BCWS - S-Curve (MSP 2003)

[LearnerMSP]

Hi,

I'm having issues with BCWS. I thought that by setting Project Status Date
to the last date of the project and exporting BCWS values to excel I was
going to be able to have a projected S-curve for the whole timeline of the
project, that would serve as a "frozen" baseline to track project performance
as my project advances. However, when I update project progress and change
the status date to an earlier date in order to see how the project is
performing I notice that BCWS values for the same dates change, how is that
possible? How can I obtain fixed time-phased baseline values that do not
change upon "status date" ??? please help!! Thank you!!!

 

[Jim Aksel [MVP]]

Project calculates BCWS only up to the status date. After that date, BCWS
should be 0. BCWS comes from your stored baseline which is fixed. In order
to retain an S curve, you need to just export it once. Then you can
manually take your BCWP and ACWP as of each status date and expand your
graph in Excel.

Are you saying that you believe BCWS has changed in history prior to the
status date? Generally not possible. Are you saying that exportnig the S
curve a second time produces a different BCWS line even to the left of the
status date?

Check one more thing. Tools/Options/Calculations (tab). Make sure "Edits
to task % complete will be spread to the status date" is *deselected*.
Sounds strange, but think about what this means if the status date is past
the task end date. Click Help on that page for more information. This will
impact BCWP not BCWS.

Jim

 

[LearnerMSP]

Thank you Jim,
Yeah, it's very weird. Let's see if I can explain myself better:
Here is what I did:

1. Planned the project, activities, durations, network, costs etc. (so far ok)
2. Saved the baseline.
3. Changed Status date to last date of the project
4. Exported BCWS values to an excel sheet
5. saved excel sheet as "file 1"

Then:
1. Came back to my original MSP file
2. Changed Status date to now
3. Recorded progress: Tracking, updated the entire project as completed to
today
4. re-exported BCWS, BCWP and ACWP to excel
5. saved excel sheet as "file 2"

Now:
Today's BCWS value in files 1 and 2 are different. why? shouldn't they be
the same??
It seams like my project is on schedule against file 2 but behind against
file 1.

 

[Jim Aksel]

Would you care to donate the file and I will take a look? BCWS should match
in both files.

jeaksel at yahoo dot com
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Jim Aksel, MVP

Check out my blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com