Status Date
Late Tasks: Starts and Finishes
The Background Story… I have been a project manager for over forty years. Over that time, I got into the habit of checking my projects for late starts and finishes two or three times a month. This wou...
Rescheduling Incomplete Work As Part of a Project’s 4-Step Tracking Cycle
In the first two articles of this series, a four-step tracking cycle was defined. It includes setting the status date, entering actuals, rescheduling incomplete work, and resource leveling the remaini...
Tracking Starts with a Status Date
There are four steps involved in tracking a project: setting the status date, entering actuals and schedule revisions, rescheduling incomplete work, and resource leveling the remaining schedule. Thes...
Closing Out a Project Schedule in PWA
A proactive project portfolio management (PPM) system includes proper governance to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the data. An essential element of this governance is addressing projects that a...
The 7 Habits of Proactive Microsoft PPM Users: Habit 7
Sharpen the Saw No doubt you know the story of the man in the forest who is too busy sawing to stop and sharpen the saw. Every day we come across project managers who are too busy updating their sched...
Tip: Trust Your Formulas!
Have you ever had a situation where a tested, tried and true formula was producing an “incorrect” result? Recently one of my client schedulers wanted to know, “How can a formula prod...
7 Incorrect Ways to Use Microsoft Project: Forgetting to Set a Status Date
This is the last article of this series highlighting common incorrect uses of Microsoft Project. The images are built using the Microsoft Project 2013 Pro edition, but this series can be useful for al...
Ask the Teacher: Earned Value Doesn’t Want to Calculate
Barbara from Denver, CO asks: I want to used earned value calculations to help manage my projects. However, when I look at the BCWS and BCWP fields, the data doesn’t seem to be calculated. What’...