Earned Value (BCWP) not being calculated correctly ?

[Darren (Avanade)]

I am working with a Project Professional / Server 2003 environment and there
seems to be some inconsistencies with the way Project Professional is
currently calculating earned value against some of the published plans,
however it does seem to be working as expected in several others.

When opening a published plan in Project Professional, in some circumstances
where tasks are definately baselined and actuals are recorded against them,
within the Task Usage view - the BCWP (ACWP and BCWS also) is not being
calculated? Earned value method is "% Physical Work Complete" and is
associated with the correct baseline under "Tools > Options > Calculations"
etc. Also, the Enterprise resources assigned to tasks within the plan have
been set with nominal $1/hr standard & overtime rates.

If anyone has experienced this issue before and can shed any light on the
matter, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance,

Darren

 

[Rod Gill]

So what is being calculated and what are you expecting?

 

[Darren (Avanade)]

Hi Rod,

In a few plans I have tasks baselined and assigned to named enterprise
resources, however including BCWP/ACWP/BCWS in the Task Usage Project
Professional view, this data is not being calculated. It remains blank. I am
expecting to see these earned values to be calculated and populating this
Project Professional Task Usage view. It has worked for some plans but there
are a few plans that it just doesn't calculate.

I was wondering if you can tell me the circumstances under which these
earned values are calculated to help me diagnose the problem. Or maybe there
is a Hotfix that I need to apply or something.

Thanks in advance,

Darren

 

[Kirsty]

Hi Darren,

I'm not sure if you are still having the problem - but I have noticed that
Project won't calculate BCWP unless the actual start and actual finish date
are entered correctly. For example, if Task A has been completed early, and
the finish date is in the future, the BCWP won't calculate until the status
date includes the finish date. The solution is to add in the correct actual
start date (if there is a BCWP the task must have started) and actual finish
(if its complete) and make sure the status date is correct.

 

[James T. Heires, PMP]

Darren,
You might also check your baseline status. If the tasks that have blank
BCWP are not baselined, it will cause this symptom as well.
--
James T. Heires, PMP
President
James Heires Consulting, Inc.
Home of EZ-Metrix code counting utility
http://www.ez-metrix.com

 

[Kirsty]

Is anyone else having the problem that Physical % complete doesn;t always
roll up properly? Sometimes it remains at 0 even if there is physical %
complete at the lower level. I usually select all the task names, click on
'multiple task information' then make sure 'roll up gantt chart to summary'
is ticked in the general tab and Physical % complete is selected in the
advanced tab. That generally works, but on some projects the physical %
complete still won't roll up.