Cost per deliverable

[Paul]

I often manage projects that deliver multiple functionalities in a single
release, with multiple sponsors per release.

These sponsors require progress reports for their specific deliverables. I
would like to be able to link specific tasks to specific deliverables. In
addition, I need to spread the cost for overhead tasks (such as project
management) over the deliverables (e.g. 80%-10%-10% for three deliverables).

The way I have implemented this now is by adding a "number" column and a
"cost" column for each deliverable. For each task I enter the percentage that
the task contributes to the deliverable. The "cost" column is calculated
using [number]*[cost].

This is a very crude way of getting there. Any suggestions for a more
elegant method?


Thanks,

 

[John]

I often manage projects that deliver multiple functionalities in a single
release, with multiple sponsors per release.

These sponsors require progress reports for their specific deliverables. I
would like to be able to link specific tasks to specific deliverables. In
addition, I need to spread the cost for overhead tasks (such as project
management) over the deliverables (e.g. 80%-10%-10% for three deliverables).

The way I have implemented this now is by adding a "number" column and a
"cost" column for each deliverable. For each task I enter the percentage that
the task contributes to the deliverable. The "cost" column is calculated
using [number]*[cost].

This is a very crude way of getting there. Any suggestions for a more
elegant method?


Thanks,

Paul,
My first thought is, if you've got something that works and it isn't a
pain to manage, why not just use it? Sometimes "crude" is actually very
elegant because it is straightforward and simple. However here are a few
ideas off the top of my head. My disclaimer is that I didn't spend a lot
of time thinking about it so there most definitely could be better
approaches.

One idea is to break the schedule into the three sponsor areas. In other
words put all subtasks for sponsor "A" under a separate summary, sponsor
"B" under its own summary and likewise for sponsor "C". Link tasks as
appropriate to build the complete deliverable. Pay rates for resources
working on tasks in each sponsor group could include overhead and be set
up in separate cost rate tables. For example, resources working on
sponsor "A" tasks would use cost rate table "A", those working on
sponsor "B" tasks would use cost rate table "B", etc.

A variation on this might be to set up individual project files for each
sponsor. Where necessary, external links could be used to create the
necessary schedule logic and a master file (master with the three
sponsor files as subprojects) cold be used to track the overall
deliverable. It isn't clear to me at the moment that this method is any
better than the first idea.

A third idea would be to replace your custom number and cost fields with
an algorithm in a VBA macro. This would give the most flexibility but
would of course require development of the macro.

Anyway, those are my thoughts.
John
Project MVP

 

[Paul]

John,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I have not yet looked into developing
macro's for ms projects, but this is a good reason to start.

--
Paul van der Spek
CRM Implementation Project Manager

I often manage projects that deliver multiple functionalities in a single
release, with multiple sponsors per release.

These sponsors require progress reports for their specific deliverables. I
would like to be able to link specific tasks to specific deliverables. In
addition, I need to spread the cost for overhead tasks (such as project
management) over the deliverables (e.g. 80%-10%-10% for three deliverables).

The way I have implemented this now is by adding a "number" column and a
"cost" column for each deliverable. For each task I enter the percentage that
the task contributes to the deliverable. The "cost" column is calculated
using [number]*[cost].

This is a very crude way of getting there. Any suggestions for a more
elegant method?


Thanks,

Paul,
My first thought is, if you've got something that works and it isn't a
pain to manage, why not just use it? Sometimes "crude" is actually very
elegant because it is straightforward and simple. However here are a few
ideas off the top of my head. My disclaimer is that I didn't spend a lot
of time thinking about it so there most definitely could be better
approaches.

One idea is to break the schedule into the three sponsor areas. In other
words put all subtasks for sponsor "A" under a separate summary, sponsor
"B" under its own summary and likewise for sponsor "C". Link tasks as
appropriate to build the complete deliverable. Pay rates for resources
working on tasks in each sponsor group could include overhead and be set
up in separate cost rate tables. For example, resources working on
sponsor "A" tasks would use cost rate table "A", those working on
sponsor "B" tasks would use cost rate table "B", etc.

A variation on this might be to set up individual project files for each
sponsor. Where necessary, external links could be used to create the
necessary schedule logic and a master file (master with the three
sponsor files as subprojects) cold be used to track the overall
deliverable. It isn't clear to me at the moment that this method is any
better than the first idea.

A third idea would be to replace your custom number and cost fields with
an algorithm in a VBA macro. This would give the most flexibility but
would of course require development of the macro.

Anyway, those are my thoughts.
John
Project MVP

 

[John]

John,

Thank you for sharing your thoughts. I have not yet looked into developing
macro's for ms projects, but this is a good reason to start.

--

Paul,
You're welcome. I hope my suggestions were helpful. If you want to learn
VBA, there is an excellent tutorial on our MVP website at:
http://project.mvps.org/links.htm
Go to the bottom of the page and look for, "Project 98 Visual Basic
Environment Training Materials". Although it says it is for Project 98,
it is equally applicable to all current versions of Project.

John
Project MVP