Copyright: Copyright ® 1997 Asta Group plc
Citation: Progress Expert V2 Copyright ® 1997 Asta group plc.


Introduction

Progress Expert™ Version 2

Copyright © 1997 Asta Group plc.

Progress Expert is a tool accesses a PowerProject® project and produces a graph of the projects progress.

Two versions of the project are required.

One is the Original project  typically a baseline of the project created before any work commenced.

One is the Current project  an updated version with some tasks completed, partly completed and not yet started. The sequence, order, speed of work and work to complete may all have changed from the original intention.

Progress Expert answers the question, How are we progressing compared to our original intentions? by graphically presenting the following information:

From the original project, a cumulative curve based on tasks in their As Soon As Possible (ASAP) position is drawn.

A similar curve is also drawn from the original project with the tasks in their As Late As Possible (ALAP) positions.

From the current project a similar curve is drawn for those tasks which have been completed. Hopefully this lies between the ASAP and ALAP baseline curves.

A similar curve is drawn (starting at the point the progressed curved finished) projecting the work remaining to the projects completion.

All curves are highlighted in different colours and can be switched On and Off.

From this information the current position at the Report Date and the projected position at the End Date can be examined and optionally annotated to show if the project is on schedule and if it is projected to complete on time.

The resultant graph can be:

Printed

Exported to a CSV file - for import into other databases and analytical tools

Exported to a graphics file (WMF) - for import into other presentation tools. It can be imported as a Picture Annotation in PowerProject and over-laid on the body of the bar chart prior to output.

Several methods of calculating and projecting progress are possible. Progress Expert will support several methods and each one will produce a graph in its own Window.

In this release the methods supported are:

 Count The Squares (PSA Method)

 Weighted Count The Squares

 Resource Count The Squares

 Weighted Resource Count The Squares

Getting Started

Interpreting the graph

Output

Customization

Progress Expert uses OLE automation technology to communicate with PowerProject. You must have version 4.1 of PowerProject, or above, and have installed the software using the Installation process (as the install process lets Windows know about the OLE possibilities of PowerProject). The OLE connection means that Progress Expert will start PowerProject in the background (if not already running) and use it to carry out requests for information. This information is then presented by Progress Expert as progress graph. The OLE technology places a fairly heavy demand on your computer and with large projects the process can be quite slow. It is recommended that you have at least 16 Mb of RAM and a Pentium processor to operate Progress Expert.


Count The Squares

This simply takes each period in the project and counts how many activities occur during this time. This period total is accumulated and plotted as any of the above curves.

This is the simplest method and each activity is regarded to be of equal importance to the project.

The vertical scale is expressed simply as a percentage (0 - 100%) based on the total work in the Original project.

The Work to do curve can exceed the end point of the ASAP/ALAP curve. When this occurs activity durations in the Current project have been increased. This can be an indication of additional work in the project.

This method is based on the Planned Progress Monitoring, Professional Practice and Management Group, Directorate of Quantity Surveying Services, Department of Environment, Property Services Area, 1986 ISBN 0 86 177043 9


Weighted Count The Squares

This follows the same procedure as the Count the Squares method, but uses the activity duration of the Original project and spreads this across the duration of the activity in the Current project.

For example the original activity duration is 20 days and the current activity duration is 25 days long, then each day in this method is counted as being 0.8 (i.e. 20  25 = 0.8, rather than 1).

This means that the Work to do curve cannot exceed the end point of the ASAP/ALAP curve. Changes to the duration of activities in the Current project do not represent additional work. Any new activities of the Current project which are not in the Original project will be ignored by this method.


Resource Count The Squares

The resources Count The Squares method, performs the standard Count The Squares method using only those activities which have been assigned the specified resources.  The value of each square is calculated by taking the resource allocation for each activity and dividing that allocation by the duration of the activity.  This gives an allocation value for each working ½ day.  Segments which have been profiled are calculated by taking the total availability, and ignoring the profile data.  In the resource method as we can be taking a sub-set of activities, the ASAP and ALAP curve do not necessarily meet at the same end date.  Typically the ALAP curve will finish beyond the ASAP curve.


Weighted Resource Count the Squares

The weighted resource method, uses a sub-set of activities selected by the resource(s) you have chosen to include, and performs a Weighted Count of the activities.  The weighting is calculated by taking the baseline resource allocation and dividing by the current activity duration.

The weighted resource method will show additional resource allocations as overrun time, as the method assumes that the resource is used at the original (intended) rate.


Interpreting The Graph

General

Activities in the Original project are positioned in either their ASAP or ALAP location. In a particular position a total for each period of the project is calculated. From these period totals, a cumulative (running) total is calculated and this is plotted as a curve.

As the final value in either position (ASAP/ALAP) is the same the curves meet at the start and end point, but diverge between. This is often described as a banana curve. Providing a project lies between these two curves is can be considered on schedule.

The activities in the Current project are examined and a similar cumulative count for each period of the project calculated. Two sets of data are calculated and plotted as curves:

Completed activities (Actual progress)  including the completed portions of partially completed activities  are accumulated and plotted.

Uncompleted activities (Work to do)  including the uncompleted portions of partially completed activities  are accumulated and plotted.

The Work to do curve starts at the value the Actual progress curve finishes. Due to the possibility of a jagged report date the two curves may be displaced in time (horizontally).

Comparisons may be made between the Actual progress curve and the ASAP/ALAP at the project Report date. This gives an indication of how well the project is progressing.

Comparisons may be made between the Work to do curve and the ASAP/ALAP curve at the project End date. This gives a projection on how late/early a project might be and how much extra work might have been included in the project by completion.

The values used for these curves are governed by which of the methods, is chosen.


Getting Started

Starting work with Progress Expert is just a matter of the selecting the Progress Expert icon from the Start bar (Windows 95), or double-clicking on the icon in the PowerProject window of your Program Manager (Windows 3.11). The Progress Expert icon is show below;

If your copy of PowerProject is not already loaded and running, then once Progress Expert has started it will cause PowerProject to load (indicated by the brief appearance of the opening banner) and run in the background.  Once both Progress Expert and PowerProject are active you can proceed.

The steps to create a graphical progress report are;

1. 	Open The Projects

2. 	Select the information you wish to display by using the Configure | General menu option and using the Customize Dialog

3. 	Select the type of  Progress Graph by using the Cool Bar buttons or the menu options in the operations menu.

4. 	Print or Export the graph through the menu options or the clipboard.

5. 	Close Progress Expert via the File Exit menu.


Opening The Projects

Progress Expert requires two projects to be opened:

One is the current project which will have work already carried out and some tasks updated for progress.

The other is the original project - typically a baseline of the current project created before any work commenced. However, the original project can be any other project (PDB) you wish. It does not strictly have to be a baseline of the current project.

To open the projects, select the File  Open PDBs menu option.

If a project is already open is PowerProject you will be prompted to confirm closing it. PowerProject must have all projects closed before Progress Expert can operate.

If a project is already open in Progress Expert you will be prompted to confirm closing it.

1.	On the dialog presented click the Browse button for the Current project.

The standard Windows file selector is presented. This requires you to select a valid PowerProject

 file (pdb).

2.	Once the Current project has been opened the Browse button for the Original project becomes available. Click the Browse button and select the required pdb file.

3.	Confirm the dialog with OK.

NOTE: You may get a message from PowerProject indicating that the project is already loaded, however Progress Expert cannot load it.  This is usually caused by opening your original project which has a baseline set to Auto-Open.  To solve this problem, you should switch to PowerProject and close the baseline.  You should then switch back to Progress Expert and will be able to open the baseline as normal.


Customization

When choosing the Configure  General menu option you are presented with a dialog which controls the content and appearance of the progress graph. The dialog is divided into a number of sections.

General

This section contains a number of check boxes.  If an item is checked then the following action is taken:

Enable background processing. If the option is selected the data for the graph is being collected while other processes continue. This is the fastest method.

If the option is not selected processes occur sequentially. This is the slowest method.

Show animation. Guiding instructions during opening projects and progress indicators during processing are displayed or suppressed. Turning this option off may increase performance slightly, however it is only necessary to de-select this option if you have a slow computer.

Graph

Background.

The background of the graph on screen can be affected. Clicking on the Apply button will show you how the change will look before committing with the OK button.

Curves.

Switches the curves for the graph On/Off and sets the colour for each.

To switch a curve On ensure there is a tick  in the check box next to the curve you want.

Actual progress. Complete activities (or parts of an activity) in the Current project are accumulated and the curve displayed.

[Note. If the progressed activities are ahead of the report date (jagged report date) then the curve may extend beyond the report date.]

ASAP. All activities in the Original project are placed in their As Soon As Possible position and their effect accumulated.

ALAP. All activities in the Original project are placed in their As Late As Possible position and their effect accumulated.

Work to do. Uncompleted activities (or parts of an activity) in the Current project are accumulated and the curve displayed.

[Note. If the uncompleted activities are behind of the report date (jagged report date) then the curve may start before the report date.]

Palette

To set the colour for the graph curves and background:

Place the pointer over the colour you require.

Hold down the mouse until the [image] cursor appears.

Drag the cursor over the item you wish to change the colour of.

Release.

Alternativly you can double click on the item and a standard windows colour requester will appear.

Annotations

Text descriptions of values can be shown on the graph As these can be potentially quite small, or over-write one another when graph lines are close, they can also be displayed in the area set aside for the legend. Whilst working on screen they are displayed in the Window title bar.

Report date. The date in the Current project which separates the past from the future. This is shown as a thick vertical line with the date written in text.

·Graph border. An outline to the whole graph.

Time annotations. The amount of over-run is shown at the end of the project. i.e. by how much the end of the last activity in the Current project exceeds that of the Original project.

On graph. The value is displayed on the body of the graph.

On legend. The value is displayed in the legend area to the right of the graph.

Work % annotations. The amount of work (expressed as a percentage) which has been carried out minus that which should have been carried out. [Note. This can be in comparison with the ASAP or ALAP curve - see Bar Position below.]

At Report Date. The variance between the value of the Actual progress curve from the Current project with the ASAP/ALAP curve from the Original project at the report date.

[e.g. 35% of the work should have been complete at the report date on the ASAP curve. The Actual progress curve ends at a value of 27%. The value on the graph will be 8%.]

At End Date. The variance between the value of the Work to do curve from the Current project with the ASAP/ALAP curve from the Original project at the project completion. If a value at this point is obtained it denotes that additional work has been undertaken.

On graph. The value is displayed on the body of the graph.

On legend. The value is displayed in the legend area to the right of the graph.

Date zone. The area of dates at the foot of the graph is displayed, or hidden.

Vertical scale. The scale values, line, text and tick marks on one side of the graph are displayed, or hidden.

Left. On the left of the graph.

Right. On the right of the graph.

Legend. The sections describing the colour of each curve are displayed, or hidden.

Bar Position

The curve with which the data from the Current project is compared can be selected - even if the curve is switched off.

Measure against ASAP curve. Variance measure at the report date and project end date for the Current project are calculated against the ASAP curve from the Original project.

Measure against ALAP curve. Variance measure at the report date and project end date for the Current project are calculated against the ALAP curve from the Original project.


Output

Once a graph has been generated and is in the active window it may be output:

As a graphic to a single sheet of paper.

Exported as a graphic to the Windows Clipboard.

Saved as a standard Windows graphic vector file (wmf).

The numeric data behind the graph may also be export to a comma separated file (csv).

The size and shape of the image is governed by the paper size and orientation of the Windows printer driver. The graph is always made to fit a single page.

Printing

Choosing the File  Print menu option will send your report to the default Windows printer, using all current settings (e.g. paper size and orientation settings).  Output appears better when printing in landscape orientation.

You will be asked to confirm printing after which the print cannot be cancelled from within Progress Expert.

Exporting

To a Graphic File

Choosing the File  Save As menu option, setting the file type to Windows Metafile (WMF) and entering a file name and location in the File Selector will create a  Windows MetaFile (wmf).

A wmf file is a graphical image of the picture defined as a series of lines and text. This is known as a vector graphics file, is very compact in size and prints to the highest resolution.

This file type is easily imported into other applications which accept graphic images.

In particular it is intended that this option will be useful to interact with PowerProject. Some people like to see the progress curve over-laid on top of a bar chart.

This is possible if you:

Create a wmf in Progress Expert (to a file or the clipboard).

Then with the project open in PowerProject use the Annotation  Import Picture menu option to retrieve the wmf file. (You can also Edit  Paste if the graph is on the Clipboard).

If you import with the Use picture on disk option, then if you regenerate the progress graph it will automatically be correct the next time the project is opened in PowerProject.

The picture can then be stretched to fill the whole bar chart.

When the bar chart is output from PowerProject it will have the progress curve over-laid on the printout.

To the Clipboard

You can copy the active Window as a picture to the clipboard. Once on the Clipboard the picture can be Pasted into other Windows applications  see above.

With the Window you require active, choose the Edit  Copy menu option, or the shortcut Ctrl+C.

To a Text File

Choosing the File  Save As menu option, setting the file type to Comma Separated (CSV) and entering a file name and location in the File Selector will create a Comma Separated File (csv).

A csv file contains the data values of the report separated by a comma. This file type is easily imported into word processors, spreadsheets and database packages where the data can be manipulated and graphed in various other ways.