How do you customize days calculations?

[tennisne1]

I need to create a project plan that will list the actual start, actual end,
estimated start, estimated end, total days between the actual start and
actual end, and the total days between estimated start and estimated end. I
need to know how I can customize the total actual days and total estimated
days. I want two values on the project plan that compare what the estimated
days for the task was and what the actual amount of days the task actually
took to complete the task. I tried customizing my own days columns, but
everytime I try to calculate a datediff on actual start and actual end or
baseline start and baseline end, the value ends up as 0.01! It does not
calculate the total days. How do you do this in Project 2003? I basically
need two representations of durations...one for actual and one for original
estimate. Thanks.

 

[Jim Aksel]

There are columns for this ... Actual Start, Actual Finish, Baseline
Start/Finish, Start/Finish (forecasted) and the same for duration.

In msproject, you can use the customized dates fields as well. There are
two functions of interest:

DateDiff( interval, date1, date2, firstdayofweek, firstweekofyear )
ProjDateDiff( date1, date2, calendar )

The first counts calendar days, teh second counts "work" days as defined in
the Project calendar.

From the help, here is a paste about the DateDiff function. I think you
will find the Interval property to be of interest.

The interval argument has these settings:

Setting Description
yyyy Year
q Quarter
m Month
y Day of year
d Day
w Weekday
ww Week
h Hour
n Minute
s Second

You can find additional date formulas that may be helpful if you use the
customize fields dialog and create a formula.



--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

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

 

[JulieS]

Hello tennisne1,

Project will handle both of those values as well as other calculations
for you without you having to resort to custom calculations.

If you create your project plan and save a baseline, the estimated
start is baseline start, the estimated end is baseline finish, the
difference between baseline start and baseline finish is baseline
duration.

You may then supply actual data to project (using the tracking table)
and add data to actual start, actual finish, and actual duration.
Project will also calculate start variance, finish variance, and
baseline variance.

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

 

[tennisne1]

I tried the datediff function and I always get 0.01 as the amount of days
when I try to create a custom days field.

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Datediff functions work best in a duration field
HTH

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[tennisne1]

I chose duration as my field type (say duration1) and then used baseline
start and baseline finish in the datediff formula that I created. I got
0.01. I'm assuming date 1 and date2 in the datediff function does not have
to be a duration, but a date field instead, correct?

 

[Jan De Messemaeker]

Hi,

Wow, I'm learning. You are right.
Possible solutions are the following:

1. Multiply the datediff result by the constant MinutesPerDay you can find
in Field, Project, Number
OR
2. Use ProjDateDiff.

Hope this helps,

--
Jan De Messemaeker
Microsoft Project Most Valuable Professional
+32 495 300 620
For availability check:
http://users.online.be/prom-ade/Calendar.pdf

 

[tennisne1]

So, I will need to use a baseline start/finish/duration. Create those first
and save them. Then add the actual start/finish/duration. It appears if you
try to use the regular start and finish, those dates always get defaulted to
whatever is in the actual start and finish along with the duration. Do I
need to be careful when saving baselines again? For example, do I need to
select a baseline for a specific task to be saved if I don't want other
baselines affected? Am I correct in believing that a task can have only up
to 11 baselines? Thanks for your help.

 

[JulieS]

Hello tennisne1,

When you save a baseline (Tools > Tracking > Save baseline) you can
select the Baseline or Baseline1 through Baseline10. When you save
the baseline the baseline fields (baseline start, baseline finish,
baseline duration, baseline work, baseline cost) is saved for either
the entire project or for selected tasks. If you would like to
baseline specific tasks, select the tasks in the view before going to
Tools > Tracking.

As you note, when you update Actual Start and Actual Finish, the Start
and Finish fields get updated with the same data. Baseline data does
not get changed however.

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

 

[Steve House]

A task (and the project) has only 1 real baseline, that is, the project that
you actually expect to work. The other baseline fields are there primarily
to give you someplace to keep an audit trail so that if your project changes
directions in midstream and you need to re-baseline it, you can preserve the
original estimates for comparison purposes.

 

[tennisne1]

Each task can have its own baseline, correct? As I add a new task, I can
create the baseline for the task and specifically save the baseline just for
that task in the tools menu?

A task (and the project) has only 1 real baseline, that is, the project that
you actually expect to work. The other baseline fields are there primarily
to give you someplace to keep an audit trail so that if your project changes
directions in midstream and you need to re-baseline it, you can preserve the
original estimates for comparison purposes.

--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

So, I will need to use a baseline start/finish/duration. Create those
first
and save them. Then add the actual start/finish/duration. It appears if
you
try to use the regular start and finish, those dates always get defaulted
to
whatever is in the actual start and finish along with the duration. Do I
need to be careful when saving baselines again? For example, do I need to
select a baseline for a specific task to be saved if I don't want other
baselines affected? Am I correct in believing that a task can have only
up
to 11 baselines? Thanks for your help.

 

[JulieS]

Hi tennisne1,

Each task has a baseline start, baseline finish, baseline duration,
baseline cost, and baseline work field. If you select a single task
and choose Tools > Tracking, Save baseline you can choose to save the
baseline for only the selected task.

You may find that looking at the baseline table may help show what
happens when you save a baseline for a single task.

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

Each task can have its own baseline, correct? As I add a new task,
I can
create the baseline for the task and specifically save the baseline
just for
that task in the tools menu?

A task (and the project) has only 1 real baseline, that is, the
project that
you actually expect to work. The other baseline fields are there
primarily
to give you someplace to keep an audit trail so that if your
project changes
directions in midstream and you need to re-baseline it, you can
preserve the
original estimates for comparison purposes.

--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

So, I will need to use a baseline start/finish/duration. Create
those
first
and save them. Then add the actual start/finish/duration. It
appears if
you
try to use the regular start and finish, those dates always get
defaulted
to
whatever is in the actual start and finish along with the
duration. Do I
need to be careful when saving baselines again? For example, do
I need to
select a baseline for a specific task to be saved if I don't want
other
baselines affected? Am I correct in believing that a task can
have only
up
to 11 baselines? Thanks for your help.

:

Hello tennisne1,

Project will handle both of those values as well as other
calculations
for you without you having to resort to custom calculations.

If you create your project plan and save a baseline, the
estimated
start is baseline start, the estimated end is baseline finish,
the
difference between baseline start and baseline finish is
baseline
duration.

You may then supply actual data to project (using the tracking
table)
and add data to actual start, actual finish, and actual
duration.
Project will also calculate start variance, finish variance, and
baseline variance.

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



message
I need to create a project plan that will list the actual
start,
actual end,
estimated start, estimated end, total days between the actual
start
and
actual end, and the total days between estimated start and
estimated
end. I
need to know how I can customize the total actual days and
total
estimated
days. I want two values on the project plan that compare what
the
estimated
days for the task was and what the actual amount of days the
task
actually
took to complete the task. I tried customizing my own days
columns,
but
everytime I try to calculate a datediff on actual start and
actual
end or
baseline start and baseline end, the value ends up as 0.01!
It does
not
calculate the total days. How do you do this in Project 2003?
I
basically
need two representations of durations...one for actual and one
for
original
estimate. Thanks.

 

[Steve House]

Correct

Each task can have its own baseline, correct? As I add a new task, I can
create the baseline for the task and specifically save the baseline just
for
that task in the tools menu?

A task (and the project) has only 1 real baseline, that is, the project
that
you actually expect to work. The other baseline fields are there
primarily
to give you someplace to keep an audit trail so that if your project
changes
directions in midstream and you need to re-baseline it, you can preserve
the
original estimates for comparison purposes.

--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

So, I will need to use a baseline start/finish/duration. Create those
first
and save them. Then add the actual start/finish/duration. It appears
if
you
try to use the regular start and finish, those dates always get
defaulted
to
whatever is in the actual start and finish along with the duration. Do
I
need to be careful when saving baselines again? For example, do I need
to
select a baseline for a specific task to be saved if I don't want other
baselines affected? Am I correct in believing that a task can have
only
up
to 11 baselines? Thanks for your help.

:

Hello tennisne1,

Project will handle both of those values as well as other calculations
for you without you having to resort to custom calculations.

If you create your project plan and save a baseline, the estimated
start is baseline start, the estimated end is baseline finish, the
difference between baseline start and baseline finish is baseline
duration.

You may then supply actual data to project (using the tracking table)
and add data to actual start, actual finish, and actual duration.
Project will also calculate start variance, finish variance, and
baseline variance.

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



I need to create a project plan that will list the actual start,
actual end,
estimated start, estimated end, total days between the actual start
and
actual end, and the total days between estimated start and estimated
end. I
need to know how I can customize the total actual days and total
estimated
days. I want two values on the project plan that compare what the
estimated
days for the task was and what the actual amount of days the task
actually
took to complete the task. I tried customizing my own days columns,
but
everytime I try to calculate a datediff on actual start and actual
end or
baseline start and baseline end, the value ends up as 0.01! It does
not
calculate the total days. How do you do this in Project 2003? I
basically
need two representations of durations...one for actual and one for
original
estimate. Thanks.