Work effort going to zero?

[Captain Paralytic]

According to the help: "When you assign or remove people from a task,
Microsoft Office Project 2003 lengthens or shortens the duration of the
task based on the number of resources assigned to it, but it does not
change the total work for the task."

It seems to do this up to a point. If I add extra resources to a task
the duration goes down. If I take resources away the duration goes up
UNLESS I remove all the resources! In this case the duration remains
the same and the Work goes to zero???

Anyone know why and more to the point, anyone know how to stop it?

 

[St Dilbert]

This behavior will not happen when task type is "fixed work".

 

[Captain Paralytic]

This behavior will not happen when task type is "fixed work".

True, but then the resource units will change which I don't want. I
want the behaviour that the help describes and that works OK as long as
all the resources are not removed.

 

[St Dilbert]

I don't think Project can handle that, since all units are stored with
the resource assignment and you are taking all assignments away. In
other words a task itself doesn't "have" units.

Assuming your "use case" is something like "keeping plan unchanged, I
just want to replace resources" you could try this workaround:
1. create a "generic" placeholder resource
2. when you're about to remove all resources from a task, assign that
placeholder resource before removing the last "real" resource.

If you already who will replace whom you may find the assignment window
(accessible via ALT+F10) and the "replace..." button useful.

Hope that helps...

 

[Captain Paralytic]

I don't think Project can handle that, since all units are stored with
the resource assignment and you are taking all assignments away. In
other words a task itself doesn't "have" units.

Assuming your "use case" is something like "keeping plan unchanged, I
just want to replace resources" you could try this workaround:
1. create a "generic" placeholder resource
2. when you're about to remove all resources from a task, assign that
placeholder resource before removing the last "real" resource.

If you already who will replace whom you may find the assignment window
(accessible via ALT+F10) and the "replace..." button useful.

Hope that helps...

Cheers St Dilbert, I'll try that.

 

[Steve House]

The duration actually becomes indeterminate when you remove the last
resource. W=D*U, rearranged becomes D=W/U. When there are no resources, U
becomes 0 and D=W/0. Rather than give you divide by zero error message, it
just leaves the duration where it last was. Couple that with the fact it
had no memory of what the duration WAS before you started adding and
adjusting resources and you get the behaviour you observe. The solution is
to manually reset the duration to what it was before fiddling with the
resources - you do have a backup, right? <grin>