MSP: Copying entire task rows duplicates or moves some tasks

Products

• Clarity PPM On Premise
• Clarity PPM SaaS

Issue/Introduction

Copying and Pasting of tasks by highlighting the entire task (supported in 15.7.1 and higher) is causing some tasks to be duplicated and others to be moved to the wrong place in the project in Microsoft Project (MSP). 

STEPS TO REPRODUCE: 

1. Open MSP and create a New Project
2. Create several phases with 2 tasks below each phase
   • Example:
     • Phase1
       • Task2
       • Task2
     • Phase2
       • Task3
       • Task4
     • Phase3
       • Task5
       • Task6
     • Phase4
       • Task7
       • Task8
3. Save the project to Clarity
4. In MSP, select / highlight the entire row for Phase2 and the two tasks below it (Task3 and Task4)
5. Copy the tasks selected and paste below Task6
6. Rename the pasted phase/tasks to distinguish the tasks pasted from the tasks they were copied from. (Example, Phase2copy, task3copy, task4copy)
7. Click the Outdent Task button for the pasted phase to move it to the same WBS level as the original Phase2
8. Save the project to Clarity and close the project in MSP
9. Open the project back from Clarity to MSP and view the tasks

Expected Results: Tasks appear in same structure as prior to step 9 (There are no duplicates and tasks haven’t moved unexpectedly to a different place in the project)

Actual Results: Some tasks have duplicates and others have moved to an incorrect place in the project.

Environment

Release : 15.7.1, 15.8, 15.8.1, 15.9, 15.9.1

Component : CA PPM MICROSOFT PROJECT (MSP)

Cause

This issue is caused by: DE58960

Resolution

This issue is fixed in 15.9.1 patch 1 and 15.9.2.

Workaround:

1. Delete the duplicate tasks
2. Manually move the tasks that are out of order to their expected place in the project

Removing from the prdocument table can also help with unexpected issues such as the project not opening/hanging at opening to XML: See Remove a MSP project from the prdocument table for steps to do this.

To avoid this issue until you are able to upgrade to a version where this is fixed, it's recommended to have users use the pre 15.7.1 method of copying and pasting listed at: MSP Copying and Pasting Tasks - Supported Method for Clarity

Additional Information

Important: In order to see any Clarity MSP Interface fixes, after upgrading Clarity, the latest MSP Interface version will also need to be installed.

• Before upgrading the MSP Interface, first uninstall the existing Clarity MSP Interface components from the workstation which include: CAClarityAddin, CA PPM Schedule Connect, CA PPM Microsoft Project Interface
• The latest MSP MSP Interface can be installed from Clarity in Home->Account Settings->Software Downloads.  (Ensure the bit level installed matches that of Microsoft Project.)

Additional reference:

• For 15.7 and lower versions, see also MSP Copying and Pasting Tasks - Supported Method for Clarity
• MSP: Some tasks move out of order when exporting a project from Clarity
• MSP Integration - Master KB of Known Issues