Task Pane Resource assignment behavior change since about July 2015

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    • #368939
      Mary DiPerna
      Participant

      For three years, I have been using this exercise as below. I used both MS project 2010 and MS project 2013. It worked in July this year.
      Turn on the Details Pane (from the Task ribbon) for a certain task with 2D duration.
      Assign the resource, Mickey C using 75% as his units. DO NOT ENTER ANY WORK!!!
      When you click OK, the system calculates the work (12 h) and the days stay 2D.
      Work has always been 12 hours: 2d*(75% of 8hr per day) and the duration keeps 2 days because we have not yet assigned anything.
      But when I taught the class in late August, instead of having the work be calculated correctly, the file kept resulting in 75% units, 16 Hrs work and 2.67 d duration.
      Instead of calculating the work as 12 hr, the systems seem to be first calculating at 100% to get 16 hrs, but then expands the duration because it is only 75% units. I know I am not clicking ok and then changing to 75%. The students in class got the same result as I did. If we assigned using the Assignment Dialog box, the 75% worked properly. I even made a brand new file and tried it on two other machines with the same incorrect result.
      Given this change of behavior, it now seems impossible to correctly assign two resources to the same task using different % units without first changing to a fixed duration task. (which you should not have to do because no work has been calculated yet)..

    • #368956
      Larry Christofaro
      Participant

      Mary, that is “very” interesting as it might also answer a problem I’m having with something totally unrelated but similar. I duplicated the behavior on my own instance, but mine is Project Pro for O365 so I’m getting the most current bits. I have access to another machine that has an earlier version of 2013 and will let you know if I find something different. You are correct that using my Project 2010 version I’m getting the behavior you were originally expecting.

      I would like to do some additional research to see what might be the root cause of both of our concerns. This may take some time but I will reply if and when I find anything. Just in case, if you don’t hear anything within the next few weeks and nobody else has responded with a better answer then feel free to post a reply and I’ll get it.

    • #369103
      Larry Christofaro
      Participant

      Response update, after quite a bit of playing around this is what I found out:
      1. As stated, I had the same expected behavior with my Project 2010 version as you have been used to
      2. Unfortunately I was unable to find an older Project 2013 version in which the expected behavior was consistent to Project 2010
      2. I did find that the behavior using Project 2016 (preview version) produced the same results as Project 2010 and as expected.
      So, my only conclusion is that there was a change a while back that caused a bug in Project 2013, and that the bug either was fixed or hasn’t been replicated in Project 2016. I wish I had better news but for now that’s what I know. I will probably post it on a Microsoft forum and see if anyone can confirm so stay tuned. Thanks…Larry

    • #371024
      Larry Christofaro
      Participant

      Mary, I posted to a Microsoft forum and basically nothing. One person responded that the behavior is indeed the same as other versions, so I’m really not sure how you and I are getting the same results. I now have the general release of Project 2016 and am happily getting the result I was used to. Sorry I couldn’t provide a better response. Good luck…

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