Don't want Project Server to updated the project with actuals entered on tasks

C

caryle

Hi,
I know that this defeats the purpose of Project & Project Server but
we do not want to have the time entered in a task to change the actual
project. If the task is supposed to take 2 days but the resource
works on it for 3 days then the end date of the task changes. We
don't want this to happen but we do want to keep track of the number
of hours of work on each task.

Is there a way to configure Project Server 2003 to not update the
project?

Thanks,
Caryle
 
T

Tasanton

Hi,

You can baseline the project right before actuals are entered and later
compare the following in the Tracking View (Variance table):
Baseline start Vs start
Baseline finish Vs Finish
Baseline duration Vs duration
 
N

NZ Projects

I don't know about 2003, but in 2007 the timesheet function is separated from
task updates, so this could easily achieved.
 
M

Marc Soester [MVP]

H Caryle,

I may misunderstood your request, but why dont you simply not approve the
tasks and educate your staff that they should not enter time against the
task?

This means your PM will need to update the Project schedule.
I hope this helps
 
M

Mauricio@BVFG

Carlye,

Looks like you need to baseline the project in order to keep track of the
planned finish date for the task. This way you can keep track of both the
actuals and the finish date.

Mauricio
 
L

Livia

Hi Caryle,

you have to set all your tasks in Project Professional to the option "Fixed
Duration" (Tools > Options > Schedule).

The way Project calculate tasks is following : Duration (How many days?) =
Work (How many hours?) * Units (How much resources?)

One of these values is fixed and the other ones are calculated to match it.
Per default, Project has the option fixed units. That means, if you spend
less hours as expected on this tasks, the resources units will remain
unchanged and the duration will be recalculated, which is what you don’t want.

If you choose „fixed duration“, then the programm will consider that the
resource will have to work more than normal (it will be „overloaded“) and
will not change the duration.

There’s a way to fix this centrally in the Project Server through policies,
but I’don’t know how to do it exactly, I’m not quite the technical guy ;-)

Livia
 
R

rt

Hi Caryle,

you have to set all your tasks in Project Professional to the option "Fixed
Duration" (Tools > Options > Schedule).

The way Project calculate tasks is following : Duration (How many days?) =
Work (How many hours?) * Units (How much resources?)

One of these values is fixed and the other ones are calculated to match it.
Per default, Project has the option fixed units. That means, if you spend
less hours as expected on this tasks, the resources units will remain
unchanged and the duration will be recalculated, which is what you don't want.

If you choose ,,fixed duration", then the programm will consider that the
resource will have to work more than normal (it will be ,,overloaded") and
will not change the duration.

There's a way to fix this centrally in the Project Server through policies,
but I'don't know how to do it exactly, I'm not quite the technical guy ;-)

Livia







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I don't know how to put it politely, but I'm reading some pretty bad
ideas here. In my humble opinion, if you don't want to PWA to interact
with MS Project, don't use PWA. You can easily create time sheets in
Excel (even from Project or PWA) and use those to update the project's
progress manually in MS Project.

As you are saying, it defeats EPM's purpose but if an organization
isn't ready yet, I'd stay on the practical side.
 
G

Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]

I agree with RT, the answers you've received aren't very good,
unfortunately, RT's reply isn't very helpful either. I'm afraid that the
only way to accomplish what you want using 2003, is to create two projects,
one for time tracking and one for the make-believe world you're trying to
protect. We've used a two-schedule approach with clients in a couple of
cases where the detail in the project was so granular that it would be
onerous to ask the resources to update so many tasks, but the business still
needed to track the hours. As NZ, points out, the architecture changes in
2007 to support this scenario. Generally speaking, people who do not want to
track what actually happens in their project do not need PM tools. Excel
spreadsheets are dandy for maintaining task lists.

--

Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
For Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
For Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com
 
R

rt

I agree with RT, the answers you've received aren't very good,
unfortunately, RT's reply isn't very helpful either. I'm afraid that the
only way to accomplish what you want using 2003, is to create two projects,
one for time tracking and one for the make-believe world you're trying to
protect. We've used a two-schedule approach with clients in a couple of
cases where the detail in the project was so granular that it would be
onerous to ask the resources to update so many tasks, but the business still
needed to track the hours. As NZ, points out, the architecture changes in
2007 to support this scenario. Generally speaking, people who do not want to
track what actually happens in their project do not need PM tools. Excel
spreadsheets are dandy for maintaining task lists.

--

Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
For Project Server Consulting:http://www.msprojectexperts.com
For Project Server FAQS:http://www.projectserverexperts.com








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Two schedules - that's a very good idea, Gary. I'm going to use that,
if you don't mind :)
 
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