Can some of you share the best practices that you use to track your
schedule? Are there some 'special' views, filters, custom fields,
forumlae etc that you use for effective tracking? Just want to learn
some best practices from the experts on this forum. Please share.
I also want to use this opportunity to thank every contributor to this
forum - I think this is a great newsgroup and I have learnt a lot just
by reading the posts on this forum! Thank you all!
Thanks,
Prashanth
Set the status date
No unfinished work to the left of the status date
No unstarted work to hte left of the status date
No started work to the right of the status date (you did not start tomorrow)
No finished work to the right of the status date (you did not finish tomorrow)
everyone has a baseline
no logic on summary tasks (no predecessors, successors)
detail tasks have predecessors and successors
detail taks have at least one Finish to Start successor
Resources assigned to detail tasks only, not summaries
If you claim 100% on a task, it's predecessors *should be* 100% complete as
well
Miestones do not have resources
Generally a milestone has predecessors OR successor, but not usually both
--- this is pretty soft.
Thou shalt not have negative lag on a task. Most people are pretty soft on
that, but my humble opinion is that negative lag predicts the future with
certainty and that doesn't exist in my book.
GoldyLocks was right - tasks are not too long or too short, they have to be
"just right" in duration. You have to decide what that means.
Too much positive lag on a task probably indicates missing tasks
Negative Total Slack says your schedule is false advertising (in my opinion).
Constratint types: You want them to be As Soon As Possible as much as you
can. Start No Earlier Than, Finis As Late As Possible, and Finish No
Earlier Than are tollerable. Items like Must Finsh On, Must Start On, Finish
No Later Than, Start No Later Than are pretty much not a good thing.
Eliminate constraints other than ASAP as much as practical. A task with a
Start No Earlier Than 12/15/2003 is useless if the schedule logic has it
starting 1/14/2009.
If you are using Earned Value, then CPI and SPI should be in a range of
about 0.90 to 1.10. If they are not, there is probably an adjustement needed
to the predicted finish date and cost.
Great question!!
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.
Jim Aksel, MVP
Check out my blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com
Thanks for the excellent responses. I did not know even half of what
you have suggested! Now you need to help me further :)
How do I know of the below?
1. No unfinished work to the left of the status date
2. No unstarted work to hte left of the status date
3. No started work to the right of the status date (you did not start
tomorrow)
4. No finished work to the right of the status date (you did not
finish tomorrow)
What does the below mean? Can I not have a dependency like "2FS - 2
days"?
1. Thou shalt not have negative lag on a task
I have few more questions:
1. What do progress lines indicate? that a task is behind schedule
(backward peaks) or ahead of schedule (forward peaks)?
2. How do I know what tasks need to make progress in a week? I can
obviously find this after the week is done - those tasks that needed
to have made progress but did not will show up as delayed - but I need
to know of these in advance so that I can plan the work for my team
members. When I update my schedule at the end of the week, I want to
ensure that I have looked at all tasks that needed to be have made
progress that week. This is also more important to me because I have
quite a big schedule, and the MPP shows a lot of tasks starting in
parallel. My team members ask me - "So, I have three tasks - A, B and
C all starting on the same date - which one should I really start?"
Please let me know.
Thanks,
Prashanth
Some more input on tracking apart from Jim's excellent detailed advice.
If you want to see the works that are to be done in a particular week, you
could look at Calendar view through View > Calendar. In a calendar format it
shows that work scheduled. Its an easier to understand view and very helpful
for team members not very conversant with reading bar charts etc.
While tracking, use '% complete' col. for providing this data only if the
work on an activity goes in same speed. But, e.g if first 50% happens in 5
days and next 50% is scheduled to be completed in 7 days due to any reason,
Give Actual start date, Actual duration (5 days) and remaining duration (7
days). '% complete col.' won't show 50%, but would show (5/12)*100%. So, give
actual 50% complete data in 'Physical percentage complete' col. Its a common
requirement in projects.
I hope it helps.
Vanita
Set the Status Date (this is the "as of ..." date which every progress
report must state up front)
Save a Baseline
Show the Tracking Gantt Ciew
Show the Tracking Table
Show the Tracking Toolbar
Format the Gridlines to show the Status Date as a vertical red line on the
Tracking Gantt Chart
BEFORE making any updates of the Work or the Cost, deal with the Actual
Start, Actual Duration, Remaining Duration, Actual Finish.
Then, any Actual Work and/or Actual Cost must have ocurred during the Actual
Duration.
Any Remaining Work and/or Remaining Cost must be planned to occur during the
Remaining Duration.
Do not type in % Complete because this is calculated for you by MSP.
Do not show Progress Lines because they show no useful information and just
clutter up the Gantt Chart.
You can't plan to do something last week, so no unused Duration to the left
of the Status date. If it is there then it must be re-scheduled to the
future (3rd button, Tracking Toolbar).
No unstarted Task to the left of the Status date. If it is there then it
must be re-scheduled to the future (3rd button, Tracking Toolbar).
No started Task (ie no Actual Start Date) to the right of the Status date
(Tasks cannot have actually started tomorrow).
No Actual Duration to the right of the Status date (Tasks cannot have
occurred tomorrow).
No finished Task to the right of the status date (you did not finish
tomorrow)
You see many Gantt Charts with both unused Duration in the past and progress
in the future. Both are just wrong and are just an announcement that the
author doesn't understand what he is doing or what the software is for.
Good CPM network modeling in the first place is essential for fast, easy,
accurate tracking, eg adopt these rules and do not attempt to Track if the
plan is not finished, has loose ends etc.
Summaries have no Predecessors or Successors. Predecessors and Successors
between Tasks and Milestones only.
Every Task has at least one Finish to Start Predecessor. You need a closed
network to do the CPA.
Every Task has at least one Finish to Start Successor. Same.
Resources assigned to Tasks and Milestones only, not Summaries.
Costs assigned to Tasks and Milestones only, not Summaries.
Milestones do not have resources (maybe).
No negative lag.
No Date Constraints.
Only a small number, say 7 - 10 Tasks only, under any heading or sub-heading
in the WBS.
--
Trevor Rabey
0407213955
61 8 92727485
PERFECT PROJECT PLANNING
www.perfectproject.com.au
<prashanth.s...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:c3e116b9-b75b-45f3...@w39g2000prb.googlegroups.com...
Thanks for the responses.
One question. How do I find out 'lag' on a task? What does 'lag'
indicate?
Thanks,
Prashanth
Another question. When I re-schedule remaining work using the tracking
tool bar, I get a "Start No Earlier Than" constraint on the task. Is
there a way to avoid the constraint?
Thanks,
Prashanth
HTH
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs
<prashanth.s...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:6c72d262-0999-40b3...@v18g2000pro.googlegroups.com...
What you say is true, I agree with you. Since constraints are to be
avoided, I was thinking if there was a way to get around it. What
about 'lag' on a task? How do I find it, and what does that indicate?
Thanks,
Prashanth
"Lag" is a delay introduced into a link that causes the successor task to
start later than the unlagged link itself would otherwise cause it to be
scheduled. If there has to be a 2 week delay between mailing out a customer
survey and beginning to analyse the results in order to allow for the
postal-snail delivery times, introducing a lag into the FS link between the
"Mail Survey To Customer" and "Analyse Survey Responses" tasks accomplishes.
That behaves differently than using a constraint on the "Analyse..." task to
move it out by two weeks because if "Mail..." gets delayed a week, the
constrained "Analyse..." task will not be delayed but a "lagged" "Anayse..."
task will - the 2 week gap will be preserved as the "Mail..." task moves
earlier or later.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs
<prashanth.s...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:f11df0d0-8d69-4191...@t39g2000prh.googlegroups.com...
Amey....
--
Vidvans.Amey
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"Perfect method" is maybe a little too ambitious, but my own method is the
following:
- Never enter a % of progress, because, as in other areas, a % doesn't mean
anything: 2 tasks may have the same % of progress while there statuses are
quite different.
- Progress by the Duration: Enter Actual Duration; then Project decreases
the Remaining Duration. You are able the correct this Remaining Duration.
Use the Update Tasks dialog for that.
- Progress by the Workload: enter Actual Work; then Project decreases the
Remaining Work. You are able to correct this Remaining Work.
For a more precise progress tracking, you can use the Task Usage or Resource
Usage views, and display the Actual Work field (and why not the Baseline
Work) then enter the Actual Work on a day by day basis.
After all, I think that my method is quite perfect, but others guys may have
different point of view ;-)
G�rard Ducouret
"Vidvans.Amey" <Vidvans.A...@DoNotSpam.com> a �crit dans le message
de news: Vidvans.A...@DoNotSpam.com...
>> Generally a milestone has predecessors OR successor, but not usually both
>> --- this is pretty soft.
Do you "allow" in certain cases milestones with both, predecessor and
successor ? - I'am thinking of reaching a kind of status, like
"Product qualified". This has certain tasks as predecessors (testing,
reviews, etc.) and is the predecessor of the task "shipping". This
status would be a candidate for a milestone with predecessors AND
successor.
Have a nice day
That sort of functionality is not available from a menu (far as I know).
Project is not really a personal information manager like Outlook.
That being said, you could write a small macro which scanned all the
tasks looking for tasks that fit your criteria for a "popup" and then
have the macro create a message box.
"Vidvans.Amey" <Vidvans.A...@DoNotSpam.com> wrote in message
news:Vidvans.A...@DoNotSpam.com...
Jim's suggestions were excellent. Jim mentioned the following 4
points . Is there a way to filter out or find just these tasks? I have
lot of tasks in my MPP and it is very difficult to scroll line by line
to find out if each task belongs to any of the below categories.
No unfinished work to the left of the status date
No unstarted work to hte left of the status date
No started work to the right of the status date (you did not start
tomorrow)
No finished work to the right of the status date (you did not finish
tomorrow)
Thanks,
Prashanth
I had received very good suggestions from the MPP experts on this
group on my post - "Tracking a schedule: best practices". I had
received the below suggestions from Jim Askel then -
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
No unfinished work to the left of the status date
No unstarted work to hte left of the status date
No started work to the right of the status date (you did not start
tomorrow)
No finished work to the right of the status date (you did not finish
tomorrow)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Can Jim or anyone else let me know if there a way to filter out or
find just these tasks? I have lot of tasks in my MPP and it is very
difficult to scroll line by line to find out if each task belongs to
any of these categories.
Thanks,
Prashanth