Baseline vs Actual

B

Becky

At the beginning of a project the planned dates are known but the actuals aren't. I can se the baseline to NA but i cannot set the actuals to NA. 1. I don't understand why they would se tit up this way. Does anyone know the answer to my problem? Is there a way of blanking out the actual dates until they actually happen?
 
S

Steve House

I think you're confusing baseline, scheduled, and actual dates - there are
three distinct sets of dates, not two. If I have a task in my task list it
will be scheduled to start and finish on certain dates. Those are the dates
that you see in the Start and Finish columns in the basic Gantt chart table
and if you are using Project properly you have let it calculate those dates
for you based on the project start date and the links/durations of the tasks
leading up to the one in question. Initially both the Baseline start/finish
and the Actual start/finish will be NA. When you are reasy to start work on
the project you need to have a record of your starting point so as things
progress you'll know where you stand. So you save a baseline. That copies
the Scheduled start/finish fields into the Baseline start/finish fields.
Now imagine a predecessor task earlier in your project takes longer than
you'd expected it to, but you still haven't begun to work on the task in
question. That increased duration of the earlier task will push the task in
question out later than we'd originally planned. The Scheduled start/finish
changes to reflect the new reality. But the Baseline start/finish retains
the original dates so we have something to compare to. Now we begin work on
the task, but we start a day later than the new schedule called for for some
reason. We post it is 10% done, lets say and enter an Actual start using
the tracking table in the Gantt chart. When we enter the Actual start date,
Project automatically also updates the Scheduled start date to be equal so
that the Scheduled finish will push forward a day, again reflecting reality.
Now the Baseline start/finish holds the dates we thought we'd have, the
Scheduled start and the Actual start show the date we actually began, the
Scheduled finish shows the date we expect to finish, and the Actual finish
shows NA because we haven't got there yet. See how it works?

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



Becky said:
At the beginning of a project the planned dates are known but the actuals
aren't. I can se the baseline to NA but i cannot set the actuals to NA. 1. I
don't understand why they would se tit up this way. Does anyone know the
answer to my problem? Is there a way of blanking out the actual dates until
they actually happen?
 
J

JackD

You enter the actual work or actual duration to enter the "real" work or
duration. You enter your best estimate about when you will be finished by
setting remaining duration or remaining work to the estimated value. Project
will then adjust the task.

-Jack

pahuntr said:
Can you also clearly explain how an overrun is entered? What and where do
I enter when my scheduled finish date passes and i'm still not done yet and
don't know exactly when i will be finished?
 
P

pahuntr

here is an example we can work with
i create a task with a initial duraton of 10 days, the initial start and finish date auto set to 01/01/04 and 01/10/04 (Save a baseline
It is now 3 days later and I'd like to reflect that I am making great progress. I believe that I have finished 70% of the work
So I should enter 70 in the % Work Complete column. Is this the same % Complete found under General tab of the Task Information box.
This will change the initial duration form 10 to 4.x days as well as change the initial finish date from 01/10/04 to 01/05/04
That's it

What if I feel I am only 10% done with the work on day 3 and will likely overrun. then waht do I enter and where
 
J

JackD

Perhaps you can go to the task usage view (find it on the view menu) and
then enter the actual work there and edit the remaining work as well.
Entering percentages requires project to make assumptions. Using the task
usage view you avoid this.
When you are there, try right-clicking on the right part of the view and
looking at the fields which are available (actual, baseline etc.)

-Jack

pahuntr said:
here is an example we can work with.
i create a task with a initial duraton of 10 days, the initial start and
finish date auto set to 01/01/04 and 01/10/04 (Save a baseline)
It is now 3 days later and I'd like to reflect that I am making great
progress. I believe that I have finished 70% of the work.
So I should enter 70 in the % Work Complete column. Is this the same %
Complete found under General tab of the Task Information box.
This will change the initial duration form 10 to 4.x days as well as
change the initial finish date from 01/10/04 to 01/05/04.
That's it.

What if I feel I am only 10% done with the work on day 3 and will likely
overrun. then waht do I enter and where?
 
J

John Beamish

Step 1: Create task including duration and work.
Step 2: Baseline
Step 3: Enter actual hours of work
Step 4: Enter remaining hours of work. (The idea of things being "%
complete" is an almost irrelevant number. The important number is the
Remaining Work.)

When you enter Remaining Work, Project will re-calculate the Work (Actual +
Remaining) and will adjust the task depending on several factors including
constraints ("must finish on" for example) and Task Type (Fixed Units, Fixed
Duration, Fixed Work).

When it adjusts the task it will automatically calculate the %Complete and
%Work Complete. %Complete is the % of the task Duration that has elapsed;
%Work Complete is the %of Work (which may have been adjusted when you
entered Actual and Remaining) that has been completed.

You can view your progress best in the View | Tracking Gantt display.

JLB, PMP


pahuntr said:
here is an example we can work with.
i create a task with a initial duraton of 10 days, the initial start and
finish date auto set to 01/01/04 and 01/10/04 (Save a baseline)
It is now 3 days later and I'd like to reflect that I am making great
progress. I believe that I have finished 70% of the work.
So I should enter 70 in the % Work Complete column. Is this the same %
Complete found under General tab of the Task Information box.
This will change the initial duration form 10 to 4.x days as well as
change the initial finish date from 01/10/04 to 01/05/04.
That's it.

What if I feel I am only 10% done with the work on day 3 and will likely
overrun. then waht do I enter and where?
 

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