TMGR: Reactivating Resource Sends Blank Updates (150669)

SUMMARY

If a person is assigned to a task, marked inactive, and then marked active again, and if the task is deleted, or the person is removed from the task, then the Send Updates command on the Tools menu sends a blank update record to the person. In the case of task deletion, the behavior occurs whether the task is deleted before or after the person is reactivated. It doesn't matter whether any updates had previously been sent to the person regarding the assignment.

NOTE: When a person is marked as inactive, the person is no longer assigned to any tasks in the team file that are not currently completed or in progress.

MORE INFORMATION

The Active field in the default Team List view contains Yes for active people and No for inactive people.

If a person has never been marked inactive after being assigned to a task, then deleting one of its tasks or removing the person from a task results in the following natural and expected behavior when the Send Updates command is applied:

If an update has never been sent to the person about a specific assignment, and if the person is unassigned or the task is deleted, then Send Updates does not send any update to the person regarding the task.
If an update has already been sent to the person about a specific assignment, and if the person is unassigned or the task is deleted, then Send Updates sends an update message to the person with Delete in the Action field.

The behavior involving blank update records only occurs if a person is currently assigned to a task, and then the person is marked inactive and then reactivated. The message sent to the person has the normal column titles, but there is no record for the assignment.

WORKAROUND

To avoid confusion and to guarantee synchronization with the team file, let team members know to accept such blank updates. If the person wasn't previously sent an update for the task, accepting the blank update does no harm. If the person already has the assignment on the Team Manager for team members list, then the person must accept the blank update record to synchronize the Team Manager for team members list with the team file; this removes the assignment without giving the person the normal option to reject the assignment deletion.

To avoid the problem altogether, don't mark people inactive once they have been assigned to tasks.