MSP Error "Project Save Failed" due to summary task with assignment

Products

• Clarity PPM On Premise
• Clarity PPM SaaS

Issue/Introduction

When trying to save a project back from MSP (Microsoft Project) to Clarity, receive Project Save Failed error / the project will not save. 

Prior to the Project Save Failed error, you may see error "Summary task assignments are not supported"

Reviewing the app-ca.logs, error indicates issue related to a summary task having an assignment:

ERROR 2019-02-25 13:24:06,577 [https-jsse-nio-443-exec-18] niku.schedulers (clarity:user:session:schedulers.postProject) Rolling back transaction: 
java.lang.Exception: Summary task configure test environment(null) cannot have assignments.

Environment

Release: All Supported Releases
Component: Clarity Microsoft Project Interface

Cause

Summary task assignments are not supported in Clarity

Resolution

Table of Contents

• Option 1: Remove assignments on any summary tasks in MSP
• Option 2: Change the summary task to a child task
• Option 3: Delete the impacted summary task
• Finding impacted tasks
  • Option 1: Check the app-ca.logs
  • Option 2: Filter on Summary tasks in MSP 

Option 1: Remove assignments on any summary tasks in MSP

• This option is only possible if the assignments do not have any actuals or transactions associated with them. If there are actuals / actual cost associated with it, proceed to Option 2. 

Option 2: Change the summary task to a child task

• Use this option if you want to keep the assignments on the task (or if there are actuals / transactions associated with the assignments and thus the assignments cannot be removed). 
• You can then also create a new summary task without assignments in the place of the summary task as needed. 

To convert the summary task into a child task:

1. Open the project in MSP
2. Click on the Task tab
3. Highlight the tasks beneath the summary task
4. Click on the Outdent Task icon (Screen shot below)

You will then see that the Summary task is now converted into a child task (unbolded)

Option 3: Delete the impacted summary task

• If the task is not needed (was created incorrectly), or you want to recreate it, you can delete the task. However, note that if the task has any actuals / transactions, it will not be fully deleted, and will be moved into an auto-created "Deleted Task" phase.

Finding impacted tasks

Option 1: Check the app-ca.logs

In the error associated with the project, the summary task name will be displayed. Note, that this will only display the first summary task name impacted if there is more than one. 

Option 2: Filter on Summary tasks in MSP 

1. Add the columns "Resource Names" and "Summary" to the MSP task view
2. Click on the drop-down for the "Summary" column header and uncheck "No" to display only Summary tasks
3. Look for any Summary tasks (These tasks are bolded) and have a value populated in the Resource column