Charting Data from MS Project plans (Planning Health Check)

[Pete Mccann]

Working with plans in MS Project we sometimes need to show progress in different ways. Some of the tasks in these plans may be outside of our control so we need to estimate progress in different ways. One suggestion is to prepare a sort of dashboard chart show the health of the project that refers to two things for each Operation:

1. Proportion of time allowed in the plan (%) for the Operation
   
   
2. Proportion of slack time allowed in the plan (%) for the Operation until it becomes critical.

We could normalise these items to be 100% for the longest Operation.

These two things would then be the baseline for the project (T +0).

Then, as time progresses (T + x), we would review the information again and show the data [a) and b)] again to see how the Operations have changed.

In the attached file there is an example of what I would like to create. Ideally this would be a bar chart that shows the Time allowed + the Slack time for each operation (baseline T0) and then the same data again for the (T + x) view…..all on the same chart. It would be good if it is possible to include =today() in the chart to show the reference.

 

[vletm]

Pete Mccann
You have no values there...
but I've done 'someway similar'
Of course, it have to change that it would match to this case.

 

[Pete Mccann]

Hi vletm. Thanks for the quick reply - here is a partial file that is still work in progress. I have created the left hand section of the chart but I have had to manually enter the % time consumed figures (so the calculations are not accurate). I am struggling to work out the calculation for the # days consumed (to calculate the % time consumed) based on today's date. Essentially I want to calculate the following in cells H29:H33
a) if the Forecast Start date is > than =today(), then enter 0 (the operation has not started).
b) if Forecast Finish date is < than =today(), then enter 100 (the operation is finished).
c) if =today() is between the Forecast Start and Forecast Finish dates then calculate the # days consumed up to =today(). I think this is (=today()-Forecast Start Date). Then I can divide this number by the duration to give a % complete......I think.....I do not have the data for the Slack measurements yet.