Actual Cost vs % Complete using Earned Value

[Glenn]

Hi all,

I have a task to build 5 miles of train track in 5 days, for $5000 at
$1000/day

I have a resource assigned at $125/hr or $1000/day. If after 1 day, I only
have 1/2 mile of track laid, then my earned value (BCWP) should be only $500
and my actual cost (ACWP) should be $1000. My resource is based on Fixed
Units, my Calculation is set to Automatic and my task is effort driven.

I enter the task info, save the baseline and BCWS, BCWP and ACWP are all
automatically calculated. For day one, each value is $1000. Great!

What I want is to have someone at the jobsite call me at the office and tell
me how much actually got done for the day as I already know I spent $1000 for
the day.

I have tried putting in fields such as Actual Work, % Work Complete, Actual
Cost, etc but it seems that % Work Complete and % Complete are the same thing
so I never see my BCWP change from $1000 down to $500.

How can I set things up or better yet where can I enter in the ACTUAL amount
that was done and compare that to what was ACTUALLY spent?

Glenn

 

[Rod Gill]

Hi,

If you only do half what you expect in a day, you need to re-schedule the
work you didn't do today forward to when you do expect to do it. This
results in the duration increasing and Earned value updating.

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com

 

[Glenn]

Hi Rod,

Is there a way I can have the duration increase automatically if I achieve
less than what I plan to achieve in any one day?

If I have 5 days of work with a 5 day duration and I only get 10% of my work
done on day one, or half a day, then my duration should advance to 5 1/2
days. I have my task set to fixed units but my duration does not grow as I
would think it should.

Thanks,
Glenn

 

[Glenn]

Hi Rod,

Is there a way to get my duration to increase automatically if my work is
not moving ahead at the planned rate?

Let's say I have 5 days of work with a 5 day duration. If after day one, I
only have a half day of work completed, can I get the duration to increase to
5.5 days?

After one full day, I would have the following:
Work Completed Remaining Work Remaining Duration
1/2 day 4 1/2 days 4 days

Given this rate of production, I would need my original 5 day duration
increased to 5 1/2 days which would give me 4 1/2 days to finish the task.

Thanks,
Glenn

 

[Rod Gill]

2 solutions here:
1) update work in the Resource or Task Usage View. Right click yellow area
and add Actual Work. If 8h of work needs to be done on day 1 but only 4 have
been done, enter 4h for the first day. Project will automatically add 4h to
the end of the task extending the finish date and duration.

2) Select Tools, Options, Calculation tab
3) Check both the Move options. Now enter 10% for your task and any
incomplete work is delayed until the Status date (or today's date if the
Status date under Project, project Information is empty.

--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com

 

[Glenn]

Thanks Rod.

Your help and the help of this forum is invaluable.

Glenn

 

[Glenn]

Hi Rod,

I will post further questions to the forum but as this one relates to moving
a task ahead when a full day work is not done, I thought I would tag you with
one more question.

I have a task with a 5d duration and 5d of work. In
Tools->Options->Calculate, I checked both Move check boxes. There are
actually 4 move check boxes but I checked just the 2 that are at the top
level.

In day 1, I complete only 0.5d of work. This moves my completion date 0.5d
ahead. I next set my current date and status date in Project->Information to
the next calendar date. On my second day, I complete only 0.5d of work and
my completion date pushes the duration of the task ahead another 0.5d which
should make my duration field equal to 6d but the duration field remains at
5d.

If I do only 0.5d of work each day, my task duration should grow from 5d to
10d. Instead my duration field remains at 5d and my final SV is 0.

Can you help?

Thanks
glenn