Clarity

I've heard several people talk about Milestones changing. I don' t know if this is related but my Senior Management and PMs are losing faith in the Clarity tool and I'd really like to get this fixed.

Problem: Durations change to unpredictable amount in MS project

Analysis: When comparing the task to Clarity, the clarity duration is correct. The issue seems to be with MS Project 2007 task only and we cannot determine what is causing the change. The baseline is still correct but the actuals are adjusting themselves:

A screen shot of the Clarity Task and MS Project 2007 Task is attached.

Does anyone have any idea how to fix this issue? I've looked through both MS Project 2007 Green papers and did not see anything that explained this issue.

Thanks,
Ed Olszanowski

One additional variable found. The task effort was front loaded contour instead of Flat.

A few questions first:

1) is your organization using timesheets?
2) Is anyone entering 'Actuals' directly to MSP?
3) Is track mode = Clarity?
4) is the PM changing the start and end dates on the task manually?
5) Which version of Clarity?

based on your answers I may be asking more.


Just to start, MSP up to and including MSP 2007 likes to reschedule whenever it is opened, and this sounds like what is happening. In project 2010 this can all be turned off. Your situation sounds a lot like this. but once you send me your answers I can respond with better information.

Regards,
Michael

1) Our Organization does not use timesheets
2) I've tried to update actuals in MSP a while back but haven't done so in the past year.
3)Track mode = Clarity as a default on all projects
4) PM s often change the start and end dates on the task manually inside of MSP NO in the Clarity App.
5) We are using 12.1 latest release of Clarity (12.1.1.1208 6 007)

Ed Olszanowski

3) TRACK_MODE This column indicates the type of timesheet used for tracking time to this investment. Values are:
None
Clarity
Other

SO Other would be my setting for MS Project and OWB entry of actuals.


Martti K.


P.S:
5) Latest that I am aware of is 12.1.3.1361 3 008

Looks like I have another release to install then.. Thanks

If you attended the last Global Clarity user community webinar you might have caught that v12.1 SP3 the only one which be getting further fixes and that there will be an upgrade path to v13.1 (Sept 2013)


Do look at the contents of the Generic fixes to see the bugs resolved
Current Package Filename: 12.1.3.2.jar
Version/Build: 12.1.3 2 001

Though there is also 12.1.3.3

TEC553491_1211 7_jar


Martti K.

.

Are the PM's entering '% Complete' in Clarity or in MSP?

% complete is entered at the task level in MSP 2007

I think I know your issue. let me look for some documentation I wrote on this about 2 years ago and get back to you. Either tonight or tomorrow. I'll attach it to this thread.

regards,
Michael

Once more question.

Are some tasks automatically becoming milestones?

Tasks do turn into milestones sometimes when we mark 100% complete on the tasks. But I see a task where it didn't happen....

Have you checked the MSP setup on the end users machines? We were using MSP at one point and found that if we did not adjust the setup, we had all kinds of unexpected results.

Do you know if your end users have adjusted their MSP setups in any way? If they haven't, let me know. I will look for our documentation that tells you what needs to be adjusted.

Ruthann

We are all use the same settings as described in the MSP green paper except one item. We prefer to use Fixed Duration on all of our projects instead of Fixed Units. Here are the screen shots of our settings:

I think you are suffering from the native behavior of MSP and the native behavior of Clarity. Once you integrate to Clarity with MSP, Clarity owns the schedule. Using certain features of MSP can create issues. For one, if you use % Complete in MSP it does a few things under the covers and updated fields in MSP. When imported to Clarity, fields are updated, and when exported back to MSP (prior to MSP 2010) certain fields are recalculated. In your case using '% Complete' in MSP might be the root cause of one of your issues.

Please see the attached picture as it shows how % complete in MSP can create milestones. You can prove it manually for the non-believers.

I am limited for time today, but basically there are certain features in MSP (prior to MSP 2010) that you should avoid using when using Clarity. Either that, or your PM's need to understand how MPS works and updates it's own fields in order to use % complete. I have another paper on this and am looking for it now.

So more information is on the way.

I was on vacation for the past few days. I'll look for the other stuff I have on your issue and post shortly.