% complete should be on a given day in the Future

[colin]

HELP!

I can work out % complete for the day as Project will work that out for me
when i fill in the actuals

BUT - I want to know - report - on what it should have been, or better still
i would like to report on waht it will be at the end of next week!!!

Please help

(e-mail address removed)

 

[John]

HELP!

I can work out % complete for the day as Project will work that out for me
when i fill in the actuals

BUT - I want to know - report - on what it should have been, or better still
i would like to report on waht it will be at the end of next week!!!

Please help

(e-mail address removed)

Colin,
It sounds like you want to use earned value (EV) metrics. The "what it
should be" metric is called BCWS (budgeted cost of the work scheduled).
It basically says what the task should cost by a given date. Other EV
metrics, BCWP and ACWP describe how much "value" has been earned (if
BCWP = BCWS then you're "on schedule"), and how much money has actually
been spent, as of a certain date. I suggest you look up "earned value"
in the Project help file for more information.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

What it will be at the end of next week??? Polish up the crystal ball!
LOL

 

[colin]

Hi John,
Sounds like quite hard work? I was hoping to run a report to say

Week 1 was 10% complete (as I filled in the actuals this would be easy)
on week 2 the project should be 17% complete
On week 3 the project should be 36% completon
On week 4 the projcet should be 42% etc...........

Then as I track the the actual I can see if its going to plan.... not sure
EV would do this BUT reading teh help files......

As a planning tool I would have expected to be able to work out what my
Planned % complete would be on day in teh future without having to go to
excel and work out number of tasks / days = daily % then trying to work out
where the peaks of effort work affect my numbers..... got any other ideas?

Thansk for quick response

Colin..

 

[Steve House [Project MVP]]

One thing to remember is that % Complete refers to duration. Projecting an
expected percent complete at some point in the future doesn't provide alol
that much in terms of useful managment information. Projecting % Work
Complete is a better indicator of whether you're one time or not and that's
where EV comes in. The SPI is telling you how your progress is going
according to plan - an SPI of .9 as of today means you're getting work done
at 90% of the rate you thought you were going to. Form that you can compute
the Estimates At Completion and come up with a projected completion date and
projected budget. Exporting the EV data to Excel, plotting S-curves there,
and using regression analysis on the performance curves to extrapolate to
completion is a good tool to look into.

 

[John]

Hi John,
Sounds like quite hard work? I was hoping to run a report to say

Week 1 was 10% complete (as I filled in the actuals this would be easy)
on week 2 the project should be 17% complete
On week 3 the project should be 36% completon
On week 4 the projcet should be 42% etc...........

Then as I track the the actual I can see if its going to plan.... not sure
EV would do this BUT reading teh help files......

As a planning tool I would have expected to be able to work out what my
Planned % complete would be on day in teh future without having to go to
excel and work out number of tasks / days = daily % then trying to work out
where the peaks of effort work affect my numbers..... got any other ideas?

Thansk for quick response

Colin..

Colin,
I'm not sure what you thought was hard work - that all depends on one's
perspective. Many things that are worth while doing are hard work.

The whole purpose of earned value (EV) is to basically do what you want,
(i.e. track actual performance to the original plan), although I don't
buy into the classical idea of expressing schedule performance using
monetary metrics. I think others agree and that's why the concept of %
Physical Complete was added to Project.

It sounds like you at least looked at the help file on the subject of
earned value but understanding it is going to take more than a simple
quick read. You can certainly develop your own formulas for measuring
schedule performance and maybe in the end that's what you want to do.
But, if the functionality already exists in Project, why not learn how
to take advantage of it.

Predicting potential future performance can be a great tool for managing
a project. Several years ago I implemented an EV predictor on the
program I worked at my company. We had a very formal contractually
mandated earned value system. We reviewed performance one a month with
program management and the customer. The earned value metrics clearly
showed those Cost Account Mangers (CAMs) whose activities were in
trouble. In order to better help them get control of their activities I
wrote a macro that extrapolated their earned value metrics given no
deviation from their current performance path. In other words, "If you
don't take some remedial action, the deep yogurt you are in is going to
get this much deeper". Generally the CAMs were very interested in
information that could help them NOT be on the hot seat in front of
management and customer.

Your driver may not be that rigid but at least you get an idea of why
earned value can be important.

John
Project MVP