MSP Summary task changing to earlier start date in Clarity PPM Gantt

Products

• Clarity PPM On Premise
• Clarity PPM SaaS

Issue/Introduction

• Summary task in the Clarity Gantt is showing as the project start date, even though it was set to several years later.
• The child tasks under it in the Gantt all show correct dates

Environment

Release : 15.3

Component : CA PPM MICROSOFT PROJECT (MSP)

Cause

• This can be due to a custom macro created in MSP that clears out the actual start date.
• This can be confirmed by the following:
  • Correct the summary task date
  • Export to MSP (task shows correctly still)
  • Run the custom macro - a child task and thus the summary task both change to the unexpected date because the actual start date is cleared and there is no constraint of dependency to prevent MSP from autoscheduling the task to the project start date..

Resolution

• Check to see if the issue happens without the custom macro involved. If no, this is an indicator that something running there is causing the issue.
• To prevent the issue: Add a constraint or dependency to the child task, that will keep the dates of the child task and thus summary task as expected. 

Additional Information

• KB000071385 - CA PPM and MSP integration - List of Knowledge Documents
• KB000015956 - CA PPM and MSP integration known defects - Support Technical Document Index
• See KB: 141061 for tips on how to optimize use of Self Service for Clarity PPM