Debating Work Variance with Actual Work

[Andy S]

Hello,

I showed my collagues the work variance field in Project 2003. As you
know:

WORK VARIANCE = WORK - BASELINE WORK


However, they insist that I should create a custom field that
calculates:

*custom field name* = ACTUAL WORK - BASELINE WORK

While I have no problems creating this, it seems like a worthless
metric to me, especially when you already have the work variance
field. Work variance helps you see what is exceeding your work
baseline, sometimes before it even happens. However, if you used
actual work, you only know what exceeded your baseline after it
actually happened.

Nonetheless, my repeated attempts to explain this have failed. Can
anyone help me find the words to clearly communicate why the custom
field they want would not be as useful as the work variance field.

Appreciated,
Andy

 

[JulieS]

Hi Andy,

Well, a couple of things.

1) The formula: [Actual Work]-[Baseline Work]

will actually show a negative value if the task is in the future and has
no actual work recorded yet. So assuming that you are summing the
formula at a summary task level, this will give false information.

2) The formula will also give incorrect numbers until the task is
complete. For example a task originally baselined at 80 hours of work.
I supply actual work of 50 hours:

Work Variance shows 0 hours
The suggested formula still shows -30 hours
Remaining work is 30 hours

I update the remaining work to 50 hours (adding 20 additional hours)

Work Variance shows 20 hours
The suggested formula still shows -30 hours

So, in short, the suggested formula shows invalid and misleading values.
That's the best argument I can come up with

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional information
about Microsoft Project

 

[Trevor Rabey]

work = actual work + remaining work

actual work = work - remaining work

*custom field name* = work - remaining work - baseline work

The metric your friends want to calculate is pretty useless.
All it does is compare what you have spent so far with your original total
budget but to do that it should be baseline work - actual work.

So you discover that of 100 hours budget(baseline) you have spent 20 hours
so far, big deal - it doesn't tell you anything useful.
It is especially misleading if your current total work (ie actual +
remaining) is say 120 hours.

Performance and progress can only be meaningfully be measured in terms of
what Tasks got done and whether they were the right Tasks to do.
They are not measured by spending money, clocking up hours or having
duration elapse (it does that all by itself).

--
Trevor Rabey

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Perfect Project Planning
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