Strange actual work values in the future

[Gil]

Hi,
We are using Project Server 2007 (SP1 + Infrastructure update
installed):
The Project manager noticed that in some tasks which he is assigned
to, there are "strange" actual work values IN THE FUTURE (4.98h, 1.03h
etc.), which were NOT reported by him.
Progress is reported regularly through PWA.
Tasks were created as (and still are) Fix Unit type, and usually are
planned to 100-300 hours.

Does anyone have an idea why it happens and how to solve/avoid this
issue?
Thanks, Gil.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz]

Gil:

I believe what you're seeing is the result of a bug that will be fixed in
the April CU. In the meantime, have you PMs check for this and make manual
corrections as necessary.

--
----------
Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
Project Server Training: http://www.projectservertraining.com
Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com
Project Server Help Blog: http://www.projectserverhelp.com

 

[Gil]

Gil:

I believe what you're seeing is the result of a bug that will be fixed in
the April CU. In the meantime, have you PMs check for this and make manual
corrections as necessary.

--
----------
Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
Project Server Consulting:http://www.msprojectexperts.com
Project Server Training:http://www.projectservertraining.com
Project Server FAQS:http://www.projectserverexperts.com
Project Server Help Blog:http://www.projectserverhelp.com







- Show quoted text -

Gary,
Thanks for your response.
I remember seeing some posts about the release of SP2 between February
and April 2009. Do you know if that is true, and if so, do you know if
this fix will be included in SP2?
Thanks,
Gil.

 

[Gil]

Gary,
Thanks for your response.
I remember seeing some posts about the release of SP2 between February
and April 2009. Do you know if that is true, and if so, do you know if
this fix will be included in SP2?
Thanks,
Gil.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Another angle of this bug is that if the project manager goes to Task
Updates page > Go to > Applied Requests and Errors, and clicks on the
problematic assignment, the actuals on the details screen are the
real, round and nice values he updated in the past. But on the My task
page (PWA) and on resource usage view (PP) the actuals are still
strange and messy.
Gil.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz]

Gil:

Unfortunately, the bug that causes this was identified after the cutoff for
SP2, so the hot fix will be a post-SP2 fix that you can install regardless
of whether you have installed SP2 or not. It may, in fact, be available
before SP2. What you might try as a workaround in the mean time:

After applying updates and before saving and publishing, apply the resource
usage view and scan for occurrences of the problem
If you see any, run the Sync to Protected actuals routine
If that doesn't correct the data, then correct it manually
Then save and publish.

The sync to protected actuals may or may not work for you. If you catch the
problem before saving and publishing, you can at least make the manual
corrections before the system pushes them back to Project Server which
causes it appear in PWA and analysis views.

--
----------
Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
Project Server Training: http://www.projectservertraining.com
Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com
Project Server Help Blog: http://www.projectserverhelp.com

Gary,
Thanks for your response.
I remember seeing some posts about the release of SP2 between February
and April 2009. Do you know if that is true, and if so, do you know if
this fix will be included in SP2?
Thanks,
Gil.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Another angle of this bug is that if the project manager goes to Task
Updates page > Go to > Applied Requests and Errors, and clicks on the
problematic assignment, the actuals on the details screen are the
real, round and nice values he updated in the past. But on the My task
page (PWA) and on resource usage view (PP) the actuals are still
strange and messy.
Gil.

 

[Gil]

Gary,
Thank you for this valuable info! I will give it a try.
Gil.

 

[Skip W]

Gil,

I submitted this exact incident to Microsoft back in September. Because the
smeared time is tough to catch, I have told our folks to first check for any
Actual Work in My Tasks for the upcoming week and zero any future Actual Work
they see.

By the way, It is possible to also have Actual Work in the future if the
task's "% Complete" is manually changed by the project manager. We fixed
this by enabling a server option "Restrict updates to Project Web Access".

Skip

 

[Ryan]

MS support was able to find the source of this issue with our database as it
did the same thing (timephased actuals spread out through 2049 across 20% of
our projects). They do have a hotfix that was completed after the April CU
and SP2. It is connected to the logic engines in the server and client,
however it does not affect the transaction logs for the actual updates. That
being said, I've applied the hot fix as a test for them and we are working
through a few minor issues but it involves doing a compare between the
transaction logs and database to identify the problem projects. Opening the
projects, deleting the actual work, publishing, and then running a special
tool that is a part of the fix to rerun the transaction logs. The problem
was introduced during one of the interim SP1 releases and subsequent patches
beyond that.

I'll keep everyone updated on the progress of our testing.

Ryan

 

[Skip W]

The hotfix was working on our development system so we applied it along with
SP2 and April CUs to our production system. We deleted all actuals since
March 1 and ran a tool to resynch up actuals with the applied request
transactions ane all time is in whole numbers, no smearing, and no more
Actual Work popping up in the future. It works very well for us.

 

[Gary L. Chefetz]

Yes, indeed, the most current (not released) hot fix solves the final issue
with Actual Work. If you are experiencing these problems, make sure that you
are patched up to April CU and open a case with Microsoft to obtain the last
hotfix if you need it. I assume that this last fix will be included in the
June CU and I'm not sure that a KB article will be issued for this fix
before the June CU.

--
----------
Gary L. Chefetz, MVP
MSProjectExperts
Project Server Consulting: http://www.msprojectexperts.com
Project Server Training: http://www.projectservertraining.com
Project Server FAQS: http://www.projectserverexperts.com
Project Server Help Blog: http://www.projectserverhelp.com

 

[Skip W]

One thing to watch for. If the PM accepts task updates and later the
resource recalls a timesheet, deletes it, updates tasks, recreates timesheet,
and resubmits everything there might be some smearing of Actual Work. We saw
a little of that today and are looking into it now.

 

[גיל]

Hi,
Trying to fix the problem in the title, our IT team installed SP2 WITH June
CU on the SERVER. Project CLIENT were upgraded to SP2 only, NO June CU.
After upgrade, a team member reported 4 hours of actual work, in one day, on
a fixed-units task. After accepting the update, the PM saw on
Project-Proffesional that the actual was modified to 2.5556 and 1.4444 or
something similar, across two days, meaning, the issue is still here.
Questions asked:

Should the June CU be installed also on all Project Clients? Will this make
the problem go away (I am asking that because I didn't see this issue listed
on the June CU KB)?
If so, How can I obtain the special tool mentioned in Ryan and Skip W posts,
which can sync the actuals to what is showing up on the transaction logs?

Your suggestions are wellcome.
Gil

 

[Skip W]

Hi Gil,

The hotfix we applied back in May was KB971066. But since then we are
seeing more and more Actual Work "smearing" (my term) in projects and task
sheets. MS has recently released 2 more hotfixes KB971501 (June 30) for the
Project Pro client and KB 971502 (July 15) for Project Server - both address
"incorrect" (Microsoft's term) Actual Work. We are applying these tomorrow
in our Development environment.

 

[sebentas]

Hi Skip W,

Can you please tell what was the tool you used to resync the actual
work of the project with the transation log? And did the hotfix
reference by you correct the problem?

thanks,
João Madeira

 

[Barbara G]

Hi,
I would like to know what tool you installed as well. We are seeing actual
hours into the future as well. I've applied both the SP2 and the June CU to
my project server 2007.

Thanks,

 

[ST]

Hi Gary,

We seem to all be looking for that tool that helps with the transaction log
synchronization we read about in this thread. Do you know where we can get
it?

Also, have you heard of anyone installing KB971502? Do you know if it
finally resolves the problem of smeard actuals?

We are currently on SP2 June CU (2007).

Spiro

 

[ST]

Hi Ryan,

Do you know where I can download the tool you mentioned that syncronizes the
transaction log actuals with the project plans?

Thanks,
/Spiro.

 

[Gary Chefetz]

The tool is only available from Microsoft Support. You need to open a case,
to obtain this tool. I suggest applying October CU, although I'm not sure
that they've licked every bug yet.