Showing planned vs actual

[Michael Gwin]

My apologies for needing a quick answer here. Quick searches didnt get me
what I want and I have a presentation due at 11:00CST today.

I have a simple MS Project plan showing events that transpired last weekend.
I want to show the planned times against the actual times in a visual
manner. When I input the actual times, the gantt bar extends to the actual
and shows complete. I want to show what the original planned time was and
the actual time so my leadership can see both. Please help.

Thank you,

 

[Michael Gwin]

No rush on this. I ended up listing my tasks once for planned time, then
again below them for actual time. Since there were only 7 tasks I wanted to
show, its easy to view. For larger projects it would be nice to, for
example, see the planned time in a blue bar, and the actual time in a red
bar. If its early the red bar would be shorter (inside the blue bar), if its
longer, the bar would extend in red.

 

[Rob Schneider]

This is standard functionality in Project. Success of course depends,
of course, on setting it up right (involving creating a plan, setting a
baseline, progressing actual start/finish, etc.), then use Gantt Chart
to display both baseline and actual.

Not enough material in your post to know how you set it up. I don't
understand what you mean by input "actual times" (what does "time"
mean?), and I don't know what "extends to the actual" (extends from
where to where?), etc. My hunch is that it's not setup right.

I hesitate to revert to telling you how to "suck eggs" (you know that
phrase?), since you are on deadline ... focus on the 11:00 meeting--3.25
hours from now, per my reckoning--instead of focusing on Project? Put
the info directly to paper or use a computer tool if time (Excel,
PowerPoint, etc.)

--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Michael --

You are definitely NOT using this tool correctly. In the future, here is
how I recommend you use Microsoft Project to meet your reporting
requirements:

1. Completely plan your project by doing task planning, resource planning
(building your team), and assignment planning (assigning resources to
tasks).

2. When the project is ready to go live, click Tools - Tracking - Set
Baseline and then click OK to save the original Baseline schedule for your
project.

3. Enter progress for each task using your preferred method.

A simple way to do #3 above is to apply the Gantt Chart view and then click
View - Table - Tracking and enter progress on a task by task basis. If a
task starts late, you can indicate this by entering the date work began on
the task in the Actual Start date field. If a task finishes late, you can
enter the date it finished in the Actual Finish field.

4. To complete the current schedule against the original Baseline schedule,
simply click View - Tracking Gantt. The Gantt Chart shown in the Tracking
Gantt view will contain the following symbols:

-- Red Gantt bars indicate Critical tasks. These tasks cannot slip
without impacting the overall Finish date of the entire project.
-- Blue Gantt bars indicate non-Critical tasks and completed tasks.
-- Gray Gantt bars indicate the original Baseline schedule of each task.

5. Compare the schedule shown with blue and red Gantt bars against the
schedule shown with the gray Gantt bars. This will show how the project is
currently progressing against the original planned schedule for the project,
which is the Baseline schedule. Hope this helps.

 

[Michael Gwin]

I was using MS Project after the fact as a good visualization of a few very
high level tasks that transpired. I like the visual of the gantt bars in
Project and just wanted to tweak it to look the way I wanted it to look.
Purely visual. Thanks for the feedback, I figured I could do it using
baselines, but simply didnt have enough time to play around with it.

 

[Jim Aksel]

For "a few tasks" I think project is overkill. I might have used Viso or
PowerPoint and a timeline.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

Check out my blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com

 

[Rob Schneider]

Pen, paper, and a ruler.

--rms

www.rmschneider.com

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

If I don't have a pen, can I use a pencil instead? I already have paper and
a ruler, I think.

 

[Rod Gill]

A good "Picasso" (pretty picture) Scheduler should use charcoal with maybe
embellishments with water colors!



--

Rod Gill
Microsoft MVP for Project

Author of the only book on Project VBA, see:
http://www.projectvbabook.com

If I don't have a pen, can I use a pencil instead? I already have paper
and a ruler, I think.







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[Dale Howard [MVP]]

I am laughing too hard to compose a decent reply! HA!