Best practice questions

[ant1983]

Hi,

So I'm quite new to MS Projects and trying to understand something so any
help would be much appreciated:

I update my plan on a weekly basis after receiving my updates (progress on
tasks) from the Project Manager.

I capture these updates every two weeks so lets say on the 13th and 27th of
every month.

Now what i would like to do is include a screenshot of my plan in my
bi-weekly report. (I know how to do this; think you just click the little
camera button and then paste this in word or whatever.)

The challenge is to show what the situation should have been (as per the
planned dates) vs what the reality is (actual dates).

Now in terms of best practise or the RIGHT way of doing this, here are my
questions:

1 - Let's say a task called UAT was suppose to start on 1 Jan 09 and end on
10 Jan 09 but instead it ended on 13 Jan 09 - Is the right way to change the
end date to 13 Jan 09 or to increase the duration of the task by 3 days?

2 - Also, I'd like my report to reflect as described above (planned vs
actual): I've read a bit about baselines so im assuming this is what i want
to do - My question is: How do i show this baselines but only milestones.

3 - Last question: When is the best time to save a baseline? Before or
after i update my plan?

Cheeeers!

Wayne

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Hello,
<<How do i show this baseline but only milestones>>
Display the Tracking Gantt view and apply the "Milestones" filter.
<<When is the best time to save a baseline? >>
Only once: when you get the agreement of every stakeholder about dates,
costs, workloads...

Hope this helps,

Gérard Ducouret

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi ant1983,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

Enter Actual Start date, Actual Work and Remaining work - this will let
Project calculate dates and percentages for you.

You might like to have a look at my series on Microsoft Project in the
TechTrax ezine, particularly #25 et seq on progressing, at this site:
http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc or this:
http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/Pub0009/LPMFrame.asp?CMD=ArticleSearch&AUTH=23
(Perhaps you'd care to rate the articles before leaving the site,
Thanks.)

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at
this web address: <http://www.mvps.org/project/>

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

See answers embedded below ...

Hi,

So I'm quite new to MS Projects and trying to understand something so any
help would be much appreciated:
....

1 - Let's say a task called UAT was suppose to start on 1 Jan 09 and end
on
10 Jan 09 but instead it ended on 13 Jan 09 - Is the right way to change
the
end date to 13 Jan 09 or to increase the duration of the task by 3 days?

Switch to the Tracking Table so you can see the Actual Start and Actual
Finish fields and enter Actual Start = 01 Jan, Actual Finish 13 Jan.

2 - Also, I'd like my report to reflect as described above (planned vs
actual): I've read a bit about baselines so im assuming this is what i
want
to do - My question is: How do i show this baselines but only milestones.

One way is to reformat the Gantt chart to show baselines as well as
scheduled and apply a filter that hides all tasks except milestones. Both
the Baseline Gantt and the Tracking Gantt charts, among others, show both
baseline and scheduled.

3 - Last question: When is the best time to save a baseline? Before or
after i update my plan?

Save your baseline before you update the plan for the very first time. You
save a baseline once and only once unless your project changes, meaning that
deliverables and tasks are added or removed, later on. The baseline's
purpose is to preserve the plan you originally expected to work so that
later you can compare the way it has actually gone with your original
expectations. Your task UAT taking 13 days instead of 10 days is NOT a
change to the plan - instead it is a variance, the task lasted 3 days longer
that you had thought it would. Your baseline reflects it was supposed to
take 10 days; your schedule reflects it actually took 13.

 

[Jim Aksel]

I am with my peers 100% ! These are the best practices. So, you now have 4
votes.


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Jim Aksel, MVP

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