MSP2016 Fixed Duration Task change work doesn't recalc assigned resource units

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    • #412062

      Dear MPUG friends,

      I have the following issue / question about MS Project 2016:

        Situation:

      An automatically scheduled fixed duration task with a duration of 1 day has a workload of 16 hours
      When assigning a resource who’s available on the scheduled day for 8 hours, the assignment units for that resource on that particular task is automatically calculated to 200%, which is correct.
      After assigning the resource and the units automatically been set to 200%, the workload of the task is manually updated into 8 hours.

      My expectation now is, that the assigned resource units would be recalculated and modified into 100%. However, this is not the case: the value remains the same: 200%.
      Also when increasing the task workload to 32 hours, my expectation is that the resource utilization units would impact as well, automatically recalculated into 400%. This is also not the case, the value stays the same: 200%.

      The other way around: manually updating the assigned units impacts and recalculates automatically the workload so that works fine.

        Question:

      Shouldn’t the assigned resources assigned units not automatically recalculated when manually updating the workload of a fixed duration task, according to the planning formula?

      Thanks for your help in advance.

    • #412063
      Larry Christofaro
      Participant

      Dear member, that’s a good question of which the answer has changed in a recent update (not sure if it was 2016 or 2013). The Units field used to represent the Peak units, but was changed to represent the Assignment units. If you go to the Resource Usage view you can see both. There are some nice up sides to this change, but one of the down sides is that the display doesn’t always reflect what is going on with the Work column in the Gantt chart. There have been a lot of blogs on this topic if you are interested in more or still have questions. Good luck…

    • #412064
      Daryl Deffler
      Participant

      To expand on what Larry mentioned.
      I’m a 2013 user and I’ve run into this scenario quite a bit. Unfortunately, Project doesn’t necessarily handle your two scenarios exactly the same. When you first create the fixed 1 day duration task, the duration is now fixed. When you add the resource and provide a 16 hours estimate, project can’t change the duration. That’s fixed. It can’t update the hours, because you just entered that, so the only thing left to do is to change the assignment units as you’ve seen to 200%.
      Once the resource is already on the task, it works very slightly different. If you change the hours, say to 32, the duration is fixed, so it can’t change that. You just entered the hours, so that can’t change. Which leaves the assignment units already sitting at 200%, which I’m assuming is already exceeding the resources Max Units. In this case, Project leaves the assignment units as is (200%) and puts the REAL assignment units in a field called Peak. The Peak field is what it will really take to accomplish 32 hours of work in 1 day. So the 400% is in Peak and the Assignment Units still shows 200%. The reality is that while Project always keeps that task formula in balance (duration = work / availability) it is really keeping it in balance with the Peak field, not the Assignment Units field.
      Continuing this discussion a bit, this is one of the scenarios that Project will NOT fix with resource leveling. It’s a task configuration problem and as such, you the PM have to manually fix the task by either adding 3 days duration, reducing work to 8 hours, or what ever.
      So how do you find these scenarios in your schedule? As Larry indicated, create a Task Usage view with columns for Max units (will only show on the resource row), Assignment Units, and Peak. Anytime Assignment units exceed Max Units or Peak exceed Assignment Units, you probably have an issue to resolve.
      Hope that helps

    • #412072
      André Stolk
      Guest

      Thanks for your replies Larry and Daryl!
      I checked out the Peak Units and also the “% Alloc.”, both in the time phased part of the Task Usage view and the Peak Units also in the left part of the Task Usage view. These figures on the right part (time phased) show exactly what I expect to see when I modify the workload. When, in a Task Usage view, changing the workload of a 1 day fixed duration automatically scheduled task with a workload of 16 hours and a resource assigned 200% to it, after increasing the workload from 16 to 32 hours:
      – the Assignment Units on the left part remains unchanged (200%);
      – the Peak Units on the left part is changed from 200% to 400%;
      – the Peak Units and % Alloc. on the right (time phased) part of the screen are both changed from 200% into 400%.
      However, my client for which I’m figuring out this, has been migrated from Project Server 2007 to 2016 (quite a big step!) and he was used to the behavior in MSP 2007 that, when you change the Work, this also impacts and recalculates the Assignment Units in the left part of the Task Usage view. It looks strange that, when updating the Assignment Units, this affects and recalculates the Work, but not the other way around, modifying the Work, impacts the Assignment Units, as it was in MSP 2007. But probably this is the way it works now so I will advise my client to make use of the Peak Units.

      By the way, Daryl, I can’t insert a column Max Units within a Task Usage view since it’s a resource property.

      Thanks for your help guys!

    • #412074
      Daryl Deffler
      Participant

      Sorry about that, you are correct, Max units is obviously a resource field. What I should have said was to add those columns to a resource usage view.

    • #412081
      André Stolk
      Guest

      Clear to me Daryl! Indeed a good suggestion to use a resource usage view with columns for Max Units on the resource level, Assignment Units and Peak, and analyze the exceedings of Assignment Units compared to Max Units and Peak compared to Assignment Units.
      Thanks again!

    • #413490
      Shrikant
      Guest

      Hi, In my Project; changing work is not reflecting for change in duration though the task type is Fixed Work. I am using MSP2016 and have come across this issue just today.

      Thanks, Shrikant

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