Slides Steps to Baseline an Entire Project 1. Click Project, Set Baseline, and Set Baseline 2. In the Set Baseline dialog box, click OK Important Points: You can use all default settings in the Set Baseline dialog box, to set the baseline of the entire project The baseline does not include all data from the project plan; it only includes the following columns as it relates to tasks: Baseline Start Baseline Finish Baseline Duration Baseline Work Baseline Cost Baseline Fixed Cost Baseline Fixed Cost Accrual Baseline Budget Cost Baseline Budget Work Baseline Deliverable Finish Baseline Deliverable Start The previous point means that fields such as the Task Name, Predecessors, Resource Names, and other columns are not baselined.
Tips & Tricks: You have the ability to baseline a selection of tasks. Steps to Baseline Selected Tasks 1. In the Gantt Chart view, select the tasks that need to be baselined 2. Click Project, Set Baseline, and Set Baseline 3. In the Set Baseline dialog box, select Selected tasks, and click OK Important Points: When you baseline selected tasks it is important to consider whether and how higher-level summary tasks are baselined using the To all summary tasks and From subtasks into selected summary task(s) options. Tips & Tricks: Baseline a selection of tasks when you are planning in a rolling wave. This means that only tasks of the current phase or deliverable are estimated and scheduled, and hence only those tasks should be baselined. Later phases or deliverables can be added to the baseline as necessary. It is not possible to subtract tasks from the baseline. For this reason it is not recommended deleting baselined tasks. This is also important when using Earned Value. When tasks need to be deleted, consider inactivating such tasks or rebaseline the schedule. Steps to Set Multiple Baselines: 1. Click Project, Set Baseline, and Set Baseline 2. In the Set Baseline dialog box, under the Set baseline radio button, select a baseline from Baseline 1 through Baseline 10, and click OK Important Points: You can save up to 11 baselines including the default baseline. Tips & Tricks: Use multiple baselines when you need to keep a record of previous baselines as change requests that impact the project plan are approved Steps to Update the Baseline (Rolling up to Summary Tasks) 1. In the Gantt Chart view, select the tasks and summary task(s) that need to be baselined 2. Click Project, Set Baseline, and Set Baseline 3. In the Set Baseline dialog box, select Selected tasks 4. If there are more tasks underneath the summary task that have not been scheduled
yet, select From subtasks into selected summary task(s) 5. Click OK 6. After the other tasks have been scheduled, select those tasks including any previously selected summary tasks 7. Click Project, Set Baseline, and Set Baseline 8. If there are no more other tasks that need to be schedule, select To all summary tasks, if there are other tasks that need to be scheduled, select From subtasks into selected summary task(s), and click OK Important Points: It is important not to baseline completed or in-progress task, because otherwise you would loose the ability to measure variance. Tips & Tricks: Avoid baseline partial schedules as much as possible to avoid complexity. Steps to Update the Baseline (Resetting the Baseline): 1. Set the baseline as previously described 2. Click Project, Set Baseline, and Set Baseline again 3. In the Set Baseline dialog box, under the Set baseline radio button, select Baseline, and click OK 4. In the Microsoft Project dialog box, click Yes to overwrite the baseline Important Points: When you overwrite the baseline, you overwrite all values in the columns that make up the baseline (see previous point) Tips & Tricks: When you select a baseline that was previously used, you can see that of when that baseline was set appended to the name in the drop-downs that list all (available) baselines.
Slides Steps to Enter Percentage Complete: 1. Select one or multiple tasks 2. Click Task and click 0% Complete, 25% Complete, 50% Complete, 75% Complete, or 100% Complete Important Points: Enter a percentage complete if you are able to measure the progress. % Complete is based on Duration and % Work Complete is based on Work. Tips and Tricks: Insert the % Complete column to enter percentages complete, or to enter a percentage that is not available on the ribbon (e.g., 30% Complete).
Slides Steps to Enter Actual or Remaining Duration: 1. Select a task 2. Click Task, click on the drop-down arrow of Mark on Track, and click Update Tasks 3. In the Update Tasks dialog box, in the Actual dur field, enter the actual number of days that was worked on the task 4. In the Remaining dur field, enter the number of days that is required to complete the work 5. Click OK Important Points: Use Actual Duration if you cannot measure the progress like % Complete and/or use Actual Duration if you estimated durations instead of work. Duration = Actual Duration + Remaining Duration % Complete = Actual Duration / Duration Tips & Tricks: When a task was completed (ahead of time), overwrite the value in the Remaining Duration column with zero. Insert the Actual Duration and Remaining Duration column in the Gantt Chart view, or click View, Tables, and Tracking to switch tables in the same view. Use the columns in the Gantt Chart view if there is only one or no resource assigned to each task.
Steps to Enter Actual or Remaining Work: 1. Select a task 2. Click View and select Details 3. Click on the lower half of the screen, and in the Format ribbon, select Work 4. In the lower half of the screen, in the Act. Work and Rem. Work column, enter the number of hours that were completed and that are still left for each resource 5. Click OK Important Points: Use Actual Duration if you estimated work instead of duration. Work = Actual Work + Remaining Work % Work Complete = Actual Work / Work Tips & Tricks: When a task was completed (ahead of time), overwrite the value in the Remaining Work column with zero. Insert the Actual Work and Remaining Work column in the Gantt Chart view. Use the columns in the Gantt Chart view if there is only one or no resource assigned to each task.
Slides Steps to Enter Actual Work on Usage Views: 1. Click View and Resource Usage 2. Click Format and check Actual Work 3. To the right of the splitter bar, enter the actual hours for each task day by day Important Points: You can both use the Resource Usage and Task Usage view to enter actual work day by day. Entering actual work day by day is like entering a timesheet. When the actual hours day by day vary from the forecasted hours, you are applying a custom contour i.e. the work is distributed irregularly. Tips & Tricks: Insert the Remaining Work column to the left of the splitter bar to edit or remove and remaining work (removing remaining work means that the task is completed).
Slides Steps to Enter Actual Start and Actual Finish: 1. Select a task 2. Click Task, click on the drop-down arrow of Mark on Track, and click Update Tasks 3. In the Update Tasks dialog box, in the Actual section, in the Start field, enter or select the actual start date of the task 4. In the Actual section, in the Finish field, enter or select the actual finish date of the task 5. Click OK Important Points: When you do not enter an actual start and finish date, Project assumes that the task started and finished as scheduled, which is often not the case. Tips & Tricks: When you enter a value in the Actual Finish field only, Project assumes that the task is completed, even if there is work scheduled in the future. Be very careful using the Actual Finish field as such.
Managing Projects with Microsoft Project 2010 Slid Steps to Enter the Status Date: 1. Click Project and click on the date below the Status Date 2. In the Status Date dialog box, enter or select the status date, and click OK Important Points: The status date is the date on which you last received progress information. If you enter progress once a week, you will often select the first day of the following week as the status date, which would be a Sunday if you follow a US standard calendar or a Monday if you follow a European standard calendar. Tips & Trick: Always enter the status date first, before entering any progress, so you won t forget about it. The status must be entered for Earned Value variance calculation.
Slides Steps to Reschedule Uncompleted Work: 1. Click Project and Update Project 2. In the Update Project dialog box, select Reschedule uncompleted work to start after, and click OK Important Points: The date after Reschedule uncompleted work to start after defaults to the status date, but you have the ability to overwrite this Tips & Tricks: Display the status date in the Gantt Chart view to make it more visible. Steps to Format Gridlines: 1. Right click anywhere on right hand side of the Gantt Chart view, and click Gridlines 2. In the Gridlines dialog box, in the Line to change list, select the line that you would like to edit or add, for example the Status Date 3. In the Type field, edit or select a line, for example a solid line 4. In the Color field, edit or select any color 5. Click OK Important Points: Gridline settings are stored in a view, so when you use another view you may no
longer see your gridlines anymore. Tips & Tricks: If you have a hard time following the row from the task name to the task bar, go to the Gridlines dialog box. In the Line to change list, select Gantt Rows. In the Type field, select a solid line. In the Color field, select light gray, and click OK. This will draw horizontal lines between the task bars that are aligned with the table rows. For best results, customize the gray color to be 192 Red, 192 Green, and 192 Blue, so the lines are the same color as the table lines, which makes it easy to eye.
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Slides Steps to View Date Variance: 1. Click View, Tables, and Variance 2. Observe the Start Var. and Finish Var. column Important Points: The start and finish variance are automatically calculated by Project based on the baseline: Start Variance = Start - Baseline Start Finish Variance = Finish - Baseline Finish Tips & Tricks: Create a formula and graphical indicator to express the start and finish variance as a percent of the baseline duration. Steps to View Work Variance: 1. Click View, Tables, and Work 2. Observe the Variance column Important Points: Variance is the title of the column, the field name is Work Variance. The work variance is automatically calculated by Project based on the baseline: Work Variance = Work - Baseline Work
Tips & Tricks: When you create a formula and graphical indicator to report on work variance, make sure to exclude milestones in the formula, because milestones are points in time and do not have any work associated. Steps to View Cost Variance: 1. Click View, Tables, and Cost 2. Observe the Variance column Important Points: Variance is the title of the column, the field name is Cost Variance. The cost variance is automatically calculated by Project based on the baseline: Cost Variance = Cost - Baseline Cost Tips & Tricks: When you create a formula and graphical indicator to report on cost variance, make sure to exclude milestones in the formula, because milestones are points in time and do not have any cost associated.
Slides Steps to Show Variance of the Current Plan against Baseline: 1. Click View, click on the lower half of the Gantt Chart command, and click Tracking Gantt Important Points: Note that each task has two task bars. The lower gray bar is the baseline and the upper blue or red bar is the current schedule. A baseline must be set in order for the Tracking Gantt view to show variance. Tips & Tricks: Using the normal Gantt Chart view, click Format, Baseline, and select any of the available baselines. This will now also plot a second task bar for each task, similar as the Tracking Gantt, but not in the Gantt Chart view for ease of use. Steps to Show Task Slippage: 1. Click Format, Slippage, and select any of the available baselines Important Points: This will show a black slippage line prior to each task bar to represent the amount of time that a task was delayed. Tips & Tricks:
The slippage line can be displayed with or without the baseline task bar in both the Gantt Chart and Tracking Gantt view. Steps to Display Progress Against Baseline and Deadline: 1. Click View, click on the lower half of the Gantt Chart command, and click Tracking Gantt Important Points: The Tracking Gantt view shows both the critical path and progress against baseline. Each task shows two task bars. The lower gray bar is the baseline and the upper blue (non-critical) or red (critical) bar shows the current schedule. Tips & Tricks: You can also display baseline task bars in the Gantt Chart view, by clicking on Format and Baseline. Any deadlines are displayed by an arrow in the Gantt Chart view, so you can visually see whether the task is before or beyond its deadline.
Slides Steps to Select a View to Display Variance: 1. Click View, click on the lower half of the Gantt Chart command, and click Tracking Gantt Important Points: The Tracking Gantt view shows variance based on the default baseline only. Tips & Tricks: You can display up to three baselines in a view at a time, using task bars. Click View, click on the drop-down arrow of any view command, and click More Views. In the More Views dialog box, select Multiple Baselines Gantt, and click Apply. Out of the box, the Multiple Baselines Gantt displays the Baseline, Baseline1, and Baseline2, but the view can be modified to show other baselines as well. You can also switch tables without switching views to see variance, for example click View, Tables, and Tracking or Variance.
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