Proj 2003 Usage Question

[kschuster]

Newbie here.

My typical project may span 6 months. I may budget 20 hrs to complete
The actual time to complete may only be 5 hrs.

How do I setup Project to show the variance between budget and actual?

How do I mark a task as complete? I seems changing the %Complet
forces WORK and ACTUAL WORK to the same values - which defeats m
objective.

I was thinking Baselines would accomplish this - but my project is i
constant flux in terms of tasks, thus changing the baseline t
accomidate the new tasks would be required (I think - agian newbi
here)

Can someone lend some guidence
Thank

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi kschuster ,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

You might like to have a look at my series on Microsoft Project in the
TechTrax ezine, particularly #26 on progressing, at this site:
http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc or this:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=ArticleSearch&AUTH=23
(Perhaps you'd care to rate the article before leaving the site,
Thanks.)

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[Jim Aksel]

MIke's articles are always great. You can also try searching on the term
"Earned Value" in the Project Help pages.

Generally, you need to set a project plan, assign resources (and work) and
then set a baseline. You can then status your schedule against that
baseline. There are several ways to do this. In my opinion, use of Physical
% Complete is the best way to do it. However, most people just insert the
%Complete column and status that way.

Way to much to write about it all here. Try Mike's articles and post back
if you have additional questions.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

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

 

[Steve House]

Project makes a distinction between % Complete and % Work Complete. %
Complete deals with task time while % Work Complete deals with effort hours.
By default, updating a task's completion simultaneously updates the task's
work to show actual work equal to the amount that the schedule had called
for to be completed during the actual duration time represented by the %
Complete entry. If you want to break that link so you can enter a different
work actual/remaining values, go to the Tools/Options menu, Calculation tab,
and clear the checkbox that reads "Updating task status updates resource
status."

IMHO, trying to deal with "budgeted," ie, allowable, hours is a dangerous
approach. Budgets for work and costs in Project should be viewed from the
bottom up, not top down. A bottom-up budget is an estimate of what your
best guess is of what will be required to actually do the work, not the
maximum amount you'd be allowed to use. In your example, the 5 hours you
think it may take is the budget, not the 20 hours maximum available. And
since it'll only take half a day, why schedule it spread out over 6 months?
Pick a convenient day, set it aside for the project, work on the task giving
it 100% effort, and as Larry the Cable Guy says just git 'er done.