Phantom Work Allocation

[editoremma]

I have a Project file that has imported a number of smaller
projects. For some reason work has been allocated to
a resource that is not in the project. How do I delete this
'phantom' work allocation? I am using Project 2003


Thanks in advance for any and all help.

 

[PDQBach]

I've *never* seen anything like that.

How do you know that work has been allocated to a "phantom" resource?

 

[editoremma]

I call it a phantom resource because but it is more of a phantom task. When I go into Resource Usage and look through the list of tasks for the resource in question there are two tasks with work allocated to the resource that does not exist in the project. I have no idea how to delete these two tasks. The recorded hours are coming up in the resource sheet and the resource graph making it impossible for me to accurately assign hours to this resource, it keeps saying I have over-allocated time to it. But nowhere in the gantt chart is any time or these two tasks listed.

Does this make sense, I can attach some screen shots if that would help.

 

[PDQBach]

Hmmm ... yes, post some images. We may have to go back-and-forth on this for a bit -- I hope you're not looking for an instant resolution.

 

[editoremma]

No I am not in any hurry for this resolution, I figured it might take a while to correct. Thanks for all your help.

I have attached a number of images which might help clarify the problems I am having.

Image 1, PhantomTask01 shows the tasks that have been added to the resource that don't exist in the project.

Image 2 RealTask01 shows the real tasks with the same name that occur at a different time and with a different resource to the PhantomTask. As you can see, I have tried renaming the task name by adding an asterisk to see if t hat changes the PhantomTask. It didn't, nothing seems to alter the Phantom Task.

Images 3 - 6 are grabs of the Gantt chart showing that there is nowhere in the project where this resource is connected to the Phantom Task.

Just to give you an update, I have tried deleting the tasks with the same names and even tried deleting the entire project and rebuilding them - both with not luck. I am out of ideas.

 

[PDQBach]

Fascinating!

I think I know what the answer is. In your Master project, search for "2008 Task Sheet Creation". That appears to be an inserted project which has not been fully expanded.

View > Gantt
Tools > Options > View-tab and put a check mark in "show project summary task"; click on OK
Insert the column "Project" and expand it to full width
Click on the upper left corner of the left-hand display to select all tasks.
Click on the "Show" button on the Formatting toolbar and in the dropdown select "all tasks"
==> can you see the phantom tasks now?

If not then:
View > Resource usage
Insert the ID column. (I know you already have the ID column, but this will display additional information.)
Insert the Project column and expand it to full width
Generate the same displays that you did before.

 

[editoremma]

Thanks for the suggestion, unfortunately the 'phantom tasks' aren't in the project '2008 Tasksheet Creation' If you look down into the final image on the html page you can see the expanded version of that project, I just grabbed an image with it not expanded in the previous image. My mistake.

I have done what you asked and added the ID column to the Resource Usage view and regrabbed the first two images into the HTML page. The Phantom Tasks have the same ID number as the existing tasks with the same name, I don't know what that means. Any suggestions very much welcome.


Thanks

 

[PDQBach]

Still need to see the column "Project" on both sets of displays; still need to see all included projects expanded. We'll get this solved!

 

[editoremma]

Sorry, forgot to add "Project" to Resource Usage.

When I added this column I discovered something interesting, that I am sure you will notice yourself, it made me aware that I have several more 'Phantom Tasks' in this project all assigned by the one project. Very weird. I have added screen grabs of other examples of this error in Resource Usage 02 & Resource Usage 03.

The Gantt Chart screen grabs should be the projects expanded from the time frame that the first 'phantom task' is scheduled.

Thanks so much for your help.

 

[PDQBach]

We are getting closer.

Look at the last screen dump that you sent. Notice that the ID numbers suddenly drop from 12 to 6.

I noticed that you didn't insert the Project column in the Gantt displays. Please include the column.

Your mission:
1. Insert the Project column in the Gantt View
2. Before doing the "camera" shots again, click in the grey box above the ID numbers (to select all tasks) and then click on the "Show" button (near the left side of the Formatting tool bar) and select "All Subtasks"
3. Instead of using the Camera button, use Alt+PrintScreen to capture the information on your screen.

4. (You knew this was coming.) Make another set of screen captures (but use Alt+PrintScreen).

 

[editoremma]

Here we go, I think I have done everything you asked. You have a complete list of all the tasks and subtasks in my project file with the project column displayed.

I also remembered to use PrintScreen to capture the images this time.

I am not sure but I think the problem has something to do with the problem I highlighted in the Resource Usage images in the image.html page. But I am no expert, it just looks a little odd. And of course I have no idea how to fix it.

Your advice is welcome.

 

[editoremma]

I have had a closer look at the Resource Usage sheet since my last post, and what I have noticed is that the tasks that have the Project with the defined path are from a Project that no longer exists. When I first made the project Questions Update, I spelled Questions incorrectly and i Renamed it. It looks like it kept the tasks from the incorrectly spelt project and because the project no longer exists I can't seem to delete the tasks.

Thanks so much for the suggestion to add the Project column in the Resource Usage display, it really helped show me the problem.

That, at least, is my assessment of what the problem seems to be. You may have a better theory. What ever the problem is, the next stage is to work out how to delete these incredibly annoying tasks.

 

[PDQBach]

Thank you ... that's just what I wanted to see.

The nice thing about PrintScreen is that it shows details like the expansion thingy to the left of Summary tasks so I can confirm that everything was fully expanded. That "thingy" gets omitted when you use the camera button. I can also see which file is the real Master project and confirm that you aren't using any Autofilters or special filters

And now, like you, I am stumped!

I have an account at h0tmail (pdqbach4100). Perhaps you could send the files to me there and I'll grab them and see if there is something I can find by "playing" about with them.

 

[PDQBach]

After looking at the files that "editoremma" sent and trying out some things, here's what fixed the problem.

As a preliminary check, here's one thing that pointed the way to the solution.

Double-click on the resourcepool to open it. During the open process, there will be a popup "Open Resource Pool" with 3 options. Choose the 3rd option "Open resource pool read-write and all other sharer files into a new master project" and click on OK.

You may see a warning (exclamation mark) message "The file for resource pool consolidation cannot be opened" and a specific file will be shown in the message. Note the filenme and click on OK to acknowledge the warning. Even though only one file is named, there can be multiple files causing the problem.

On the menu bar click on Tools > Resource sharing > Share resources. This display shows all the files which have been linked to this resource pool.

By manually comparing that list with the files, it was possible to identify 3 files with issues: two were no longer available and one had the phantom assignments. You can see which had the phantom assignments by checking out the pages editoremma provided links to.

The fix?

To eliminate the phantom assignments in one file, I had her create an empty project file with the same name as the file that had the phantom assignments and placed it in the folder where Project was expecting to find it. (Again, look at her links to see the filenames in the Project Name column.)

Then she exited from Project; double-clicked on the Resource pool; in the popup dialog "Open Resource Pool" she selected the third option "Open resource pool read-write and all other sharer files into a new master project file. You can access this new master project file from the Window menu command" and opened the files.

In the menu bar she selected the window with the Resource Pool and then clicked on File > Save and exited from Project.

That fixed her problem.


If you are using a resource pool and a master project then periodically you should consider opening the resource pool, clicking on Window > xxx (where xxx is the resource pool window), and then clicking on Tools > Resource sharing > Share resources. In the popup, manually confirm that you are still linking to the files you expect to be linking to.