Tracking Actuals

[Helge Svee]

I'am trying to understand what Project 2003 does with the activities when
actuals are given.

What I have done:

Established 1 activity with duration = 20 days and work = 1000 hours, task
type = fixed duration. When I assign a resource to this activity I get
calculated that 6,25 units are needed. All this is no problem - and I save
the baseline for this project.

Then I tries to track actuals on this task. I use the dialog box "Update
tasks" and set the actual start to 2 days later than baseline start, the
actual finish to the same as baseline finish and % complete to 100%.

Project calculates work and actual work to 900 hours, but in my fictive
project actual work is 1000h, but i have used 2 days less than planned in the
baseline.

When I gives the value 1000h in actual work field I get an error message
from Project and Project "tells" me that the activity finished 2 days later
than I set in Update Task.

In online help - about task types it says that if i revise work for task
types fixed duration units are recalculated. This is not whats happens to me.
Therefor my questions are: "What have I done wrong ?" and "Do I have a wrong
setting in tools\options?"

 

[Rod Gill]

A lot will change depending on the order you update items. Try updating
using Fixed Units, which is the default and most flexible setting. I only
ever use a different fixed task type when making specific changes to
assignments.

 

[Helge Svee]

This did not help me directly, but put me right on track.

If I after having given actual start, finish and % complete use the field
actual work and write 1000h Project recalulate and moves the actual finish to
2 days later.

But if I use the Task Usage form for the resource, and give the actuals pr
day or week here, the actual work updates correctly without moving the actual
finish date.

Rod Gill skrev: