Tamana,
These are loaded questions and have a lot of moving parts. Here is a go...
- Actual Effort - Actual Effort can be updated in three ways:
-Manually entered in the Actual Effort column within the Work Plan work item
-This field will be automatically updated if you have your system configured to update time using the Timesheet. This will reflect in the Actual Effort
-Another way to automatically update this field is through the ‘Send Update Request’. This will send an email to the Resource(s) of the Task and based on their reported Effort, will automatically update this field
-Last, there can always be Custom Workflows that update this field.
- Work - The work field is dependent on a number of factors. First and foremost, Work Policy which can be set to Work, Duration or Unit. If set to Duration or Unit, then the system will automatically adjust the Work field based on changes made to Duration and Unit (Resource allocation) for the Task. For more information on Work Policy here is a video tutorial you can review - https://success.clarizen.com/entries/55110803-Work-Policy
Since the default Work Policy is Duration, this is what you will most likely see most of the time. This means that you specify the Duration of the Tasks and the Work will automatically update based on Start/Due Date. For Example, a Task that is set for a duration of 5 days will be given Work of 40h because it will use the work week calendar (working hours). You can of course change Work manually to specify less. Also, this is based on the fact that your Resource(s) are allocating 100% of their time to these tasks, usually this is not the case so if they are allocating only 10%, then it will be 4h instead of 40h.
Does this make sense?
3 - % Complete - is it system calculated, if yes how? or done manually? And what does "?" beside % complete mean?
This field is typically a direct translation of the amount of Actual Effort entered and the base calculation is Actual Effort divided by Planned Effort (Work) * 100. In the case above (#2), the math would be 2/4*100=50...
Where 2 = Actual Effort, 4 = Work
Note – This field behavior can also change based on Work Policy and system settings.
Technically, you can also override this field by entering % Completed manually.
The Question mark (?) means multiple things but most of the time this means one of the following...
-Task was Completed and then set back to Active Status and % Completed was left at 100
-Actual Effort EXCEEDED Planned Effort (Work)
Other situations are possible but usually due to a manual override. Basically, the question mark states that a setting or change within the values has caused confusion or the calculation used no longer equates due to the override and it is simply bring this to your attention. More times than not, restoring column overrides and verifying that the Task is not exceeding actual effort or has been reopened will answer this question...
4 - Remaining Effort - This is a simple calculation of Work - Actual Effort = Remaining Effort
5 - Work Variance - The difference between Work and Actual Effort is called the Work Variance
6 - Last Resource allocation going red. I am not certain exactly what you are referring to, I would need to see screen captures but if this has to do with the Resource Load and the resource itself, this could happen if you are over-utilizing a resource. For example, If you have a resource for only 50% of their daily allocation (based on 8hr work day), then you can allocate the resource for 4hrs that day, anything else would put that resource over their limit and flag as over-utilized. You can view the Resource Load to get a better look at this information.
I hope this information is helpful and please let us know if we can provide anything further.
Sincerely,
Boris Krutiy