Earned Value discrepancies Gantt view to Task Usage

[Neil]

Can any one explain why in Projects 2002 that I would get
a discrepancy from the Gantt chart view and the Task Usage
view when you are looking at BCWP Column and the BCWP
Detail view. One would think that they would be the same
amount. Which one is correct? Hopefully someone can answer
this, I need to have reliable information to correctly do
earned value and I finding MS Projects may not be the
anwser to due earned value correctly.

Thanks,
Neil

 

[David Hunsberger]

Neil--

Regarding your BCWP question....

To begin: Once upon a time I manually edited some of the
baseline cost and work values in the "white" cells in a
Project table, and found to my surprise that the "yellow"
time-phased cells appearing in the usage views still
showed the old values, and did not reflect the changes I
had made.

This led me to conclude that Project saves baseline cost
data (and work data) in duplicate internal locations
inside its data base. One set of data -- the task totals -
- are displayed in the standard "white" tables in the
baseline cost and work columns, and the other -- the time-
phased versions of the same data -- appear in in
the "yellow" areas in the usage views. Normally these two
values will give identical results, but if you manually
edit the data you can touch -- in the "white" cells, the
two will get out of whack, if my analysis is right.

When you use the "save baseline" function to save the
baseline data, Project saves it correctly to both places,
but if you manually alter the baseline data in a Project
table, Project changes only one place, or so I have
inferred from my experiences.

So my question back to you: did you or anyone manually
edit the baseline data in your project? If so, that could
account for different and conflicting values for BCWP,
which of course is based on the time-phased baseline
values.

Regards,
David Hunsberger
MS Project Instructor
Arlington, VA
www.it7.com

 

[Guest]

David,
Thanks for your response, The Bcwp field has not been
touched we leave it as a calculated field based on
phyiscal percercent complete (MSprojects 2002). It appears
that the "white column" is the correct amount for the
BCWP.I have not changed the baseline data. I would think
that if the baseline is changed it would update all fields
being a calculated field.
Thanks
Neil