Project Flight Deck User Manual Task Performance Analyzer
Contents
1. 1 ProjectFlightDeck 2008 Project Flight Deck User Manual Task Performance Analyzer time period in which the work was planned to be done You can however set a parameter so that you earn the value early It is important to note that doing so conflicts with Task Adherence calculations So we do not recommend a change in the default setting If you still choose to earn the value early you must follow these steps open the target schedule select Tools Options Calculation Check mark the box that says Move end of completed parts after status date back to the status date If you complete tasks early MS Project will reflect that in the schedule and you will be credited with the value of that work in the period of completion Any remaining work will be left in the future period in which it was scheduled If it gets done early it will also be moved back into the period when it is completed The parameter must be set before you baseline the schedule If you decide to change the parameter part way through the project MS Project does not go back and recalculate everything based on the new settings even if you re baseline the project So you end up with calculations that represent a mix of settings leading to inconsistent results 4 Set a Baseline the system needs a basis for measurement and the baseline provides it Again many Project Managers are reluctant to set a baseline perhaps because it represents a visible commitment to d2. 320 3 200 3 200 2 880 100 544 Task Name 544 2 Jan 08 2 Jan 08 19 Nov 07 19 Nov 07 10 Dec 07 Behind lagging 280 280 280 280 0 551 Task Name 551 4 Jan 08 5 Jan 08 15 Dec O7 15 Dec 07 10 Dec 07 Behind lagging 1 920 1 920 0 429 Task Name 429 12 Dec 07 14 Dec 07 12 Dec O7 14 Dec 07 10 Dec 07 Behind past due 1 184 1 184 0 430 Task Name 430 15 Dec 07 18 Dec 07 15 Dec O7 18 Dec 07 10 Dec 07 Behind past due 1 920 1 920 0 Historical Tasks 152 Task Name 152 28 Aug 07 17 Sep 07 28 Aug 07 18 Sep 07 10 Dec 07 Complete early 17 280 17 280 17 280 100 265 Task Name 265 31 Aug 07 6 Sep 07 31 Aug 07 5 Sep O7 10 Dec 07 Complete late 4640 4640 4640 100 132 Task Name 132 8 Aug 07 8 Aug 07 8 Aug O7 8 Aug 07 10 Dec 07 Complete on plan 640 640 640 100 Future Tasks 659 Task Name 659 13 Jan 08 13 Jan 08 19 Jan 08 19 Jan 08 10 Dec 07 Future early 0 665 Task Name 665 7 Jan 08 7 Jan 08 7 Jan 08_ 7 Jan 08 10 Dec 07 Future on plan 0 Housekeeping 433 Task Name 433 5 Nov 07 9 Nov 07 No Baseline should be set 100 219 Task Name 219 27 Sep 07 27 Sep 07 27 Sep 07 27 Sep 07 10 Dec 07 No Planned Value should be set 100 236 Task Name 236 3 Oct 07 3 Oct 07 2 Oct 07 2 Oct 07 10 Dec 07 No Resource should be set 100 Figure 5 Knowing that the graphs of the overall schedule indicate a problem the Project Manager can quickly focus on the tasks at risk those that are ahead and therefore may require rework and those that are behind and must be caught up The Reas
3. The plug in first does edit checks to ensure that the planned value and earned value are available that means resources have been assigned to tasks resource rates have been entered and a baseline has been set If the values are not available processing halts and PFD User Manual Task Analyzer ProjectFlightDeck 2 2008 Project Flight Deck User Manual Task Performance Analyzer an error message is posted If the preparatory work has been done the program proceeds prompting for the time periods to analyze months or weeks Because the weekly time interval has proven the most common one for projects using the tool the default period has been set to Weeks The plug in then prompts for the As Of date The Analyzer will report on results up to and including that date The As Of date is normally the date on which the reporting period ends The current date is used as the default The system detects and prompts for the date format being used in your schedule Once the two prompts have been completed the Analyzer runs In the upper left line of the screen progress messages are displayed Note if the schedule is large and the time period selected is small the standard version takes about 1 second per 100 tasks The Analyzer automatically opens an Excel file creates appropriate tabs and places the results in them For comments on how to use the output see the next section Practice The first step is to review the Schedule A
4. a g E 8 04 o7 2 40 0 2 3 0 12 o N op 2 oO O O O O O O O N N N N N N N S S S S roa S S N N N N N N N N D 5 S al Figure 2 Figure 2 shows the Schedule Variance left scale bottom line dark blue diamond markers and the Schedule Performance Index right scale top line hot pink square markers The suffix t indicates that these values are measures using Earned Schedule analysis rather than the traditional Earned Value metrics Again see the information for download from www projectflightdeck com on the theory behind the measures The Schedule Variance is simply the difference between the baseline and the actual If the Schedule Variance is greater than 0 the project is ahead of schedule if it is equal to 0 the project is on schedule and if it is less than 0 the project is behind schedule In Figure 2 it appears that the project started out well but now has begun to fall behind schedule Moreover the gap is widening The Schedule Performance Index is the ratio between the baseline and the actual If the Schedule Performance Index is greater than 1 the project is ahead of schedule if it is equal to 1 the project is on schedule and if it is less than 1 the project is behind schedule Be sure you read the blue line versus the left axis and the pink line versus the right axis The horizontal lines on the graph are associated with the left axis You need to be careful in asse
5. information to help the Project Manager assess and respond to the problem as will be shown below Before proceeding a brief comment is due on the Adjusted Alignment line Tasks that are done before their planned date are subject to rework This is an experience familiar in software development projects where coding that is done before design is complete often has to be reworked The earlier in the project that work is done ahead of plan the larger the impact later The plug in has an algorithm that determines the amount of rework required for tasks completed ahead of time and adjusts the alignment figures automatically That is reflected in the Adjusted Alignment line on the graph PFD User Manual Task Analyzer 5 ProjectFlightDeck 2008 Project Flight Deck User Manual Task Performance Analyzer Finally the table of numbers sometimes tells the story more precisely than the graphs Consider Figure 4 Period Count Earned Schedule 29 Jul 07 1 1 5 Aug 07 2 2 12 Aug 07 3 3 19 Aug 07 4 4 26 Aug 07 5 4 952 2 5ep 07 6 5 953 9 Sep 07 7 6 987 16 Sep 07 8 79 23 Sep 07 9 8 663 30 Sep 07 10 9 25 7 Oct O 11 10 297 14 Oct 07 12 11 449 21 Oct 07 13 123 28 Oct 07 14 13 39 4 Nov 07 15 15 115 11 Nov 07 16 16 295 18 Nov 07 17 17 019 25 Nov 07 18 17 41 2 Dec 07 19 17 799 9 Dec 07 20 18 518 16 Dec 07 21 19 106 23 Dec 07 22 19 106 30 Dec 07 23 19 106 Earned Value 3 200 00 26 240 00 81 080 00 120 080 00 161 069 50 229 184 2
6. 0 293 107 60 348 426 60 389 959 1 418 171 91 457 445 2 498 916 1 536 166 3 571 707 3 604 414 5 625 313 71 647 546 9 659 156 1 670 718 1 691 275 71 707 902 4 707 902 4 707 902 4 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 D Oo 0 0 0 0 Planned Value 3 200 0 26 240 0 81 080 0 120 080 0 184 136 0 231 392 0 293 904 0 354 492 0 407 952 0 448 872 0 477 722 3 524 972 30 562 264 80 586 464 80 602 874 40 616 250 40 646 986 40 676 690 40 704 822 40 733 926 40 748 766 40 750 390 40 752 310 40 oo0o0oo0oo0oosoos oa Schedule Variance oo nas mo oo lt 1 O an oc m o 0 59 1 201 1 482 1 894 2 894 3 894 Figure SPI 4 Estimated Estimated Sch Align Adj Align End Date Duration 31 3 31 243 31 057 31 393 32 204 33 514 33 116 32 493 32 764 32 412 30 764 30 439 30 966 32 051 33 092 33 48 34 073 35 696 37 318 1 Mar 08 1 Mar 08 1 Mlar 08 1 Mar 08 3 Mar 08 3 Mar 08 1 Mar 08 4 Mar 9 Mar 19 Mar 16 Mar 11 Mar 13 Mar 11 Mar 28 F eb 26 F eb 1 Mar 8 Mar 16 Mar 18 Mar 23 Mar 3 Apr 14 Apr 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 08 Complete 1 0 1 3 il 10 1 15 0 986 23 0 992 29 0 998 37 0 989 44 0 992 49 0 989 53 0 993 58 0 991 63 0 998 68 1 72 0 999 77 0 998 79 0 998 82 0 998 84 0 998 85 0 999 88 0 999 90 0 999 90 0 993 90 The numbers sho
7. Macro name 4 Press the Run key on the upper right side of the Macro window 5 Follow the prompts and the report will be produced Set Up Before running the Analyzer you must take the following steps PFD User Manual Task Analyzer 1 Maintain the Task the schedule must be kept up to date This sounds obvious but many Project Managers create a schedule at the start of a project and then leave it untouched for the duration For the Analyzer to work the schedule must be taken seriously Ideally track work that is done and that remains minimally maintain Complete 2 Enter Resources and Costs Calculation of value for work planned and completed is key to assessing the schedule performance Most scheduling tools use resources and their costs to automatically calculate such values Assign resources to tasks in the schedule and enter resource rates The rates do not have to be exact approximations will do In fact our experimentation indicates that entering a nominal rate like 50 per hour produces meaningful results Again these points may seem obvious to experienced Project Managers but in the field they are often omitted 3 Set Project Parameters By default MS Project does not attribute value in a current period for work completed ahead of time In plain English you do not immediately get credit for work done early This is consistent with the classic definition of Earned Value because the earned value accrues to the
8. Project Flight Deck User Manual Task Performance Analyzer Operating Instructions Operating the plug in is simple when you are ready to analyze schedule and task performance open the mpp file provided by ProjectFlightDeck go into your schedule and run the macro called TskPerfAna Here are detailed step by step instructions 1 When you are ready to run the Analyzer open the mpp file provided by ProjectFlightDeck The file is named Task Performance Analyzer mmddyy mpp where mm numerical month dd numerical day yy numerical year on which the module was released The mpp file is the container for the macro Leave the macro open as you proceed through the next steps Go into the schedule that you want analyzed the target schedule The phrase go into means either go back into a schedule that you had already opened re activate it or open the schedule anew The sequence with which the container and the target files are opened is irrelevant It is only important that both are open at the same time when you want to produce the report In the target schedule go to Tools Macro Macros You will observe that one of the macros listed on the left side of the Macros window is called Task Performance Analyzer mmddyy mpp TskPerfAna where mmddyy is the date of the module s release as described in step 1 Select that macro by highlighting the name When you do so the name appears in the box under the heading
9. ates To get over the psychological hurdle set a preliminary baseline early in the project and then re set it later for publication Modifying the baseline will affect the Analyzer s calculations but you can minimize the impact by baselining selected tasks rather than the whole schedule For instance it is good practice to baseline newly added tasks and to re baseline those where a change in planned end date is justifiable For more information on the theory behind Schedule Performance Analysis see the article Time Is Up available for download at no cost from www projectflightdeck com Before running the macro ensure that the macro security settings in MS Project are correct Go to Tools Macro Security If the setting is either Very High or High you will be unable to run the macro So check mark a lower level of security Medium or Low Medium will prompt you each time you run the macro With a Low setting the macro will simply run If you need to maintain a high security level you will have to set it lower run the macro and then restore the higher setting You will have to make the change before each macro execution If you have changed the security setting you must log off MS Project and then restart it for the new settings to take effect Once the security is settings are done you can run the macro With the target schedule open select Tools Macro Macros Ensure that the TskPerfAna macro is highlighted Press Run
10. icult to grasp and explain the overall picture The Task Analyzer assists Project Managers in identifying problems early evaluating the specific tasks at risk and taking remedial steps to bring the project back on track PFD User Manual Task Analyzer 8 ProjectFlightDeck 2008
11. nalysis tab It contains three graphs The first shows the Baseline Schedule vs the Earned Schedule Baseline Schedule vs Earned Schedule 35 30 F 25 b gt 20 gt 10 Ee 5 5 o RRR KR KR KR KR KR KR KR KR KR O OOO a O O O O O O O O O O oO oO oO C m D O C O O a WoA A A NO AN N A NAN A N A A a O N O m N q wt N lt 0 m m N amp wt N 2 Gg 2 Sos VS Fr at eS fA fn y y y Figure The Baseline Schedule in Figure 1 the top line dark blue diamond markers represents the expected progress on the schedule The Earned Schedule line in Figure 1 the bottom line hot pink square markers represents the actual progress on the schedule For more information on the theory behind the graph see the information available for download on www projectflightdeck com Figure 1 shows a gap between the baseline and the actual results The fact that the actual is tracking below the baseline indicates that there are problems with the schedule Had it PFD User Manual Task Analyzer 3 ProjectFlightDeck 2008 Project Flight Deck User Manual Task Performance Analyzer been tracking on or above the baseline that would have indicated that the project was on or ahead of schedule The next figure illuminates the situation Schedule Variance t and SP t g o 1 2 2 lt il 2 amp 2 E 4 P x o 6 0 6
12. on Code indicates how each individual task is performing The numerical values provide insight into the behaviour of individual tasks Based on this information the Project Manager can take remedial action to bring the schedule back on track The groupings provide the Project Manager with information useful for retrospective analysis historical tasks and whether they were on time early or late re planning future tasks and housekeeping where clean up is required e g if tasks have been added but not resourced or baselined The final tab displays basic project information Project Name Sample Project Planned Start 7 30 2007 Planned Finish 3 1 2008 Negotiated Start 7 29 2007 Negotiated Finish 3 1 2008 Planned Duration 31 Planned Periods 31 Negotiated Duration 31 As Of Date 12 31 2007 Rework Automatically Calculated Figure 6 In practice the graphs and the numerical table act as early warning instruments They portray the performance or lack thereof on a schedule Experienced Project Managers often have an intuitive understanding of how things are going Quantitative analysis supplements the intuition and provides hard data that they can use to inform and express their intuitions PFD User Manual Task Analyzer 7 2008 ProjectFlightDeck Project Flight Deck User Manual Task Performance Analyzer This is especially true on large projects The size and complexity of such schedules makes it diff
13. ssing where the pink is in relation to the values on the right axis as there are no lines specifically associated with those values In Figure 2 it appears that the project started out well but the situation is beginning to deteriorate PFD User Manual Task Analyzer ProjectFlightDeck 4 2008 Project Flight Deck User Manual Task Performance Analyzer The Task Performance Analyzer contains a third graph This one shows how well the schedule is adhering to the plan The idea is like a wheel being in alignment Perfect wheel alignment has a value of 1 Wheels cannot be aligned more than perfectly They can however be aligned less than perfectly Hence schedule alignment has a maximum value of 1 and frequently has a value less than one The more the schedule varies from perfect alignment the more risk there is of failure Here is a chart that illustrates results from the same schedule used in the previous Figures Schedule Alignment and Adjusted Alignment z a 1 3 Sa oss 5 SE os i 1y 06 o 0 4 So st 0 4 o D E e o a 0 2 0 ar _ B 0 a ee 2 2 2 2 2 2 e oO oO oO oO oO oO oO N N N N N N N S S a S a S S N N N N N N N N D a S a Se Figure 3 It is clear that the project has been tracking close to perfect alignment Within the past week however the alignment has begun to drop off That is a warning sign to the Project Manager The Analyzer provides additional
14. w the SPI t dropping over the last three weeks The Schedule Alignment figure shows a decline in the final week reported It appears that the schedule efficiency has been dropping off for several weeks and now the alignment with the plan is beginning to deteriorate Both are warning signs that something is amiss in the schedule The Analyzer assists the Project Manager by highlighting the tasks at risk The Task Analysis tab contains a complete listing of the detailed tasks in the project along with an analysis of their individual performance Below you fill find a sample taken from the actual results produced by the plug in A sample is used because the full results cover too much for display here Tasks have been grouped and labeled for illustration purposes the rest of the data is lifted directly from the tool Here is the sample list of tasks PFD User Manual Task Analyzer 2008 ProjectFlightDeck Project Flight Deck User Manual Task Performance Analyzer Task Task Name ask Start Date Finish Date Baseline Baseline Earned Reason Code Earned Planned Earned Planned Planned ID Name Start Finish Schedule Value Diff Value Value Value Value Complete Reached ES Planned Actual ES Left Time Time Time Time Time At Risk Tasks 500 Task Name 500 3 Dec 07 3 Dec 07 28 Dec O7 28 Dec 07 10 Dec 07 Ahead rework may be requirec 320 320 320 100 501 Task Name 501 4 Dec 07 21 Dec O7 4 Dec O7 11 Dec 07 10 Dec 07 Ahead rework may be requirec
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