Project 2013 Intermediate

Lesson 6 – Tracking Your Progress

Project 2013

T RACKING P ROGRESS

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Discussion

Once a project has started, it is extremely important that you track the progress of the individual tasks and the project as a whole. Tracking the project involves entering and revising date, cost, and work information; comparing the actual data to the baseline plan; and viewing project progress using the various tools provided by Microsoft Project. As a project progresses, you may discover tasks that start early or finish late, as well as tasks that cost more or less than expected. As you analyze the task relationships that exist, you may want to revise some of them in order to stay on or near schedule. You may need to modify tasks in order to meet the projected finish date. As you record the actual information into your project, Microsoft Project reschedules the tasks that are affected by this data. As you look at the affected tasks, you can take corrective action as soon as possible to minimize future problems. You can also look at various scenarios using what-if analysis to help you decide on the best solution. Microsoft Project provides several methods for recording progress. If a task has been completed according to schedule, you can mark it 100% complete. Then, all projected task information, such as the start and finish dates, duration, work, and costs are copied into the corresponding fields for actual data. Therefore, if a task with 16 hours in the Work field is completed as scheduled, 16 hours will be copied to the Actual Work field, along with the original start and finish dates, duration and costs. If all the tasks up to a certain date have been completed as scheduled, you can use that date to update multiple tasks at the same time.

You can also record information for tasks in progress by manually entering the percentage of the task currently completed or the number of hours the resources have already worked. In addition, if the task in progress is on schedule, you can use the current date or status date to automatically calculate the partial data.

For tasks that are not on schedule, such as those starting or finishing early and/or late, or requiring more or less work, you can enter specific information. For example, you can enter the actual start and finish dates or change the actual work and duration values.

Microsoft Project provides several tools to help you track the progress of your tasks. You can use the Tracking table, or the Work pane of the Task Form in the Detail split

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