Reports

[Gary]

Hi all,

I hope some of you might be able to give me some help with problems I'm
having with the Reporting feature in Project 2003.

Basically with my job I have a project file that contains over 200 different
projects, that all expand to show a number of phases etc etc. Some projects
started in 2005 and have since finished and some don't start for another
couple of years.

Now, what I would like to know is the Reporting feature better suited for
individual projects or project files with only a couple of different
projects, for example, if I go into any of the reports, say "Milestones
Slipping" or "Should Have Started", it will bring up all the milestones for
the entire programme when maybe I just want this financial year. I've been
playing about with it for sometime and can't seem to find an easy way to
building in filters or the like, that's why I'm asking is it better suited to
individual projects, then all the information you'd get would be current.

Hope I've made sense and have not been too confusing.

Many thanks

Gary.

 

[John]

Hi all,

I hope some of you might be able to give me some help with problems I'm
having with the Reporting feature in Project 2003.

Basically with my job I have a project file that contains over 200 different
projects, that all expand to show a number of phases etc etc. Some projects
started in 2005 and have since finished and some don't start for another
couple of years.

Now, what I would like to know is the Reporting feature better suited for
individual projects or project files with only a couple of different
projects, for example, if I go into any of the reports, say "Milestones
Slipping" or "Should Have Started", it will bring up all the milestones for
the entire programme when maybe I just want this financial year. I've been
playing about with it for sometime and can't seem to find an easy way to
building in filters or the like, that's why I'm asking is it better suited to
individual projects, then all the information you'd get would be current.

Hope I've made sense and have not been too confusing.

Many thanks

Gary.

Gary,
It sounds like you have one large file with multiple independent
projects rather than a master file with inserted subprojects. The latter
structure will give you more control over what you can do with each
individual project.

However, even with a large single file structure, you should be able to
isolate time periods for reports by creating appropriate filters. What
happened when you tried to create a filter of milestones for a
particular financial year? Keep in mind that unless tasks start and end
exactly on the year start/end, there will be some overlap.

If you haven't already, you might want to look into the grouping feature
of Project (Project/Group By/More Groups). Grouping isn't available with
the built-in reports but most reports can be replicated with customizing
standard views.

John
Project MVP

 

[Gary]

John thanks for the feed back, your correct it is one LARGE file with many
independent projects, I've suggested individual files feeding into a master
file, so maybe this is something that will happen in the future. I haven't
ever used the grouping feature so this is something I'll look into.

With regard to the reports, some of the built in reports would be perfect
(such as the "Slipping" one) if I could only figure out some way to filter
the information for a particular time period. I tried changing the "period"
from years to months etc and applying the "Should of Started/Finish" filter
because I only want to see tasks slipping from the beginning of our financial
year (01 April 08) to now, but it didn't work and still brings up well over a
hundred pages of information for the entire programme, tasks from 2005?

 

[John]

John thanks for the feed back, your correct it is one LARGE file with many
independent projects, I've suggested individual files feeding into a master
file, so maybe this is something that will happen in the future. I haven't
ever used the grouping feature so this is something I'll look into.

With regard to the reports, some of the built in reports would be perfect
(such as the "Slipping" one) if I could only figure out some way to filter
the information for a particular time period. I tried changing the "period"
from years to months etc and applying the "Should of Started/Finish" filter
because I only want to see tasks slipping from the beginning of our financial
year (01 April 08) to now, but it didn't work and still brings up well over a
hundred pages of information for the entire programme, tasks from 2005?

Gary,
Personally I don't have a lot of use for the built-in reports. I prefer
to either customize a view and then use appropriate filters or grouping
to get what is needed. For very specific data in customized format I use
VBA to export the data to Excel.

You mention the "slipping" report but want to limit the time frame for
the data. Keep in mind that the slipping report requires the slipping
filter. If you want to limit the time frame for that report, you will
need to create a combined filter that includes both slipping and time
limit criteria.

If you are seeing tasks outside the "Should start/finish by" filter
criteria it is probably because some of the outlying tasks have a "NA"
in the Actual Start or Actual Finish field, or you are seeing related
summary rows. You can remedy this by modifying the filter criteria
appropriately.

By the way, cigars certainly are not a pleasure for those who have to
smell the offensive odor they emit. For me that can be several hundred
feet away. YUK!

John
Project MVP