PWA: New Task (self assigned existing task) - merge "Actual Work"into project

[Stefan Pascal]

Hello.

I would like to know how can i merge the actual work information
gathered from the self assigned tasks.

Here's an example of my situation:
1. We have a project with some tasks (fixed work) and some resources
assigned to them.
2. At some point another resource(s) decided to work on some tasks they
were not assigned.
3. They use the "My Tasks"->"New Task"->"Select project"->*"Select
existing task"*.
4. The report (into the timesheet) the actual work on this new
"self-assigned task".
5. They submit and import the timesheet as usual.

The problem i can't figure out is this: i can see the "Actual Work"
hours reported by the resource(s) if i use PWA reporting ("Data
Analysis"), but i *can't* see the actual work hours if i open the
project and import all the updates. The task shows with 0 (zero) actual
work hours and with the original assigned resources only.

Is there any way to "merge" the "self-assigned" task with project data?
I mean, it would be perfect if the project would be updated in such a
way it would display the actual work on that task by combining the hours
reported by the original task resource(s) and the hours reported by the
resource(s) that self-assigned this task to them.

Thank you.

 

[Jim Erwin]

Hello.

I would like to know how can i merge the actual work information
gathered from the self assigned tasks.

Here's an example of my situation:
1. We have a project with some tasks (fixed work) and some resources
assigned to them.
2. At some point another resource(s) decided to work on some tasks they
were not assigned.
3. They use the "My Tasks"->"New Task"->"Select project"->*"Select
existing task"*.
4. The report (into the timesheet) the actual work on this new
"self-assigned task".
5. They submit and import the timesheet as usual.

The problem i can't figure out is this: i can see the "Actual Work"
hours reported by the resource(s) if i use PWA reporting ("Data
Analysis"), but i *can't* see the actual work hours if i open the
project and import all the updates. The task shows with 0 (zero) actual
work hours and with the original assigned resources only.

Is there any way to "merge" the "self-assigned" task with project data?
I mean, it would be perfect if the project would be updated in such a
way it would display the actual work on that task by combining the hours
reported by the original task resource(s) and the hours reported by the
resource(s) that self-assigned this task to them.

Thank you.

After the resource requested to be assigned to the tasks via your step
3, did the PM approve the assignment? Any change affecting the
project plan needs to be approved. Have the PM go approve these
updates if they have not already done so.

 

[Stefan Pascal]

After the resource requested to be assigned to the tasks via your step
3, did the PM approve the assignment? Any change affecting the
project plan needs to be approved. Have the PM go approve these
updates if they have not already done so.

How does the PM approve these assignments? Does he need to open the
project with MS Project or use the "Task Updates" menu item from the PWA
and "Accept" all the updates?
I have the PM role for one of our projects and i always Accept any task
updates from our team (we are a small team and very often take over
tasks assigned to other team members).

Thank you.

 

[Jim Erwin]

How does the PM approve these assignments? Does he need to open the
project with MS Project or use the "Task Updates" menu item from the PWA
and "Accept" all the updates?
I have the PM role for one of our projects and i always Accept any task
updates from our team (we are a small team and very often take over
tasks assigned to other team members).

Thank you.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

It sounds like you have PS07, right? Yeah, this should come in to the
approvals page for whoever the status manager is on that task. If
this person changes, I believe the approval will stay with whoever it
was when the update was submitted. From the PWA mainpage, click Task
Updates in the Approvals section. You can Accept All, but use some
discretion - i don't know what other updates you might have pending.
Then after the updates are applied to the project plan, go ahead and
publish to get the tasks to update the project display in PWA. At
this point, the resource should be assigned to the task. Again, based
on your comment that the status manager changes often, it may be one
of the other PMs that has the assignment awaiting approval.

 

[Bilal]

As jim mentioned, any new task self assigned task will send a Task Request to
the PM and he needs to approve it, now if the resource update and submit his
progress on that task then another Task update will be send to PM, so the PM
has to approve the Task request as well as the Task update

Another thing, did you apply the update? unless you update this then the
actual will not be reflected on your plan

--

Best Regards

Bilal Okour
blog : http://ebilal.spaces.live.com

 

[Stefan Pascal]

As jim mentioned, any new task self assigned task will send a Task Request to
the PM and he needs to approve it, now if the resource update and submit his
progress on that task then another Task update will be send to PM, so the PM
has to approve the Task request as well as the Task update

Another thing, did you apply the update? unless you update this then the
actual will not be reflected on your plan

That is exactly what we did. I will summarize:
1. The resource self assigned a new task from an existing task.
2. The resource reported actual work hours on that task on several
timesheets.
3. The resource submitted the timesheet (IMPORTANT: All our timesheets
are automatically approved by the system!).
4. The resource imported the timesheets using "Import timesheet" page
(My Tasks->Import Timesheet->[Select timesheet]->Import->[Select all
tasks]->Submit Selected.
5. The Project Manager (PM) can see the updates on the Approvals->Task
Updates page.
6. The PM selects all existing updates and Accepts them.
7. The project's tasks are *NOT* updated as we expected, meaning that
the resource is not shown as assigned to that task and Actual Work hours
are not displayed on that task.

I noticed that there is a "Applied Requests and Errors" page where one
can see what requests were accepted/rejected or had an error. I can see
there a couple of errors. Actually that rises a second question: where
can i see some details about each error? The only information displayed
on that pages says "The update was not applied due to a conflict".

IMPORTANT: Some of the updates accepted by the PM did *NOT* receive an
error, but still these updates are not reflected in our project.

Thank you.

 

[Stefan Pascal]

It sounds like you have PS07, right? Yeah, this should come in to the
approvals page for whoever the status manager is on that task. If
this person changes, I believe the approval will stay with whoever it
was when the update was submitted. From the PWA mainpage, click Task
Updates in the Approvals section. You can Accept All, but use some
discretion - i don't know what other updates you might have pending.
Then after the updates are applied to the project plan, go ahead and
publish to get the tasks to update the project display in PWA. At
this point, the resource should be assigned to the task. Again, based
on your comment that the status manager changes often, it may be one
of the other PMs that has the assignment awaiting approval.

Yes, PS07. When you say "[...] go ahead and publish[...]" you mean after
the PM accepts the tasks updates you still have to open the project in
Office Project and File->Publish the project?

Thank you.

 

[Jim Erwin]

It sounds like you have PS07, right?  Yeah, this should come in to the
approvals page for whoever the status manager is on that task.  If
this person changes, I believe the approval will stay with whoever it
was when the update was submitted.  From the PWA mainpage, click Task
Updates in the Approvals section.  You can Accept All, but use some
discretion - i don't know what other updates you might have pending.
Then after the updates are applied to the project plan, go ahead and
publish to get the tasks to update the project display in PWA.  At
this point, the resource should be assigned to the task.  Again, based
on your comment that the status manager changes often, it may be one
of the other PMs that has the assignment awaiting approval.

Yes, PS07. When you say "[...] go ahead and publish[...]" you mean after
the PM accepts the tasks updates you still have to open the project in
Office Project and File->Publish the project?

Thank you.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

To get the update to display in the My Tasks page with correct work
and everything, yes. You can publish from the PWA interface, too, but
I've run into errors and problems with this, so it's easier to train
people to just open the plan in Proj Pro and publish.