PPM Express allows you to copy tasks from a linked Project Online project to the PPM Express schedule.
For detailed information about how to copy the schedule, please refer to this article: How to copy Project tasks from External Systems into PPM Express.
Because Project Online and PPM Express use different scheduling and calculation logic, some values may not be identical after the tasks are copied. This article explains how tasks are copied, which information is preserved, where differences may occur, and what we recommend reviewing after the copy is complete.
How tasks are copied
When Project Online tasks are copied to the PPM Express schedule, PPM Express preserves the source schedule information as closely as possible while creating native PPM Express tasks.
All copied tasks are initially created with:
- Task Mode: Manual
- Task Type: Flexible
Using Manual mode helps prevent automatic scheduling calculations from immediately changing the imported task dates, duration, effort, and progress-related values. Flexible task type provides similar protection from recalculations associated with assignment units and task scheduling.
After the copy is complete, you can change the Task Mode and Task Type according to your scheduling requirements.
For more information about task types, assignment units, and scheduling behavior, see Task Types, Assignment Units, and Effort-Driven Scheduling.
Resource assignments
Assignments for enterprise resources available to PPM Express are copied together with their relevant scheduling information. Assignment Units are preserved so that subsequent calculations can take the original resource allocation into account.
Local Project Online resources are not synchronized to PPM Express.
If a Project Online task contains assignments for local resources, those assignments will not be present in the copied PPM Express task.
This may also affect the task's Effort. If part of the task's Work in Project Online belonged to a local resource that cannot be copied, PPM Express may recalculate the task Effort by subtracting the Work associated with the missing assignment.
As a result, a task containing local resource assignments may have lower Effort after it is copied to PPM Express.
Task dates, dependencies, and constraints
PPM Express copies task dates and dependency information and uses its own scheduling rules to maintain a consistent schedule.
Project Online task date constraints, however, are not supported in PPM Express.
For example, a Project Online task may use a constraint that forces it to start or finish on or after a particular date. Such constraints can result in combinations of Start, Finish, and Duration values that do not correspond directly to the scheduling logic used by PPM Express.
When the task is copied, PPM Express does not copy the constraint itself. Task dates may instead be recalculated based on:
- task duration;
- predecessors and dependencies;
- dependency lags; and
- the PPM Express scheduling calendar.
Therefore, if the dates and duration in the source Project Online schedule are inconsistent with these scheduling rules, the copied task may have a slightly different Start date, Finish date, or Duration.
Small differences in task dates or duration after copying can therefore be expected in schedules that rely on Project Online constraints.
Workload and work distribution
PPM Express copies task work information, including Effort, Completed Work, and Remaining Work, as closely as possible. However, the daily distribution of those hours may differ from Project Online in several cases.
For tasks with supported resource assignments, PPM Express preserves the assignment information and daily workload distribution as closely as possible.
For a copied task that has Work but no resource assignments, PPM Express cannot reproduce exact task-level daily distribution from Project Online.
Because the copied task is initially in Manual mode, PPM Express distributes its Effort, Completed Work, and Remaining Work evenly across the task duration.
For example, if an unassigned manual task has 40 hours of Effort and 5 days Duration, those hours are distributed evenly across the five days, 8 hours per day.
This means that the task's total work may be preserved while its day-by-day distribution differs from the original Project Online schedule.
If the task is later changed to Auto mode, its work distribution is recalculated according to the scheduling rules for automatic tasks.
For more information, please review the Workload View article.
Summary tasks
Copied summary tasks have additional considerations.
Resource assignments made directly to summary tasks in Project Online are ignored when workload is calculated in PPM Express.
If a Project Online summary task contains its own resource assignment and Work, the total hours displayed for the corresponding summary task in PPM Express may therefore differ.
Copied summary tasks are initially created in Manual mode. For a manual summary task, PPM Express distributes the task's work hours evenly across its duration.
As a result, the daily Effort, Completed Work, and Remaining Work values of a copied summary task may differ from the values displayed for the same summary task in Project Online.
When the summary task is changed to Auto mode, PPM Express recalculates its values as a roll-up of its child tasks. This more closely corresponds to the summary-task calculation model used in Project Online.
For more information about daily work distribution, see Workload View.
Project progress
After tasks are copied, the progress value of the PPM Express project may differ from the progress displayed for the linked Project Online project.
This is expected because PPM Express calculates project progress from PPM Express tasks according to the project's selected progress calculation settings. It does not simply copy the overall Project Online project progress value.
Therefore, even when individual task information copies successfully, the overall project progress percentage may not match between the two systems.
For details about project progress calculation options, see Project Settings - Progress Calculation.
Recommended workflow after copying tasks
We recommend reviewing the copied schedule before making scheduling changes.
First, verify the copied task hierarchy, dates, durations, dependencies, progress, Effort, assignments, and workload. Pay particular attention to tasks that used local Project Online resources, task constraints, unassigned tasks with Work, and summary tasks with assignments.
Keep the copied tasks in Manual mode initially. This allows you to compare the copied schedule with Project Online before PPM Express automatic scheduling calculations are applied.
If you plan to use Auto scheduling in PPM Express, consider creating a clone of the PPM Express project first and testing the changes in the cloned project.
Change the relevant tasks to Auto mode in the clone and review the resulting calculations.
Depending on the task data, PPM Express may provide recalculation options when the scheduling mode or task type is changed. Select the option that best represents how you want dates, Effort, Duration, or Assignment Units to be calculated.
Compare the resulting schedule with the original Project Online schedule and with your intended scheduling model. Once you are satisfied with the results, you can apply the appropriate configuration to the working project.