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Budgeted resorses moves with data dates

7 replies [Last post]
Reza Hasheminia
User offline. Last seen 16 years 14 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 10 Dec 2007
Posts: 7
Dear Gordon,
Thanks for your responce, I’ve updated resources and unit % complete is calculated aoutomaticaly but my problem is the budgeted unit which is assigned to activities that has not got actual yet, budgeted units move after data date.
I think budgeted units in current plan which is updated with new data date should be quite equal to budgeted unit in baseline.
I work with P3e-5.
Thanks.

Replies

Alex Wong
User offline. Last seen 10 years 51 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 12 Feb 2003
Posts: 874
Groups: TILOS
Gents

The key point out of this discussion is to understand some concepts in P5

BL - will reflect current Plan start/finish if a primary baseline is not exist
BL - will reflect base on the baseline project plan start/finish if baseline does exist
Early&Plan Start/Finish - will move alonside with DD (Data date) if the activity did not start

In order to display correctly with the S-Curve Plan vs Actual vs Forecast you need to have a correct baseline project setup with a scheduled plan dates

HTH

Alex
Dieter Wambach
User offline. Last seen 6 years 47 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 15 Jan 2007
Posts: 1350
Hi Reza
I’m afraid that with standard reports + Editor you can’t acheive what you need. At least I don’t know another solution than to ask for a programmer’s help and to use SQL.
In Report group "Activities" you can compare with a BL, but no material resources available.
With user defined fields you can’t get to time distributed data.

Does anybody else have a solution for this item?

Regards
Dieter
Reza Hasheminia
User offline. Last seen 16 years 14 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 10 Dec 2007
Posts: 7
Dear Dieter,
Thanks for your response, using activity usage profile is not useful because you may have more than one resource with different units for instance reinforcing in kg, form working in m², concreting in m³, so that the summarised amount you get in this field is useless.
In addition when you plan (budget) an activity in a specific period, but for any reason this activity doesn’t start, after schedule you are not able to have the deviation of what was supposed to do and what have been done. So that how can you report the exact amount of job that is achieved in comparison of what you supposed to?
This is the thing that drives me nuts!
Sincerely,
Reza,
Dieter Wambach
User offline. Last seen 6 years 47 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 15 Jan 2007
Posts: 1350
Hi Reza

Just for additional explanation:
Budgeted... can be modified until an activity was started. --> you can compare what happened while the activity was performed.
Baseline: a certain (frozen) status of the project - customers signature, after a change of scope...
Regards
Dieter
Dieter Wambach
User offline. Last seen 6 years 47 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 15 Jan 2007
Posts: 1350
Hi Reza
In the Resource usage profile you can’t see the baseline.
Two icons to the left you have the "activity usage profile": there you can mark the BL as to be shown. Alternatively you’ll open the tracking view.
Regards
Dieter
Reza Hasheminia
User offline. Last seen 16 years 14 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 10 Dec 2007
Posts: 7
Dear Dieter,
Many thanks for your attention replying my questions. Regarding multi suspension activities, I’ll add more activities according to your recommendation.
Regarding resources’ budgeted unit, I think I couldn’t convey the issue very well. So let me pose the issue as below.
1: I defined activities, durations & relationships, all activities are “Fixed duration & unit” & “Physical % complete”.
2: I defined resources and assign them to activities and apply “budgeted units” for assigned resources.
3: I create project baseline as initial plan.
4: I applied actual for dates and resource actual units & remaining units.
5: I set the project baseline the initial plan.
6: you must consider that some activities which were supposed to be completed in the interval of planned and new data date were not started because of some milestones.
Then when I wanted to compare the budgeted unit with actual unit in the “Resource assignments” & “Resource usage profile” & “Resource usage spreadsheet” to find out the amount of jobs which was supposed to be done and the amount of jobs which has been done, there were not the correct result, because budgeted units moved after data date.
After I tried to add the “BL project nonlabor units” to the “Resource usage profile” which exists in “Columns” but it’s impossible, and then try to add in the “Resource usage spreadsheet” which is not exists in the “Customize spreadsheet field” and I failed to make the comparison.
Now according to your explanations about this issue I found that: when not started activities move after data date (which should move), they move their assigned resource’s budgeted units as well, So that we are not able to have the amount of original budgeting and actual units simultaneously in the “Resource usage profile”.
But how we can compare the budgeted units and the actual units in the “Resource usage profile” and get the deviation of “Budgeted & Actual”, I think the software should consider the BL budgeted units & the current project actual units in order to be able to check & investigate the status of the project at least in the “Resource assignments”.
How can I make the comparison? What is your recommendation?
Apologize for my long letter!
Your prompt answer will be highly appreciated.
Sincerely,
Reza,
Dieter Wambach
User offline. Last seen 6 years 47 weeks ago. Offline
Joined: 15 Jan 2007
Posts: 1350
Hi Reza
Budgeted units move with the activity when it’s not started - i.e. the started flag is not marked. After you had started an activity the budgeted units will remain as they had been when the activity was started - the start flag marked.
The data date is very important for scheduling: Everything before did happen, everything on and after the data date will happen. (Exception: Future actuals in combination with the paramenter "Actuals" selected in the options for scheduling).
If you move the data-date and schedule (F9), all activities originally scheduled for an earlier date will be shifted to data-date=start.
You wrote that activities move with the data-date. So they are not marked as "started" and their bdgeted units will move accordingly.
Regards
Dieter