Hello,



I just started using MS Project 2010. I have created a task with a baseline of 8 regular hours. The actual work takes 12 hours i.e. 8 regular hours + 4 overtime hours. How do I reflect this? In the Gantt Chart > Tracking view, I tried to increase the "Actual Work" hours to 12 hours, but the Actual Finish date gets shifted to the next day.

1 more thing, in the baseline, the task specified requires 2 resources (8 hour each). Apparently, only 1 resource is required for the completion of the task. How do I reflect this in the tracking? When I entered 0 hours for 1 of the resources (to signify that that particular resource is not used), the % complete drops to 50%. I want to show that the task is complete only using 1 resource although the budget is for 2.

Any help?

Add the Actual Overtime work field to the timescaled portion of the Task Usage view. Right click in the timescaled portion, select Detail Styles from the shortcut menu, select Actual Overtime Work from the list. I would also show the Actual Work field.

Regarding your second question - did the work (16 hours) get done by one resource or was it only 8 hours of work? For the resource who did not work on the task, set the remaining work to zero. I would use the Task Form in the lower pane formatted to show Work.

Hi Julie,

Thanks for your response.

For question no 1, I tried your advice, but I cannot modify the Actual Overtime field (shown in the print-screen in the attachment). I am trying to show for the task named Sub-task, in which the baseline is 2 persons (8 hours/person) with no planned overtime, the task can be completed with only 1 person but he required 12 hours, which will mean 4 hours overtime. I think this is a common issue in any project e.g. not enough time to complete a mission critical task, therefore need to take a few hours overtime to complete it.
Any help?

For question no 2, it works (as shown in the print-screen). Thanks a lot!!

Attached Images

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You are working with Manually scheduled tasks. Set the task to Autoscheduled and you'll be able to add Actual Overtime work.

Okay I unticked the Manually Scheduled checkbox and is able to add Actual Overtime Work. But now I'm confused:

Ovt. Work is 5h,
Baseline Work is 8h,
Why is the Actual Work is 12h, not 13h?
Is the formula for Actual Work = Baseline Work + Overtime Work? Or am I missing something?

I am very sorry for asking very basic questions, but as I mentioned before, I am really new at using MS Project.

Attached Images

schedule2.jpg (118.2 KB, 23 views)

Do you enter 8 hours of actual and 5 hours of Overtime? Baseline work is not Actual. Enter the 8 hours in Act. Work and the 5 hours in Actual Overtime. It look you have 7 hours Actual

Hi Julie, so I've entered 8h in Actual Work and 4h in Actual Overtime Work (so that the total will be 12h), but MS Project automatically converts the Work and Actual Work to 12h. Is this supposed to be the correct behaviour? What is the difference between Work and Actual Work?

Attached Images

Capture.JPG (75.5 KB, 21 views)

Yes, that is correct. Work = Actual Work when the task is tracked. If you want to know how much work you originally planned - save a baseline before tracking. Then you can see the difference in Baseline Work (16 hours) and Actual Work (8 regular 4 OT).

Hello Julie, I did actually save the baseline before tracking. Okay I will try for the rest of the tasks and let you know if I have any other difficulties.

Thanks so much. You are very helpful.

You're welcome and feel free to post back with additional questions. If you can, I'd suggest the investment in a two to three day hands on MS Project course. It is not a terribly intuitive program and getting a good grounding in how the product works will save you hundreds of hours of time and frustration.

I have used this overtime trick that you are talking about to solve the issue of seeing task in red for which actuals exceed the normal working hours in a day. So by example, I have put 7 hours in actual work and and 3.5 in overtime. But the task still shows over allocated and in red.

I would expect project to alert me of future over allocation, not past over allocation because the past, I know about it, I managed it and , anyway, it's too late to do anything about it!

How do we solve this?

You should not see overallocations for tasks with Actuals that are causing the overallocation. Is the task in question complete?

Well you were right. I saw further down the list other task that had work on them for the same resource, therefore it was not the actual causing the overallocation.
Thanks!

Great. Glad you have it sorted