Steve
Fri Jan 07 16:43:36 CST 2005
Your belief is not quite accurate <g>. First of all, BCWP refers to the
work performed but % Complete refers to the duration elapsed during which
the work has taken place. % Complete may be, and often is, the same as %
Work Complete but that's by no means always the case. Imagine a situation
where we're painting a room. We're going to apply a couple of coats of
primer followed by a couple of colour coats and then after the colour has
dried we're going to finish all the trim. It takes 1 hour to apply a coat
of paint and we're going to allow 24 hours drying time between coats. We're
scheduled to work 1 hour Mon, 1 hour Tue, 1 hour Wed, 1 hour Thu, and then
do all the finishing in 8 hours on Fri. The duration is 40 hours, the work
is 12 hours, and our Budgeted Cost for the task is 12hours * $XX per hour.
We update progress Thu afternoon at 5pm. At that point 32 hours of the 40
total duration has transpired so we're 80% Complete. BUT, we've only burned
4 hours of the total 12 man-hours of work to be done so we're only 33% Work
Complete. In this case 80% Complete * 12 man-hours Budgeted Work @ $XX/hour
does NOT give you the correct BCWP - it should be 12hours * 33% * $XX per
hour.
The BCWP and the ACWP will be the same if the resource costs and duration
have not changed since the baseline was saved. But if you used more or less
materials than estimated or if you've substituted resources for those
originally scheduled who have different rates than the original ones or if
you've had to call in OT to get the task done on time or if the duration for
the task at completion is more or less the originally expected duration,
then the BCWP and ACWP can be different. For example, let's say your
resources get $10 per hour and you expected the task to take 40 hours to
complete. BAC (Budget At Completion) is $400. When you finish, BCWP and
ACWP are also $400 IF it actually takes 40 hours. But let's say you blew
the estimate and it actually takes 60 hours to finish. At task completion
BCWS is $400, BCWP is $400 and ACWP is $600. Why is BCWP only $400?
Because your *budget* is the original baseline, not the revised, longer,
schedule.
If you want to de-couple the % Complete from the Work so you can enter them
independently you can certainly do so. In the Tools menu, Options settings,
Calculation page uncheck the box for "Updating task status updates resource
status." But if you do, you need to make sure you enter the progress
information correctly for both duration progress and work performed.
HTH
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit
http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs
"Stefan Robert" <srobert.DELETEME@b2b2c.ca> wrote in message
news:200501071513528930%srobertDELETEME@b2b2cca...
> Hi,
>
> is there a way to make MS-Project not change the % completed of a task
> when I enter the Actual Work done for that task?
>
> The reason is that when I enter the Actual work done for a task, the BCWP
> and ACWP are always identical.
>
> As I beleive, BCWP the (budgeted cost for the task * % completed) and the
> ACWP should be the cost of the actual work done, right?
>
> So is there a way to enter the actual work and the % completed as two
> different values not related?
>
> Stefan
>