Recording task progress ahead of schedule in MS PROJECT 2016!

Hi,

my Blog reader has a problem with scheduling Task ahead of planned time! I will reproduce his scenario in MS PROJECT 2016!.

First I’m going to create simple Project with two Tasks:

Now I’m going to create two Resources (John and Mary), and I will Assign john to the Task 1, and Mary to the Task 2:

and:

OK! Let’s say that Task 1 has started as Scheduled and it was done 25%:

I will get:

Now, let’s say that Task 2 is also done 25%, but it has started two day earlier (e.g. 6.2.2018). Do not ask me how can is it possible that Task 2 has started before Task1 is finished. It is scenario.

and:

I’ve got this:

Now, my Blog reader asks why are Actual Start date and Current Start date the same:

Well, the answer is obvious. Actual and Current start date are same, because Task 2 has been started at some date, and that is Current start date. It is not saved in a plan, otherwise I will have to save the Baseline, and this Baseline Start date will remain intact, no matter if Start date is changed.

Now, I will set Status date to 06.02.2018, and I will update the project to reschedule uncompleted tasks to after the Status Date:

and:

I’ve got this:

Now, my Blog reader asks why are Start dates unchanged? Because, MS PROJECT has rescheduled only unfinished part of both Tasks. So, because Tasks were started before rescheduling, theirs Start Dates remains as they were.

Now, the major problem occurs. My blog reader did this: “Now I want to make Task 2 100% complete based on its earlier Actual Start Date and original Duration, so I enter the Actual Finish Date in the Update Tasks dialog box:”

The Result is:

The question is: “Why is Duration 0,75 days?” Well, first of all we rescheduled uncompleted part of Tasks after the Status date, which was 06.02.2018. What happened? The rest of Task 2 was supposed to continue at Friday, 09.02.2018. And since we told that it was finished before that date, (e.g. 08.02.2018), from 07.02.2018 to 08.02.2018 nothing happened, because in that period the Task is not scheduled! So if you say that it was finished at 08.02.2018, it is considered done, with no additional work. It means the real duration of the Task was 0,75 days (25% of three days which was planned).

Hope this helps.

Regards!

About Nenad Trajkovski

Location: Zagreb, Croatia Occupation: Project Manager Interests: Project Management and MS PROJECT He was born in Zagreb, Croatia at 1963. After completing his college he started working on projects in different business areas (banking, manufacturing, automotive industry, distribution, oil companies, etc.) developing and implementing ERP systems into different companies. He has got a lot of experience working with people in different business processes and also possesses great knowledge in information technologies and financial services. Today he works as a business consultant, adn Project Manager in PERPETUUM MOBILE d.o.o. Zagreb. He is a regular lecturer for Project Management in MS Innovation Center in Varaždin, Logosoft Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina and SEAVUS GROUP in Skopje Macedonia. He was named the best lecturer of WINDAYS 2008 while his lecture was also voted as the best. In addition, he was in TOP 10 lecturers at the MS SINERGY 2009 and MS VISIA 2009, 2010. Shares first place as the best lecturer of KulenDays 2009 and 2010 and PMI Conference 2009 in Zagreb. He is also a regular lecturer in the MS Community. He is a Certified Accountant and a PMP (Project Manager Professional) and a PMI-RMP (Risk Manager Professional), MCP, MCT, and Microsoft Certified Technical Specialist - Microsoft Project 2010. From 01.01.2012 awarded with MVP (Microsoft Most Valuable Proffesional - Microsoft Project)!

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