MS Project - how do you calculate EV on 'free projects'
Andrew BudkiewiczProject Manager| Eli Lilly& Co LtdBasingstoke, United Kingdom
I work in an organisation that has its own internal IT dept, we run 2 types of projects. Application (which we charge for) and Infrastructure (which we do not directly charge). We use MS Project server and I was looking at using hrs as the EV unit rather than $. But when it comes to calculating BCWS I cant duplicate the calculation so it takes into account the status date, ie so it will not include in the calculation those task (hrs) that are planned in the future (rather than just those task hrs up to the status date)
Is this calculation possible using the formula creater with project server? Saving Changes...
I have never liked the way MS Project deals with in-progress tasks when calculating earned value. It sounds as if you are running into a similar frustration. Updating the status date under the project properties should help update the SV and EV amounts, but it might not use the method you want.
You do not need Project Server to fix this problem.
Instead, use the custom fields in MS Project to calculate the correct values, using custom formulas. For instance, I like to mark tasks as "earned" only when they are 100% complete, so I have a custom formula that reflects that treatment.
You can then run your own customized Earned Value reports, using your custom fields instead of the built-in ones.
Because MS Project cannot do a proper "S-curve" chart, I often export the MS Project data into Excel, instead of using the custom fields in MS Project. Exporting to Excel lets me use custom formulas and it also lets me produce the classic graphs that I need. Saving Changes...
George JucanManaging Partner| Organizational Perfomance Enablers NetworkWoodbridge, Ontario, Canada
Hi Andrew,
Please take a look at “Effort-Based Project Forecasting” (http://www.gantthead.com/content/articles/228171.cfm) where I described an approach that might be similar to what you’re looking for (tool included).
Hope it helps,
George's article is a good, practical example of how to get MS Project data in and out of MS Excel for a custom graph. It is very similar to how I do EVM, but with different formulas and calculations to calculate EVM properly for my projects.
Re-reading your question, I also realized one trick that you might not be using -- put in $1 per hour as the rate for every resource. That will force MS Project to calculate the earned value numbers. It will say that the earned value is expressed in dollars, but you will know that it is really just a measure of work-hours.
Of course, this work-around means that the dollar values in your schedule are meaningless, but I assume that you are not tracking budgets and actual costs in these schedules anyway. Saving Changes...
Andrew BudkiewiczProject Manager| Eli Lilly& Co LtdBasingstoke, United Kingdom
Thanks for the tips, I dont think EV calculation is acheivable, we have some resources with hrly rates and some that dont, and we charge out the application projects directly and indirectly for infrastructure through the accumulated costs reports. So unfortunately the $1 dollar suggestion will not work. I think I am going to stick with using the 'Status' firld for the project, which is simple but better than nothing
"I do not know anyone who has got to the top without hard work. That is the recipe. It will not always get you to the top, but should get you pretty near."
