How can I calculate the number of days missing the deadline?

I am trying to create a report that shows deadlines and assigns a value of On
Target, Yellow or Red. If I miss the deadline date I want to programatically
assign a value of Red. How do I determine if a task is a deadline and how do
I identify when it is late? I keep getting ERROR on any calculations.

Jim
Wed Jun 07 19:02:20 CDT 2006

Mick,

I am not quite sure I understand what you mean by, "how do I determine
if a task is a deadline".

I have answered the second part of your question below.

If by deadline date you mean the "Deadline" field in Project then my
approach is as follows.
1. Create a numeric Custom field, say Number1.
2. Enter a formula to calculate the difference between the Finish date
and the Deadline date. For example, a simple version is:
DateDiff('d',[Finish],[Deadline]).
3. View the data as Numeric data to verify that the formula works as
desired.
4. Update the Custom Field to display Graphical Indicators instead of
Data in the "Values to Display" portion of the custom field dialog box.
5. Enter the conditions for each indicator and select an indicator. For
example, for my Red indicator if any task where the planned finish date
is more than 5 days later than the deadline then I would make my first
criteria, Less than -5.

Simply put, I create a numeric custom field with a formula and verify
the formula before I begin working with the indicators.

You could just as easily use a baseline field as the basis for
determining the lateness of a task instead of using the Deadline field,
assuming that you are saving the baseline.

Hope this helps,
Jim P.

Mick wrote:
> I am trying to create a report that shows deadlines and assigns a value of On
> Target, Yellow or Red. If I miss the deadline date I want to programatically
> assign a value of Red. How do I determine if a task is a deadline and how do
> I identify when it is late? I keep getting ERROR on any calculations.

Steve
Mon Jun 12 05:19:04 CDT 2006

Jim pointed you in the right direction. Tasks themselves aren't deadlines -
tasks are observable physical activities or milestone events, never simply
dates.. They start and finish on whatever date they start and finish. A
deadline is a target date for the task finish that is associated with the
activity. You can track and calculate whether the projected or actual
finish of the task is before, on, or after its designated deadline.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs



"Mick" <Mick@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1EEA3E7C-75A1-4D26-A297-49EA0874662C@microsoft.com...
>I am trying to create a report that shows deadlines and assigns a value of
>On
> Target, Yellow or Red. If I miss the deadline date I want to
> programatically
> assign a value of Red. How do I determine if a task is a deadline and how
> do
> I identify when it is late? I keep getting ERROR on any calculations.

Rob
Mon Jun 12 09:22:29 CDT 2006

Mick wrote:
> I am trying to create a report that shows deadlines and assigns a value of On
> Target, Yellow or Red. If I miss the deadline date I want to programatically
> assign a value of Red. How do I determine if a task is a deadline and how do
> I identify when it is late? I keep getting ERROR on any calculations.

Take a look at the two fields, "Status" and "Status Indicator", that are
pre-defined in Project and automatically computed, and see if they do
the trick for you. Info is in Help, and you can display on them on any
task view, e.g. the Gantt view. Will work with deadline tasks (tasks
with duration=0) as well as with "normal" tasks.

To compute a "yellow" value, requires you to define in some sort of
algorithm what "yellow" means. A more productive and standard way for
you to do this may well be to exploit Earned Value Analysis which
Project can do for you.

tonyzink
Mon Jun 12 09:47:56 CDT 2006


Hi Mick --

How are you tracking your deadline dates in MSProject? There are a few
different ways to do this, as sophisticated as the built-in "deadline"
and "baseline" functions, or as simple as setting milestone dates or
saving deadline dates into a custom date field. The best answer to your
question depends upon how you are using the tool.

If you are using the "deadline" or "baseline" functions, or if you are
saving the deadline dates into a separate date field (i.e. the Date1
field), then it is quite easy to indicate the status of your tasks...
either numerically ("x days"), textually ("Yellow"), or graphically.
Let us know how you're tracking your deadline dates, and I'm sure that
one of the nice folks out here will be more than happy to post a
formula for you.

Good luck!

Tony Zink
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