Indicator Icons for Deleted Projects

[GwenGreen]

I have reviewed all the training materials online and I
cannot find any help for on an Indicator Icon for
deleted tasks.

In Project Web Access -

In the task sheet, a resource will see an X indicator
with a note stating "This task has been removed from the
project by "Project Manager".

The Hide function is not clear on how it deals with
deleted tasks from the projects.

What is the best practice for a team member for dealing
with deleted tasks?

Under the Client side -
Republishing New and Changed Assignements does not remove
the tasks that were deleted, nor does Republish task
assignments.

Resources keep getting reminders on tasks that have been
deleted. Does the Hide function stop the emails?

As an admin - What is the best practices on cleaning up
old data - How often? How far back? The options for
cleaning up server does not include Deleted tasks? Does
2003 have a feature to remove all deleted tasks from the
resources sheets.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Gwen --

Resources can safely remove deleted tasks from their timesheets in PWA by
selecting the deleted task and clicking the Hide button.

If a resource continues to receive e-mail reminders about deleted tasks,
this means that the project manager did not handle the deletion correctly.
Following is the process that a PM should use to delete unneeded tasks from
the project so that team members do not continue to receive e-mails about
the deleted task:

1. Remove the assigned resources from the task
2. Click Collaborate - Publish - All Information
3. Delete the task
4. Click Collaborate - Publish - All Information

Concerning the deletion of old data from Project Server, your organization
will need to make a decision about how long this information is needed.
Concerning the batch removal of deleted tasks from each user's timesheet,
there is no default method in Project Server to handle this. However, as
you read the newsgroup posts, you will find a SQL Server script that someone
has written to do this. Hope this helps.

 

[Greg Horodeck]

You really should not delete a resource if they have actual work, you will
lose the work that they performed. Reduce their remaining work to zero and
tell them not to report time against the task (have them hide it). If they
are no longer working on any facet of the project, you can change their
booking type to "Proposed" (Project 2003 feature, not in 2002), which will
remove all trace of the project from their timesheet.

If you do want to delete a resource from a task, make sure that they have no
remaining work for their assignment. If you have to change their remaining
work to zero, make sure you republish (Click Collaborate - Publish - All
Information) before you remove them from the task. If you skip this step,
they will still have the work assigned to them with no way to remove it and
since the assignment is removed from the project, neither can the PM. It
will reflect in their availability. I refer to it as "Orphan work".


Greg

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Greg --

Thanks for the followup thoughts. My personal preference is never to delete
tasks from a project once the project has been baselined. Instead, I use
the approach you espouse in your message, which is to reduce the Remaining
Work to 0 hours for each resource assigned to the cancelled tasks. I also
like to add a task Note to document the reason for the task being cancelled.
Hope this helps.

 

[Sumit]

Dear Dale,

I've a case where the task needs to be deleted but i can't first delete the
resource as he has other assignments in the plan. In this scenario how shall
I go ahead?

Regards,
Sumit.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Sumit --

You should definitely NOT delete the resource from the project. You only
need to remove the resource from the task that you wish to delete. To do
so, complete the following stesps:

1. Select the task in question
2. Click the Assign Resources dialog
3. In the dialog, select the resource and click the Remove button
4. Close the Assign Resources dialog
5. Click Collaborate - Publish - All Information
6. Delete the task
7. Click Collaborate - Publish - All Information

Hope this helps.