Standard Project Template

[LMclaughlin]

I am new to the MS Project world and have been assigned the task of entering
each of my companys current projects (30) into a MS Project 2003 template
that was designed by the managers. Most of these projects have already begun
and many of the tasks on the schedule are already complete. The actual
completion dates for these tasks are not documented so I don't think I can
enter actual start and finish dates to bring the schedule up to date. Each
project that I have to enter is at a diffrent stage of completion. Can
anyone think of a way that I can start tracking these projects when they are
alrady started? Would it be wise to just mark all tasks that are alrady
finshed as complete and then pick up with the next task on the list and show
all of the varriance at that point? If my question isn't clear let me know
and I will try and explain it better. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I feel like this might be impossible.

 

[Eva]

Design the project plans as though you are at Day 1 of each project, except
of course that you have the advantage of knowing the previously un-knowable
emergent extra scope that arose in the course of execution.

Explain to "the managers" that if they have done stuff but do not have
actual start and finish dates recorded, which to me seems about the simplest
possible data to be able to record, then basically you cannot track
progress, and if you can't track then there is no point in planning.

What you want is possible but of course once you have assumed the start and
finish dates, because you don't know what they were and in order to carry on
planning and tracking the remaining tasks, you have probably recorded
something as a fact which is really only an assumption.

 

[Stuart]

You are facing a classic PM prooblem. As a new PM on an old project, your
responsibility should be forward looking. The only value of looking back is
punitive, and your job is to move the project forward according to plan. You
should consider setting each project up as if it were new and was composed
only of the remaining tasks. These can be estimated for duration, and cost
if you wish, to set up new baselines against which the project will be
evaluated hence.

If you do this, the dates of earlier completions is unecessary and projects
and PMs will be evaluated on their current merits.

If mgt asks about money spent "so far", they must be made to understand that
"sunk costs" are gone, and the proper questions are about future use of
resources.

I know that I have not given you the "technical" answer you asked for, but I
think that I have given you a better route to success. Good luck.

 

[LMclaughlin]

Stuart, Thank you a helpful start. Thankfully my managers are not worried
about cost or resources. If I begin each project with the task that is
currently underway and remove from the schedule all tasks already completed,
what happens to the tasks that are further down the schedule that have
dependencies on those tasks that I removed? I would need to remove those
predecessors also right?