Re: help

One more suggestion - am not sure how useful it is though. Why not use
Excel spread*** instead of MS Project - since most of the tasks are
complete. This spread*** could have the required columns and then
they can be filled out. Looking at the situation, am not too sure
whether putting everything together in MS Project is the way to go - it
looks like there will be too much of effort without corresponding
benefits.

HTH.


Steve House wrote:
Why can't you use the tracking tools that Project provides? Just remember
that "% Complete" refers to duration, not work performed and not the amount
of the deliverable that has been done. If a task has 5 days duration and
has been worked on for 3 days with 2 still to go, the task is 60% Complete.
If you have a task showing it starts such and such a date and a certain
duration and enter a number for % Complete, Project will assume it began on
the date the schedule shows and your input percentage of the total duration
has been consumed doing the task so far. Or regardless on the estimated
start date your schedule called for and the duration it shows, if you
display the Tracking Table in the Gantt chart view and enter the date the
task actually began in the Actual Start field, the amount of time that work
occupied so far in the Actual Duration column, and the resource's best guess
as to the amount of time remaining until the task is finished in the
Remaining Duration, Project will update the duration and display the correct
% Complete for you. And it will rollup those values to the summary task
lines and the Project Summary task as well, displaying there a weighted
average progress based on the actual progress posted for the activities.
Project IS showing you the real % complete in the summary lines - why do you
think it's not?

--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs


"mareveli" <mareveli@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:D5507DCA-99E4-41C8-9ED7-B802ED247857@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Well, maybe at this point I should just create a notes column, input the
%s,
and title it "% complete." It is accurate data. The only problem with
this
is that I am already using the notes column for notes.

mareveli

"Mike Glen" wrote:

Hi Mareveli ,

I think John gave you a realistic and honest answer to your situation. :)

If you enter the %Complete for each individual task, then the Summary and
Project %Complete will be calculated for you, you have no control over
this
and cannot fudge the summary figures without fudging the task's data. If
that's not happening, tell us what is happening, how/where you enter the
data and what you are expecting to see.

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for Project Tutorials

wrote:
wow...this is precisely why I wanted to take this off-line, so I could
hopefully avoid you John. Your sanctimonious reply is not in the
least bit helpful, but only rubs salt in an already painful wound.
First of all...I have just inherited this project and you have no
clue how I, my company, or the customer have arrived at this point.
So please refrain from the judgements and ciriticisms. If you don't
want to help then don't. The schedule needs to be there and I would
like to show % complete based on what I am being told by the experts
is the percentage complete on the individual tasks. I would like the
real% complete to be reflected in the summary tasks and the project
summary. If someone knows how I can do this I would appreciate the
tip so I can just make it through the end of this project and then I
can start the right way with the next.

Hoping for a helpful response!

mareveli

"John" wrote:

In article <C2D3ECB7-7E4C-4FE4-99BD-35F85F685713@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
mareveli <mareveli@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Help! Is there someone who will take pity on me and give me an
email address so I don't have to bother this community with my
stupid questions? Here's the deal...I've had to throw this
schedule together really fast without time to bone up on msproject.
I loaded the resources incorrectly, a lot of the durations are
bogus because we wanted certain end dates to show. I just need to
be able to show accurate progress but really can't figure out which
approach is best for this when the data being used is not accurate.
I am taking a class, but not until next week and I really need to
talk to someone about the best way to move forward with this
schedule. This project is nearing its end and the customer was
angry because there was no schedule, so I've had to go back and
enter work that has already been done. It was all very rushed and
the person I was getting the task etc. info from was in the middle
of moving from one house to another with his family and I had to
keep calling him on the phone... I try to get the answers from
project help. Sometimes I find the answers and sometimes I don't.
Sometimes, I just can't follow it. I've also found a wealth of
info in this discussion group, but I learn much faster by doing
than by reading and I just don't have a lot of time to put into it.
So...if anyone is feeling merciful and can give me some help, I
would really appreciate it. My email address is scanl@xxxxxxxxxx

Desperately yours,

Mareveli

Mareveli,
First of all, questions posted to this newsgroup, especially by new
users, are rarely stupid. Second, the sole purpose of this newsgroup
is to help Project users. The topics discussed here are generally of
interest to a wide audience and therefore it is desirable to keep the
discussion in the newsgroup. On rare occasions it may make sense to
help a user on a one-on-one basis, but so far, your issues don't
appear to fall into that category.

It appears you have been put between a rock and a hard place but you
certainly can NOT get "accurate progress" from a schedule plan that
is "bogus". The two just don't mix. If your customer is angry, (and
he probably should be if the project is nearing completion and there
hasn't been a valid plan all along), that's unfortunate. Where were
the stakeholders when the contract was let? Your company's
management is derelict for not having a valid plan developed and the
customer is derelict for not insisting that one be developed before
the project started.

OK, enough of the lecture. So what do you do now. Answer these
questions for yourself.
1. What benefit do we hope to gain by developing a plan after the
fact, especially a plan that is bogus to start with?
2. Since the project is near the end will the effort invested in a
plan now be worth the cost to develop/fix it?
3. Is the project severely over budget or late (a plan now won't fix
that)?
4. How has the project been managed up until now (find the management
processes that did work and stick with them - learn from those that
didn't)

It may well be that the best approach you can take at this point is
to make a list of items on both sides of question 4, including
accurate cost history for all phases of the project. These will be
invaluable for planning future projects. Next time you can do it
with a good plan in the beginning.

If you have specific questions please feel free to post them (you
have in previous posts), but I seriously doubt anyone is going to
jump in and volunteer to rescue you, your company and your customer
from a failed process, but then, I might be wrong.

I know this isn't the answer you want but this experience might just
be the best learning experience you will ever get with regard to
managing a project.

By the way, you may want to share this response with your management
and your customer - there's no reason for you to take the full "hit".

John
Project MVP





.

Loading