Free Form Task Updates

Recently at PPM Works a customer requested we configure the Task Settings and Display to allow Team Members to choose the method for updates. They were rolling out Project Server to a large number of different groups that had different requirements for updating task progress. I had never set the method to Free Form so I began testing task updates on both a Timesheet and the Tasks page in preparation for training Team Members. Since they were using both the Tasks page and Timesheets and wanted to be able to choose % Complete, Actual Hours and Remaining Work, and Hours per period, I turned off Single Entry Mode.

What I learned next surprised me. I was not able to update remaining Work in the Timesheet view. I could enter hours per day on the timephased grid but I was unable to adjust Remaining Work. In order to adjust Remaining Work, I had to navigate to a Details view by clicking on the Task Name in the Timesheet. If you are configuring task updates to use Free from you will need to instruct Team Members on how to adjust Remaining Work. Don’t forget to add needed fields to the Details view.