work contour - contoured / flat?

[Jesse]

I accidentally posted this to the Project Server thread first...

My project schedule is fixed duration and not effort driven. I've noticed for
a while that some tasks have a very high (2,000%...3,000%) units for
resources assigned to the task. I think I stumbled across the cause of the
high units.

I was looking at the Task Usage view and noticed that many of the resource
assignments for tasks had a work contour of contoured instead of flat. Upon
further research the task start and finish was different for these tasks than
start and finish in the assignment information. I suspect that the assignment
originally had start of 9/7 and finish of 9/14...I assigned a
resource....then I changed the finish of the assignment to 9/21....but the
assignment information for the resource assigned to the task still shows the
finish date as 9/14???

I have never noticed this before. Can someone tell me what I'm doing that is
causing a different in start/finish for the task and for the assignment?
What should I be doing to avoid this and keep the work contour flat unless I
specifically change it?

 

[John]

I accidentally posted this to the Project Server thread first...

My project schedule is fixed duration and not effort driven. I've noticed for
a while that some tasks have a very high (2,000%...3,000%) units for
resources assigned to the task. I think I stumbled across the cause of the
high units.

I was looking at the Task Usage view and noticed that many of the resource
assignments for tasks had a work contour of contoured instead of flat. Upon
further research the task start and finish was different for these tasks than
start and finish in the assignment information. I suspect that the assignment
originally had start of 9/7 and finish of 9/14...I assigned a
resource....then I changed the finish of the assignment to 9/21....but the
assignment information for the resource assigned to the task still shows the
finish date as 9/14???

I have never noticed this before. Can someone tell me what I'm doing that is
causing a different in start/finish for the task and for the assignment?
What should I be doing to avoid this and keep the work contour flat unless I
specifically change it?

Jesse,
Well, if I read your post correctly, you DID specifically change the
work contour. Making any manual edits to resource assignments, (as in
the Task Usage view), will automatically create a contour. Why? Because
the work spread is no longer linear and therefore it is contoured.

With regard to the task dates and assignment dates not being in sync,
check your calculation setting under Tools/Options/Calculation tab. I'm
betting it is set to "manual".

Hope this helps.

John
Project MVP

 

[Cindy]

I'm having the same problem (see post "Assignment dates not changing" posted
9/14). No one has responded to that as yet. I know for a fact that the PM
did NOT manually edit anything in the assignment nor did she change the work
contour. I have not been able to find any explanation.

 

[John]

I'm having the same problem (see post "Assignment dates not changing" posted
9/14). No one has responded to that as yet. I know for a fact that the PM
did NOT manually edit anything in the assignment nor did she change the work
contour. I have not been able to find any explanation.

Cindy,
Yeah, I thought I remembered seeing a similar post but I didn't have
time to check it out. If no one else picks it up, I will try to respond
to your original post today.

John
Project MVP

 

[Jesse]

Thanks for the reply John. I went into the Task Usage view but didn't do any
manual edits so I don't think that's why the contour changed.

I'm not familiar wit the Tools/Options/Calculation tab so I've never
purposely changed it. I checked and it is set automatic.

So I'm still stumped. Looks like my issue is similar to Cindy's issue.

 

[John]

Thanks for the reply John. I went into the Task Usage view but didn't do any
manual edits so I don't think that's why the contour changed.

I'm not familiar wit the Tools/Options/Calculation tab so I've never
purposely changed it. I checked and it is set automatic.

So I'm still stumped. Looks like my issue is similar to Cindy's issue.

Jesse,
Wait a minute. Your original post said, "...then I changed the finish of
the assignment to 9/21...". How exactly did you do that? It sounded to
me like you manually edited the assignment, maybe not via the Task Usage
view, but in some view.

John
Project MVP

 

[Jesse]

John, I changed the duration of the task...which changed the finish date of
the task. Should this change the assignment contour?

 

[John]

John, I changed the duration of the task...which changed the finish date of
the task. Should this change the assignment contour?

Jesse,
Just for reference, changing a task is not the same as changing an
assignment - they are different but related objects. Nonetheless, simply
increasing the duration should not change the work contour for the
assignment. There must be something else you or someone else did that
got the task and assignments out of sync, thus causing the contour to be
customized (i.e. not flat).

Sometimes Project can do seemingly strange things. Usually there is an
explanation although it may not be apparent. However, once in a while,
Project's actions defy understanding although there is a probably a
reason buried somewhere out there.

At this point I can't tell you why your file is what it is. If I had the
file in front of me, I might be able to figure it out but not
necessarily. Some files have been so heavily edited by the user that
trying to figure out what they did is just a big headache. This is
especially true when the leveling function has been used.

You mentioned initially that you have some resources with allocations of
a couple thousand percent. I'm not sure how you determined the contoured
assignments were causing that but with those allocation levels it sounds
like there are some major problems with the file. It may be corrupt, or
it may just be so hosed up that the best approach is to start over using
the last known good version. Not exactly what you wanted to hear but its
the best I have to offer. Maybe someone else will read this thread and
have a better answer.

John
Project MVP

 

[Jesse]

Thanks for your efforts John
--
Jesse

Jesse,
Just for reference, changing a task is not the same as changing an
assignment - they are different but related objects. Nonetheless, simply
increasing the duration should not change the work contour for the
assignment. There must be something else you or someone else did that
got the task and assignments out of sync, thus causing the contour to be
customized (i.e. not flat).

Sometimes Project can do seemingly strange things. Usually there is an
explanation although it may not be apparent. However, once in a while,
Project's actions defy understanding although there is a probably a
reason buried somewhere out there.

At this point I can't tell you why your file is what it is. If I had the
file in front of me, I might be able to figure it out but not
necessarily. Some files have been so heavily edited by the user that
trying to figure out what they did is just a big headache. This is
especially true when the leveling function has been used.

You mentioned initially that you have some resources with allocations of
a couple thousand percent. I'm not sure how you determined the contoured
assignments were causing that but with those allocation levels it sounds
like there are some major problems with the file. It may be corrupt, or
it may just be so hosed up that the best approach is to start over using
the last known good version. Not exactly what you wanted to hear but its
the best I have to offer. Maybe someone else will read this thread and
have a better answer.

John
Project MVP

 

[John]

Thanks for your efforts John

Jesse,
You're welcome but sorry I couldn't help. It looks like Cindy's issue is
similar and I'm running out of ideas on her file also.

John