Project Levels Actuals?????

[JC]

I have a project, which has estimates, and then time phased actuals entered.
I was messing with an individuals calendar - changed it from a 6 hour per
day calendar to a 4 hour per day one to reflect us having less use of the
guy.

After doing this all my actuals which nicely added up to 5 days per week for
each person - for him they got mucked up. They still totalled 5 days per
week, except that one
week would be 4.26 and then the next would be 5.74, etc.

Why would project change the actuals? Surely the whole point of an actual is
that it actually happened and so project should keep it's nose out!!!

Help.

 

[JC]

Anyone?

 

[Steve House]

You are correct, it does seem to mess up actuals. As to why that's so? Who
knows ... I'd agree it shouldn't.

The solution to prevent the problem is to use the calendars correctly and
not mess around with them for any dates where you've already entered
actuals. IMHO, the calendar should NOT reflect the availability of a
resource except in the case of posting sick time, vacation time, etc.
Instead, the calenday should be the actual shift hours that the person
works - the hours they are on the property. The proportion of those hours
that he is available for work on the project is his maximum availability.
So if Joe works an 8 hour shift normally and was available to you for 6
hours, that means his calendar should show (for example) 0800-1200 and
1300-1700 M-F, 8 hours per day. That's the amount he could work if he had
nothing at all else to do. Since you can only have him 6 hours per day. his
maximum availability is 75%. Using your example, his boss is giving him
some new duties and so he's only going to be available 4 hours a day. Using
the Resource Information form (double click the resource name in the
resource sheet) show the effective date of the change and enter 50% maximum
availability to apply after that date.

Should you need to actually change someone's calendar - to reflect they've
gone from full time to part time status, for example, you'll need to do it
for the specific dates effected rather than changing it globally or perhaps
creting a new resource such as Joe (part time) and showing the old one as
zero availability after the change date.

Hope this helps ...