Microsoft Project Tips Weekly

- [Bonnie] Hi, I'm Bonnie Biafore. You can control how Project updates tasks and assignments in several ways. All you have to do is choose the method that fits your situation. We're going to start by heading over to the file tab, and then choosing options. In the Project options dialogue box, I'm going to head to the schedule section, and scroll down until I see calculation options for this project. The first checkbox in this section is updating task status updates resource status, and it's turned on by default. Now really, when this is turned on, it actually goes in two directions. If you update the task status, it will roll that information down to the assignment, so it updates resource status. But, if you add information at the resource level, it will roll up to the task. So really, this is the way we want it to work. So I'm going to click OK, and keep that turned on. Now, let's make some changes to the view. The first thing I want to do is switch to task usage. So on the task tab, I'm going to click the bottom half of the GANTT chart button and choose task usage. Now I can see my task and it's assignments. I'm also going to change to the work table. So I right click at the top left, and choose work. That way I can see my work and actual and remaining values. The other thing I'm going to do is down in the task form, I'm going to right click that form and switch to the work table as well. Now let's say that we go in in the task form and change percent complete to 50%. When I click OK, Project will recalculate that 50% at the task level to adjust the assignments. So now these two carpenters each have 40 hours of actual work and 40 hours of remaining work. Now you might wonder, well, what happens if I turn off that option? When I do that, it means that the task and the assignments update separately. In reality, that's an inelegant way to show that work isn't progressing the way it should, and there's a better way. If you think about it, percent complete is the percent of duration that's passed. It doesn't tell you how much work has been done or how much is left to do. The better thing to do is you don't update percent complete at all. Instead, enter actual and remaining work either at the task level or the assignment level. So for example, let's say, up here in the task usage table, I'm going to change the remaining work on the task to 100 hours. Project will then roll that down to the assignment so now that each carpenter has 50 hours of remaining work. At the same time, you could make changes to the remaining or actual work for the assignments. So for example, let's say, maybe one of the carpenters actually has 60 hours left. So I change that assignment, that rolls up to the task level. The other thing to look at is because I've made changes to the remaining work, Project has recalculated the duration needed for the task, and it also calculates the percent complete for me based on how much has been done and how much duration is left. So that's how you can control how Project updates tasks and assignments.