how to estimate project deadline?

A

Akhlaq Khan

I am a newbie and recently started using MS project server. i created a
project plan and assigned tasks to different resources. According to
schedule, the deadline turned to be 21st April 2006. Due to some unavoidable
issues the resources tasks could not complete thier tasks on their assigned
deadline which means the deadline must slip by a few days. Now i want to
calculate the new deadline (estimated deadline) after the slippage. how can
i do that? is there an article that can walk me through it?

thank you,

akhlaq khan.
 
A

Akhlaq Khan

hi Dale,
thanks for the link.

The FAQ says "How do I reschedule uncompleted work from a previous reporting
period into the current reporting period using Microsoft Project
Professional?"

I am having a bit difficulty in relating this solution with my original
problem. I reckon that many projects face delay in their tasks. After all,
100% on time completion is not possible 100% of the times. So i am hoping
that project server does address this issue and should have a way to either
automatically calculate this delay or manually declare it.

I just wanted to ask if this is a workaround to my problem or is this really
the way everybody else does it? i am just wondering if i am trying to
accomplish something unique or common. MS project is a very sophisticated
tool and i was expecting that there was some way it would automatically
calculate the estimated deadline based on the amount of remaining work and
current progress.

thanks,

akhlaq khan.
 
D

Dale Howard [MVP]

Akhlaq --

If the work was completed later than scheduled, did you enter the Actual
Start and Actual Finish dates on that task to show the slippage? Let us
know.
 
A

Akhlaq Khan

hi Dale,
To answer your question: No, i did not eneter the actual start and actual
finish dates. actually, we are using MS project server to assign task to
resouces, once the tasks are assigned via project professional, all the
resources are able to see their tasks from the web interface and then they
update the task progress as they make the progress. thats all what we do.
someone told me that as the resources start updating their task progress and
finally mark it 100% complete, MS project server automatically calculates
the "actual" start and finish dates of those tasks. isn't that the case?

maybe we are missing a necessary step here. please let me know if that is
the case.

thanks so much,

akhlaq khan.
 
A

Akhlaq Khan

hi Dale,
on further investigating the issue, i noticed something that i thought i
should share with you and that might help us conclude what we might be doing
wrong.

In tools > options > Calculation Tab, i noticed that none of the 4 following
options were selected:

1. Move end of completed parts after status date back to status date
1.1. And move start of remaining parts back to status date
2. Move start of remaining parts before status date forward to status date
2.1. And move end of completed parts forward to status date

I checked all of the above checkboxes. Still, there is no difference in the
"Actual Start" and "Actual Finish" dates of the tasks and they still show
the estimated start and finish dates values. Maybe these options will have
their effect from now onwards though i was expecting them to modify the
actual start and finish dates which have already been calculated by MS
Project at the time these options were not checked.

One more important thing that i wanted to let you know is that all the
resources update their progress on tasks by modifying only "% complete"
field. Do you think this should be enough for MS Project to calculated
estimated deadline?

thanks,

Akhlaq Khan.
 
D

Dale Howard [MVP]

Akhlaq --

It sounds like you are using the % Work Complete method of tracking. If
this is the case, and all the user does is to enter a % Work Complete value
each week until the task is completed, then Project Server will set the
Actual Start date to match the scheduled Start date of the task, and will
set the Actual Finish date to the scheduled Finish date of the task. The
system has no way of knowing whether the task started or finished late. If
you want to capture late starts and late finishes, you will need to
supplement your method of tracking to include the Actual Start and Actual
Finish fields on each user's timesheet. Refer to the following FAQs for the
steps needed to do this:

http://www.projectserverexperts.com/Shared Documents/changestartandend.htm

http://www.projectserverexperts.com/Shared Documents/changetimesheet.htm

Hope this helps.
 
A

Akhlaq Khan

hi Dale,
thank you so much for the info, its really helping me in acheiving my
goal...

On further investigating the issue, i noticed something that i thought i
should share with you and that might help us conclude what we might be doing
wrong.

In tools > options > Calculation Tab, i noticed that none of the 4 following
options were selected:

1. Move end of completed parts after status date back to status date
1.1. And move start of remaining parts back to status date
2. Move start of remaining parts before status date forward to status date
2.1. And move end of completed parts forward to status date

Do you think i should also check all of these in order for the estimated
deadline to be calculated properly?

thanks,

akhlaq.
 
D

Dale Howard [MVP]

Akhlaq --

No. I would recommend you use the Actual Start and Actual Finish fields to
capture the data you want. Hope this helps.
 
A

Akhlaq Khan

Dale,
Can you please also give me some insight into why won't you recommend using
these options? how do they compare with using "Actual start and Actual
Finish" fields ?

thanks
akhlaq
 
D

Dale Howard [MVP]

Akhlaq --

Because using the Actual Start date will tell you when the task actually
started, and using the Actual Finish date field will tell you when the task
actually finished. The method you describe will not supply that
information. Hope this helps.
 
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