MSP S-Curves - HELP!
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We have a detailed design & procurement programme in MSP 2003. It isnt resourced or cost loaded and the client is requesting s-curves detailing progress on the overall programme and graphs for the design element and some of the major equipment orders. So i need to figure a way of getting the data from MSP to EXCEL. The programme is baselined. So im looking for graphs showing the planned, actual, early & late for different elements of the programme. I recall many years ago we used to extract data from MSP 97 and import into EXCEL because the function that the company had within MSP was not very good.
I just need a % progress against time. Im working on resourcing and cost loading - a case of one step at a time.
This may be a real no brainer to most of you guys - but any help would be much appreciated.
Cheers
13 replies
Oldest first- 0Mal Leadbetter ·Matt
You could create a resource call Progress Unit, give it a rate of £1/day, make sure activity is fixed units. When you load the activity this should give a resource loading equal to the activity duration in terms of actual duration and remaining duration.
This information can be exported to Excel via the Analysed Timescaled Data in Excel and graph basically Activity Days interms of actual, remaining and earned based upon a value of 1 day equals £1
Its not perfect, but it works, you just need to be careful and sense check the programme against the graphical output - 0Nicolas Igersheim ·Hi Matt,
If you are only interested in form
(aren’t we all)
you could do follow the procedure I used recently
when a PitN of a Client insisted on an S-curve when I definitely did not have time to do it.
Insert a column showing percent complete.
Tools Options show overall project task.
Then do for each month starting with next until last.
- Options Follow-up Update project
- type in next month date
- note percent complete
You will have an S-curve, nice and jolly
but of course signifying nothing,
since it is not resource loaded,
long light tasks will "weigh" the same as short heavy ones.
But again
Form before Function - 0Rafael Davila ·Matt
In order to get your S Curves you will first have to resource/cost load your schedule. Then MS Project will give you Early S Curves. You can generate Late Curves by making a copy of your Schedule and setting all unfinished activities with a finish as late as possible constraint.
From the Task Usager or Resource Usage views you will be able to select your data for a copy and paste into Excel. Alternatively for MS Project 2007 you can use the Reports Function under Report/Reports/Workloads/Task Usage or Resource Usage for this purposes. Edit your report as to select the desired values such as cost, work or earned value. In a similar way you can edit your Visual Reports/Assigment Usage/EV over Time Report.
The following link will provide you with an Excel Template I uploaded to Rapidshare. It has two options, one is a Combined Graph showing amounts and the other one is an XY-line Plot showing percentages. There is a hidden column used for calculating Totals, required for % computations, just look at the formulas. For jobs requiring more time periods you can insert intermediate columns, copy and drag formulas into the appropriate cells as required.
Excel Template for S Curves
Another option would be to use an MS Project macro. The following link provides a free macro for these purposes.
Free S-Curves Macro Download
Best regards,
Rafael - 0Trevor Rabey ·
You can only graph something
You can only graph something which accumulates over time on the vertical axis against time on the horizontal axis.
The only things that are candidates for the accumulating certical axis are duration, work and cost.
Usually, the work and cost of a task are derived from the work and cost of the assigned resources.
Of course, it is also possible, but not recommended, to assign work and/or cost to a task without a resource assignment.
If you are not resourcing the tasks then you will not have any work against any task, and probably also no cost, so you have nothing which accumulates to graph.
Early curves can be achieved by making both the task and the accrual as early as possible, and late curves the opposite.
As suggested above, you could create a fictional resource called "$1 per day" with that rate and assign it to every task. You could make it earlier by setting the resource accrual to the start of the tasks, and then graph cumulative cost and that would be basically the same thing as cumulative duration. To get the early version of this you could use the tasks all scheduled ASAP without any resource leveling. To get the late version of this you could set all tasks to ALAP, as well as delaying tasks by leveling if necessary. But cumulative duration is a meaningless metric, so why bother?
You can make various S shaped cumulative curves, depending on the timing of the tasks and the accrual, and also especially on which quantity is accumulating. But S curves of anything, early or late, while perhaps useful for other purposes such as cash flow, do not provide any sensible or useful measure of progress. So it is just eye candy for the client.
- 0Rafael Davila ·
Sory I no longer have the
Sory I no longer have the file as I am not a regular MS Project user I erased them long ago. Erasing from rapidshare was perhaps an error I did not noticed. I try to keep forever all my postings for the free use of PP members.
http://www.planningplanet.com/forums/microsoft-project/420186/msp-s-curves-earlylate
I believe S Curves are just a birdseye view of the progress and find more useful the histograms based on early dates. They provide me with a meaningful view of assigments in a graphical way.
Still Owner needs the birdseye view of AWACS. The software shall provide for the needs of all.
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