PS 2010: Task Updating via PWA best practice?

Question

Can anyone suggest a best method of tracking task progress via PWA?  In MS Project, you would expect task owners or project manager to enter the following:
Actual Start, Actual Finish, Actual Duration or Work, Remaining Duration or Work, and then “update” all un-started/finished work after the Status Date.
Is it possible to use the same update process using PWA?  I noticed that some fields mentioned above are greyed-out (can’t enter data) in PWA.
Any guidance will be much appreciated.

Answer 1

Project Server 2010 User --
I want to commend you for having the foresight to ask these important questions before your people actually begin using Project Server 2010.  It is the easiest to set up the default method of tracking progress in the beginning, and much harder to change
it to something else after you go live.  My answer is based on the assumption that you will NOT be using the Timesheet page in PWA, as this requires a totally different method of tracking than what you describe.
Based on your comments about how your PMs track progress in Microsoft Project 2010 desktop projects, you would want to select the Actual Work Done and Work Remaining method of tracking in Project Server 2010.  To prevent people from freelancing how
they enter progress, you should also select the Force Project Managers to Use the Progress Reporting Method Specified Above for All Projects option.  You should be able to leave all of the other options set to their default values on the Task Settings
and Display page.
Next, you should set up the Tasks page to include the following columns, along with other default columns that are necessary:
Actual Start
Actual Work
Remaining Work
Actual Finish
By doing this, you will capture the EXACT information in PWA that your PMs would be capturing in their projects in Microsoft Project.  The difference is that when team members enter their progress in PWA, your PMs will no longer need to manually enter
the progress in their Microsoft Project files.  The methodology you would need to require your team members to follow on the Tasks page in PWA would be this:
If you begin work on a new task this week, enter the date you began work on the task in the Actual Start field.
Enter the total amount of work done so far on each task in the Actual Work field.
Adjust the Remaining Work field value, if necessary, for any task.  Team members can increase or decrease the value as needed.
On the day you finish work on a task, enter this date in the Actual Finish field for the task.
If you change the Remaining Work value for any task, optionally add a note to the task document the reason for the adjustment.
Submit the task updates for the week on the last day of each reporting period.
Just some thoughts.  Perhaps others in this group will have some good ideas for you as well.  Hope this helps.
Dale A. Howard [MVP]