How do I measure actual progress % versus planned progress %

[Claire Brereton]

I am trying to report against my project.
I can't find a way of showing the progress which SHOULD have been made
according to the plan.
I want to show, by project phase, % of activity which was planned to have
completed and % of activity which has actually completed.

Can anyone help ?

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Hello Claire,
Display the Earned Value table : View / Table / More Tables...
and look at the definition of the BCWS, BCWP and ACWP fields.
NB : All these fields are calculated by Project with reference to the Status
Date entered in Project / Project Information and to the Baseline : Tools /
Tracking / Save baseline

Gérard Ducouret

 

[Dirk Macke]

Hi Claire,

I am not completely sure, that I do understand your question: When you
plan your tasks, you put in your planned run-rate - that's basically
what determines the lead time of the tasks. So when done properly, the
position of the 'current day marker' shows you the progress, which
SHOULD have been made.

Additionally, you put in the completion factor of your tasks. If the
completion of your task matches the position of the current day marker,
you are on track.

Does this answer your question?

BR,
Dirk

 

[Claire Brereton]

Hello Dirk,
No it doesn't really answer my question. I can tell if I am not on track
using the method you suggest, but I can't tell how far behind I am !
I think I am going to have to use the "Earned Value" fields and put in a
virtaul hourly rate, then I believe I can get the ionformation I need
Thanks anyway,
Claire

 

[Claire Brereton]

Thankyou very much Gerard.
I had started to look at these fields. I have not been putting costs against
resources but it looks as though I will have to, then I can use the Earned
Valued fields in the way you suggest. I also worked out that you have to put
these resource costs in before you save the baseline, otherwise the values
remain on zero.

Thanks again, Claire

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

Project progress is driven by work being performed. Earned value uses costs
of work as a standard unit to measure the work performed by a certain date
compared to the work that should have been performed by that date. While it
normally s as a unit of measure, there's actually nothing that says you have
to do it that way. If dollars spent aren't an issue, just enter standard and
OT rates of $1 for your resources and what you'll be seeing in the Earned
Value will really be man-hours. You can go to the Tools Options View menu
and delete the "$" from the currency units field and the Earned Value won't
print with dollar signs, making it clearer that it is man-hours. But as an
aside, I can't imagine a scenario where resource costs aren't really an
issue. A PM is usually required to organize the project so it comes in
on-schedule and under-budget. Even if the budget is already been determined
or you're not going outside the firm to acquire the resources, unless you
track resource costs you don't have a clue whether you under, over, or
on-track viz a viz your expenditures. Even internal employees have a cost
since the fact that they are working on the project means they're not doing
something else and the costs of their work represents a true incremental
cost to the company of doing this specific project. Even if the cash flow
is the same regardless of whether you do this project or not, the lost
opportunity of not doing the alternate actviities the resources could have
been doing is a cost.

 

[Carolina]

I understand Claire question, I have the same problem I need to report to the
Client the % planned progress versus actual progress %. I cannot informed the
client the cost of the project!! but they request to have this comparation. I
will tried to work it out with the Earned value.

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

You can use earned value without using real costs if you assign a rate of $1
per hour as the resource rate. Go to the options menu and on the "view" tab
set it to not use a currency symbol. Now your earned value number will be
in work hours instead of dollars.