Would like contoured assignment to remain as contoured when reopened from PPM into MSP

Products

• Clarity PPM SaaS
• Clarity PPM On Premise

Issue/Introduction

The Microsoft Project (MSP) Interface forces a fixed assignment to flatten upon upload into Microsoft Project (MSP). This document covers the steps to keep assignments as Fixed 'Loading Pattern' (Contour 'Work Contour') in the MSP Legacy Driver.

Environment

This applies to the MSP Legacy Driver

Resolution

This article contains information about modifying the registry.
Before you modify the registry, make sure to create back up of the registry and ensure that you understand how to restore the registry if a problem may occur.
For more information about how to back up, restore, and edit the registry, please review the relevant Microsoft Knowledge Base articles on support.microsoft.com.

Out-of-box functionality is such that the MSP driver is coded to ensure that the MSP 'Work Contour' is 'Flat' if there is a gap between the end of actual work and the start of remaining work. This caused an issue for some users who wished to manually adjust the remaining work on a day-by-day basis. This would be defined as a 'Contoured' work contour and map to "Fixed" in Clarity. However when the project was later reopened in MSP, the work contour could be reset to flat (again because of the 'gap'), removing the manually adjusted remaining work.

Enhancement Solution: Allow user to bypass this standard out-of-box rule by setting a special registry flag.

Steps to see Out-of-Box functionality vs. Enhancement functionality

Out-of-Box Functionality

1. Create a project in PPM Open for Time Entry, but track mode set to 'None'
2. Add a resource to the team
3. Open the project in MSP
4. Create a task with some duration (say 30 days) and assign the resource to the task
5. On the task usage page, add 'Actual Work' to the time-phased view.
6. Enter some actual work at the start of task then zero out a bit of remaining work immediately after the actual work. This creates a "gap" between the end of actual units and the start of the remaining work.
   
   

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7. Save the project back to PPM
8. Go to the Task and verify in PPM that the task assignment's Loading Pattern is shown as "Fixed".
9. Reopen the project in MSP and view the Work Contour for the task's assignment.
10. Note that the Work Contour has been reset to 'Flat'.
    

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    src="/servlet/servlet.FileDownload?file=0150c000004AJzkAAG" alt="Figure 2" width="508" height="318" border="0">
    
    

Enhancement Functionality (available in the MSP Legacy Driver, but not in the MSP New Driver)

1. Ensure Microsoft Project is closed (You must close MSP itself or it won't pick up the following change to the registry)
2. Launch the Windows Registry Editor 
   
   
3. Add the following registry setting and set the value to 1 
   HKLM/software/niku/schedulers/MSPOptions/AllowWorkGapWithContourPattern 
   
   

   <Please see attached file for image>

   src="/servlet/servlet.FileDownload?file=0150c000004AJzlAAG" alt="Figure 3" width="576" height="229" border="0">
   
   The type is a 'String Value'
   Set the value to 1 to enable the fix and bypass the rule
   If key is missing or set to 0, the original rule is enforced
   
   
4. Reopen the project in MSP
   
   
5. Verify 'Work Contour' is set to 'Contoured' this time
   
   

   <Please see attached file for image>

   src="/servlet/servlet.FileDownload?file=0150c000004AJzmAAG" alt="Figure 4" width="507" height="318" border="0">