DePaul University
Tracking the Progress of Your Project
In MicroSoft Project
Instructor: David A. Lash
Projmgmt-1/23
Evaluating and Adjusting Your
Schedule
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Creating a schedule is only the first step in
successfully managing a project. With Microsoft
Project, you can also monitor the progress of your
project.
Tracking progress has several benefits. You can:
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Identify and solve problems as they occur.
Produce status reports for management and
project participants.
Maintain historical data to help you plan future
projects more accurately.
Projmgmt-2/23
About Evaluating Your Schedule
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Tracking your project is a three-step process:
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Create a baseline plan based on your preliminary
schedule.
Periodically update your schedule to reflect the
progress of the project.
Compare the updated information in your
schedule to the baseline plan to determine how
closely your progress matches your plan.
Finding variances early will allow you to adjust
schedule problems before they become critical.
Projmgmt-3/23
More On Baselines
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When you establish a baseline plan, MP saves the
information in your project in the fields for baseline
- dates,
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work, and
cost.
For example, when a baseline plan is set, MP
copies the info from the Start and Finish fields
into the Baseline Start and Baseline Finish
fields.
After creating a baseline plan, modify it to
accommodate changes in the project such as
combining, adding, or deleting tasks.
Also, you can save up to 5 interim plans for
comparing scheduled dates.
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Interim plan information is useful for maintaining
historical data, so that you can plan similar future
projects more accurately.
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Setting a Baseline Plan
1. From the Tools menu, choose Tracking, and
then choose Save Baseline.
2. Make sure that the Entire Project option button is
selected.
3. Choose the OK button.
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Setting an Interim Plan
1. From the Tools menu, choose Tracking, and
then choose Save Baseline.
2. Select the Save Interim Plan option button.
3. If necessary, select the Entire Project option
button.
4. Choose the OK button.
Projmgmt-6/23
Tracking Actual Performance
There is various levels of detail available to the
project manager to keep a project on track:
1. Can record when taks actually start and end
2. Can record how far along the task is (%
complete)
3. Cannot overide actual costs until task is
complete.
Projmgmt-7/23
Tracking Actual Start/End For
Completed Tasks
The most common way …
1. Choose view,->tracking gant or select the
tracking gantt icon.
2. Richt click the header row above the task id
numbers to display the shortcut menu for Tables
and select tracking to display the BItracking
columns.
3. Enter the actual start and end dates.
When you enter new start/end dates MS project:
1. Changes the schedule fish date
2. Calculates the acutal duration
3. Sets Percent complete to 100%
4. Calculates the work and cost done be resource
5. Updates the total costs and actual work done.
Projmgmt-8/23
Tracking Actual Start/End For
Completed Tasks
1. Choose view,->tracking gant or select the
tracking gantt icon.
2. Richt click the header row above the task id
numbers to display the shortcut menu for Tables
and select tracking to display the BItracking
columns.
3. Enter the % Complete.
Projmgmt-9/23
Adding Tasks to Baseline/Interim Plans
1. Select the task you want to add to the baseline or
interim plan.
2. From the Tools menu, choose Tracking, and
then choose Save Baseline.
3. To add the task to the baseline plan, select the
Save Baseline option button.
Or, to add the task to the interim plan, select the
Save Interim Plan option button.
4. Select the Selected Tasks option button.
Note If the Entire Project option button is selected,
you will reset the plan for your entire schedule.
5. Choose the OK button.
Projmgmt-10/23
Is My Project on Track?
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Compare the baseline plan to your actual
progress to identify variances.
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Variances alert you to the areas of the project that
are not going as planned.
Variances you should look for when comparing
your updated schedule to the baseline plan:
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Tasks that are not starting or finishing on time.
Tasks that are not progressing at their expected
rate.
Tasks that require more or less work than
scheduled.
Tasks that are under or over budget..
Projmgmt-11/23
Found Variances?
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Got a variance, adjust schedule to accommodate
the differences between original estimates and the
real progress. For example, you can:
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Adjust task relationships.
Assign additional resource hours.
Reassign resources.
Increase resource availability.
Delete or combine some tasks.
Adjust your budget.
Increase task duration.
Extend deadlines.budget..
Projmgmt-12/23
Determining if Tasks Are Starting
and Finishing on Time
1. From the View menu, choose More Views.
2. In the Views list, select Tracking Gantt.
3. Choose the Apply button.
Projmgmt-13/23
Updating The Schedule
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After you create a schedule and establish a
baseline plan, you can update your schedule as
frequently as you want to monitor your progress.
To update your schedule, you evaluate the status
of each task and update the appropriate
information in your schedule. You can track any
information included in your baseline plan, either
minimally or in detail.
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Minimal tracking If you only want to track the
start and finish dates of each task, you can
compare actual start and finish dates to baseline
start and finish dates.
Projmgmt-14/23
Detailed Tracking?
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Detailed tracking If you need to track the
schedule at a detailed level, you can track some
or all of these project variables:
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Task start and finish dates
Percentage of each task that is complete
Task duration
Cost of the project, individual tasks, and
resources
Hours of work each resource has completed
Detailed tracking results in information you can
use to monitor the progress of tasks, control
costs, and plan for project personnel, as well as
historical data you can use to plan future projects
more effectively.
Projmgmt-15/23
Entering Actual Start and Finish
Dates for a Task
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1. In the Gantt table, select the task you want to
update.
2. From the Tools menu, choose Tracking, and
then choose Update Tasks.
3.Under Actual, type the dates in the Start and
Finish boxes.
4.Choose the OK button.
Projmgmt-16/23
Indicating Progress on a Task as a
Percentage
1. In the Gantt table, select the task for which you
want to update progress.
2. Click the Information button on the Standard
toolbar.
Or choose Task Information from the Insert menu.
3. In the Percent Complete box, type a whole
number between 0 and 100.
4. Choose the OK button.
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By default, Microsoft Project indicates the
percentage of the task that is complete on the
Gantt bar chart as a thin, black line drawn
horizontally through the middle of each task bar.
Projmgmt-17/23
Updating Actual Costs for a
Resource
1. From the View menu, choose Gantt Chart.
2. From the View menu, choose Table, and then
choose Work.
3. Select the task to which the resource is
assigned.
Check the Remaining column. The remaining work
for the resource must be zero.
4. From the Window menu, choose Split.
5. Click the Task Form in the lower pane.
6. From the Format menu, choose Details, and then
choose Resource Cost.
7. In the Act. Cost field, type the actual cost for the
resource for which you want to update costs.
8. Choose the OK button.
Projmgmt-18/23
Getting A SnapShot Of Project
Status
1. Choose Project -> Project Information
2. Click Statistics button.
(See snapshot of baseline VS actual schedule
and costs variances).
To print project status summary
1. Choose View Reports
2. Double click Overview category
3. Double Click Project Summary report
4. Click Print to print out the report.
Projmgmt-19/23
Overbudget Tasks Report
1. Choose View -> reports
2. Double click the costs category
3. Double Click the OverBudget Costs report
A task is considered overbudget if the current
schedule cost is greater than the baseline cost for
the task.
Projmgmt-20/23
Overbudget Tasks Report
1. Choose View -> reports
2. Double click the current activity category
3. Double Click the Slipping tasks report
A task is considered slipping if its currently
scheduled to finish after its original baseline date
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Overbudget Resource Report
1. Choose View -> reports
2. Double click the costs category
3. Double Click the Overbudget Resource report
A task is overbudget if it is assigned more to do more
work than originally planned. More work means
higher costs.
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Project Summary Report
1. Choose View -> reports
2. Double click the OverViewcategory
3. Double Click the Project summary report
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Slipping Tasks Report
Project defines a task as slipping if it’s currently
scheduled to finish after its baselined date.
To get a slipping task report
1. Choose view -> reports
2. Double click current activity -> to list out the
report icons.
3. Double click the slipping task report.
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Overbudget Tasks Report
Project considers a task overbudget if schedule cost
is greater than the baseline.
To get a slipping task report
1. Choose view -> reports
2. Double click Costs category to list out the
report icons.
3. Double click the Overbudget report.
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