Project Problems - BUGS!

[JoeVolcano]

I've been a project user for many years. The current version has become
almost unusable. Creating circular links that cannot be undone. Tasks
that wont level properly. Leveling ignores the priorities and leveling
creates task splits when told not to.

I have the latest update from Microsoft (Maybe that is the problem!)

This has become very frustrating, two of my managers have spent days
working on schedules that should take hours...

ARG!

 

[John]

I've been a project user for many years. The current version has become
almost unusable. Creating circular links that cannot be undone. Tasks
that wont level properly. Leveling ignores the priorities and leveling
creates task splits when told not to.

I have the latest update from Microsoft (Maybe that is the problem!)

This has become very frustrating, two of my managers have spent days
working on schedules that should take hours...

ARG!

Joe,
I sympathize with your frustration. I remember when I had to move from
Project 97 (4.x) to Project 98. At first, I didn't like anything but
after I learned and understood more, it became easier. Project 2003 has
a ton of features. In my opinion additional features add complexity that
the average user doesn't necessarily need or want. Hence my belief that
the latest isn't always the greatest. If you have a particular question
about Project 2003, we will certainly try to help you. Otherwise if you
believe Project 2003 is unusable, you might just want to back off to a
more friendly version such as Project 2000.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Gee Joe - I've never had any of the troubles you cite.

Create a circular link? Delete one of the tasks and reenter it. (Actually
the rare times I've tried it says "You can't do that" and won't create the
link.)

Tasks that won't level "properly?" What do you mean by "properly?" You
might be expecting it to so something besides what it does but just because
you expect something different doesn't mean you're right and it's wrong.
Levelling delays work assigned to overallocated resources to resolve their
time conflict. That's all it's designed to do. That's all it pretends to
do. That's all it's documented to do.

Ignores priorities? Did your users actually tell it to pay attention to
priorities in the drop down selector on the levelling dialog page?

Leveling creates task splits when told not to? Never seen it happen.

Project has its limitations and quirks, no doubt about it, but the issues
you're raising are, IMHO, undeserved Red Herrings. "...two of your managers
take days to do schedules that should take hours..." Depending on the scope
and budget of a project, planning and scheduling can take as much as 25% of
the total project timeline and budget or even more for really high impact
projects. If you expect a project manager will real managerial
responsibilities (as contrasted with "managers" who are actually clerical
staff with an inflated title instead of real authority along with a
commensurate salary) to bang out a schedule for a significant project in a
matter of hours I'd say your expectations are more than a little
unrealistic.

 

[JulieD]

Hi

i've seen circular links created when successor tasks were made sub-tasks of
their predecessors ... however, the information at
www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm #43 helped solve the problems.

Cheers
JulieD

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi Joe,

Curiously enough, my frustration is that since the 2000 version, as for the
scheduling engine, about nothing has changed. I'd even say nothing but one
never knows there may be a comma added somewhere.

Try to look up the parameters entered, especially for leveling.
HTH

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

That would certainly be one, but I just did the experiment to test your
assertion that it happens. I'm not doubting you've seen it but something
more is going on than simply indenting a linked task under its predecessor.
Create a new file with tasks A, B, C, and D. Link in sequence all 4 tasks
FS. Select task C and try to indent as a subtask of its predecessor B.
Indents to become a subtask just fine but the link B->C is automatically
severed in the process. Link A->B is preserved and the start of B as set by
the link cascades to become the start of C even though there is no direct
inbound link to C itself. However, a circular link doesn't form.
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

 

[JulieD]

Hi Steve

i can't replicate it either in a new file - but the problem was on a big
project file that was heading towards total corruption .... and it had heaps
of sub-tasks that were successors to their summary tasks - i looked at the
printout prior to these problems occuring and these tasks where not
sub-tasks of the summary tasks at that stage .. they then got moved around
..... and this was the start of the problems with the file ... another
problem with this file was the summary task's durations were not calculating
correctly and every time you did anything in the file you got a circular
error message which the users had been ignoring for about 2 weeks!!!!
(luckily we resuced the file and all is well now)

Cheers
JulieD