Planned vs Actual Work and % complete

Hi All

I am playing around with MS Project having taken a break. I've set up a
basic test schedule with 5 tasks, selected task type duration, unselected
effort driven.

I've including 3 additional fields in my basic gant view - work, actual work
and % complete. I have tasks of a fixed duration e.g. I have a 4 hour task
that will take a 2 day duration.

When I populate the actual work field the % complete changes and I'd expect
this. However, what if I have a task with a duration of 2 days, 5 hours per
day but the resource completes the task on day 2 in 3 hours. This would mean
that the planned hours were 10 hours, the actuals were 8 and the % complete
is 100% leaving 2 hours as an underspend/time saved.

Is there a method to model this scenario?

Many thanks to everyone who takes the time to read & respond.

Cheers, H

You may enter actual work, remaining work, and remaining duration in the
columns containing those names. In your specific case, set remaining work
and remaining duration to 0. This will set %complete to 100% and produce
cost and schedule variances (in this case a good thing).

I have a white paper on my blog that addresses some of these issues. See
the link below
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

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



"Hardip" wrote:

> Hi All
>
> I am playing around with MS Project having taken a break. I've set up a
> basic test schedule with 5 tasks, selected task type duration, unselected
> effort driven.
>
> I've including 3 additional fields in my basic gant view - work, actual work
> and % complete. I have tasks of a fixed duration e.g. I have a 4 hour task
> that will take a 2 day duration.
>
> When I populate the actual work field the % complete changes and I'd expect
> this. However, what if I have a task with a duration of 2 days, 5 hours per
> day but the resource completes the task on day 2 in 3 hours. This would mean
> that the planned hours were 10 hours, the actuals were 8 and the % complete
> is 100% leaving 2 hours as an underspend/time saved.
>
> Is there a method to model this scenario?
>
> Many thanks to everyone who takes the time to read & respond.
>
> Cheers, H
>
>

You might try a couple of things:

1) Add the Remaining Work column. When the Actual Work = 8, zero out the
Remaining Work column. This will set the task to 100% Complete.
2) Consider tracking by % Work Complete and not % Complete.
3) If you're entering timephased work data, consider entering that in the
Resource or Task Usage view. Simply right click on the table to the right,
and add Actual Work. Then you can enter how many hours a day each resource
works. Add Remaining Work to the table at the left, and zero it out when
the work is completed.

You're basic issue is that it sounds like you're trying to track timephased
data in a non-timephased interface. The Gantt Chart doesn't allow you to
specify when the work happens, it just smears it out across the task. Task
or Resource Usage are the only views that allow you to plug in hours on specific
days.


-A



> Hi All
>
> I am playing around with MS Project having taken a break. I've set up
> a basic test schedule with 5 tasks, selected task type duration,
> unselected effort driven.
>
> I've including 3 additional fields in my basic gant view - work,
> actual work and % complete. I have tasks of a fixed duration e.g. I
> have a 4 hour task that will take a 2 day duration.
>
> When I populate the actual work field the % complete changes and I'd
> expect this. However, what if I have a task with a duration of 2
> days, 5 hours per day but the resource completes the task on day 2 in
> 3 hours. This would mean that the planned hours were 10 hours, the
> actuals were 8 and the % complete is 100% leaving 2 hours as an
> underspend/time saved.
>
> Is there a method to model this scenario?
>
> Many thanks to everyone who takes the time to read & respond.
>
> Cheers, H
>

Hardip,

After entering the Actual Work (5h on day 1 and 3h on day 2) in the Task
Usage or Resource Usage view, set the Remaining Work to zero.
Hope this helps,
--
Gérard Ducouret

[Project MVP]
www.pragmasoft.fr
Un livre sur Project Server 2007 pour le Chef de projet:
http://www.lmet.fr/advsearch.cgi?_EX...NCE=10&_PAGE=1


"Hardip" <Hardip@discussions.microsoft.com> a écrit dans le message de news:
5C8C5C21-A0FC-4A7A-B505-519EF1A4FC65@microsoft.com...
> Hi All
>
> I am playing around with MS Project having taken a break. I've set up a
> basic test schedule with 5 tasks, selected task type duration, unselected
> effort driven.
>
> I've including 3 additional fields in my basic gant view - work, actual
> work
> and % complete. I have tasks of a fixed duration e.g. I have a 4 hour task
> that will take a 2 day duration.
>
> When I populate the actual work field the % complete changes and I'd
> expect
> this. However, what if I have a task with a duration of 2 days, 5 hours
> per
> day but the resource completes the task on day 2 in 3 hours. This would
> mean
> that the planned hours were 10 hours, the actuals were 8 and the %
> complete
> is 100% leaving 2 hours as an underspend/time saved.
>
> Is there a method to model this scenario?
>
> Many thanks to everyone who takes the time to read & respond.
>
> Cheers, H
>
>

Your question has a lot of detail about what you did, but some of what you
did is not relevant to your question.
Task Type and Effort Driven, foe example.
When you show and hide columns/fields, be aware that you are not changing
the View.
You are changing the Entry Table.
Since the Entry Table is part of the View (but only one of the ingredients)
I guess you can say that you are changing the View, but indirectly.
You are better off switching to the Tracking Table, which already has the
columns/fields that you want, and leave the Entry Table with the original
selection and arrangement of columns/fields.
Especially, the Tracking Table has the Actual Start and Actual Finish fields
and since these are the two most relevant facts you can put these in first
(with the time as well as the date).
MSP is primarily a scheduling tool, being mainly about durations,
predecessors and dates, and Work and Cost are secondary extensions to the
basic idea.
Actual Work is a historical fact as well and has to be correct, but in your
example will be taken care of automatically when you first provide the
actual dates.
I prefer to always populate the schedule data first, and attend to the
actual Work afterwards in the Task Usage and/or Resource Usage Views.
You have gained 2 hours, that is 2 Hours of Work and 2 Hours of Duration but
they are different things (although both measured in Hours), and that they
both equal 2 is just a coincidence.

--
Trevor Rabey
0407213955
61 8 92727485
PERFECT PROJECT PLANNING
www.perfectproject.com.au

"Hardip" <Hardip@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5C8C5C21-A0FC-4A7A-B505-519EF1A4FC65@microsoft.com...
>
> Hi All
>
> I am playing around with MS Project having taken a break. I've set up a
> basic test schedule with 5 tasks, selected task type duration, unselected
> effort driven.
>
> I've including 3 additional fields in my basic gant view - work, actual
> work
> and % complete. I have tasks of a fixed duration e.g. I have a 4 hour task
> that will take a 2 day duration.
>
> When I populate the actual work field the % complete changes and I'd
> expect
> this. However, what if I have a task with a duration of 2 days, 5 hours
> per
> day but the resource completes the task on day 2 in 3 hours. This would
> mean
> that the planned hours were 10 hours, the actuals were 8 and the %
> complete
> is 100% leaving 2 hours as an underspend/time saved.
>
> Is there a method to model this scenario?
>
> Many thanks to everyone who takes the time to read & respond.
>
> Cheers, H
>
>