SPI and Resource Graph Assistance Required

[chris.read-smith]

Can anyone help me.

I am currently using a EPM 2003 solution at work. I have created our
plans using an earned value based off the physical % complete, which
IS what I require in the industry I work in. My plan is broken down
into stages, each stage representing a different set of tasks that is
required to do the job. On a weekly basis, I imput 'actual hours'
into my project plans and track progress and slippage from this. I
create my own reports using different views in MSP to show PV, EV,
ACWP, SV, SV%, CV, CV%, BAC, EAC, VAC, CPI & SPI. I also run off
filtered views (As MSP's built in Reports are useless) showing tasks
that should have started and tasks that should have finished. I also
run off reports showing upcoming milestones in the next month as well
as any incomplete milestones that are not complete. I create my own
SPI and CPI graphs in excel to see the trend on a week by week state
as well as convert my PV & EV into hours and run a report on this
too. So, I run alot of reports that do work and do drive the plans in
the direction I need them to go. All up its about a 26 page report
cover about 8 different plans.

However, what I have found is this. In my plan, for example, a stage
may not be planned to commence for about a month. Infact, the stage
is complete. All the work is done on this, yet we have not had this
schedule to start for a month. (The workers had worked a bit longer
and got the job done). THe problem is, because the first task in this
stage isnt planned to have started, its SPI is taking the EV and
dividing it by 0 resulting in 0 as the SPI.

I feel that in a case like this, yes, you are ahead of schedule in
that stage yet because your PV is $0.00 you SPI doesnt reflect this.
(I do realise that when this status date finally reaches the stage
then the SPI will shoot through the roof) but for now, the SPI stays
at '0'. Stupid Project!!!!

This leads into my next question. Because this work was done ahead of
schedule. How do I get a resource view to show that less work is now
required for the time that, that work was meant to have been done.
Because, really, the standard 'Resource Graph's' in project.. The
peak units, the work and all the other views in 'Format >Details' dont
reflect this. Is there a view that you can see that recoginses that
this work has been done ahead of schedule and not as much work has to
be done now for that scheduled time?

Also, each week, I run a filter that shows, "Tasks that should have
finished and havent finished". This is a good view to have. Yet it
is only as good as a resource tool that can assist it. I have heard
Primavera can do what im trying to think of but what I need is, a
resouce graph that shows me, how many men I need to complete the
unfinished work. Or do you have to keep 'rescheduling this incomplete
work' in "Update Project", reschedule the work and then look at your
resource graph. If this is the only solution this has good points and
bad points. Good being, it will paint a true picture of the work that
is required by rescheduling any incomplete work ahead of the status
date yet bad as you dont want your workers to realise that you can
just reschedule your plans anytime you dont complete a job?

Any suggestions.

Many Thanks

Chris

 

[Marty]

Chris in terms of Earned value use the custom fields to derive your
own data (BCWS etc) which will do so independent of where current/
status date is and will give you outcomes you expect.

In terms of weekly task tracking use an interim baseline field (eg
Start1/Finish1) which you would record prior to status collection.
After status and update you can then compare to those fields (using
filters) to give you the exception reporting such as show me what
should have been completed but isnt. You can also get more complex
and use Start1/Finish1, Start2/Finish2, Start3/Finish3 etc to
represent forecasts each week. A macro would swap these around each
week and you can then compare to forecasts provided a month ago.

Hope that helps

 

[Jim Aksel]

First, God Bless You for using Physical%Complete. IMHO it is the only way to
do it.
Excellent post!

Observations: SPI=BCWP/BCWS and it will be 0 if BCWS is 0 during the
period. That's not "stupid project", we have to go back much further than
that and blame the guy who invented x/0=infinity.

What you seek is an SPI>1. On the individual task line it will show 0.
However, at the rolled up level you are collecting BCWP. Since you will have
BCWS from other tasks during that "early" time frame, your rolled up SPI does
give you credit for the early completion of that work as long as there is
cummulative BCWS elsewhere. For the early tasks, you are enterring the real
start date in [Actual Start]?

For your next question, I think I am missing something. If I use an "Actual
Start" date and key it into [Actual Start], the Resource Usage view does move
the work to the earlier date so I am not showing the work in the baseline
period. I think what I said addresses your issue?
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

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

 

[chris.read-smith]

First, God Bless You for using Physical%Complete. IMHO it is the only way to
do it.
Excellent post!

Observations: SPI=BCWP/BCWS and it will be 0 if BCWS is 0 during the
period. That's not "stupid project", we have to go back much further than
that and blame the guy who invented x/0=infinity.

What you seek is an SPI>1. On the individual task line it will show 0.
However, at the rolled up level you are collecting BCWP. Since you will have
BCWS from other tasks during that "early" time frame, your rolled up SPI does
give you credit for the early completion of that work as long as there is
cummulative BCWS elsewhere. For the early tasks, you are enterring the real
start date in [Actual Start]?

For your next question, I think I am missing something. If I use an "Actual
Start" date and key it into [Actual Start], the Resource Usage view does move
the work to the earlier date so I am not showing the work in the baseline
period. I think what I said addresses your issue?
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

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

Can anyone help me.

I am currently using a EPM 2003 solution at work. I have created our
plans using an earned value based off the physical % complete, which
IS what I require in the industry I work in. My plan is broken down
into stages, each stage representing a different set of tasks that is
required to do the job. On a weekly basis, I imput 'actual hours'
into my project plans and track progress and slippage from this. I
create my own reports using different views in MSP to show PV, EV,
ACWP, SV, SV%, CV, CV%, BAC, EAC, VAC, CPI & SPI. I also run off
filtered views (As MSP's built in Reports are useless) showing tasks
that should have started and tasks that should have finished. I also
run off reports showing upcoming milestones in the next month as well
as any incomplete milestones that are not complete. I create my own
SPI and CPI graphs in excel to see the trend on a week by week state
as well as convert my PV & EV into hours and run a report on this
too. So, I run alot of reports that do work and do drive the plans in
the direction I need them to go. All up its about a 26 page report
cover about 8 different plans.

However, what I have found is this. In my plan, for example, a stage
may not be planned to commence for about a month. Infact, the stage
is complete. All the work is done on this, yet we have not had this
schedule to start for a month. (The workers had worked a bit longer
and got the job done). THe problem is, because the first task in this
stage isnt planned to have started, its SPI is taking the EV and
dividing it by 0 resulting in 0 as the SPI.

I feel that in a case like this, yes, you are ahead of schedule in
that stage yet because your PV is $0.00 you SPI doesnt reflect this.
(I do realise that when this status date finally reaches the stage
then the SPI will shoot through the roof) but for now, the SPI stays
at '0'. Stupid Project!!!!

This leads into my next question. Because this work was done ahead of
schedule. How do I get a resource view to show that less work is now
required for the time that, that work was meant to have been done.
Because, really, the standard 'Resource Graph's' in project.. The
peak units, the work and all the other views in 'Format >Details' dont
reflect this. Is there a view that you can see that recoginses that
this work has been done ahead of schedule and not as much work has to
be done now for that scheduled time?

Also, each week, I run a filter that shows, "Tasks that should have
finished and havent finished". This is a good view to have. Yet it
is only as good as a resource tool that can assist it. I have heard
Primavera can do what im trying to think of but what I need is, a
resouce graph that shows me, how many men I need to complete the
unfinished work. Or do you have to keep 'rescheduling this incomplete
work' in "Update Project", reschedule the work and then look at your
resource graph. If this is the only solution this has good points and
bad points. Good being, it will paint a true picture of the work that
is required by rescheduling any incomplete work ahead of the status
date yet bad as you dont want your workers to realise that you can
just reschedule your plans anytime you dont complete a job?

Any suggestions.

Many Thanks

Chris- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Jim & Marty

Cheers for your responses.

The problem I have here is I dont have the luxury of using an 'actual
start' column. Our setup here is quite different (As is most
businesses). The way we run our plans here had to be able to also
syncronise with our time recording solution. At the moment we use a
Access DB for payroll etc. This is something the business has been
doing for quite a few years. And like some business, this one is
scared of change. They wanted to bring in a scheduler to plan, track
and report on plans however, they still wanted everyone to 'book'
their hours in the Access DB and not log the hours directly into PWA
Timesheets. So, we created a set of plans for the design phase of our
job and then 1 plan for production, fixed work as our work type. Once
created, all the tasks from the plans and all the unique ID got
uploaded into the Access DB where (1.) the designers can log directly
into the Access DB and record their hours against the task and (2.) in
production, a foreman logs the hours for his respective team against
their tasks in production. (before you speak, I do realise that
people can go into PWA and log their hours in 'my tasks')

Each wednesday, the foremen and the design leads go through and ensure
that their teams have booked their hours to the respective codes.
They then have to go through and update physical % completes in the
'access db'. Once this is all done, I will export the hours out of
the Access DB and merge them into their respective plans. I merge 3
columns. The Unique ID, Actual Work and Physical % Complete. From
here, I can look at my filter views and run my reports. I know I
know, this is a very long winded way of doing business, however, I am
in a company, where not everyone is in front of a computer, where we
have workers that 'swipe in' & 'swipe out' so, we have to have a
system that captures their hours that they have swiped for as well as
update project plans. The problem of running 2 systems such as: Use
the Access DB for payroll and use EPM 2003 Solution for Project
Planning is: Joe Bloggs may start at 7am and finish at 5pm. On the
pay roll system it will show and he will be paid for 10 hours of work,
however he may only record 7.5 hours in the PWA timesheets. So you
then end up with a discrepency of 2.5 hours. The business needed a
way of capturing all of this, resulting in, everyone booking into the
Access DB and I just export my hours from there.

As much as I would like a nice simple plan and be able to monitor
'actual start' dates, I dont have that luxury and if I had to do it, I
would need a team of 10 to assist as the plans are extremely detailed.

 

[Rod Gill]

Hi, some comments:

1) You can have admin tasks in PWA, so you would book your 7.5h for the
project task and 2.5h for support or admin.

2) In Access, if hours are for a specific date, then the first date with
actual hours is your Task's Actual Start date.

3) If Access has times by day for each Task and each task as the Unique ID,
then you can use a VBA macro to import the actual hours into Project and
automatically update it. I have done this for a number of systems already
and it works well.

--

Rod Gill
Project MVP

Project VBA Book, for details visit:
http://www.projectvbabook.com

NEW!! Web based VBA training course delivered by me. For details visit:
http://projectservertraining.com/learning/index.aspx


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

First, God Bless You for using Physical%Complete. IMHO it is the only
way to
do it.
Excellent post!

Observations: SPI=BCWP/BCWS and it will be 0 if BCWS is 0 during the
period. That's not "stupid project", we have to go back much further than
that and blame the guy who invented x/0=infinity.

What you seek is an SPI>1. On the individual task line it will show 0.
However, at the rolled up level you are collecting BCWP. Since you will
have
BCWS from other tasks during that "early" time frame, your rolled up SPI
does
give you credit for the early completion of that work as long as there is
cummulative BCWS elsewhere. For the early tasks, you are enterring the
real
start date in [Actual Start]?

For your next question, I think I am missing something. If I use an
"Actual
Start" date and key it into [Actual Start], the Resource Usage view does
move
the work to the earlier date so I am not showing the work in the baseline
period. I think what I said addresses your issue?
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

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

Can anyone help me.

I am currently using a EPM 2003 solution at work. I have created our
plans using an earned value based off the physical % complete, which
IS what I require in the industry I work in. My plan is broken down
into stages, each stage representing a different set of tasks that is
required to do the job. On a weekly basis, I imput 'actual hours'
into my project plans and track progress and slippage from this. I
create my own reports using different views in MSP to show PV, EV,
ACWP, SV, SV%, CV, CV%, BAC, EAC, VAC, CPI & SPI. I also run off
filtered views (As MSP's built in Reports are useless) showing tasks
that should have started and tasks that should have finished. I also
run off reports showing upcoming milestones in the next month as well
as any incomplete milestones that are not complete. I create my own
SPI and CPI graphs in excel to see the trend on a week by week state
as well as convert my PV & EV into hours and run a report on this
too. So, I run alot of reports that do work and do drive the plans in
the direction I need them to go. All up its about a 26 page report
cover about 8 different plans.

However, what I have found is this. In my plan, for example, a stage
may not be planned to commence for about a month. Infact, the stage
is complete. All the work is done on this, yet we have not had this
schedule to start for a month. (The workers had worked a bit longer
and got the job done). THe problem is, because the first task in this
stage isnt planned to have started, its SPI is taking the EV and
dividing it by 0 resulting in 0 as the SPI.

I feel that in a case like this, yes, you are ahead of schedule in
that stage yet because your PV is $0.00 you SPI doesnt reflect this.
(I do realise that when this status date finally reaches the stage
then the SPI will shoot through the roof) but for now, the SPI stays
at '0'. Stupid Project!!!!

This leads into my next question. Because this work was done ahead of
schedule. How do I get a resource view to show that less work is now
required for the time that, that work was meant to have been done.
Because, really, the standard 'Resource Graph's' in project.. The
peak units, the work and all the other views in 'Format >Details' dont
reflect this. Is there a view that you can see that recoginses that
this work has been done ahead of schedule and not as much work has to
be done now for that scheduled time?

Also, each week, I run a filter that shows, "Tasks that should have
finished and havent finished". This is a good view to have. Yet it
is only as good as a resource tool that can assist it. I have heard
Primavera can do what im trying to think of but what I need is, a
resouce graph that shows me, how many men I need to complete the
unfinished work. Or do you have to keep 'rescheduling this incomplete
work' in "Update Project", reschedule the work and then look at your
resource graph. If this is the only solution this has good points and
bad points. Good being, it will paint a true picture of the work that
is required by rescheduling any incomplete work ahead of the status
date yet bad as you dont want your workers to realise that you can
just reschedule your plans anytime you dont complete a job?

Any suggestions.

Many Thanks

Chris- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Jim & Marty

Cheers for your responses.

The problem I have here is I dont have the luxury of using an 'actual
start' column. Our setup here is quite different (As is most
businesses). The way we run our plans here had to be able to also
syncronise with our time recording solution. At the moment we use a
Access DB for payroll etc. This is something the business has been
doing for quite a few years. And like some business, this one is
scared of change. They wanted to bring in a scheduler to plan, track
and report on plans however, they still wanted everyone to 'book'
their hours in the Access DB and not log the hours directly into PWA
Timesheets. So, we created a set of plans for the design phase of our
job and then 1 plan for production, fixed work as our work type. Once
created, all the tasks from the plans and all the unique ID got
uploaded into the Access DB where (1.) the designers can log directly
into the Access DB and record their hours against the task and (2.) in
production, a foreman logs the hours for his respective team against
their tasks in production. (before you speak, I do realise that
people can go into PWA and log their hours in 'my tasks')

Each wednesday, the foremen and the design leads go through and ensure
that their teams have booked their hours to the respective codes.
They then have to go through and update physical % completes in the
'access db'. Once this is all done, I will export the hours out of
the Access DB and merge them into their respective plans. I merge 3
columns. The Unique ID, Actual Work and Physical % Complete. From
here, I can look at my filter views and run my reports. I know I
know, this is a very long winded way of doing business, however, I am
in a company, where not everyone is in front of a computer, where we
have workers that 'swipe in' & 'swipe out' so, we have to have a
system that captures their hours that they have swiped for as well as
update project plans. The problem of running 2 systems such as: Use
the Access DB for payroll and use EPM 2003 Solution for Project
Planning is: Joe Bloggs may start at 7am and finish at 5pm. On the
pay roll system it will show and he will be paid for 10 hours of work,
however he may only record 7.5 hours in the PWA timesheets. So you
then end up with a discrepency of 2.5 hours. The business needed a
way of capturing all of this, resulting in, everyone booking into the
Access DB and I just export my hours from there.

As much as I would like a nice simple plan and be able to monitor
'actual start' dates, I dont have that luxury and if I had to do it, I
would need a team of 10 to assist as the plans are extremely detailed.

 

[Scott S]

Jim & Marty

Cheers for your responses.

The problem I have here is I dont have the luxury of using an 'actual
start' column. Our setup here is quite different (As is most
businesses). The way we run our plans here had to be able to also
syncronise with our time recording solution. At the moment we use a
Access DB for payroll etc. This is something the business has been
doing for quite a few years. And like some business, this one is
scared of change. They wanted to bring in a scheduler to plan, track
and report on plans however, they still wanted everyone to 'book'
their hours in the Access DB and not log the hours directly into PWA
Timesheets. So, we created a set of plans for the design phase of our
job and then 1 plan for production, fixed work as our work type. Once
created, all the tasks from the plans and all the unique ID got
uploaded into the Access DB where (1.) the designers can log directly
into the Access DB and record their hours against the task and (2.) in
production, a foreman logs the hours for his respective team against
their tasks in production. (before you speak, I do realise that
people can go into PWA and log their hours in 'my tasks')

Each wednesday, the foremen and the design leads go through and ensure
that their teams have booked their hours to the respective codes.
They then have to go through and update physical % completes in the
'access db'. Once this is all done, I will export the hours out of
the Access DB and merge them into their respective plans. I merge 3
columns. The Unique ID, Actual Work and Physical % Complete. From
here, I can look at my filter views and run my reports. I know I
know, this is a very long winded way of doing business, however, I am
in a company, where not everyone is in front of a computer, where we
have workers that 'swipe in' & 'swipe out' so, we have to have a
system that captures their hours that they have swiped for as well as
update project plans. The problem of running 2 systems such as: Use
the Access DB for payroll and use EPM 2003 Solution for Project
Planning is: Joe Bloggs may start at 7am and finish at 5pm. On the
pay roll system it will show and he will be paid for 10 hours of work,
however he may only record 7.5 hours in the PWA timesheets. So you
then end up with a discrepency of 2.5 hours. The business needed a
way of capturing all of this, resulting in, everyone booking into the
Access DB and I just export my hours from there.

As much as I would like a nice simple plan and be able to monitor
'actual start' dates, I dont have that luxury and if I had to do it, I
would need a team of 10 to assist as the plans are extremely detailed.

Chris

For what it's worth, we're doing something vaguely similar here. Plans are
developed in Project, but I'm the only one who uses it. Timesheets are
captured in SAP (let's not go there...) and I combine the data in Excel to
generate S curves, indices and CPR reports. The Visual Reports facility in
Project 2007 exports time phased data (and a lot more) quite nicely - I
prefer it over the 2003 version.

I've not noticed your problem with work starting early - because that never
happens here!