Automatic calculation w/ add duration to "planned start/finish" da

[jrunner]

How do I configure automatic calculations to create a second set of
start/finish fields using the duration field? It seems there is no automatic
calculation for start2/finish2/duration2, so I assume I need to make custom
fields using a formula with the dateadd function?

I am already using actual start/finish and when I change the duration in a
start-finish relation, the duration is automatically added to the start to
calculate the actual finish. I want a second set of dates, I'm callling
planned start/finish, which will automatically calculate a planned finish
based on a planned start and duration.

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi jrunner ,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

Have you had a look at the Tracking Gantt view? It seems to do what you're
after.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

Sounds like what you're describing is the baseline start and finish dates.
Before you begin to post actuals, save a baseline. Your original plan is
preserved there. Then when you enter an actual start date, the planned
duration is added to it to come up with a projected finish. When you record
the task as finished, project either transforms that projected finish into
an actual or, if the actual duration differs from the planned, it records
the new finish date as you've inout it. But the baseline you saved records
all of the original start, duration, and finish info for comparison
purposes.

 

[jrunner]

Thanks for clarifying baselines. I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to use these
fields as "planned dates". The solution I am looking for is to have "planned
dates" which calculate from the duration or predecessors when building my
"planned schedule". I don't want to figure out dependency dates and duration
by hand. Changing to baseline start/finish/duration does not automatically
update the baseline start/finish even after I manually calculate fields.
Should baseline fields calculate automatically in the same way my actuals
fields calculate - based on duration or predecessors? I'm thinking my project
document is messed up.

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

"Should baseline fields recalculate?" -- No, just the opposite. The
baseline should NOT recalculate. That's the whole reason it exists - as the
schedule changes due to actuals turning out different from what was planned,
the baseline preserves the original plan for comparison. Note that there
are three sets of fields: Start, Finish, and Duration (think of those as
"planned" - that's what you see in the Gantt chart entry table); Actual
Start, Finish, and Duration; and Baseline Start, Finish, and Duration. When
you enter the plan you set the project start date, input the task names and
durations, and setup the links. From that info Project calculates the
task's start and finish dates based on the durartions and links. You do NOT
put task dates in except in specific circumstances. You save the baseline
and those dates are preserved. Now when you post in performance, you enter
the actuals into the Actual Start, Finish, and Duration fields (display the
Tracking Table). DO NOT input actuals in the Start and Finish fields in the
Gantt chart entry table, be sure to use the Actual Start and Finish fields
you can find on the Tracking table. If a task was scheduled to start 13Mar
and take 10 days but actually began on 15 Mar and finished in 5 days,
Project accepts your entries in the Actuals and simultaneously updates the
"planned" values to be the same. This in turn triggers the rest of the
planned values to recalculate with new expected start and finish dates. The
baseline, OTOH, will preserve your original schedule so you can generate a
report that says in part: "Task A was supposed to start on 13 Mar and finish
on 24 Mar with task B scheduled to start 27 Mar. Instead it began 2 days
late on but finished in less time than expected so task B needs to be
rescheduled to start 22 Mar. Task A experienced a 2 day start variance, a -3
day finish variance, and a - 5 day duration variance. Task B will have a -3
day start variance and if it goes according to the originally estimated
duration a -3 day finish variance as well."

You've said you don't want to figure out dependency dates by hand. Good,
you're not supposed to!!! Except in the specific case where you need to put
a constraint on a task you should NEVER be entering individual task planned
dates - calculating them off of the project start date and the cummulative
effects of links, predecessor durations, and resource availability is what
Project is all about - that's what it's built to do. If you look in the
left hand indicator column and see little blue calendar icons beside most or
all of the tasks you've probably screwed up and supplied dates where you
shouldn't have. You don't tell Project the schedule you think you'll work -
you tell it what you need to do, the order in which the process dictates the
tasks must be performed if any, and what assets you have available to do it
with and it tells you the best schedule you can realistically expect to get.
If your project isn't calculating for you, you've either turned off
recalculation, set constraints that prevent the tasks moving, or entered
actuals that will lock the tasks to the dates on which you've said they were
performed.

--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

 

[jrunner]

Steve, I learned a lot from your answer.

As far as using baseline dates, management likes to see the "planned dates"
from the very beginning of the project, and see them throughout the duration
of the project, but it makes sense if project recalculates the baseline dates
to show changes in duration as in your example. As I learn more about
baseline reporting, I think I while use variances to report against "planned
dates".

I have to add a list of activities, to a project that already started some
months ago, so I will add only task names, duration, and predessors as you
said for baseline start/finish.

Thanks for your help. Your answer was great.

-jrunner
PMP

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

It's a semantics problem with management. What you are calling the "planned
dates" - those dates that were the original schedule before we had to revise
it after starting work - is what Project calls the "Baseline Dates." Using
your terminology you could say the schedule doesn't show the plan, if that
makes any sense, If we initially planned A to start 03 Apr and take 5 days
so B would start 10 Apr, those are initially both the Scheduled Start and
the Baseline (ie, planned) Start. But now we work on A and find it's going
to take 8 days, not five. B is pushed back to the 13th of April, a new,
revised Scheduled Start. Why is it the scheduled start changes but not the
planned start? Because we have to call up the guy who's doing the task and
tell heim he now needs to schedule himself to come in 3 days later than he
PLANNED to come in <grin>. Once work has begun, the plain Start and Finish
fields reflect what actually took place for things that have been done and
what is forecast to take place for things still in the future. Those
forcasts might be different from what the original plan called for if the
completed work is deviating from what we initially thought was going to be
required. But the Baseline always retains that orginal plan so we can
compare how we're actually doing with how we thought we were going to do and
how it looks like we'll end up with how we originally thought we'd end up..

To pick up when you're already into the project I'd initially pretend it
haddn't started, set the project start date to the date work first began.
enter the tasks that have been done using the actual durations you obtained,
and tasks still to come with their expected duration. Set up the links and
assign resources as if it was all in the future. Then come back to present
day and enter actual start and finish dates for things that have been done
or are in pogress using the Tracking Table and tracking tools. Use the
reschedule uncompleted work tool in the tracking tools to bring work that
should already be done but hasn't been up to the current date. You can
either save the baseline before entering the tracking info if you want to
call your "planned dates" the plan you *should* have had or at this point if
all you're concerned with is the future. In any case, the future SCHEDULE
will update but the PLAN will not.
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

 

[jrunner]

Including myself, others will benefit from your reply. Thanks, Jeff