Actual Work vs. Work vs. Duration

[Ron West]

I am relatively new to MS Project and I am working on a complicated
plan in which I would like to do the following:

1. Estimate out x numbers of hours for a bunch of tasks
2. Record the actual number of hours it took to complete the tasks
(without affecting the original estimate)
3. Mark a task as complete even if the actual hours were less then
estimated (again without affecting the original estimate)

I think that this would seem simple. I have done the following:

1. Used "duration" to track estimated hours (probably not correct but
I can't see where this would be better placed)
2. Used "actual work" to track actual hours

Problem is that when I make a tasks duration say 12 hours and it only
takes 8 (I put this value in Actual Work), and then I mark it complete
(%Complete) the value for Actual Work is converted to 12.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dave]

Firstly you should create your plan. Duration and work are not the same
in Project. So, in order to estimate the work required to complete each
task, you should enter this in the work column (you do not say if you
are using a plan with resources assigned to tasks so I shall assume that
you are not).

The duration should measure the period over which that work is spread.
So your 12 hours of work could have a duration of a week, or 1.5 days
depending on how intensively or exclusively somebody works on it.

Once you have completed your plan, you should baseline it. This will
preserve a copy of the planned work and planned start/stop dates.
Tools/tracking/save baseline for this.

You don't say what view/columns you are using to mark the work 100%
complete, but after having set a task as complete, you can change the
work on it to represent the actual work. The original estimate is of
course saved in the baseline. Alternatively, set the work to be the
actual work before marking it 100% complete.

If you say whether or not you have resources in your plan and what
columns/views you are working with, we can give more precise help.

Hope this helps.

Dave

 

[ahelp]

Hi Ron,
To keep your actual work from jumping to the estimated work when the task is
complete, reduce remaining work to zero rather than marking it 100% complete.
When you mark a task 100% Complete, Project assumes the initial start and
finish dates as well as estimated work. The most granular way to update a
task is through Tools -> Tracking -> Update Tasks...

 

[Ron West]

Thanks all for the help! I wanted to add in something from a friend
of mine. This ended up being the solution that worked for me (which
was similar to what you recommended Mike)

MS Project has many types of "Work." I'll assume that you know how to
add columns to your View of the project plan (in Gantt chart mode) -
if not just give a shout.

What you want are three types of work to show on your plan:
- Actual Work (how many hours you actually did)
- some sort of baseline of your original work estimate (I chose
"Baseline Work", but you probably could use another one as well)
- Remaining Work

When you first make your project plan, all of your Actuals should be
zero, your Baseline should be your original hours estimates, and your
Remaining should equal your baseline (because all work is yet to be
done!)

Use Case: You have a task that you estimate to be 10 hours of work. At
around hour 5, you realize it's going to take longer; your updated
estimate from your developer is that he needs 7 more hours. So, you
put 5 into the Actual Work column, and 7 into the Remaining Work
column.
The "% Work Complete" column will then calculate your percent complete
based on actual + remaining.

Note Bene: If you are managing your project plan on an hours-billable
basis, be sure to use the "% Work Complete" column rather than the "%
Complete" column (which calculates based on Duration.)

 

[ahelp]

You're welcome