Obtain earned value performance

After entering actual progress we want to look for earned value indicators on how well we are doing. We are going to change the view but instead of choosing a table from the menu we need to select “more tables” and select “Earned value” from our list. Now we get a sheet with our earned value information. We can compare the earned value with the planned value which measures following costs:

• Cost variance (CV)—the difference between a task’s estimated cost and its actual cost (the formula CV = Earned Value – Actual Cost).
• Schedule variance (SV)—the difference between the current progress and the scheduled progress of a task, in terms of cost (the formula SV = Planned Value – Earned Value).
• Estimate at completion (EAC) is the estimated total cost of a task or project, based on performance as of the status date.
• Budget at completion (BAC) shows an estimate of the total project cost.
• Variance at completion (VAC) shows the difference between the budget at completion (BAC) and the estimate at completion (EAC).

When we look at our project by January 18th we are suppose to spend roughly 20.500€, we have earned for actual work a little less 19.800€ but we spend over 27.800€ so we have a negative amount for both scheduled as cost variance. There is more then 700€ worth of work that is suppose to be done but that hasn’t been done and on the existing work we achieved we are 8000€ over budget.

Examine schedule variance in real time

According to our schedule variance we are  behind in time calculated in money for 700€. When we want to look at the schedule variance in time we need to go to view > variance where we get a sheet with a view at our baseline start, actual start, start variation which shows us how much time we started ahead/late on our task and the finish variation which shows by how much time we finished early or late. When we look at our project we see the 4 workdays we started ahead of schedule but it took us a day longer then expected to finish.

Create a baseline

In order to compare our progress report with the original status we need to set a baseline after our project has completely been scheduled. We go to tools scroll down to tracking, set baseline. We haven’t set an earlier version of our baseline so we will keep the selected baseline, next time when we create a baseline we will select baseline1 and so on. The baseline is for the entire project but can also be assigned to keep track of specific tasks since a certain date. by clicking “ok” the baseline will be saved and we can compare our actual progress with our planned progress in our status reports.

Create a status report date

Now we have set the baseline we can set a status report date to keep track of the current progress and adjust changes that have happened in our schedule so far. We go back to the project information box and we set the status date, in purpose of our project we will record information up to January 18th. The software will use this date to measure your actual progress with your planned progress.

record actual progress on a project

After setting a baseline and a status date we can enter actual progress information up to the status date. In our ghantt view, change the table and move from  entry to tracking. Here is a table that provides us with the meanings to record actual start, actual finish, % complete, actual duration and remaining duration and the calculated cost. Lets assume some changes have been made to our progress:

• We have completed the interviews but we got lucky and started 6 days early December 26th. A warning will appear saying this date is ahead of project start date but that is ok. It automatically assumes it took 7 days. But this time we ran into some problems and took 8 days. Remember to change to 100% completion
• Our defining requirements went ahead as planned, but when you change the 100% completion it will automatically change the starting date based upon his predecessor.
• The logic was proceeded 100% but we ran into some problems and it took 6 days.
• The purchasing order went ahead as planned
• For the design logic we have completed one day and now we are on todays date. But instead of the remaining day we assume it will be taking a 2 days longer. Now we are only 25% done.

This is how we enter information, typically people will report when they started, when they finish and how much percent is complete. You get an overview of current progress, the % completed, current costs and hours spent.

Costs of the project

If we want to look and see how much this project has already cost. When we are in the gantt view we will go to view > table: entry > cost. Since nothing has actually occurred the total costs and remaining costs are the same.  Here you can see the costs for every task and the costs for every task group. When we are in the project this will be a very important sheet. We can also look at the costs for each resource that is assigned to the project by going to the resource sheet and then again go to view > table:entry > cost.

Cash flow statements

Cash flow statements can be found under report > reports. In the report window we can chose to create different kinds of ready-made reports or to create a custom one. Since we are creating a cash flow and it involves costs we will chose the costs icon. You will notice the cash flow button and we will be selecting this for out weekly bases cash flow report, this is the default. The report generates for each task the weekly costs and the total costs. When we want to create a monthly bases cash flow report cause our project extends beyond the month or 2 months into years. We go back to the reports menu and this time we select custom, from the list select cash flow and edit. In the column instead of weeks we select months. We go back to the custom menu by clicking ok and next we chose to preview our report.

Identify resource over allocation problems

In order to find if there are any resource allocation problems we need to go to the resource sheet ( view > resource sheet ) and see if any resources are listed in red. This means that resources there are more resources assigned on tasks for a certain date then there are resources available. In our project “Design Engineers” and “Software Engineers” are over allocated.

To find out where the problems are we need to go to the resource usage (view > resource usage) and look for dates marked in red. For “Design Engineers” this will be January 13th and 14th where we need 3 “Design Engineers” where there are only 2 available in our project so there is a conflict. For “Software Engineers” it is on multiple days where we need more then the available resources for “code A” and “code B”.

Another way to look at this is with the resource graph view, this shows the percentage of the available resources used for a certain date. When a resource is over allocated the percentage overused will be shown in red above the 100% bar.

resolve resource over allocations by leveling

Over allocation is a problem and needs to be resolved. You can chose to either level within slack or level outside of slack. When leveling within slack we absorb existing slack which can make the network more sensitive. When we level outside of slack we extent the duration of the project. First we will level within slack. Go to tools > level resources to open the leveling menu. You will see all kinds of options but the most import one are the check boxes below. “Level only within available slack” is an attempt to rearrange the schedule taking advantage of the slack that is available to see if we can resolve the problem without extending the project. We start leveling when we click on “Level now”, possibly a series of errors occur when it is not possible to solve a over allocation with the slack available. In our project this will be the “software engineers”. When we go back to the resource usage sheet you will notice the “Assemble Hardware” has moved due the slack available for this task.

To resolve the issue of over allocated “Software Engineers” we need to either add more resources or level outside the slack. Our original schedule will be extended and we will find out with how much by going back to the level resources menu and unselect the  ”level only within available slack” checkbox. After clicking “level now” we notice the dates of our project have been extended and some of the over allocated tasks have been moved.

Change starting date of a project

When creating a project the starting date is the date of the first time you open a new project. We will modify this date by going to on the toolbar to project > project information. Here you can modify the start date, current working date and which calendar we will be working with. When changing the start date it will automatically change the dates of the tasks.

Insert milestone in schedule

When a milestone is the completion of certain tasks all you have to do is go to the task information box (double click the task) and under the advantage box you check the “mark as milestone” box. You will notice your schedule has changed and a milestone symbol has been added for that specific task.

Now when you have a merge activity and the start of that activity  is a milestone you will be needing a task which lasts 0 days and has to wait for multiple tasks to be completed before it can continue. Luckily we already have such task named “Integration”. When you create an milestone from integration you notice again the schedule to be changed to which more then one activity leads.

Change project calendar

When setting up a project working times and calendar dates have to be inserted, holidays cannot be missed nor a day off. On the toolbar go to tools > change working time. Here you will find the standard working calendar but also 2 standard calendars (Nigh shift and 24 hours) and a calendar for each resource. The standard calendar is a 5 day work week from 8 to 5 with Saturdays and Sundays off. You can enter holidays and other off days, fill in the name, start date and end date. Enter all the exceptions for as long as the project will be running and a bit in advance if you do not know how long the project will take.

Create resource pool

Same as for the tasks we have a view for resources. You can find this under view > resource sheet. You will see a spreadsheet where we can list important information regarding resources whether they are people or material. For this project we will be needing different resources but we don’t have to fill in a resource name for each resource we have, if they are many of the same kind we can list them as one. For an example we will be needing two “Design Engineers” , we do not create a “Design Engineer1″ and a “Design Engineer2″ if there wages and tasks are the same, we do not make any distinctions in experience, preferences… We increase the “Max. Units” accordingly to the availability of these resources in percentage.

• Half-Time worker: 50%
• Full-Time worker: 100%
• One half-time and one full-time worker: 150%
• Two full-time workers: 200%
• …

If we do make a distinction in the workers we will fill in the names of the resources.

Enter pay rate

We will fill in the pay rare for different kind of resources in the “Std. Rate” column. You can chose to enter the salary rate in years, hours or even months and days. You just enter the amount then you enter / and the short key for the duration. When entering an hourly wage you can also enter the overtime they qualify for in the “Ovt. Rate” column. We will be renting test equipment and we not only pay by the hour, we also need to pay just to use it. We need to fill in the amount in the “cost/use” column. You will notice the “Accrue At” column, here we will fill in when the resources are paid. they can either be:

• Start: resources will be paid before the project has started
• Prorated(standard): cost of the resources will be calculated on a daily bases
• End: resources will be paid when the project is over

The standard calendar can be changed based upon the availability of the resources and work schedules of groups of people or individuals.

Assign resources to a task

After creating a resources pool, assigning them to a task is pretty easy work. We will go back to the gantt chart view and make sure that the resource management toolbar is available. If not you can find this under view > toolbar > resource management. This toolbar will provide us with different function regarding resources. To assign resources we will go to a specific task and click the assign resources button of our resource management toolbar . You will see all the available resources from our recourse pool. You can assign multiple resources at the same time by selecting them and click the assign button. When we want to assign more then one resource of the same kind we will increase the “Units” column. When assigning multiple resource you will notice the duration of the task has reduced accordingly to the resources assigned to it, this cause Microsoft thinks that all tasks are effort driven.  It is not alway the case, for “interviewing users” it does not matter how many people we will assign to it, the duration is always the same. Therefor we will increase the duration again. In order to follow with the tutorials I have listed all the resources in the image below, you need this for follow tutorials. We also changed the lag for hardware to be delivered to 3 days instead of 6.

Use the Gantt chart wizard

To show the critical path on the gantt schedule view you must on the toolbar go to format > gantt chart wizard. The wizard opens with some options.
The first choice is to either display a standard, a critical or a baseline path. We will chose the critical path witch will be indicated in red on the schedule view. Next you will have the choice to display extra information like dates and resources. We will chose none to have a clear view and continue the wizard. At the end we will chose to format it for our changes to apply.

Using the schedule table to assess slack

To estimate the sensitivity of the project we will have to look at the slack the blue non-critical activities have. To look at slack, we will go to view > table > schedule. You will notice “Code B” having 2 days of total slack and that “Purchase Hardware” and “Assemble Hardware” share 3 days of slack. The combined total slack means that the tasks can run late 3 days all together without delaying the project. The free slack shows a task can run late a certain time without letting other task start behind schedule.

Entering estimated duration

Estimates entered in the project are based upon experience, talking to experts and the people performing the tasks. For this example we will assume we have done that and are ready to enter the information. We will go to the duration column and to the lowest specific task such as “Interview Users” which will take 7 days or “Define Requirements” which will only take one day and so on. We only enter estimated duration for the tasks and not the deliverables. Ms Project will fill these in for you giving the times of the tasks below that deliverable.  The duration will not be counted up at the deliverable only the longest task is reflected, this will cause all the tasks start on the same date. Also notice the duration default is days. You can change this with shortkeys to:

• m: minutes
• h: hours
• d: days
• w: weeks
• mo: months
• y: years

Entering predecessor information

Next we will enter the predecessor  information for the tasks. You might need to expand the task view and so increase the calendar view to see the predecessor column. Our first task is “Interview Users” which doesn’t have a predecessor. For the next task we will enter the number 3 as predecessor. This number comes from the row association with “Interview Users”.

We will fill this out for all the tasks. Task “Code A” and  task “Code B” can have the same predecessor, this means they will start at the same time. “Integration” and “Integrate SW/HW” have multiple predecessors, this means all of the predecessors have to be finished before this task can start. On the calendar view you will notice the bars have extend out as they represent the schedule and too the start and finish dates have changed as they reflect the predecessors. Only fill in predecessor information under tasks at the lowest level and not under summary tasks.

Inserting lag

When we look closer at our projects we notice that the 7 days for purchasing hardware isn’t accurate. It only takes 1 day to order it and 7 days to deliver it. There is a lag relationship between purchasing and assembling hardware. We need to double click the assembling hardware task for its property window to open. We will fill in the lag under the predecessor box. We will be changing the lag from 0 to 6 for the shipping to take place. You also notice a predecessor has a type for when to start.

• Finished-toStart (FS)—Task (B) cannot start until another task (A) finishes.
• Start-to-start (SS)—Task (B) cannot start until another task (A) starts.
• Finish-to-finish (FF)—Task (B) cannot finish until another task (A) finishes.
• Start-to-finish (SF)—Task (B) cannot finishe until another task (A) starts.

Change schedule time scale

When projects turn into months or even years the schedule view might not be so easy in the eye when it is set for days. To change this you will have to go to format and then timescale. At this menu you can change the middle tier to quarters and the bottom tier to months to get a better view.

Inserting tasks

Now we are going to fill in the information. The project will be about a Mobile Reporting System. We will also fill in the deliverables. We will have to fill in the “Performance Requirements” and in order to do that we need to “Interview Users” and “Define Requirements”.

Check the picture for the entire list of tasks we will be using. If you forgot a task in the list, click where you want to insert the task and go to “Insert > New” task or press “Insert”.

Outlining structure

Next we will be creating an outline of our project. The first level is the project name itself. By selecting all the deliverables underneath and clicking the indent button they will all line up. Next we will outline for each of the major deliverables the tasks below. You will notice the deliverables turning bold as we created a 3 level breakdown.

Assign numerical code to tasks

Now we have created a work breakdown structure we will assign a numerical code to it. We will go to “tools” in the task bar. Under “options” we will simply check underneath “outline options” “show outline numbers” and click ok. And you will notice the task view has changed and have a numerical code to our work breakdown structure.

Each deliverable can be identified by the code. As an example with 1.3.1. Purchase Hardware the 1.3 means hardware. 1.2. means hardware and so forward.

On the next tutorial we will assign estimated duration  to tasks and enter predecessor information to create a project schedule