EVM with Cost resource Type

[c.tambone]

Hello,

I am tryin to use the new Cost Resource Type in Project Pro 2007 and
use to evaluate Earned Value Method.
I do the following:
I create two tasks - on starts in the past and finishes in the future
- on that task I assign my Cost resource (Travel) and I put an amount
of 5000.
I set that EVM will be calculated based on Physical % Complete - I
save the baseline and I set the Physical % compelte to 50%. When I
check the EVM calculated both BCWS and BCWP are empty.
Shouldn't Project Pro calculate earned value also on this type of
resource? Is this a bug? Can you give some ideas?

Thanks for helping me out!

Claudia

 

[JulieS]

Hello Claudia,

I am able to reproduce what you report -- no earned value data from
tasks with a cost type resource assigned. I can't answer the "bug"
versus "by design" question but can suggest a workaround that may help
you in the meantime. You can use a fixed cost to reflect the travel
cost instead of using the cost resource type. Fixed costs do calculate
earned value data.

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

 

[Pat]

Hi Claudia,
I think you are italian... if so, see this
http://patitaly0.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!B892245E6DF20A33!952.entry

HTH

--
Pat [Microsoft Office Project MVP]
-- http://patitaly0.spaces.live.com
-- http://www.riolab.org



In (e-mail address removed) typed:

 

[c.tambone]

Hi Claudia,
I think you are italian... if so, see thishttp://patitaly0.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!B892245E6DF20A33!952.entry

HTH

--
Pat [Microsoft Office Project MVP]
--http://patitaly0.spaces.live.com
--http://www.riolab.org

(e-mail address removed) typed:

Hello,

I am tryin to use the new Cost Resource Type in Project Pro 2007 and
use to evaluate Earned Value Method.
I do the following:
I create two tasks - on starts in the past and finishes in the future
- on that task I assign my Cost resource (Travel) and I put an amount
of 5000.
I set that EVM will be calculated based on Physical % Complete - I
save the baseline and I set the Physical % compelte to 50%. When I
check the EVM calculated both BCWS and BCWP are empty.
Shouldn't Project Pro calculate earned value also on this type of
resource? Is this a bug? Can you give some ideas?

Thanks for helping me out!

Claudia- Nascondi testo tra virgolette -

- Mostra testo tra virgolette -

Hi Julie and Pat,

thanks a lot to both of you. Anyway I do not think that excluding the
"Cost" resources from EVA is the right thing to do.
In any case I will suggest my customer to use the Fixed cost or a
Material resource.

Thanks for your cooperation!
Claudia

 

[c.tambone]

Hi Julie and Pat,

thanks a lot to both of you. Anyway I do not think that excluding the
"Cost" resources from EVA is the right thing to do.
In any case I will suggest my customer to use the Fixed cost or a
Material resource.

Thanks for your cooperation!
Claudia- Nascondi testo tra virgolette -

- Mostra testo tra virgolette -

Sorry, this is me again...
I tried with fixed cost and this is ok in terms of BCWS and BCWP
calculation.
The problem comes when I try to insert manually Actual Cost: I have to
unflag the "Actual Cost are automatically calculated by Project"
because I need to insert the amount of total payments for each task.
When I insert manually Actual Cost, this amount is summed up on top of
Fixed Cost, the result is that Cost Variance equals to my Actual Cost!
How can I keep Total Cost stable and insert Actual Cost manually?

Thanks again for your cooperation

Claudia

 

[JulieS]

Sorry, this is me again...
I tried with fixed cost and this is ok in terms of BCWS and BCWP
calculation.
The problem comes when I try to insert manually Actual Cost: I have to
unflag the "Actual Cost are automatically calculated by Project"
because I need to insert the amount of total payments for each task.
When I insert manually Actual Cost, this amount is summed up on top of
Fixed Cost, the result is that Cost Variance equals to my Actual Cost!
How can I keep Total Cost stable and insert Actual Cost manually?

Thanks again for your cooperation

Claudia

Hello Claudia,

You're welcome for the help we have provided so far, and thanks for the
feedback.

To your most recent question: If you have disabled the option "Actual
costs are calculated by Project" and are manually entering actual costs,
Project does not adjust the Remaining Cost field automatically. So, as
you note, by you entering actual costs, Project keeps increasing the
Total Costs. Unfortunately, the remaining cost field is not available
to be manually edited, but you can manually edit the fixed costs field
and decrease the fixed costs by the amount of actual costs you are
entering. This will automatically update the remaining cost field and
total cost field.

You don't mention whether you are also assigning resources and tracking
work as well, but I do want to mention that you *can* modify actual
costs, even with Project calculating actual costs, when the task is
complete. So, if you are tracking work and want to be able to add your
actual fixed costs manually, once you have tracked progress and the task
is complete, you can then modify actual costs.

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

 

[c.tambone]

Hello Claudia,

You're welcome for the help we have provided so far, and thanks for the
feedback.

To your most recent question: If you have disabled the option "Actual
costs are calculated by Project" and are manually entering actual costs,
Project does not adjust the Remaining Cost field automatically. So, as
you note, by you entering actual costs, Project keeps increasing the
Total Costs. Unfortunately, the remaining cost field is not available
to be manually edited, but you can manually edit the fixed costs field
and decrease the fixed costs by the amount of actual costs you are
entering. This will automatically update the remaining cost field and
total cost field.

You don't mention whether you are also assigning resources and tracking
work as well, but I do want to mention that you *can* modify actual
costs, even with Project calculating actual costs, when the task is
complete. So, if you are tracking work and want to be able to add your
actual fixed costs manually, once you have tracked progress and the task
is complete, you can then modify actual costs.

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

Julie
Project MVP

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

Julie,

after different tests I figured out the "decreasing fixed cost"
workaround myself yestarday.
Unfortunately I cannot add Actual Fixed Cost manually when the task is
completed because I need to use Earned Value Method all through the
project life cycle.
Anyway luckily I am not using "work" resource so I am really free to
play around with Fixed Cost and Actual Cost in order not to change the
ETC value.

Thanks again
Claudia

 

[JulieS]

Julie,

after different tests I figured out the "decreasing fixed cost"
workaround myself yestarday.
Unfortunately I cannot add Actual Fixed Cost manually when the task is
completed because I need to use Earned Value Method all through the
project life cycle.
Anyway luckily I am not using "work" resource so I am really free to
play around with Fixed Cost and Actual Cost in order not to change the
ETC value.

Thanks again
Claudia

I'm glad you were able to discover the answer Claudia. You're very
welcome for the assistance and thank you for the feedback.

Julie
Project MVP