Unexpected behavior of actual finish

[patrickd123]

Hi,

I did a simple test to try to isolate the behavior but in vain!



Let's say a simple task of 40 hours starting on Monday the 10th supposed to finish on Friday the 14th. Then on the Wednesday I click 100% completed.

In my mind, I the actual finish date should switch from N/A to 12th but instead it shows the 14th, which is the original finish date. Makes no sense to me!

Any idea?

[JulieS]

No, sorry - that is not how Project functions. Project will always assume your original estimate of 40 hours and 5 days is correct. If you finished the task early, you need to explicitly tell Project that. Use the Tracking table to record actual Starts and Actual Finishes that may not align with the original plan.

[patrickd123]

Related question: A task of 4 days starting on Monday. On wednesday morning, I click the 25 percentage button. Since it means that there is 3 days remaining, it should stretch the project to the Friday inclusive. But it does not.

Curiously enough, if instead, I go to the resource usage, I enter 8 hours actual on Monday and 0 hours actual on Tuesday, THEN, it detects that I am missing a day and it stretches the task to the Friday!!!!!

In theory, both situations are identical but MS project does not behave the same for both!

Any idea why?

[JulieS]

Mark the task as 25% complete and then use the Update Project > Reschedule Uncompleted work command. (Project 2003 I thinks it Tools > Tracking, Project 2010 the command is on the Project Ribbon.