
Project2003SP2-KB887620-FullFile-ENU.exe" that will solve the additional
hour/close task out issue.

With server version, I have been finding a lot more different issues than i
did with the stand alone version. This can be a frustrating process as our
company hasn't added some of the flags as necessary.

I have also found closed work plans re-open. Have you seen that issue too?

Gina

Jen@Aurora said:

Hi Gina - We experienced the same problem with our enterprise system. We
spent months on the phone with microsoft support trying to get them to
understand the problem. After we finally got to someone in Seattle she took
our problem to the software developers. We were up to date on all service
packs and hotfixes and still experiencing the problem. Microsoft promised a
post SP2a hotfix that will fix this problem. We have been waiting on this
hotfix for months. In the mean time we add [Closed] to the task name of
every task that should be closed and allow the remaining work for resources
with 0 actual and 0 remaining work to change to 1 hour. We also added an
enterprise flag field that shows the task is complete so we can filter the 1
hour of remaining work out of microsoft access reports we pull from our OLAP
cube.

Gina said:

Thanks Nate,

I am fully upgraded to SP2 now, but have not looked at closing tasks
recently due to a re-org of the work plan due to a new PM for the program.

Please let me know about the KB number so I can look for it. I am very
curious to see if that works and then I want to present it to our other team
members.

Gina

:

Hello Gina:

We ran into what sounds like a similar situation whn we migrated from non
managed to managed time periods.

We were running Sp1 clisent and server and after MTP was deployed any time a
PM would synch to protected actuals closed tasks would reopen. Soecifically
any tasks that had a resource with scheduled work but no actual work reported
and some fixed duration tasks that may or may not have had resources with
work scheduled and not reported.

After some digging, I discovered a post SP1 client side hotfix that seems to
have taken care of these (and other) issues.

The hotfix is dated January 13, 2005 and I will post the kb number when I am
able to get at my corporate machine.

You can also lok for "resource contour flat" in the ms kb.

Hope that the information helps,
--Nate

:

Thanks Tony,

I totally agree with what your saying. These are tasks, It is policy here
that you never assign a resource to a summary or milestone task within a work
plan. PM Standards suggest the same.

Some tasks i have a resource assigned with 0 remaining work and other tasks
i have no resource assigned. Either way, you are correct that it should stay
closed.

I am hoping this issue gets fixed when our server gets updated next week. I
had to hold off on putting SP2 on due too another patch that wasn't part of
SP2 workstation. Once i put taht one, then i updated to SP2.

Do you have any other ideas of the cause besides the conflict of unmatch
SPs.

One thing i have learned about MS Project, if it seems logical and simple,
it doesn't work.

thank you , gina

:

Hi Gina --

When closing resourced tasks (tasks which have resources assigned),
reducing Remaining Work to 0hrs should close them... assuming that some
actual work hours have been applied. When closing non-resourced tasks,
marking 100% complete should do the trick.

Speaking of resourced and non-resourced tasks, this brings up another
question: Are you only assigning resources to "regular" tasks, or are
you also assigning them to milestones or summaries?

The service pack could be causing your grief; the levels on the server
and the desktop should be up to date and should match. However, in this
case, the current service pack level for Project Pro is SP2, and for
Project Server SP2a (these work together).

Good luck!

Tony Zink
========================================
http://www.msprojectreporter.com
http://www.pmreporter.com
http://www.sharepointreporter.com
http://www.msofficereporter.com
http://www.dotnetreporter.com
========================================

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Gina · Jul 29, 2006

Bgriffwork,

Yes, Microsoft has a glitch in this software that doesn't properly close
and keep closed when re-opened. I have not ever (YET) experience this in the
standalone. Only in server version.

Gina

bgriffwork said:
Hi, Gina.

Our implementation is experiencing the same thing. We have Fixed Duration
plans, and when activities are % Work Complete 100, sometimes % Complete is
not 100. We were told that we should use Tools > Tracking > Update Tasks and
set Remaining Duration to 0. Sometimes this seems to work, but when the
plans are closed and reopened, the tasks are no longer % Complete 100. Is
this similar to what you saw?

Can you describe your final solution? Was it a software patch?

Gina said:

Jen,

I know that with SP1 there was an issue with 1 hour adding to a task when
you zeroed out hours and try to close it. The patch is on MS website
"Project2003-KB837240-FullFile-ENU.exe or
Project2003SP2-KB887620-FullFile-ENU.exe" that will solve the additional
hour/close task out issue.

With server version, I have been finding a lot more different issues than i
did with the stand alone version. This can be a frustrating process as our
company hasn't added some of the flags as necessary.

I have also found closed work plans re-open. Have you seen that issue too?

Gina

Jen@Aurora said:

Hi Gina - We experienced the same problem with our enterprise system. We
spent months on the phone with microsoft support trying to get them to
understand the problem. After we finally got to someone in Seattle she took
our problem to the software developers. We were up to date on all service
packs and hotfixes and still experiencing the problem. Microsoft promised a
post SP2a hotfix that will fix this problem. We have been waiting on this
hotfix for months. In the mean time we add [Closed] to the task name of
every task that should be closed and allow the remaining work for resources
with 0 actual and 0 remaining work to change to 1 hour. We also added an
enterprise flag field that shows the task is complete so we can filter the 1
hour of remaining work out of microsoft access reports we pull from our OLAP
cube.

:

Thanks Nate,

I am fully upgraded to SP2 now, but have not looked at closing tasks
recently due to a re-org of the work plan due to a new PM for the program.

Please let me know about the KB number so I can look for it. I am very
curious to see if that works and then I want to present it to our other team
members.

Gina

:

Hello Gina:

We ran into what sounds like a similar situation whn we migrated from non
managed to managed time periods.

We were running Sp1 clisent and server and after MTP was deployed any time a
PM would synch to protected actuals closed tasks would reopen. Soecifically
any tasks that had a resource with scheduled work but no actual work reported
and some fixed duration tasks that may or may not have had resources with
work scheduled and not reported.

After some digging, I discovered a post SP1 client side hotfix that seems to
have taken care of these (and other) issues.

The hotfix is dated January 13, 2005 and I will post the kb number when I am
able to get at my corporate machine.

You can also lok for "resource contour flat" in the ms kb.

Hope that the information helps,
--Nate

:

Thanks Tony,

I totally agree with what your saying. These are tasks, It is policy here
that you never assign a resource to a summary or milestone task within a work
plan. PM Standards suggest the same.

Some tasks i have a resource assigned with 0 remaining work and other tasks
i have no resource assigned. Either way, you are correct that it should stay
closed.

I am hoping this issue gets fixed when our server gets updated next week. I
had to hold off on putting SP2 on due too another patch that wasn't part of
SP2 workstation. Once i put taht one, then i updated to SP2.

Do you have any other ideas of the cause besides the conflict of unmatch
SPs.

One thing i have learned about MS Project, if it seems logical and simple,
it doesn't work.

thank you , gina

:

Hi Gina --

When closing resourced tasks (tasks which have resources assigned),
reducing Remaining Work to 0hrs should close them... assuming that some
actual work hours have been applied. When closing non-resourced tasks,
marking 100% complete should do the trick.

Speaking of resourced and non-resourced tasks, this brings up another
question: Are you only assigning resources to "regular" tasks, or are
you also assigning them to milestones or summaries?

The service pack could be causing your grief; the levels on the server
and the desktop should be up to date and should match. However, in this
case, the current service pack level for Project Pro is SP2, and for
Project Server SP2a (these work together).

Good luck!

Tony Zink
========================================
http://www.msprojectreporter.com
http://www.pmreporter.com
http://www.sharepointreporter.com
http://www.msofficereporter.com
http://www.dotnetreporter.com
========================================

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

al.ponds · Aug 8, 2006

Any word yet?

My organization experiences the same scenario with closed tasks
re-opening and unequal % complete vs. % work complete for fixed
duration CLOSED tasks. Are these related or serparted?

We fixed these tasks weekly after the Monday updates of PWA submitted
time... some projects plan is either out of synch (message) or task
percentages change. When this happens we coordinate the overwrite
procedure to ensure all time has been updates before we switch from
Managed to non-Managed time period and back. We lock out users from PWA
to prevent users time being deleted when we overwrite a particular or
multiple project plans in the interim. Come Tuesday morning morning
system again gives the out of synch (message) or task percentages
change.... Is this a procedural training issue or software issue?

A fixed duration, non effort driven task % Complete and % Work Complete
are not equal when work = actual work (5 = 5) to close out the task is
hard to explain to the PMs. If the duration does not match PWA vs.
Project Professional then we are getting an out-of-synch error until we
change the tasks to fixed work. Fixed work changes the actual finish
date, reduces the duration and the check mark appears to make %
Complete and % Work Complete equal. Is this the right thing to do
because reoccurring tasks and other task within multiple project plans
are re-opening.

Is this a training issues or a software fix related issue? I've been
wrecking my brain around this concept for months. I'd like to know a
strategic rather than tactical solution approach.

bgriffwork said:
Hi, Gina.

Our implementation is experiencing the same thing. We have Fixed Duration
plans, and when activities are % Work Complete 100, sometimes % Complete is
not 100. We were told that we should use Tools > Tracking > Update Tasks and
set Remaining Duration to 0. Sometimes this seems to work, but when the
plans are closed and reopened, the tasks are no longer % Complete 100. Is
this similar to what you saw?

Can you describe your final solution? Was it a software patch?

Gina said:

Jen,

I know that with SP1 there was an issue with 1 hour adding to a task when
you zeroed out hours and try to close it. The patch is on MS website
"Project2003-KB837240-FullFile-ENU.exe or
Project2003SP2-KB887620-FullFile-ENU.exe" that will solve the additional
hour/close task out issue.

With server version, I have been finding a lot more different issues than i
did with the stand alone version. This can be a frustrating process as our
company hasn't added some of the flags as necessary.

I have also found closed work plans re-open. Have you seen that issue too?

Gina

Jen@Aurora said:

Hi Gina - We experienced the same problem with our enterprise system. We
spent months on the phone with microsoft support trying to get them to
understand the problem. After we finally got to someone in Seattle she took
our problem to the software developers. We were up to date on all service
packs and hotfixes and still experiencing the problem. Microsoft promised a
post SP2a hotfix that will fix this problem. We have been waiting on this
hotfix for months. In the mean time we add [Closed] to the task name of
every task that should be closed and allow the remaining work for resources
with 0 actual and 0 remaining work to change to 1 hour. We also added an
enterprise flag field that shows the task is complete so we can filter the 1
hour of remaining work out of microsoft access reports we pull from our OLAP
cube.

:

Thanks Nate,

I am fully upgraded to SP2 now, but have not looked at closing tasks
recently due to a re-org of the work plan due to a new PM for the program.

Please let me know about the KB number so I can look for it. I am very
curious to see if that works and then I want to present it to our other team
members.

Gina

:

Hello Gina:

We ran into what sounds like a similar situation whn we migrated from non
managed to managed time periods.

We were running Sp1 clisent and server and after MTP was deployed any time a
PM would synch to protected actuals closed tasks would reopen. Soecifically
any tasks that had a resource with scheduled work but no actual work reported
and some fixed duration tasks that may or may not have had resources with
work scheduled and not reported.

After some digging, I discovered a post SP1 client side hotfix that seems to
have taken care of these (and other) issues.

The hotfix is dated January 13, 2005 and I will post the kb number when I am
able to get at my corporate machine.

You can also lok for "resource contour flat" in the ms kb.

Hope that the information helps,
--Nate

:

Thanks Tony,

I totally agree with what your saying. These are tasks, It is policy here
that you never assign a resource to a summary or milestone task within a work
plan. PM Standards suggest the same.

Some tasks i have a resource assigned with 0 remaining work and other tasks
i have no resource assigned. Either way, you are correct that it should stay
closed.

I am hoping this issue gets fixed when our server gets updated next week. I
had to hold off on putting SP2 on due too another patch that wasn't part of
SP2 workstation. Once i put taht one, then i updated to SP2.

Do you have any other ideas of the cause besides the conflict of unmatch
SPs.

One thing i have learned about MS Project, if it seems logical and simple,
it doesn't work.

thank you , gina

:

Hi Gina --

When closing resourced tasks (tasks which have resources assigned),
reducing Remaining Work to 0hrs should close them... assuming that some
actual work hours have been applied. When closing non-resourced tasks,
marking 100% complete should do the trick.

Speaking of resourced and non-resourced tasks, this brings up another
question: Are you only assigning resources to "regular" tasks, or are
you also assigning them to milestones or summaries?

The service pack could be causing your grief; the levels on the server
and the desktop should be up to date and should match. However, in this
case, the current service pack level for Project Pro is SP2, and for
Project Server SP2a (these work together).

Good luck!

Tony Zink
========================================
http://www.msprojectreporter.com
http://www.pmreporter.com
http://www.sharepointreporter.com
http://www.msofficereporter.com
http://www.dotnetreporter.com
========================================

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Gina · Aug 9, 2006

Al.Ponds,

Currently i know that MS Project is coming out soon with new updates, maybe
2007, but i don't know what updates/bugs they are going to fix. The best way
to try and solve the issue is to turn them to milestones or add 1 hour of
actual work to keep them closed with notes.

I currently know that i have yet to get any response from a Microsoft
specialist regarding this issue and i see several posts regarding it.

I have yet to see this is on Standalone version of Project. Is this what you
have?

Gina

al.ponds said:
Any word yet?

My organization experiences the same scenario with closed tasks
re-opening and unequal % complete vs. % work complete for fixed
duration CLOSED tasks. Are these related or serparted?

We fixed these tasks weekly after the Monday updates of PWA submitted
time... some projects plan is either out of synch (message) or task
percentages change. When this happens we coordinate the overwrite
procedure to ensure all time has been updates before we switch from
Managed to non-Managed time period and back. We lock out users from PWA
to prevent users time being deleted when we overwrite a particular or
multiple project plans in the interim. Come Tuesday morning morning
system again gives the out of synch (message) or task percentages
change.... Is this a procedural training issue or software issue?

A fixed duration, non effort driven task % Complete and % Work Complete
are not equal when work = actual work (5 = 5) to close out the task is
hard to explain to the PMs. If the duration does not match PWA vs.
Project Professional then we are getting an out-of-synch error until we
change the tasks to fixed work. Fixed work changes the actual finish
date, reduces the duration and the check mark appears to make %
Complete and % Work Complete equal. Is this the right thing to do
because reoccurring tasks and other task within multiple project plans
are re-opening.

Is this a training issues or a software fix related issue? I've been
wrecking my brain around this concept for months. I'd like to know a
strategic rather than tactical solution approach.

bgriffwork said:

Hi, Gina.

Our implementation is experiencing the same thing. We have Fixed Duration
plans, and when activities are % Work Complete 100, sometimes % Complete is
not 100. We were told that we should use Tools > Tracking > Update Tasks and
set Remaining Duration to 0. Sometimes this seems to work, but when the
plans are closed and reopened, the tasks are no longer % Complete 100. Is
this similar to what you saw?

Can you describe your final solution? Was it a software patch?

Gina said:

Jen,

I know that with SP1 there was an issue with 1 hour adding to a task when
you zeroed out hours and try to close it. The patch is on MS website
"Project2003-KB837240-FullFile-ENU.exe or
Project2003SP2-KB887620-FullFile-ENU.exe" that will solve the additional
hour/close task out issue.

With server version, I have been finding a lot more different issues than i
did with the stand alone version. This can be a frustrating process as our
company hasn't added some of the flags as necessary.

I have also found closed work plans re-open. Have you seen that issue too?

Gina

:

Hi Gina - We experienced the same problem with our enterprise system. We
spent months on the phone with microsoft support trying to get them to
understand the problem. After we finally got to someone in Seattle she took
our problem to the software developers. We were up to date on all service
packs and hotfixes and still experiencing the problem. Microsoft promised a
post SP2a hotfix that will fix this problem. We have been waiting on this
hotfix for months. In the mean time we add [Closed] to the task name of
every task that should be closed and allow the remaining work for resources
with 0 actual and 0 remaining work to change to 1 hour. We also added an
enterprise flag field that shows the task is complete so we can filter the 1
hour of remaining work out of microsoft access reports we pull from our OLAP
cube.

:

Thanks Nate,

I am fully upgraded to SP2 now, but have not looked at closing tasks
recently due to a re-org of the work plan due to a new PM for the program.

Please let me know about the KB number so I can look for it. I am very
curious to see if that works and then I want to present it to our other team
members.

Gina

:

Hello Gina:

We ran into what sounds like a similar situation whn we migrated from non
managed to managed time periods.

We were running Sp1 clisent and server and after MTP was deployed any time a
PM would synch to protected actuals closed tasks would reopen. Soecifically
any tasks that had a resource with scheduled work but no actual work reported
and some fixed duration tasks that may or may not have had resources with
work scheduled and not reported.

After some digging, I discovered a post SP1 client side hotfix that seems to
have taken care of these (and other) issues.

The hotfix is dated January 13, 2005 and I will post the kb number when I am
able to get at my corporate machine.

You can also lok for "resource contour flat" in the ms kb.

Hope that the information helps,
--Nate

:

Thanks Tony,

I totally agree with what your saying. These are tasks, It is policy here
that you never assign a resource to a summary or milestone task within a work
plan. PM Standards suggest the same.

Some tasks i have a resource assigned with 0 remaining work and other tasks
i have no resource assigned. Either way, you are correct that it should stay
closed.

I am hoping this issue gets fixed when our server gets updated next week. I
had to hold off on putting SP2 on due too another patch that wasn't part of
SP2 workstation. Once i put taht one, then i updated to SP2.

Do you have any other ideas of the cause besides the conflict of unmatch
SPs.

One thing i have learned about MS Project, if it seems logical and simple,
it doesn't work.

thank you , gina

:

Hi Gina --

When closing resourced tasks (tasks which have resources assigned),
reducing Remaining Work to 0hrs should close them... assuming that some
actual work hours have been applied. When closing non-resourced tasks,
marking 100% complete should do the trick.

Speaking of resourced and non-resourced tasks, this brings up another
question: Are you only assigning resources to "regular" tasks, or are
you also assigning them to milestones or summaries?

The service pack could be causing your grief; the levels on the server
and the desktop should be up to date and should match. However, in this
case, the current service pack level for Project Pro is SP2, and for
Project Server SP2a (these work together).

Good luck!

Tony Zink
========================================
http://www.msprojectreporter.com
http://www.pmreporter.com
http://www.sharepointreporter.com
http://www.msofficereporter.com
http://www.dotnetreporter.com
========================================

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

al.ponds · Aug 9, 2006

Thanks for the feedback.

Let's cross our fingers and hope this in the next release.

al.ponds said:
Al.Ponds,

Currently i know that MS Project is coming out soon with new updates, maybe
2007, but i don't know what updates/bugs they are going to fix. The best way
to try and solve the issue is to turn them to milestones or add 1 hour of
actual work to keep them closed with notes.

I currently know that i have yet to get any response from a Microsoft
specialist regarding this issue and i see several posts regarding it.

I have yet to see this is on Standalone version of Project. Is this what you
have?

Gina

al.ponds said:

Any word yet?

My organization experiences the same scenario with closed tasks
re-opening and unequal % complete vs. % work complete for fixed
duration CLOSED tasks. Are these related or serparted?

We fixed these tasks weekly after the Monday updates of PWA submitted
time... some projects plan is either out of synch (message) or task
percentages change. When this happens we coordinate the overwrite
procedure to ensure all time has been updates before we switch from
Managed to non-Managed time period and back. We lock out users from PWA
to prevent users time being deleted when we overwrite a particular or
multiple project plans in the interim. Come Tuesday morning morning
system again gives the out of synch (message) or task percentages
change.... Is this a procedural training issue or software issue?

A fixed duration, non effort driven task % Complete and % Work Complete
are not equal when work = actual work (5 = 5) to close out the task is
hard to explain to the PMs. If the duration does not match PWA vs.
Project Professional then we are getting an out-of-synch error until we
change the tasks to fixed work. Fixed work changes the actual finish
date, reduces the duration and the check mark appears to make %
Complete and % Work Complete equal. Is this the right thing to do
because reoccurring tasks and other task within multiple project plans
are re-opening.

Is this a training issues or a software fix related issue? I've been
wrecking my brain around this concept for months. I'd like to know a
strategic rather than tactical solution approach.

bgriffwork said:

Hi, Gina.

Our implementation is experiencing the same thing. We have Fixed Duration
plans, and when activities are % Work Complete 100, sometimes % Complete is
not 100. We were told that we should use Tools > Tracking > Update Tasks and
set Remaining Duration to 0. Sometimes this seems to work, but when the
plans are closed and reopened, the tasks are no longer % Complete 100. Is
this similar to what you saw?

Can you describe your final solution? Was it a software patch?

:

Jen,

I know that with SP1 there was an issue with 1 hour adding to a task when
you zeroed out hours and try to close it. The patch is on MS website
"Project2003-KB837240-FullFile-ENU.exe or
Project2003SP2-KB887620-FullFile-ENU.exe" that will solve the additional
hour/close task out issue.

With server version, I have been finding a lot more different issues than i
did with the stand alone version. This can be a frustrating process as our
company hasn't added some of the flags as necessary.

I have also found closed work plans re-open. Have you seen that issue too?

Gina

:

Hi Gina - We experienced the same problem with our enterprise system. We
spent months on the phone with microsoft support trying to get them to
understand the problem. After we finally got to someone in Seattle she took
our problem to the software developers. We were up to date on all service
packs and hotfixes and still experiencing the problem. Microsoft promised a
post SP2a hotfix that will fix this problem. We have been waiting on this
hotfix for months. In the mean time we add [Closed] to the task name of
every task that should be closed and allow the remaining work for resources
with 0 actual and 0 remaining work to change to 1 hour. We also added an
enterprise flag field that shows the task is complete so we can filter the 1
hour of remaining work out of microsoft access reports we pull from our OLAP
cube.

:

Thanks Nate,

I am fully upgraded to SP2 now, but have not looked at closing tasks
recently due to a re-org of the work plan due to a new PM for the program.

Please let me know about the KB number so I can look for it. I am very
curious to see if that works and then I want to present it to our other team
members.

Gina

:

Hello Gina:

We ran into what sounds like a similar situation whn we migrated from non
managed to managed time periods.

We were running Sp1 clisent and server and after MTP was deployed any time a
PM would synch to protected actuals closed tasks would reopen. Soecifically
any tasks that had a resource with scheduled work but no actual work reported
and some fixed duration tasks that may or may not have had resources with
work scheduled and not reported.

After some digging, I discovered a post SP1 client side hotfix that seems to
have taken care of these (and other) issues.

The hotfix is dated January 13, 2005 and I will post the kb number when I am
able to get at my corporate machine.

You can also lok for "resource contour flat" in the ms kb.

Hope that the information helps,
--Nate

:

Thanks Tony,

I totally agree with what your saying. These are tasks, It is policy here
that you never assign a resource to a summary or milestone task within a work
plan. PM Standards suggest the same.

Some tasks i have a resource assigned with 0 remaining work and other tasks
i have no resource assigned. Either way, you are correct that it should stay
closed.

I am hoping this issue gets fixed when our server gets updated next week. I
had to hold off on putting SP2 on due too another patch that wasn't part of
SP2 workstation. Once i put taht one, then i updated to SP2.

Do you have any other ideas of the cause besides the conflict of unmatch
SPs.

One thing i have learned about MS Project, if it seems logical and simple,
it doesn't work.

thank you , gina

:

Hi Gina --

When closing resourced tasks (tasks which have resources assigned),
reducing Remaining Work to 0hrs should close them... assuming that some
actual work hours have been applied. When closing non-resourced tasks,
marking 100% complete should do the trick.

Speaking of resourced and non-resourced tasks, this brings up another
question: Are you only assigning resources to "regular" tasks, or are
you also assigning them to milestones or summaries?

The service pack could be causing your grief; the levels on the server
and the desktop should be up to date and should match. However, in this
case, the current service pack level for Project Pro is SP2, and for
Project Server SP2a (these work together).

Good luck!

Tony Zink
========================================
http://www.msprojectreporter.com
http://www.pmreporter.com
http://www.sharepointreporter.com
http://www.msofficereporter.com
http://www.dotnetreporter.com
========================================

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Lisa H · Jan 31, 2007

The SP2a patch did not solve the problem for us of closed tasks remaining
open. We are currently looking to utilize the Hide Tasks functionality to
close out these stragglers.

bgriffwork said:
Hi, Gina.

Our implementation is experiencing the same thing. We have Fixed Duration
plans, and when activities are % Work Complete 100, sometimes % Complete is
not 100. We were told that we should use Tools > Tracking > Update Tasks and
set Remaining Duration to 0. Sometimes this seems to work, but when the
plans are closed and reopened, the tasks are no longer % Complete 100. Is
this similar to what you saw?

Can you describe your final solution? Was it a software patch?

Gina said:

Jen,

I know that with SP1 there was an issue with 1 hour adding to a task when
you zeroed out hours and try to close it. The patch is on MS website
"Project2003-KB837240-FullFile-ENU.exe or
Project2003SP2-KB887620-FullFile-ENU.exe" that will solve the additional
hour/close task out issue.

With server version, I have been finding a lot more different issues than i
did with the stand alone version. This can be a frustrating process as our
company hasn't added some of the flags as necessary.

I have also found closed work plans re-open. Have you seen that issue too?

Gina

Jen@Aurora said:

Hi Gina - We experienced the same problem with our enterprise system. We
spent months on the phone with microsoft support trying to get them to
understand the problem. After we finally got to someone in Seattle she took
our problem to the software developers. We were up to date on all service
packs and hotfixes and still experiencing the problem. Microsoft promised a
post SP2a hotfix that will fix this problem. We have been waiting on this
hotfix for months. In the mean time we add [Closed] to the task name of
every task that should be closed and allow the remaining work for resources
with 0 actual and 0 remaining work to change to 1 hour. We also added an
enterprise flag field that shows the task is complete so we can filter the 1
hour of remaining work out of microsoft access reports we pull from our OLAP
cube.

:

Thanks Nate,

I am fully upgraded to SP2 now, but have not looked at closing tasks
recently due to a re-org of the work plan due to a new PM for the program.

Please let me know about the KB number so I can look for it. I am very
curious to see if that works and then I want to present it to our other team
members.

Gina

:

Hello Gina:

We ran into what sounds like a similar situation whn we migrated from non
managed to managed time periods.

We were running Sp1 clisent and server and after MTP was deployed any time a
PM would synch to protected actuals closed tasks would reopen. Soecifically
any tasks that had a resource with scheduled work but no actual work reported
and some fixed duration tasks that may or may not have had resources with
work scheduled and not reported.

After some digging, I discovered a post SP1 client side hotfix that seems to
have taken care of these (and other) issues.

The hotfix is dated January 13, 2005 and I will post the kb number when I am
able to get at my corporate machine.

You can also lok for "resource contour flat" in the ms kb.

Hope that the information helps,
--Nate

:

Thanks Tony,

I totally agree with what your saying. These are tasks, It is policy here
that you never assign a resource to a summary or milestone task within a work
plan. PM Standards suggest the same.

Some tasks i have a resource assigned with 0 remaining work and other tasks
i have no resource assigned. Either way, you are correct that it should stay
closed.

I am hoping this issue gets fixed when our server gets updated next week. I
had to hold off on putting SP2 on due too another patch that wasn't part of
SP2 workstation. Once i put taht one, then i updated to SP2.

Do you have any other ideas of the cause besides the conflict of unmatch
SPs.

One thing i have learned about MS Project, if it seems logical and simple,
it doesn't work.

thank you , gina

:

Hi Gina --

When closing resourced tasks (tasks which have resources assigned),
reducing Remaining Work to 0hrs should close them... assuming that some
actual work hours have been applied. When closing non-resourced tasks,
marking 100% complete should do the trick.

Speaking of resourced and non-resourced tasks, this brings up another
question: Are you only assigning resources to "regular" tasks, or are
you also assigning them to milestones or summaries?

The service pack could be causing your grief; the levels on the server
and the desktop should be up to date and should match. However, in this
case, the current service pack level for Project Pro is SP2, and for
Project Server SP2a (these work together).

Good luck!

Tony Zink
========================================
http://www.msprojectreporter.com
http://www.pmreporter.com
http://www.sharepointreporter.com
http://www.msofficereporter.com
http://www.dotnetreporter.com
========================================

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Closing Tasks and keeping them closed.

Gina

tonyzink

Gina

tonyzink

Gina

Nate

Gina

Jen@Aurora

Gina

bgriffwork

Gina

al.ponds

Gina

al.ponds

Lisa H