Merge actuals from 2 seperate tasks?

[Joe]

Is there anyway to merge the actual hours of 2 tasks into one task (for
historically purposes)?

For example, I have two generic tasks called “Production Support†and
“Development Support†I had a specific resource on both task, he entered
actuals on both task over the past few months. Now I want to combine this
task and call it “Supportâ€. Is it possible to merge the actuals into the one
new task?

 

[John]

Is there anyway to merge the actual hours of 2 tasks into one task (for
historically purposes)?

For example, I have two generic tasks called “Production Support†and
“Development Support†I had a specific resource on both task, he entered
actuals on both task over the past few months. Now I want to combine this
task and call it “Supportâ€. Is it possible to merge the actuals into the one
new task?

Joe,
Well the answer is "yes" and there are several ways to do it. However,
since you are only talking about combining two tasks into one, it will
probably be just as easy to do the conversion manually. That is, create
the generic support task so it spans the same period as the original two
support tasks and then manually re-enter the combined Actual data.

There are certainly ways to automate the process but the time it will
take to set that up and implement it is probably not value-added, unless
you think you may need to do this action again in the future.

Just a word on setting up the new combined task. I recommend you give it
better task name than simply "support". Performance tasks should be
described using action verbs. Yes, "support" can be a verb but support
for what? You or anybody else who digs up the file for historical data
some time in the future will appreciate more descriptive information.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[Joe]

John,

Thanks for you response. The scenario I described was to give an example
only. I have many resources to do this for, so I would prefer not to do it
manually. Do you think you could describe another way to do this where I
don't have to manually enter the hours. Also, I could combine one set into
the other task if that makes a difference.

I understand what you meant by being more descriptive - thanks.

Joe

 

[John]

John,

Thanks for you response. The scenario I described was to give an example
only. I have many resources to do this for, so I would prefer not to do it
manually. Do you think you could describe another way to do this where I
don't have to manually enter the hours. Also, I could combine one set into
the other task if that makes a difference.

I understand what you meant by being more descriptive - thanks.

Joe

Joe,
Speaking of more descriptive, more complete information in your original
post would have elicited a better response.

There is a merge feature when data is imported from another application
(e.g. Excel), but I don't know of any merge functions for an existing
file. There also is a substitute resources function with Project 2003
but that's not really what you need.

Do I have another approach? Of course, I nearly always have a
suggestion, although the practicality of some of my suggestions has come
under fire in the past. My alternate approach is usually always related
to using an advanced feature of Project, namely, VBA. In your case, I
would probably set up a macro that asks the user to indicate which tasks
to combine and then reads the separate data from each and creates and
populates a new replacement task. I did a similar thing some years ago
(circa Project 4.x) when I created a File Reduction macro to cut down
the bulk in some of our larger files while still maintaining the cost
history.

Aside from having to use VBA, (not everybody can or feels comfortable
with it), there are some alternate methods that could work. Just
thinking off the top of my head, I suppose you could set up a filter for
the tasks/assignments of interest in one of the Usage views and then
either copy and paste the data into Excel, or use the "Analyze
timescaled data in Excel" utility/add-in. Once the data is in Excel, it
can be easily combined. Then it can be copied back to Project (into a
new task) or potentially imported using the merge feature eluded to
earlier. I haven't tried this approach or used the merge feature so I
don't have any details or even a commentary on how well it would work,
but if you don't want to use the totally manual method I described in my
initial response and you don't have VBA experience, this method may be
your best bet - that is, unless someone else has a better approach.

John
Project MVP

 

[Joe]

Thanks John. I think merging with Excel will work, I will look into that
method.

Thanks again.

 

[John]

Thanks John. I think merging with Excel will work, I will look into that
method.

Thanks again.

Joe,
You're welcome.
John