How does the ETC distribution work when estimating a project?

Products

• Clarity PPM On Premise
• Clarity PPM SaaS

Issue/Introduction

When we save New ETC (in 'Top-Down Estimating' mode) for the first time on a project where none of the tasks have any ETC saved, the New ETC distribution to the tasks is not accurate. This ETC is divided between that tasks even though only one resource is assigned to only one task.

STEPS TO REPRODUCE:

1. Take an existing/new project.
2. Add a team member.
3. Create following tasks -
 Parent Task1 (Not a Milestone).
         Child Task1 (Milestone).
         Child Task2 (Not a milestone and has no assignment).
         Child Task3 (Not a milestone and has an assignment).
      Make sure ETC is 0 for all of the above tasks.
4. On the Estimating page (Properties -> Main: Estimating), enter New ETC: 100 and 'Apply'.

Expected Results: ETC to be saved as 100.

Actual Results: ETC is saved as 33.33.

Cause

This was analysed by Engineering as Defect CLRT-79378.

Resolution

The conclusion was that this is working as design.

The code looks at the total work for the children of a given task. It then takes the ETC allocated to those children and divides it in the same ratio as the work.

It assigns ETC where work can be done and zeroes the ETC for the tasks where no work is expected be done.

When the project level ETC is non-zero and edited, the value saves correctly and redistribution is done following the same algorithm.

Additional Information

Please also check articleId=52455