To begin investigating ang tracking the costs associated with our
project, we first click on the "Cost" tab.
To obtain calculations for and display of projected costs by task and
resource, simply click the "Update Costs" checkbox for the desired task
and, or resource and click the "Click here to Update Task Costs" "OK"
button, and, or the "Click here to Update Resource Costs" "OK" button.
We can confirm that we have no fixed costs associated with any of our
tasks. The calculated fields are "Total Cost," "To-Date Cost,"
"Variance" and "Remaining Cost." Remember, these costs, except for
"Actual Cost," are all projected costs. These projected costs are
calculated from the information we previously entered for tasks,
resources, and resource assignments. "Total Cost" is the sum of all
resource hours multiplied by the hourly cost of the resource for the
entire length of the project. "To-Date Cost" is the sum of all resource
hours multiplied by the hourly cost of the resource from the project
start date until the current date. In our case, because the current
date is later than the project end date, the "To-Date Cost" is equal to
the "Total Cost." The "Baseline Cost" is a value that is entered by the
project manager and represents the initial anticipated cost of the
task. This figure can be derived independently, based on a prior budget
or appropriation amount, or it can be the initial "Total Cost" amount.
Because it is possible, and in some cases likely, that project
projections will change as the project unfolds, the initial "Total
Cost" amount will change as tasks change (i.e., take longer than
expected, require more resources, etc.). The "Baseline Cost" can be
used to keep track of what your initial projected costs were.
To enter the "Baseline Cost" for each task and resource, simply click
the "Update Costs" checkboxes, fill in the baseline amounts, and click
"OK." Because the task and resource tables are two different forms, you
will have to do each one separately.
Here we have previously entered "Baseline Cost" for tasks A,B,C, and D
and are in the process of entering "Baseline Cost" for tasks E, F, and
G. You can see from this example that the "Variance" is the difference
between "Total Cost" and "Baseline Cost." The "Actual Cost" is
cost information that is taken from some of the tracking screens, which
will be covered in section VI. Tracking the progress of the project.
The "Remaining Cost" is the difference between the "Total Cost" and the
"To-Date Cost."
Finally, we see the same information for each resource. To double
check, we know that Ann was assigned to work 80 hours on task A and 24
hours of overtime on task E. Ann's cost schedule shows that she costs
$45 per hour standard and $75 per hour overtime. Thus her cost for the
project would be (45 X 80) + (75 X 24), which is equal to $5,400,
exactly the amount shown in the Resource Cost View.
There are several ways to step back and take a look at your project.
Thefirst way we'll examine is the project calendar. To open the project
calendar, click on the "Calendar" tab.
The calendar view is a monthly calendar, which opens to the current
month. To view more relevant project months, click the "Prior Month" or
"Next Month" buttons until the desired month is shown.
Our current project extends from March 25th through April 29th, so we
can look at the month of April 2003. Note that each day now has task
names listed under them. The "Calendar" lists all tasks that are
on-going during a particular day. Thus, for any particular month, you
can view all tasks that are scheduled during that month by day. Note
that the "Calendar" view does not distinguish work days. You can view a
particular day in greater detail by clicking on the day number button.
The daily view for April 8th shows that task A is sceduled to end at
9:00am and that task B is scheduled to start at 9:00am. This view also
indicates that task A started prior to April 8th and, if we slide the
horizontal scroll bar to the right, we would note that task B does not
end on April 8th.
The next way to examine the project is the Gantt chart. You navigate to
the Gantt chart view by clicking on the main "Gantt" tab.
The initial view presented by the "Gantt" tab shows the title, which
identifies the project by name and various chart selection options.
First note that the default selection is to show a "daily" Gantt chart
for the date range of the entire project ("Gantt Start Date ..." and
"Gantt End Date ..."). The Gantt chart, named after Henry Gantt,
is a graphical demonstration of task start dates, performance dates,
and end dates using bars along a timeline. The Gantt chart allows you
to visualize the timing of tasks during the course of the project. The
initial "Gantt" view has two main sections, the top section where you
customize the chart view, and the bottom section where the chart is
displayed. The time scale is along the top of the chart and acts as a
horizontal calendar. The time scales provided by Project Manager are
daily, weekly, monthly and annual. You can also set the time increment
displayed by the chart by selecting the "Gantt Start Date
(yyyy-mm-dd):" and the "Gantt End Date (yyyy-mm-dd):". The Gantt
chart also show "Pre-" task relationships, which are displayed in a
dark blue color as opposed to the normal red color. Looking at the
figure above, we note that for April 8th, task A's bar is
**.2|= and task B's bar is ->1.**
both in blue. These codes mean the following: for task A, the number 2
indicates that task A (task number 1) has a "Pre-" task relationshp
with task number 2 (task B), the **.|= symbol indicates that task A
(task number 2) must finish before task number 2 (task B) can either
start or finish; for task B, the number 1 indicates that task B (task
number 2) has a "Pre-" task relationship with task number 1 (task A),
the ->.** symbol indicates that task B cannot start until task
number 1 (task A) either starts or finishes; we thus establish, by
combining both symbols, that task B cannot start until task A finishes.
Similarly in the image above, task F must finish (the **.|= symbol)
before task number 6 (task F) can either start or finish. Let's
customize the display somewhat and step back to view more of the
calendar.
Here we have selected a date range of 2003-04-02 through 2003-04-25 and
we have zoomed out on the browser window. Now we can see all of the
tasks and note all of the "Pre-" task relationships. You will recall
that when we entered the tasks, all of the "Pre-" task relationships
were "finish-to-start" relationships, meaning that one task cannot
start until the "Pre-" task finishes. Thus all of the "Pre-" task
symbols are of the form **.#|= (the finish
representation and ->.#** (the start representation).
Let's explore some of the other "Gantt" view customizations. First, we
can change the time increment from daily to weekly. To do this, simply
click the "Weekly" radio select button and click "Select Gantt View."
by clicking the "OK" button.
First note that the customization selections automatically return to
their default selections. Looking at the Gantt chart itself, we see
that the weekly view begins with the first day entered in the "Gantt
Start Date ..." and then follows with an entry every 7 days. Here we
can more clearly see all of the tasks along the entire length of the
project and thus view all of the "Pre-" task relationship. Thus, during
the week of April 22, we see that Task F starts and finishes, and that
it cannot start until tasks D and E both finish and that it must finish
before task G starts (also in the same week).
As a further customization, there are three possible "gantt tables" fro
which to choose. A "gantt table" is chosen by clicking the "View Gantt
Table? checkbox and selecting a "Table type:' by clicking the
appropriate radio button, then clicking the "OK" button. We'll start by
looking at the "Task" table.
By 'adding' the "Task" table, the Gantt chart now includes some
task-specific information: duration, start date, end date, and "pre-"
task relationships (from the perspective of the constrained task). Cost
information is provided is we select the "Cost" table.
The "Cost" table displays projected fixed, total, to-date, baseline,
and actual costs along with the standard gantt chart. Finally,
the "Resource" table shows the duration for each task together with the
total hours of resources assigned to that task. This is a convenient
way to insure that you have assigned sufficient resources to complete
the project.
Here we see the "Resource" table view we the weekly gantt chart and
note that all tasks have been fully 'staffed.'
The final way to examine the project that we will discuss in the
section is the "Pert" tab. Pert, which stands for Program Evaluation
and Review Technique and was developed by the U.S. Navy. Project
Manager uses Pert as a way to estimate task durations, and, if desired,
to automatically modify task durations.
The initial Pert screen show above lists each task, the current
projected task duration and some input areas for 'optimistic,' 'best
guess', and 'pessimistic' durations. You are also required to assign
weights to apply to each 'scenario' (optimisitc, best guess, and
pessimistic) in order to calculate the "Calculated" duration. You can
only store one set of weights, but you can change the weights for
different tasks by selecting and calculating the separately. The
weights we have chosen for tasks A and B are 10% for optimistic, 20%
for pessimistic, and 70% for best guess. In order to calculate the
"Calculated" duration, simply check the "Select" checkbox for the
desired task or tasks, fill in the scenarios, enter the desired weights
and click the "OK" button.
We have changed the weights for task C, but the weights for tasks A and
B were .1-.7-.2. We can see that the "Calculated" durations are all
slightly higher than the "Best Guess" scenario durations. Finally, if
you wish, you can have Project Manager automatically use the newly
"Calculated" duration for the projected task duration. To do this,
simply click on the "Use Calculated For Duration?" checkbox for the
desired task, and click the "OK" button.
The screen above shows the result of clicking the "Use Calculated For
Duration?" checkbox for task A. First we had to re-set the original
weights because checking the "Use Calculated For Duration?" checkbox
will also result in the "Calculated" duration being re-calculated as if
we had clicked the "Select" checkbox. Notice that the new "Duration"
for task A is 84 h, which is the same as "Calculated" and greater then
the original 80 h. You can verify this change by clicking back on the
"Task" tab.
Checking task A shows us that, indeed, task A's duration is now 84h,
and its "Finish Date" is now four hours later than before. However,
this brings up an additional word of caution. If task A is a "Pre-"
task for other tasks, you need to re-calculate those relationships. Do
this by going back to the "Gantt" tab, selecting the "Task" table and
checking the "Pre-" column to verify which tasks have task A (task
number 1) as a "Pre-" task. We see from the "Task" table that only task
B is a "Pre-" task of task A. So, back to the "Task" tab and click the
"view" button for task B, then click the "Pre-" sub-tab.
We see the entry for task A with a "Dep. Type" of "Finish-to-Start" so
we click the "OK" button. This causes the "Start Date" for task B to
move forward four hours to match the "Finish Date" for task A. But, we
now have to check for "Pre-" tasks associated with task B, and so on.
In fact, you must make sure that you update each task's "Pre-" tasks.
Now, two things, if you examine the gantt chart "Resource" table, you
will see that task A is now 'under-resourced,' which should alert you
to the need to re-assign resources to insure that they line-up with the
now changed task settings. Thus, we next go through the "Resource"
sub-tab for each task, adding 4 hours to Ann for task A, and adjusting
the assignment start and end dates and times for resources on the
remaining tasks.
Of course you might be asking, "Why didn't we use the "Pert" sub-tab
before we set up the "Pre-" tasks and resource assignments?" That is an
entirely valid point and it would be adviseable to use the "Pert"
sub-tab while you are entering your tasks for the first time. However,
it is quite likely, at some point, that you will, as project manager,
make some adjustments to your task projections. Should you do so, you
now have some idea what you need to do to update your project. Although
it can become somewhat tedious to manually re-adjust "Pre-" tasks,
resource assignments, costs, tracking, etc., it also serves to bring
you closer to the details of your project. That said, future
enhancements to Project Manager will likely see these updates
automated. In any event, we still have to navigate to the "Cost" tab
and update our costs.
The noteworthly items are the two non-zero entries under the "Variance"
column for task A and resource Ann. This has occurred because we added
4 more hours to Ann under task A. The "Variance" occurs as a result of
the difference between our "Baseline Cost" and our new "Total Cost"
entries.
To sum up, we have seen three different ways to examine a project using
Project Manager: the "Calendar" view, the "Gantt" view, and the "Pert"
calculation. Next we will discuss tracking our project projections
against actuals.
