MS Project 2016 Resource Usage View - Total Baseline Hours by Resource not Updating

ScottBlanchard,

From your expanded description either there is a miscommunication or a misunderstanding.

It sounds like you are manually editing the timescale baseline work values for a task. A user should never manually update baseline values. The purpose of a baseline is to capture various data values of the original plan such that those values can be used to compare current schedule values (current reality) with the original plan (baseline). Unless there is a change in scope, the baseline for a plan should never change. Once a plan is developed, the baseline is set via Project > Schedule group > Set Baseline. As the plan is executed, work, actual work, and remaining work are updated to reflect what is actually happening (actual work) and what is expected to yet happen (remaining work). It sounds like you are incorrectly using baseline work in lieu of those metrics.

For reference, if a user does manually edit baseline timescale values, those values are NOT automatically updated at summary level. Project has always worked that way.

John

I have tried to upload the Word document that contains the images referenced above but I'm not feeling good about the chances you will be able to view it.

Hi John,

Thank you for your feedback.  I can appreciate that baseline hours can only be updated using the Project > Schedule group > Set Baseline function.  I should have started my post with thatapproach for greater clarity.  I guess I went down the path I did because it appeared to me that that functionality was not working, and I started trying to work around it.

Please allow me to reset the description of my problem as follows:

If I create a task with a resource and work hours and then set the baseline for that task, both the Task Usage view and Resource Usage view show correct detail and total baseline hours.  If I change the work hours for the task and then set the baseline again for the selected task, copying over the same baseline, the Task Usage view shows the updated value for both total and resource specific baseline hours, and the Resource Usage view shows the updated value for the task detail, but the total by resource baseline value is not updated.  

I have been trying to provide an example with screen shots, but I'm having trouble getting the images to save or finding a way to attach a Word document.  My example involves the following:

1. Created a new task with one resource, 3 days duration, and 24 hours of work representing 8 hours of work each of the 3 days.
2. Created a baseline for the task via the Set Baseline function.
3. Verified that the Task Usage and Resource Usage views show total and detail baseline hours of 8 hours a day.
4. Changed the work hours to 15 and copied over the baseline created in step 2 for the selected task.
5. Demonstrated that the total and resource specific baseline hours were updated to 5 hours per day in the Task Usage view, and that the tasks specific baseline hour values int he Resource Usage view are updated to 5 hours per day, but the total by resource in this view remain at 8 hours per day.

I would expect the total by resource baseline hours in the Resource Usage view to be updated to 5 hours per day as the task detail baseline hours associated with the resource was updated to that value.  Please let me know what you think.  If it will help to see the screen shots I took, let me know if there is a way to get them to you.

Hi John.  Normally I use the Task Usage view to update baseline work hours for a task, so that I can fine tune the baseline work hours by resource.  In this view, when I update baseline hours for a resource, the total baseline hours by task also does not update, although the total by task value will update for Work and Actual Work.  I find that the changes I make to baseline hours for a specific resource and specific task carry over at the specific task and resource level between the Task Usage and Resource Usage views, but neither view will update the summary rows.  

I hope that makes it clearer what I am talking about.  I probably should have included this detail in my original post.

ScottBlanchard,

Exactly how are you updating the baseline hours for a task?

John