how do I report planned % complete versus actual % complete

[Claire Brereton]

I am trying to do something very simple - report how much of my project is
actually complete and how much I had planned to be complete.
None of the Help can show me how to do this. I know you have to baseline the
project but all of the fields seem to refer to $$ not hours.

 

[John]

I am trying to do something very simple - report how much of my project is
actually complete and how much I had planned to be complete.
None of the Help can show me how to do this. I know you have to baseline the
project but all of the fields seem to refer to $$ not hours.

Claire,
I assume you are looking at the earned values metrics (i.e. ACWP, BCWP,
& BCWS). These are in fact all based on the classical premise that,
"time is money". I don't agree with that philosophy 100% but it is the
classical approach.

Although it is not quite what I think you want, there is a field called
Work Variance that might give you some useful information. You can read
more about it in the help file.

If you really want a metric describing planned (i.e. baseline) work at a
point in time (e.g. status date) compared to actual work at that same
point in time, you will probably need to use VBA. A formula in a custom
field will not work because you need the timescaled data for comparison
and timescaled data is only available through VBA.

If VBA is not an option for you, with a little work the data can still
be obtained. If Cumulative Work and Baseline Work are displayed in one
of the Usage views (i.e. Task or Resource), you can manually add up the
Baseline Work hours and compare it to the Cumulative Work hours as of
the date of interest. You can then manually enter this information into
a spare field on the view so it can be saved or printed. Not real
convenient but it will get you there.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[Catfish Hunter]

Go to: View >Resource useage. This is where you get what Projects calls work
(known as manhours) spread over time. You must have a resource loaded
schedule for this to work. Right mouse click in area on the right and add
"Baselien Work". You can export this to excel where you can crete a forecast
progress graph by resource, total project...........
Actual percen complete will come from the same the same place in Projects.
Just add the column % Complete. As you update task in your schedule with %
complete you will earn manhours (work). Hope this helps. Let me know.

 

[Claire Brereton]

Thanks for this. I'm trying but I don't think I'm there yet. Have exported
and now have excel spreadsheet with Baseline Work, Scheduled Work, Resource
Name but no timeline to enable me to create the forecast so I can't quite see
where to go from here.

 

[Catfish Hunter]

Charlie if you exported Work (man-hours) from the Resource Useage view you
should be seeing projected man-hours per day by resource. Is this what you
have? Here are the directions to do this:
1 On the View menu, click Gantt Chart.
2 If applicable, select the tasks you want to export.
3 On the View menu, point to Toolbars, and then click Analysis.
4 Click Analyze Timescaled Data in Excel.
5 Following the Analyze Timescaled Data Wizard instructions, click the
fields you want to export to Excel.
I don't use the plot MS Projects makes - it's ugly! I build my own curves.
Let me know if this helps.

 

[Catfish Hunter]

This may be more of what you're looking for:

Analyze timephased data:

if you want to display timephased project information in a chart, you can
use the graphing features of Microsoft Excel by importing data directly from
Microsoft Project.

The Analyze Timescaled Data Wizard leads you through the process of
exporting and graphing timephased data from your project into Microsoft
Excel. The resulting Excel file shows information (such as work and cost)
about each task or resource on a per-day basis.

To run the Analyze Timescaled Data Wizard, click Analyze Timescaled Data in
Excel on the Analysis toolbar. To display the Analysis toolbar, point to
Toolbars on the View menu, and then click Analysis.