Stoplights

[BTOjohn]

Hi All,

I have followed the excellent instructions on the MSPExperts site to set up
the stoplight indicators, both for Work Variance and Finish Variance. Since
we have a variety of projects, some as little as a dozen days, some several
thousand, defining a stoplight by number of days is good, but not perfect. Is
there a way to set the stoplights based on a percentage of work, or
percentage of duration? eg once 75% of work is done light goes amber, and at
90% light goes red?

Thanks in advance,

John

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

John --

Create a new custom enterprise Project number field that contains one of the
following formulas:

[% Complete]
[% Work Complete]

The first formula calculates the percentage of the Duration "used up" to
date and the second calculates the percentage of the Work actualy performed
to do. Create your graphical indicator criteria according to your needs.
Hope this helps.

 

[BTOjohn]

Hi Dale,

Thank you very much for your, as always, invaluable input. I have done as
suggested, and this seems to work AOK for % Work Complete. However, there is
an issue with the % complete. I have the indicators set as follows (and
copied fomr the enterprise task into the enterprise project code, so they are
identical):

Is greater than or equal to 75% = Red
Is greater than or equal to 50% = Amber
Is greater than or equal to 25% = Green
Is less than 25% = Smiley Green

And yet quite there are some real oddities, such as:

Task lines go from Smiley green to Green at 4%, to Amber at 5%, and to red
from 14% (lowest % that is red). For summary tasks, however, they remain
smiley green up to 10% (highest %), and I just do not understand.

So, firstly I would like to understand what is going on here, and if you
have any insight I would really appreciate it. I feel like I must be missing
something really obvious.

Secondly, I think that in fact the most useful thing for our organisation
would be to have a measure of how far the finish date is frmo the baseline
finish. Can you recommend a way of showing a stoplight to indicate eg 10day
after baseline finish = amber, 20day = red etc.

Thanks in advance for your help,

John

John --

Create a new custom enterprise Project number field that contains one of the
following formulas:

[% Complete]
[% Work Complete]

The first formula calculates the percentage of the Duration "used up" to
date and the second calculates the percentage of the Work actualy performed
to do. Create your graphical indicator criteria according to your needs.
Hope this helps.

Hi All,

I have followed the excellent instructions on the MSPExperts site to set
up
the stoplight indicators, both for Work Variance and Finish Variance.
Since
we have a variety of projects, some as little as a dozen days, some
several
thousand, defining a stoplight by number of days is good, but not perfect.
Is
there a way to set the stoplights based on a percentage of work, or
percentage of duration? eg once 75% of work is done light goes amber, and
at
90% light goes red?

Thanks in advance,

John

 

[BTOjohn]

OK, I have again shown my lack of direct thought processes, because the
second question I asked is answered precisely by the FAQ on msProjectExperts.
Sorry!

John --

Create a new custom enterprise Project number field that contains one of the
following formulas:

[% Complete]
[% Work Complete]

The first formula calculates the percentage of the Duration "used up" to
date and the second calculates the percentage of the Work actualy performed
to do. Create your graphical indicator criteria according to your needs.
Hope this helps.

Hi All,

I have followed the excellent instructions on the MSPExperts site to set
up
the stoplight indicators, both for Work Variance and Finish Variance.
Since
we have a variety of projects, some as little as a dozen days, some
several
thousand, defining a stoplight by number of days is good, but not perfect.
Is
there a way to set the stoplights based on a percentage of work, or
percentage of duration? eg once 75% of work is done light goes amber, and
at
90% light goes red?

Thanks in advance,

John

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

BTOJohn --

I'm not sure what is going on with the % Complete field. Your original post
said you wanted to create a custom enterprise Project field. Now you are
talking about tasks. Did you actually create a custom enterprise Task field
for this purpose to track task variance? If not, I would strongly encourage
you to do so and then test for the results. Using a custom enterprise
Project field at the task level seems to yield inconsistent results, at
least to one person who posts in this group.

Regarding your second question, the Finish Variance field does the
calculation for you. Use that field in your formula. Hope this helps.

Hi Dale,

Thank you very much for your, as always, invaluable input. I have done as
suggested, and this seems to work AOK for % Work Complete. However, there
is
an issue with the % complete. I have the indicators set as follows (and
copied fomr the enterprise task into the enterprise project code, so they
are
identical):

Is greater than or equal to 75% = Red
Is greater than or equal to 50% = Amber
Is greater than or equal to 25% = Green
Is less than 25% = Smiley Green

And yet quite there are some real oddities, such as:

Task lines go from Smiley green to Green at 4%, to Amber at 5%, and to red
from 14% (lowest % that is red). For summary tasks, however, they remain
smiley green up to 10% (highest %), and I just do not understand.

So, firstly I would like to understand what is going on here, and if you
have any insight I would really appreciate it. I feel like I must be
missing
something really obvious.

Secondly, I think that in fact the most useful thing for our organisation
would be to have a measure of how far the finish date is frmo the baseline
finish. Can you recommend a way of showing a stoplight to indicate eg
10day
after baseline finish = amber, 20day = red etc.

Thanks in advance for your help,

John

John --

Create a new custom enterprise Project number field that contains one of
the
following formulas:

[% Complete]
[% Work Complete]

The first formula calculates the percentage of the Duration "used up" to
date and the second calculates the percentage of the Work actualy
performed
to do. Create your graphical indicator criteria according to your needs.
Hope this helps.

Hi All,

I have followed the excellent instructions on the MSPExperts site to
set
up
the stoplight indicators, both for Work Variance and Finish Variance.
Since
we have a variety of projects, some as little as a dozen days, some
several
thousand, defining a stoplight by number of days is good, but not
perfect.
Is
there a way to set the stoplights based on a percentage of work, or
percentage of duration? eg once 75% of work is done light goes amber,
and
at
90% light goes red?

Thanks in advance,

John