Update a baseline

In Chapter 8, “Track progress: Basic techniques,” you learned how to save a baseline for a plan. Recall that a baseline is a collection of important values in a plan, such as the planned start dates, finish dates, and costs of tasks, resources, and assignments. When you save (or set) a baseline, Project takes a “snapshot” of the existing values and saves it in the plan for future comparison. If you’ve previously saved a baseline, you might need to update it before recording actual work.

Keep in mind that the purpose of the baseline is to record what you expected the plan to look like at one point in time. As time passes, however, you might need to change your expectations. After saving an initial baseline plan, you might need to fine-tune the plan by adding or removing tasks or assignments or making other adjustments. To keep an accurate baseline for later comparison, you have several options:

• Update the baseline for the entire project This simply replaces the original baseline values with the currently scheduled values.

• Update the baseline for selected tasks This replaces the original baseline values for the selected tasks or adds baseline values if the selected tasks are new.

• Save a second or subsequent baseline You can save up to 11 baselines in a single plan. The first one is called Baseline, and the rest are Baseline 1 through Baseline 10.

A great view for comparing a baseline with the plan as it is currently scheduled is the Tracking Gantt view, as shown in Figure 14-1.

In the chart portion of this view, the tasks as they are currently scheduled appear as either blue bars (if they are not critical tasks) or red bars (if they are critical tasks). To improve the view for colorblind readers, insert the column Critical, which displays Yes for critical (red) tasks. Below the currently scheduled task bars, the baseline values of each task appear as gray bars.

To compare a plan as it is currently scheduled with its previously saved baseline

1. On the View tab, in the Task Views group, select the Gantt Chart arrow and then select Tracking Gantt.

2. If necessary, adjust the zoom level: on the View tab, in the Zoom group, in the Timescale box, select the timescale setting you want. Project compares the plan with the baseline.

3. To compare the plan with another baseline (Baseline 1 through Baseline 10), on the Gantt Chart Format tab, in the Bar Styles group, select Baseline and then select the baseline you want to see compared.

To update a previously saved baseline or add another baseline

1. On the Project tab, in the Schedule group, select Set Baseline, and then select Set Baseline to open the Set Baseline dialog.

2. Do either of the following:

   • To update a previously saved baseline, select Set baseline and then select the specific baseline you want to update.

   • To save a new baseline, select Set baseline and then select the additional baseline you want to save.

3. Then do either of the following:

   • To update or add the selected baseline for the plan, under For, select Entire project and then select OK.

   • To update or add the selected baseline just for the selected tasks, under For, select Selected tasks. When you do this, the options under Roll Up Baselines become available. You can control how baseline updates affect the baseline values for summary tasks. For example, you can resave a baseline for a subtask and update its related summary task baseline values.

4. Select OK.

To remove a baseline

• On the Project tab, in the Schedule group, select the Set Baseline button, and then select Clear Baseline.

To save an interim plan

1. On the Project tab, in the Schedule group, select the Set Baseline button and then select Set Baseline.

2. In the Set Baseline dialog, select Set interim plan.

3. In the Copy field, select the date values you want to copy.

4. In the Into field, select the date values into which you want to copy the fields you selected in the Copy field.

5. Select OK.

Track actual and remaining work for tasks and assignments

In Chapter 8, you learned how to work with actual start, finish, and duration values for individual tasks. For tasks that have resources assigned to them, you can enter actual and remaining work values for the task as a whole or for specific assignments to that task. To help you understand how Project handles the actual values you enter, consider the following:

• If a task has a single resource assigned to it, the actual work values you enter for the task or assignment apply equally to both the task and the resource assignment. For example, if you record that the assignment has 5 hours of actual work, those values apply to the task and to the assigned resource.

• If a task has multiple resources assigned to it, the actual work values you enter for the task are distributed among or rolled down to the assignments according to their assignment units. This level of detail is appropriate if you aren’t concerned about the details at the individual assignment level.

• If a task has multiple resources assigned to it, the actual work values you enter for one assignment are rolled up to the task. However, the new actual work values don’t affect the other assignments’ work values on the task. This level of detail is appropriate if details at the individual assignment level are important to you.

• If the actual work value you enter is greater than the planned work, Project sets Remaining Work to zero. If actual work is less than planned work, Project recalculates Remaining Work accordingly. You can also directly edit the Remaining Work value.

As shown in Figure 14-2, a great view for recording actual and remaining work is the Task Usage view with the Work table displayed.

As you might recall from Chapter 6, “Assign resources to tasks,” the two sides of the usage view are split by a vertical divider bar. This view lists resources under the tasks to which they’re assigned. This information appears in the table on the left side. On the right side are rows organized under a timescale. The rows show you the scheduled work values for each task and assigned resource. The Task Usage view color-codes the rows on the right side: task rows have a shaded background, and assignment rows have a white background.

Let’s walk through some examples of entering actual work, starting in the Task Usage view with the Work table displayed. In Figure 14-3, you can see how this view shows work divided across resources.

The Work table includes the Actual Work and Remaining Work columns. The values in the Work column are the task-level and assignment-level totals for scheduled work. Note that each task’s work value is the sum of its assignment work values.

In a usage view, you see work values at two different levels of detail: the total value for a task or assignment on the left and the more detailed timephased level on the right. These two sets of values are directly related. Consider, for example, a task named Original art review, which is task 18 in the plan. The 164 hours of total work for task 18 is the sum of Hany Morcos’s 82 hours of work on the task plus Jane Dow’s 82 hours of work.

In the timephased grid, the scheduled work values per time period are displayed—daily, in this example. If you add the daily work values for a specific task or assignment, the total equals the value in the Work column for that task or assignment.

Let’s look more closely at the results of entering an actual work value. In this example, when you enter 92 hours of actual work on task 18, Project distributes the actual work among the assigned resources and adjusts their remaining work, as Figure 14-4 shows.

Several important actions occur when you enter the actual work on task 18:

• Project applies change highlighting to the updated values in the table.

• The amount of actual work entered is subtracted from the Remaining Work column (labeled Remaining in the Work table).

• The actual work is distributed to the two assignments on the task, resulting in 46 hours of actual work recorded for Hany Morcos and 46 hours for Jane Dow. Likewise, the remaining work values are recalculated for each assignment.

• The updated actual and remaining work values are rolled up to the Acquisition summary task and to the Project summary task.

Now that you’ve seen the effect of recording actual work at the task level, let’s look at entering actual work at the assignment level. Again, we focus on task 18. When you assigned 92 hours of work to the task, Hany Morcos was assigned 46 hours of that work. Now, after recording the actual work of 62 hours for Hany, you can see that her actual and remaining work values are updated; those updates also roll up to the task and its summary task, as shown in Figure 14-5. (Project highlights the changed values.) However, the actual and remaining work values for Jane Dow, the other resource assigned to the task, are not affected.

Tracking a task’s actual work complete value is more detailed than entering a simple percentage complete value on a task. However, neither method is as detailed as entering timephased actual work for tasks or assignments (as you’ll see in the next topic). Nothing’s wrong with tracking actual work at the task or assignment level (or simply entering a percentage complete value, for that matter), if that level of detail meets your needs. In fact, whether or not you see the timephased details, Project always distributes any percentage complete or task- or assignment-level actual work value you enter into corresponding timephased values.

When automatic cost calculation is turned off, you can enter or import actual costs in the Actual field at either the task or assignment level. This field is available in several locations, such as the Cost table. You can also enter actual cost values daily or at another interval in any timescale view, such as the Task Usage or Resource Usage views. To do so, with a usage view displayed, select Actual Cost on the <View Name> Format tab, in the Details group.

To record actual and remaining work per task

1. On the View tab, in the Task Views group, select Task Usage to display the Task Usage view.

2. On the View tab, in the Data group, select Tables and then select Work to display the Work table.

3. In the Actual column for the task for which you want to record actual work, enter an actual work value.

4. If you want, enter a new Remaining Work value for the task.

To record actual and remaining work per assignment

1. Display the Task Usage view and the Work table.

2. In the Actual column for the assigned resource for which you want to record actual work, enter an actual work value.

3. If you want, enter a new Remaining Work value for the assignment.

Track timephased actual work for tasks and assignments

Chapter 8 introduced you to simpler ways of tracking actuals in a plan. These include recording the percentage of a task that’s been completed, in addition to its actual start and finish dates. These methods of tracking progress are fine for many projects, but Project Online desktop client also supports more detailed ways of tracking.

This topic introduces techniques to track work per time period, such as actual work completed per week or per day. Information distributed over time is commonly referred to as being timephased, so tracking work by time period, and frequently by resource, is sometimes referred to as tracking timephased actuals. This is the most detailed level of tracking progress available in Project.

As with the simpler tracking methods, tracking timephased actuals helps you address the most basic questions of managing a project:

• Are tasks starting and finishing as planned? If not, what is the impact on the project’s finish date?

• Are resources spending more or less time than planned to complete tasks?

• Is more or less money being spent than planned to complete tasks?

Entering timephased actuals requires more work from the project manager and also might require more work from resources if they have to inform the project manager of their daily or weekly actuals. However, using timephased actuals gives you far more detail about the plan’s task and resource status than the other methods used for tracking progress. Entering timephased values might be the best approach to take if you have a group of tasks or an entire plan that includes the following:

• High-risk tasks, such as those where work was estimated with a best-case scenario or where resources on the same task have different criteria for completing a task

• Tasks of relatively short duration, for which a variance of even one day could put the overall project at risk

• Tasks for which you want to develop or validate throughput metrics, or rates at which a specified quantity of a deliverable can be completed over a specified time period, such as Copyedit 3000 words per day

• Tasks in which sponsors or other stakeholders have an especially strong interest

• Tasks that require hourly billing for labor

When you need to track actual work at the most detailed level possible, use the Work table and the timephased grid in the Task Usage or Resource Usage view.

In the Task Usage view, you can enter timephased actual work at the task or assignment levels. In the Resource Usage view, you enter actuals at the assignment level. In both views, entering actual work in the left side of the view causes Project to update work values distributed over time in the right side of the view. In this topic, we look at the reverse: entering actual work in the timephased side of the view and seeing the results per task or assignment on the left side of the view.

The previous topic’s example featured the Task Usage view; this topic begins with the Resource Usage view, which is illustrated in Figure 14-6.

In both views, you can enter actual work values for individual assignments daily, weekly, or at whatever time period you want (by adjusting the timescale). For example, if a task has three resources assigned to it, and you know that two resources worked on the task for 8 hours one day and the third resource worked for 6 hours, you can enter these as three separate values on a timephased grid.

A key to working effectively in a usage view is correctly setting the timescale. You can change the zoom level of the timescale to control the time period in which you enter actual values in the timephased grid. For example, you can change the timescale to show weeks instead of days; when you enter an actual value at the weekly level, that value is distributed over the week.

Here’s an example of entering timephased actuals in a usage view. As you saw in the previous topic, the scheduled work per task, resource, or assignment is equal on the two sides of a usage view. The difference is that the scheduled work is shown as a single total value on the left side but is distributed over time on the right side.

We begin in the timephased grid of the Task Usage view with the Work table displayed, as shown in Figure 14-7. Here you can record actual work for task 19, Author review of content edit.

As you saw in the previous topic, the actual work recorded on the task is distributed to its assignments. In the timephased grid, you can see how the actual work gets distributed per time period.

Next, as Figure 14-8 shows, you can enter actual work on the assignment in the timephased grid.

In this example, the actual work values entered for the assignments differ from the scheduled work. Project accounts for the difference by adjusting the scheduled work at the end of the assignments, as illustrated in Figure 14-9.

When you record actual work in the table on the left side of the view, Project records the actual work to match the scheduled work in the timephased grid on the right side of the usage view. The main advantage of entering actual work in the timephased grid instead of in the table on the left side of the view is that you can precisely control the dates for which the actual work gets recorded.

To record timephased actual work in the Task Usage view

1. On the View tab, in the Task Views group, select Task Usage to display the Task Usage view.

2. On the Task Usage Format tab, in the Details group, select Actual Work. The Actual Work detail row appears in the timephased portion of the view.

3. If needed, adjust the timescale to match the time interval at which you want to enter actual work (for example, daily or weekly): on the View tab, in the Zoom group, select the Timescale arrow and then select the timescale time unit you want.

4. In the timephased grid, at the intersection of the task or assignment and the date you want, enter an actual work value.

To record timephased actual work in the Resource Usage view

1. Display the Resource Usage view and Actual Work detail, and adjust the timescale as needed.

2. In the timephased grid, at the intersection of an assignment and the date you want, enter an actual work value.

Reschedule incomplete work

During the course of a project, work might occasionally be interrupted for a specific task or for the entire project. If this happens, you can have Project reschedule the remaining work to restart after the date you specify.

When you reschedule incomplete work, you specify the date after which work can resume—the rescheduled date. You can see in Figure 14-10 that you reschedule incomplete work in the Update Project dialog.

Project handles tasks and the rescheduled date in these ways:

• If the task does not have any actual work recorded for it before the rescheduled date and does not have a constraint applied, the entire task is rescheduled to begin after that date.

• If the task has some actual work recorded before the rescheduled date but none after it, the task is split so that all remaining work starts after the rescheduled date. The actual work is not affected.

• If the task has some actual work recorded for it before and after the rescheduled date, the task is not affected.

To reschedule incomplete work

1. To reschedule work only for specific tasks, select those tasks first.

2. On the Project tab, in the Status group, select Update Project to open the Update Project dialog.

3. Select Reschedule uncompleted work to start after and, in the date box, enter or select the date you want.

4. Do one of the following:

   • Select Selected tasks to reschedule work for only the selected tasks.

   • Select Entire project to reschedule work for the entire project.

5. Select OK.

Skills review

In this chapter, you learned how to

• Update a baseline

• Track actual and remaining work for tasks and assignments

• Track timephased actual work for tasks and assignments

• Reschedule incomplete work

Practice tasks

The practice files for these tasks are located in the ProjectDesktopSBSCh14 folder. For practice file download instructions, see the introduction to this book.