Start Actual Start

T

Tim

New user question.

I noticed that start always = actual start. Now I have a
task that was planned to start 9/1/03, baselined it as
well, but it really did not actually start until 9/15.
However, start still = actual start. How do I go to change
this?
thanks
tim
 
D

Dale Howard

Tim --

Your question is a good one, however, I think my original answer to your
question got "swallowed" by the newsgroup server this afternoon (Wednesday),
so I'll give it another try.

When you plan a project, the Start date for each task is the "planned" start
date. When you save a baseline for the project, this "planned" start date
is captured for each task and placed in the Baseline Start column.

When work is performed on a task, Microsoft Project 2002 calculates an
Actual Start for the task based on the information you enter. At that time,
the Start date for the task is set to match the Actual Start date. So,
you're probably thinking, "But my planned Start date is lost!"

That's not the case at all. Remember, your "planned" Start date for each
task is stored in the field called Baseline Start. You can examine this
value in your project, and even see slippage on each task, by doing the
following:

1. Apply the Tracking Gantt view
2. Click View - Table - Variance
3. Pull the vertical split bar all the way to the right so that you can see
all the columns

Notice the columns called Baseline Start and Start Variance. The Start
Variance column tells you whether your tasks are on schedule, behind
schedule, or ahead of schedule against your original baseline (planned)
schedule. If Start Variance is a positive number, your task is starting
late, and if it is a negative numer, the task is starting early. Hope this
helps.
 
R

RLynn

Dale, I was pleased to see a question about this, and
your response; however, I still need further clarification
on the calculation of an actual start. Here is the
following:
Start = 9/22/03
Baseline (planned) = 9/22/03
Actual Start = 9/22/03
The date the task really started is 9/25/03. The team
member enter the actual hours in PWA on 9/25/03.
The "actual start" date is set once the task is updated
and approved. It appears the "actual start" date is the
same as the "start" date. The only way I have found to
get the true(actual) start date is to have the person
enter the date in the "actual start" date field in the
timesheet.

Am I missing something?

RLynn
 
D

Dale Howard

RLynn -

Consider the following scenario, and see if you can confirm the behavior of
PWA and Microsoft Project 2002 when a team member submits a task update to
their project manager:

When the method of tracking progress for the project is "Hours of work done
per day or per week" and "Resources should report their hours worked every
day" then the resource will be required to enter their Actual Work hours in
the timesheet grid on the right, as well as the Remaining Work in the task
sheet on the left. If a task was scheduled to begin on 9/22/03 (Start and
Baseline Start), but the resource didn't begin until 9/25/03, he/she should
enter their Actual Work in the timesheet grid for 9/25/03. When the task
update is processed by the project manager, the Actual Start date will be
set to 9/25/03 and the Start date will be set to 9/25/03 as well. The
Baseline Start will remain at 9/22/03, which is the original date the work
was scheduled to begin.

Are you saying that you are not seeing this behavior? If not, what is your
method for tracking progress in the offending project? Let me know.
 
D

Dale Howard

RLynn --

I thought that you might be using a different tracking method than I was
assuming. Yes, when you use "Hours of work done per week", there is a
single cell for each week in the timesheet, and PWA makes assumptions about
when the task actually began. Unfortunately, these assumptions are usually
wrong. The solution to this is as you have found: "push" the Actual Start
and Actual Finish fields out to the timesheet, and ask the resources to
enter data in these fields.

By the way, using Actual Start and Actual Finish also works well with the %
Work Complete and the Actual Work Done & Work Remaining tracking methods.
Thanks for your clarification. Good luck!
 
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