Resource Usage View provides inaccurate working values

[Jeff Sweeney]

Image a leveled enterprise resource has been scheduled five 8 hour
tasks, via predecessors, to be done one after the other. After the
first day, the resource reports working on the first task for 6 hours
and on the second task for 2 hours. The project is then updated using
the "Update Project" feature and completed portions of tasks are
pulled back to the first day where they were completed while the
uncompleted remainder of those tasks and the other tasks are pushed
out to start after day one. When project is leveled, it shows 8 hours
scheduled for each of the remaining four days in the Resource Usage
View. (This is good.)

However, when I go to another project [and close the first one] on the
server and look at the Resource Usage View, the same enterprise
resource shows over allocated with numbers of hours other than the
8-hour days that my first project showed? (This is bad.)

The resource has no other tasks assigned in any other project for the
period being discussed.

Thanks for any insight you can provide.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Jeff:

After you update the plan, you need to publish it to synch up the data
displayed in Web Access.

 

[Jeff Sweeney]

Yes, that is certainly true. I have no problems on how the data is in
PWA. Infact the PWA is the only place where I trust the resource
numbers.

What I don't understand is how the data in the "Resource Usage View"
in Project itself can be wrong?

In the example below, when Project is displaying hours worked of
another closed project, the values are incorrect...often times making
the resource appear to be overallocated when it is infact not.

Does anyone use MS Project to do resource planning or is it always
done through the PWA? If you do it through PWA, how do you get around
the constant publishing/republishing and bouncing back and forth
between windows?

Jeff:

After you update the plan, you need to publish it to synch up the data
displayed in Web Access.

Image a leveled enterprise resource has been scheduled five 8 hour
tasks, via predecessors, to be done one after the other. After the
first day, the resource reports working on the first task for 6 hours
and on the second task for 2 hours. The project is then updated using
the "Update Project" feature and completed portions of tasks are
pulled back to the first day where they were completed while the
uncompleted remainder of those tasks and the other tasks are pushed
out to start after day one. When project is leveled, it shows 8 hours
scheduled for each of the remaining four days in the Resource Usage
View. (This is good.)

However, when I go to another project [and close the first one] on the
server and look at the Resource Usage View, the same enterprise
resource shows over allocated with numbers of hours other than the
8-hour days that my first project showed? (This is bad.)

The resource has no other tasks assigned in any other project for the
period being discussed.

Thanks for any insight you can provide.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]]

Jeff:

There are many reasons why the representation of actual work in Project can
be, and often is, different than what you see in PWA. When you apply
day-by-day hours collected in PWA to a fixed-duration task, for instance,
the work is distributed across the task in Project according to the normal
behavior of Project for fixed-duration tasks, not as it was collected in
PWA.

Yes, that is certainly true. I have no problems on how the data is in
PWA. Infact the PWA is the only place where I trust the resource
numbers.

What I don't understand is how the data in the "Resource Usage View"
in Project itself can be wrong?

In the example below, when Project is displaying hours worked of
another closed project, the values are incorrect...often times making
the resource appear to be overallocated when it is infact not.

Does anyone use MS Project to do resource planning or is it always
done through the PWA? If you do it through PWA, how do you get around
the constant publishing/republishing and bouncing back and forth
between windows?

"Gary L. Chefetz [MVP]" <garyNOSPAM@chefetzDOTorg> wrote in message

Jeff:

After you update the plan, you need to publish it to synch up the data
displayed in Web Access.

Image a leveled enterprise resource has been scheduled five 8 hour
tasks, via predecessors, to be done one after the other. After the
first day, the resource reports working on the first task for 6 hours
and on the second task for 2 hours. The project is then updated using
the "Update Project" feature and completed portions of tasks are
pulled back to the first day where they were completed while the
uncompleted remainder of those tasks and the other tasks are pushed
out to start after day one. When project is leveled, it shows 8 hours
scheduled for each of the remaining four days in the Resource Usage
View. (This is good.)

However, when I go to another project [and close the first one] on the
server and look at the Resource Usage View, the same enterprise
resource shows over allocated with numbers of hours other than the
8-hour days that my first project showed? (This is bad.)

The resource has no other tasks assigned in any other project for the
period being discussed.

Thanks for any insight you can provide.