Sync To Protected Actuals

[JodyJ]

Hopefully, this is a simple question.

What is this function that is available to me on the Tools > Tracking menu.
I can find no information in the online help or in the 2 MS Project / Project
Server books that I have.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

JodyJ --

Synch to projected actuals is used in conjunction with Managed Time Periods
in Project Server. It basically prevents the project manager from manually
entering actuals into the Microsoft Project plan, with the exception of
updating milestones to 100% complete. It forces all actuals to be entered
by team members in PWA and then updated from PWA into the actual project
plan. Hope this helps.

 

[JodyJ]

What does this option do? Based on your description, I'm assuming that if
I've entered actuals in the plan, I'm using managed periods, and I click this
option, any updates to actuals that I made as the PM will be erased.

Leads me to another question which I've seen posted here but am not sure my
situation is exactly the same. We use managed periods and want to get all
actuals from PWA.

Example: I have a task with an original estimate of 10 hrs and a duration
of 1.5 days. A resource logs 7 hrs to the task with zero remaining. When I
update the % complete to 100%, the actuals change to 10hrs. I don't want the
actuals or the duration to change. I simply want to show the task as
complete.

How can I keep this from happening? FYI - I did uncheck the "Updating task
status updates the resource status" on the Tools > Options > Calculation tab.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

JodyJ --

If you are using Managed Time Periods, then your team members need to be
taught a different methodolgy for entering actuals. When they enter Actual
Work on a task that finished early, they should set the Remaining Work value
to 0 hours in their PWA timesheet. In your example, if the task is a Fixed
Duration task, the Duration will not change. If it is a Fixed Work or Fixed
Units task, the Duration will change, as this is the default behavior of the
software. I would recommend that you go back to the Calculation page in the
project Options and reselect the Updating task status updates resource
status option, as deselecting it will not give you the response you wish.
Hope this helps.

--
Dale A. Howard [MVP]
Enterprise Project Trainer/Consultant
Denver, Colorado
http://www.msprojectexperts.com
"We wrote the books on Project Server"

 

[JodyJ]

Ok..I'll do that.

What happens when I click on Sync To Protected Actuals? I can't see any
visible changes to my project plan.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

JodyJ --

If you manually entered Actual Work or % Complete or % Work Complete on
tasks or task assignments in the Microsoft Project plan, they will be
synched up with the correpsonding task assignment information on the View my
tasks page of the resources assigned to the tasks. This would mean the
actuals you manually entered will be removed from the Microsoft Project
plan. Hope this helps.

--
Dale A. Howard [MVP]
Enterprise Project Trainer/Consultant
Denver, Colorado
http://www.msprojectexperts.com
"We wrote the books on Project Server"