Issue remaining work moved the planning

[alex]

Hi,

Knowledege:
I use since 2 years the EPM solution

Prerequisites:
I enter the real start date for the work.

And the context is the following:

I initialise a task with fixed duration or fixed capacity or fixed work, the
final behavior is the same.

How to reproduce:
I have a task with an estimate duration, I just know I want to assign some
resource.
I did an estimate about the work.
The mandatory action is the start and finish shouldn't change.
But if you follow the steps below, you realize it's not working.
If you add constraint to finish not later than, it's not change anything.

I have a task begin this monday and finish this friday.
One resource has 16 work planified on the week. The resource records no
hours in the timesheet except the last day: Friday and she records only 8
hours.
In that case the remaining work is 8 hours.
The resource saves and submits the timesheet, import the timesheet in the
task, save and submit.
The project manager accepts the hours and apply to the plan.

In that case, the task where there is still 8 hours in remaining work has
the date changed and the duration.

Why?
Because Microsoft Project determines there is remaing work and decides by
itself to move the remaining work later. MSP see there isn't have more days
available because the task finish this friday. So MSP decided to move
duration and by consequently the finish date.

I takes some captures find in this link
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgq4sw2r_20268v9vddff

It's not the first time this behavior happened.

How can I manage this?
It's like a bug and maybe Microsoft Project is not the good tool to use.
So I'm turn on you because it's around 2 years I work on this product and I
begin to be really desesperate about the unexpected behavior. I defend this
product but it's difficult on this point, it's a blocking point.
So I really appreciate an help.

best regards,
Alexandre BARAULT

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

It's not a bug to me.
Is the work done or not? That is the question.
If it is done somebody has to tell Project about that (put Remaining Work to
0)
If it isn't when can you do it? After Friday obviously but you won't allow
that..

Sorry but Project calculates logicallyand cannot read min ds.
HTH
--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[alex]

Hi,

Thank you.

I understand but it's a point a view.
In theory, I can approve this behavior.

But in the real world, the project manager doesn't want the date moved
because some remaining work is available.
The project manager do a status about the task, see remaining work is
available and decides to put to 0 the remaining work and should remember the
finish date to change this one.
It's not very friendly.

The project manager prefers to establish a planning and after do the
modifications after a coordination point with the resources.
I see this point in industry.

So I should find a work around to solve it.
I process to do other tests scenarios.

Best regards,
Alexandre BARAULT

 

[Dave]

No, it absolutely is not a point-of-view.

Your plan stated that you must get this amount of work done in order to
get the task done by that immoveable date. That did not happen. This
implies then that the date was not immoveable and the constraint was
invalid. A more appropriate course of action might have been to use a
deadline.

The purpose of the application is to show when work will be carried out
in order to achieve a desired outcome. If you want to show when you
would have liked the desired outcome to occur, then you can use numerous
other graphical tools.

If you want to show originally planned dates, then baselines exist for
that purpose.

If having discovered that you weren't going to meet the deadline, then
the application will help you plan around that by showing what the
likely outcome will be for different task breakdowns etc.

I agree that you often see this in industry but the simple fact is that
the application is being misused and that those plans to not paint a
truthful picture of the project.

 

[alex]

Hi,

My answers are below after the >>

Your plan stated that you must get this amount of work done in order to
get the task done by that immoveable date. That did not happen. This
implies then that the date was not immoveable and the constraint was
invalid. A more appropriate course of action might have been to use a
deadline.
The purpose of the application is to show when work will be carried out
in order to achieve a desired outcome. If you want to show when you
would have liked the desired outcome to occur, then you can use numerous
other graphical tools.
If you want to show originally planned dates, then baselines exist for
that purpose.
If having discovered that you weren't going to meet the deadline, then
the application will help you plan around that by showing what the
likely outcome will be for different task breakdowns etc.
I agree that you often see this in industry but the simple fact is that
the application is being misused and that those plans to not paint a
truthful picture of the project.
Best regards,
Alexandre BARAULT
----------------------------------------

 

[Dave]

It sounds as though the activity in question is essentially a support
activity. In that case, I would have an activity for the period in
question, make it fixed duration and not effort driven. This will show
the work occurring on the correct day and not alter the duration
(although the non-worked days will be represented by dots). This is how
I represent similar activities. However, the fact that you can do this
really ought to depend on the nature of the task rather than the desire
of the Project Manager to show a particular representation on the Gantt
chart.

As I said before, it is undoubtedly true that in some areas the product
is misused to present a given picture. However, you have to be able to
distinguish between the cases when a task is truly immoveable and when
it is highly undesirable that it moves. The danger is that if you make
it immoveable then the application may not help you as much as it could
have done to avoid a bad situation.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

In the real world that I live in, planned work generally has to be done.
Want to keep the date and still be logical, then set remaining work to 0 or
do not use a planning tool.
HTH

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

If I may, I think the problem is that you are trying to tell Project what
the schedule is that you want. In my opinion, that's backwards. You don't
tell Project when you would like tasks to take place. Instead Project tells
you when they're ABLE to take place when you choose a certain workflow and
resource loading. It's job is to create the scheduile for you, not just
document one that you have already created.