Rolled up calculation for "other projects.." doesn't add up

[AArteagaK]

We are using Microsoft Project 2007 together with Microsoft Office Project
Server 2007, when creating a new project and leveling resources, for some
people it levels workload considering other project requirements and pushes
the start of activities way into the future, looking at the resource usage
view, he's got work under "other projects and Commitments" but when expanded
there are no projects. So, the sum of "other projects" work don't add up to
the rolled-up calculation. How do we solve this?

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

AArteagaK --

The "Other projects and commitments" section is extremely problematic in two
specific situations:

-- The Work values do not display correctly for any project that is not
currently open. Thus, you cannot trust the Work numbers for that section
for each resource.

-- When you use the built-in Leveling tool to level resource
overallocations, the system treats the projects in the "Other projects and
commitments" section as higher priority projects that the projects you
currently have open. This means that the leveling process pushes your tasks
out far into the future for any projects you currently have open.

Because of these two issues with the "Other projects and commitments"
section, I recommend you ask all of your PMs to do the following:

1. When logging into Project Server from Project Professional 2007,
deselect the "Load summary assignments" checkbox in the Login dialog. This
will remove the "Other projects and commitments" section entirely from the
Resource Usage view. (NOTE: If your PMs do not see the Login dialog when
they launch Project Professional 2007, they need to click Tools - Enterprise
Options - Microsoft Office Project Server Accounts, and then select the
"Manually control connection state" option. They will then need to exit
Project Professional 2007 and relaunch the software so they can see the
Login dialog.)

2. When you need to level resource overallocations across multiple
projects, open each of these projects and then level resources in the
Resource Usage view. This allows you to level resources individually or in
small groups, which I believe gives you a better chance at success with the
built-in Leveling tool.

Hope this helps.