Duration Formula not working

[Eric Stevens]

All,

I am trying to calculate the clients wish start date - the
actual start date to client variance. Can someone help me?

I have Set enterprise Project Date1 to the Client
Submission Date

My formula in the Client Variance field

[Enterprise Project Date1]-[Actual Start]

It just stays at zero. Am I forgetting some syntax?
Because i type in Finish - Baseline finish and I get the
same result 0.

Thank you,
Eric

 

[Dale Howard]

Eric --

I don't believe you need to go to this much work to show variance between
the client's "wishful" project start date and the actual start date since
Microsoft Project 2002 can track this value for you automatically. First,
however, you will need to do a couple things:

1. Display the Project Summary Task (Row 0) by clicking Tools - Options -
View. Select the "Show project summary task" option and click OK.

2. Save a Baseline for your project to capture the planned start dates for
every task, including the "wishful" project start date for your client. To
do this, click Tools - Tracking - Save Baseline and then click OK.

Once you have a baseline saved, you are now free to track actual progress on
the plan. Once the first task in the plan has been completed, the task will
have an Actual Start and an Actual Finish date. You will now be able to see
the variance between the planned start date for every task, including the
Project Summary Task (which displays the Start and Finish date for the
entire project). To see this variance, do the following:

1. Apply the Gantt Chart view
2. Click View - Table - Variance
3. Pull the vertical split bar to the far right so that you can see the
Start Variance field

The Start Variance field calculates the difference betwen the Actual Start
date and the Baseline Start date for each task. If a task was scheduled to
start on Monday, September 1, and is didn't start until Wednesday, September
3, then the Start Variance would be calculated as 2 days. Let me know if
this helps.

 

[Eric Stevens]

Thanks Dale! I need to keep it simple. Do you know how I
would show a report for all projects that should of
started in say August and see when they really did start?
Thanks,
Eric

-----Original Message-----
Eric --

I don't believe you need to go to this much work to show variance between
the client's "wishful" project start date and the actual start date since
Microsoft Project 2002 can track this value for you automatically. First,
however, you will need to do a couple things:

1. Display the Project Summary Task (Row 0) by clicking Tools - Options -
View. Select the "Show project summary task" option and click OK.

2. Save a Baseline for your project to capture the planned start dates for
every task, including the "wishful" project start date for your client. To
do this, click Tools - Tracking - Save Baseline and then click OK.

Once you have a baseline saved, you are now free to track actual progress on
the plan. Once the first task in the plan has been completed, the task will
have an Actual Start and an Actual Finish date. You will now be able to see
the variance between the planned start date for every task, including the
Project Summary Task (which displays the Start and Finish date for the
entire project). To see this variance, do the following:

1. Apply the Gantt Chart view
2. Click View - Table - Variance
3. Pull the vertical split bar to the far right so that you can see the
Start Variance field

The Start Variance field calculates the difference betwen the Actual Start
date and the Baseline Start date for each task. If a task was scheduled to
start on Monday, September 1, and is didn't start until Wednesday, September
3, then the Start Variance would be calculated as 2 days. Let me know if
this helps.

All,

I am trying to calculate the clients wish start date - the
actual start date to client variance. Can someone help me?

I have Set enterprise Project Date1 to the Client
Submission Date

My formula in the Client Variance field

[Enterprise Project Date1]-[Actual Start]

It just stays at zero. Am I forgetting some syntax?
Because i type in Finish - Baseline finish and I get the
same result 0.

Thank you,
Eric

.

 

[Dale Howard]

Eric --

Since you have posted your questions in the Project Professional and Server
newsgroup, I'm assuming you are using Project Web Access. The information
you seek can be seen by default in the Tracking view of the Project Center
page.

If you need to do this in Microsoft Project 2002 because your customers
don't have access to PWA, first you'll need to create a temporary master
project containing all of the projects you are tracking by completing the
following steps:

1. Open a new blank project
2. Click Insert - Project
3. Select the first project to be inserted and click the Insert button
4. DO NOT expand the project and leave it as a single line
5. Repeat steps 2-4 for each project in your portfolio

Once you have done this, display the Tracking Gantt view and then apply the
Variance table (View - Table - Variance). If you'd like, you can even
rearrange the columns in the table by selecting the column header and
dragging the column into its new position. Hope this helps.

Thanks Dale! I need to keep it simple. Do you know how I
would show a report for all projects that should of
started in say August and see when they really did start?
Thanks,
Eric

-----Original Message-----
Eric --

I don't believe you need to go to this much work to show variance between
the client's "wishful" project start date and the actual start date since
Microsoft Project 2002 can track this value for you automatically. First,
however, you will need to do a couple things:

1. Display the Project Summary Task (Row 0) by clicking Tools - Options -
View. Select the "Show project summary task" option and click OK.

2. Save a Baseline for your project to capture the planned start dates for
every task, including the "wishful" project start date for your client. To
do this, click Tools - Tracking - Save Baseline and then click OK.

Once you have a baseline saved, you are now free to track actual progress on
the plan. Once the first task in the plan has been completed, the task will
have an Actual Start and an Actual Finish date. You will now be able to see
the variance between the planned start date for every task, including the
Project Summary Task (which displays the Start and Finish date for the
entire project). To see this variance, do the following:

1. Apply the Gantt Chart view
2. Click View - Table - Variance
3. Pull the vertical split bar to the far right so that you can see the
Start Variance field

The Start Variance field calculates the difference betwen the Actual Start
date and the Baseline Start date for each task. If a task was scheduled to
start on Monday, September 1, and is didn't start until Wednesday, September
3, then the Start Variance would be calculated as 2 days. Let me know if
this helps.

All,

I am trying to calculate the clients wish start date - the
actual start date to client variance. Can someone help me?

I have Set enterprise Project Date1 to the Client
Submission Date

My formula in the Client Variance field

[Enterprise Project Date1]-[Actual Start]

It just stays at zero. Am I forgetting some syntax?
Because i type in Finish - Baseline finish and I get the
same result 0.

Thank you,
Eric

.