Dale Howard Suggestion on schedule updates -- Dale, please comment...

A

Andy Novak

Dale, concerning your suggestion below for using % complete for
timesheet updating, is the following "Calculation" setup correct? :

Calculate Mode - Automatic
Calculate - Active Project
Updating task status updates resource status
Inserted projects are calculated like summary tasks
Actual costs are always calculated by Microsoft Project
Default fixed costs acrrual - Prorated
Tasks are critical if slack is less than or equal to 0

NOTHING ELSE IS SELECTED (i.e., move end of completed parts, etc.).

Will your suggestion work with this setup?

Thanks,
Andy Novak
University of North Texas

If you are using the % Work Complete method, you should probably also
ask
the team member to enter the Actual Start date and Actual Finish date
of the
task. To do this, you will first need to ask your Project Server
administrator to add the Actual Start and Actual Finish fields to the
Timesheet view. Personally, I recommend the following order of tasks
in the
Timesheet if you are using the % Work Complete method of tracking
actuals:

Task Name
Actual Start
% Work Complete
Actual Finish

Once this has been accomplished, you can "push" the Actual Start and
Actual
Finish field values to each user's timesheet in each project by
completing
the following steps:

1. Open a project
2. Click Tools - Customize - Published Fields
3. Select the Actual Start and Actual Finish fields from the list on
the
left
4. Copy them to the list on the right
5. Select each field and make sure the "Let resource change field"
option
is selected
6. Click OK
7. Click Collaborate - Publish - Republish Assignments then click OK
8. Repeat these steps for every project in your system

Each week your people should use the following methodlogy for entering
progress:

1. Enter the Actual Start date of each task on which you began work
this
week
2. Enter an estimated % Work Complete for each task that is not yet
completed
3. Enter the Actual Finish date for each task which you completed
this week
4. Add task Notes to document anything unusual about the task, such
as a
late finish
5. Add Risks, Issues, or Documents to each task as needed
6. Update to the project manager at the end of each week

Hope these ideas help you to accomplish what you desire.
 
D

Dale Howard [MVP]

Andy --

Yes, to the best of my knowledge everything should work as you would hope.
Hope this helps.
 
D

Dale Howard [MVP]

Smitty --

Add the Actual Start and Actual Finish fields to the list of Published
fields in each project, then click Collaborate - Publish - Republish
Assignments. Ask your Project Server administrator to add these fields to
the Timesheet view in PWA. When your team members double-click a PWA task
appointment on the Outlook calendar, teach them to click the Project Web
Access tab in the appointment dialog. On this page, they will access the
View my tasks page in PWA while they are in Outlook.

Otherwise, I do not know of any way to make this information appear as you
desire on the Appointment page in the appointment dialog in Outlook . Hope
this helps.

--
Dale A. Howard [MVP]
Enterprise Project Trainer/Consultant
Denver, Colorado
http://www.msprojectexperts.com
"We wrote the book on Project Server"
 
P

pajamasam

Is it possible to include the Actual Start/Finish fields to tasks imported to
Outlook? Adding these fields to the timesheet will greatly improve our
tracking accuracy. However, a majority of the team members update their tasks
via Outlook. Can these fields be displayed there? And how?

Thanks,
Smitty
 
D

Dale Howard [MVP]

Smitty --

Thanks for the kind reply. It is the nature of team members to grumble and
the nature of project managers give them a reason for grumbling! HA!

--
Dale A. Howard [MVP]
Enterprise Project Trainer/Consultant
Denver, Colorado
http://www.msprojectexperts.com
"We wrote the book on Project Server"
 
P

pajamasam

Hi Dale,

Thanks for the reply. I've done the needed steps to get the fields showing
up in the Timesheet. Your suggestion makes perfect sense to me (and I
wouldn't have any issue with the extra step that's involved in adding the
Actual Start/Finish data.) However, I know some Team Members are gonna
grumble about this refined tracking method. I'll give it a shot. Wish me
luck. Thanks as always.

-Smitty
 
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