Recalculate Baseline, Earned value fields after resource cost chan

[Raj Limaye]

I assigned costs of different resources in the resource sheet, completed
schedule and saved the baseline.
The project is in progress and is continuously being tracked. The %complete
on several tasks have been entered.

The original cost data ($/hr) on the resource sheet was approximate. I got
the correct cost data from Accounting department halfway in the project. I
entered the correct values in resource sheet.
Now I want to calculate the baseline and earned value fileds using the newly
entered cost data. Is there a way?
I know the easy answer is to save a new baseline. However the new baseline
saves the snapshot of current Work values (which are different from the
original as the project progress was continuously updated with actula finish
date or %work comlete fileds)
I want the original Work values with new cost basis so that the earned value
analysis will be more meaningful.

 

[John]

I assigned costs of different resources in the resource sheet, completed
schedule and saved the baseline.
The project is in progress and is continuously being tracked. The %complete
on several tasks have been entered.

The original cost data ($/hr) on the resource sheet was approximate. I got
the correct cost data from Accounting department halfway in the project. I
entered the correct values in resource sheet.
Now I want to calculate the baseline and earned value fileds using the newly
entered cost data. Is there a way?
I know the easy answer is to save a new baseline. However the new baseline
saves the snapshot of current Work values (which are different from the
original as the project progress was continuously updated with actula finish
date or %work comlete fileds)
I want the original Work values with new cost basis so that the earned value
analysis will be more meaningful.

Raj,
I guess I would have to say there is a way (there's always a way) but it
won't necessarily be "easy". The best case is if you happen to have a
saved copy of the original file squirreled away somewhere. Then it is a
simple matter of entering the new pay rate values, letting Project
calculate the cost and then saving the baseline. Finally copy the
updated baseline values to the current file, taking into account of
course the likelihood that tasks have been added and deleted over the
course of the project. Aside from that it gets progressively harder.

If you are lucky enough to have only one resource assigned per task, you
could set up a custom field with a formula that creates a revised set of
baseline cost values. Then copy the new values to the Baseline Cost
field.

In the more likely event that there are multiple resources assigned to
tasks the only way I can see to revise the Baseline Cost values is to
create a VBA macro that re-calculates the values based on some amount of
historical information for the original file. For example, if resources
have been re-assigned over the course of the project, then you will need
to know the original assignments. You will also need to know something
about the original Work values for each resource. As you can see, it
gets funner and funner.

The bottom line is that the file can probably be re-baselined but the
difficulty in doing so depends on the file structure itself and/or how
much historical data you have on the file.

Hope this helps and good luck.
John
Project MVP

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Raj,

As a follow on to John's ideas, if you don't have an original copy, I think
I would copy the project, work on that by selecting all tasks and making
them all 0% complete. Apply the new cost data, then baseline - you can then
copy this Baseline cost directly into your live project as John suggested.

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

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

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[Raj Limaye]

Mike, John,
Thanks for your replies. They both were very helpful.
Most of the tasks havae multiple resources assigned and these resources have
different costs.
I wrote a VBA macro to re-calculate baseline cost of each task = sum of
(resource cost*assignment.baseline work). However I discovered that sum of
baseline work of assignments do not add to the baseline work for task. Since
this problem was for only few tasks, I manually calculated the baseline costs
for those tasks.
After doing all this now, the baseline costs are correct as they should have
been.
However, I discovered that when I use the Project statistics, it still uses
the old baseline cost.
Q1. Where is project getting that value? The Baseline cost must be stored
somewhere else for reporting in the project statistics.
Q2 Also, the BCWS fields are based on the old baseline costs. Is BCWS also a
snapshot (at the time of saving baseline) or is it calculated on the fly?

I would appreciate if you could clarify these two questions.

 

[John]

Mike, John,
Thanks for your replies. They both were very helpful.
Most of the tasks havae multiple resources assigned and these resources have
different costs.
I wrote a VBA macro to re-calculate baseline cost of each task = sum of
(resource cost*assignment.baseline work). However I discovered that sum of
baseline work of assignments do not add to the baseline work for task. Since
this problem was for only few tasks, I manually calculated the baseline costs
for those tasks.
After doing all this now, the baseline costs are correct as they should have
been.
However, I discovered that when I use the Project statistics, it still uses
the old baseline cost.
Q1. Where is project getting that value? The Baseline cost must be stored
somewhere else for reporting in the project statistics.
Q2 Also, the BCWS fields are based on the old baseline costs. Is BCWS also a
snapshot (at the time of saving baseline) or is it calculated on the fly?

I would appreciate if you could clarify these two questions.

Raj,
If you haven't already, take a look at my latest comment with regard to
those tasks where the task baseline didn't equal the sum of the
assignment baseline.

I'm glad you were able to re-adjust your plan with the updated values.
With regard to your two new questions, the Project statistics value and
BCWS SHOULD reflect the current baseline. Are you sure you have
calculation set for "automatic"? If calculation is automatic and those
values don't track, I suspect corruption in the file. Take a look at my
latest reply to your other post for a suggestion.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP