Customized Field using Formula

[Herve Zaidman]

Hello,

I am trying to create a customized field that will do the following:

-Take today's date minus the finish date of a task then compare the value to
the remaining duration to provide with an estimated status of the task going
to be late or on time (using the added field on the project, I put Green,
Yellow, Red icon to specify which tasks are going to ok, maybe late, are
late). This is mostly for upper management and I am sure that there are other
ways of doing the same thing (I would not mind hearing about it too).

I have used multiple different formulas but it does not seems to come
accross as expected.

Again here is my idea as an example:

Working 8 hours a day/40 hours a week for 4 weeks would be 20days/160 hours
total.

Start date is: 10/01/2007
Finish date is: 10/30/2007
Today's date is: 10/05/2007

The task is at 10% completion (meaning 16 hours would have been spent on
it).

If I were to compare: Finish date - Today's date, I would get (I am
guessing) 16 days left.

Based on it, I would want to then compare the amount of days left (16) to
the Remaining Duration (10% of total 20 days/160 hours would be 2 days/16
hours) and would find that I am in jeopardy already since I should really be
at almost 25%.

Let me know if that makes sense, or need more clarification.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Jim Aksel]

Much easier ways to do this. Try one of these:

1. Insert the Status column. It compares %Complete you have claimed
compared to where you should be (if you were on schedule). It returns "On
Time", "Late", "Complete", or "Future Task". If you like, there is a Status
Indicator column as well which is a graphic. You can also use your own
graphic icon in a spare field such as Text1. Set the graphic to show Red,
Yellow, Green, or nothing depending on the value of [Status]

2. Use a baseline. Tools/Trackng/Save Baseline. You can use the Gantt
chart wizard to show both the baseline and the normal schedule on the same
graph. You can visually see where something will finish compared to your
original plan. Your formula can compare between [Finish] and [Baseline
Finish] and score accordingly. There is a corresponding relationship between
[Baseline] and "forecast" for [Start], [Finish], [Duration], and [Work].

3. If you have costed resources, and the resources are assigned to the
schedule, and you have a baseline.... then you can use some other items such
as Schedule Performance Index [SPI] which is the ratio of what you actually
accomplished (%Complete) compared to your baseline work plan. Since SPI is a
dimensionless ratio, you can divide [Duration]/[SPI] to obtain a measure of
how long you think the task is really going to take if you attain progress at
the same rate.

All that said, there is nothing more credible than a revised estimate from
the person doing the work as to how much longer they neeed in work hours and
duration units.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for FAQs and more information
about Microsoft Project

 

[Herve Zaidman]

Hi Jim,

Yes, that did help me a lot, and is a lot simpler.

Thanks
Herve

Much easier ways to do this. Try one of these:

1. Insert the Status column. It compares %Complete you have claimed
compared to where you should be (if you were on schedule). It returns "On
Time", "Late", "Complete", or "Future Task". If you like, there is a Status
Indicator column as well which is a graphic. You can also use your own
graphic icon in a spare field such as Text1. Set the graphic to show Red,
Yellow, Green, or nothing depending on the value of [Status]

2. Use a baseline. Tools/Trackng/Save Baseline. You can use the Gantt
chart wizard to show both the baseline and the normal schedule on the same
graph. You can visually see where something will finish compared to your
original plan. Your formula can compare between [Finish] and [Baseline
Finish] and score accordingly. There is a corresponding relationship between
[Baseline] and "forecast" for [Start], [Finish], [Duration], and [Work].

3. If you have costed resources, and the resources are assigned to the
schedule, and you have a baseline.... then you can use some other items such
as Schedule Performance Index [SPI] which is the ratio of what you actually
accomplished (%Complete) compared to your baseline work plan. Since SPI is a
dimensionless ratio, you can divide [Duration]/[SPI] to obtain a measure of
how long you think the task is really going to take if you attain progress at
the same rate.

All that said, there is nothing more credible than a revised estimate from
the person doing the work as to how much longer they neeed in work hours and
duration units.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for FAQs and more information
about Microsoft Project

Hello,

I am trying to create a customized field that will do the following:

-Take today's date minus the finish date of a task then compare the value to
the remaining duration to provide with an estimated status of the task going
to be late or on time (using the added field on the project, I put Green,
Yellow, Red icon to specify which tasks are going to ok, maybe late, are
late). This is mostly for upper management and I am sure that there are other
ways of doing the same thing (I would not mind hearing about it too).

I have used multiple different formulas but it does not seems to come
accross as expected.

Again here is my idea as an example:

Working 8 hours a day/40 hours a week for 4 weeks would be 20days/160 hours
total.

Start date is: 10/01/2007
Finish date is: 10/30/2007
Today's date is: 10/05/2007

The task is at 10% completion (meaning 16 hours would have been spent on
it).

If I were to compare: Finish date - Today's date, I would get (I am
guessing) 16 days left.

Based on it, I would want to then compare the amount of days left (16) to
the Remaining Duration (10% of total 20 days/160 hours would be 2 days/16
hours) and would find that I am in jeopardy already since I should really be
at almost 25%.

Let me know if that makes sense, or need more clarification.

Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks