Hi , My question. can you edit the links in MS Project 2013' after setting this as a Baseline?

Advance Thanks.

 

Best Regards,

Joel O.

Format, Gridline, Status Date? Isnt this what you mean??? Make it thick and red and maybe dashed...

Excelent answer indeed, and applies to any scheduling package or even manual methods.
I would emphasise that the part about record keeping is very important. Any eMails, notes or papers with update information should be filed as hard copy with notes as to who gave you what and when. A lot of work if you have the time/staff to do it.

Many times if you ask the person to sign and date the paper with their progress statement, they will retract and reconsider what they are saying. Often times they will ignore the request. When people know you are serious about accountability, they perk up a bit and give more serious consideration.

Microsoft PROJECT (MSP) knows about three aspects of any Task:
a.. Duration (measured in Working Days)
b.. Cost (measured in Dollars)
c.. Work (measured in Hours)
Most of the fields needed for Tracking, the important ones, are in the Tracking Table (View, Table, Tracking).
There are four important numbers associated with these three aspects of any Task:
DURATION
a.. Total Duration
b.. Actual Duration
c.. Remaining Duration
d.. % Complete = Actual/Total
COST
a.. Total Cost
b.. Actual Cost
c.. Remaining Cost
d.. % Cost Complete = Actual/Total
WORK
a.. Total Work
b.. Actual Work
c.. Remaining Work
d.. % Work Complete = Actual/Total
There are built-in fields for all of these, except % Cost Complete, and it is easy to make one for this by using a spare Text field, but it is not really needed.
Only any two of these are independent, since Actual + Remaining = Total.
Be especially careful about using % Complete, which is about Duration, to represent how much of the Task has been done.
Note that in MSP, % Complete is about the Duration, only.
MSP does not know (directly) about the progress of the Task itself.
Only the person who looks at the Task can know how much of it is done, how much remains and how long that will take, ie what the Remaining Duration is.
Only the person who looks at the Task can make a decision about the estimate of the Remaining Duration.
The Remaining Duration is the really important number because this is what has an effect on the Successor Tasks and the Project Finish Date.
Estimating the Remaining Duration when a Task is partly complete is a second chance to get the estimate right after an observation of how the Task is going.
A Task is usually about doing something which is objectively measurable, like laying the bricks or pouring concrete, and this gives rise to 4 similar values associated with the Task itself:
a.. Total Task
b.. Actual Task
c.. Remaining Task
d.. % Task Complete = Actual/Total
A Task can be something relatively easy to measure, such as "Lay 10000 bricks", or less tangible than laying bricks, but no less manageable, such as "Write A Report" or "Draw a Drawing" or “Approve an Application”.
This is where the human judgement and estimating come in, in judging the progress and the production rate and deciding whether the original duration estimate was good or bad, by how much, and whether a re-estimate, and an adjustment to the Remaining Duration, is required.
Some Tasks, such as laying bricks, are easy to measure by counting the bricks.
These Tasks, the ones that are easy to measure, can have longer Durations.
Other Tasks, which are harder to measure, must have shorter Durations, or shorter stages, or they will not be trackable or controllable.
Be wary of any progress for anything being reported as "x%".
If presented with such a number in a progress report, ask "x% of what?"
Then ask what numerator and denominator were used to calculate it, because these are the numbers you really need.
A percent measurement of anything must always have a numerator and a denominator, and you should be clear about what they are in every case.
Progress monitoring for each task must be based on something (about that Task) which is quantitatively measurable.
Sometimes (a common practice) percentages are presented which do not have a numerator and denominator and are just “gut feel estimates”. Of course, these are not measuring anything objectively or quantitatively, so they are meaningless and useless. Everyone knows about tasks which are reported early as “90% Complete” and then stay there.
With so much data available, and numerous calculations being done by MSP in the background, it is essential to have a standard, consistent, reliable, repeatable procedure for setting up MSP so that you can see what you are doing when logging progress and updating the project plan.
This procedure checklist is intended, primarily, to ensure that before you start Tracking and updating that you can see what you are doing.
You may wish to develop your own procedure, but make sure you can see what you are doing:
1.. Save a Baseline (Tools, Tracking, Save Baseline)
2.. Set a Status Date (Project, Project Information, Status Date)
3.. Show the Tracking Gantt View (View, Tracking Gantt)
4.. Show the Tracking Table (View, Table, Tracking)
5.. Show the Tracking Toolbar (View, Toolbar, Tracking)
6.. Format Gridlines to show the Status Date, Current Date, Start Date etc (Format, Gridlines)
Record keeping is the key to having the necessary, accurate, data available when you need it.
You need to work out exactly what records are needed and ensure that they are kept, and make sure they are available.
Many projects do not maintain sufficient or accurate records, which makes meaningful tracking impossible.
When logging and monitoring progress, start with getting the answers to simple questions which are based on objective records and the facts:
1.. When did the Task Actually Start (if it has started)?
2.. What has been the Actual Duration?
3.. When did the Task Actually Finish (if it is finished)?
Start and Finish must be clearly defined.
Actual Duration can be as many days as there are from the Actual Start to the Status Date, or fewer, but not more.
If the Task was started but was then paused, stopped or interrupted, the date that this happened has to be known and the Actual Duration will be less than the number of days from the Actual Start to the Status Date
For example, if a 10 Day task actually started 6 days ago, but was stopped after 4 days Actual Duration, there will be 2 Days of planned task, or unused duration, to the left of the Status Date, ie in the past.
Then, because you cannot plan to do something in the past, move the unused, planned Duration, for the un-completed Task or parts of the Task, into the future relative to the Status Date (3rd button on the Tracking Toolbar).
Then, re-estimate the Remaining Duration. The Remaining Duration is not really a "fact" because it is in the future, but it is very close to being a fact.
When this procedure is followed for each task, the consequences for the start and finish dates for all of the future tasks, and the overall finish date for the project, are readily apparent.
Tracking and updating the plan properly gives a new long range prediction for everything in the future.
Every time a Task is measured and updated, it presents an opportunity to re-estimate what remains of the Tasks, the Duration, the Work and the Cost.
The updating sequence is important.
If you get it wrong you can end up chasing your tail.
Start with the Actual Start Date, then the Actual Duration, then Remaining Duration.
% Complete is calculated by MSP after typing in the Actual Duration and again after typing in the Remaining Duration.
Suppose the Status Date is Day 6 of a Task originally estimated to take 10 Days.
When there are 6 Days of Actual Duration out of 10, % Complete = 60%.
Suppose production (ie the Task) that has been achieved is half what was expected, say 3000 bricks laid out of 10000 instead of 6000 estimated (or hoped for).
At 500 bricks per day, which is what has happened so far, it will take 14 Days to lay the 7000 remaining bricks.
After changing the Remaining Duration from 4 Days to 14 Days, MSP re-calculates % Complete = 30% because Actual Duration is now 6 Days out of 20 Days total.
However, it would be completely incorrect to type 30% into the % Complete field based on the observed 3000 Bricks out of 10000 Bricks.
If this was done, the task bar would show 3 days of Actual Duration, and leave 3 days of unused Duration in the past relative to the Status Date.
The whole picture would be just wrong.
If it doesn’t make sense, and/or if it contradicts the records and/or the facts, then it is wrong.
A Task cannot have progress, ie an Actual Start Date or an Actual Finish Date or any Actual Duration, in the future relative to the Current Date or the Status Date.
Unused parts of Duration in the past must be moved into the future, which is the only place where Tasks can be planned to be done.
MSP will allow you to create ambiguous or even ludicrous results.
But just because the software allows it doesn’t mean that you should do it.
Typing in % Complete is perhaps the most common mistake in project progress Tracking with MSP.
Do not type in % Complete.
Let MSP calculate the percentages from the records, the actuals and the facts.
All of the above relates to the task start, finish and duration, and is all about the program and does not take into account Actual Cost, Remaining Cost, Actual Work, Remaining Work.
These are addressed next.
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Trevor Rabey
0407213955
61 8 92727485
PERFECT PROJECT PLANNING
www.perfectproject.com.au