Dependencies

Victoria Rollins

Hoping someone can help puzzle out a way to make this work!

I'm trying to find a way to show the original estimate at the beginning of the project compared to the updated estimate based on how the project is going, without having to refer to the version history (so we can run alerts and formatting and such.)

Essentially what I am trying to do is populate an estimated start/end date for each task at the beginning of a project, and then have the estimated start date update based on when an actual completion date is entered for it's predecessor (and then roll down the estimate column.) We want to track how long/when tasks should be completed versus when they are.

I currently have the following setup:

Estimated Start Date column (listed as start date in dependency setup)
Estimated End Date column (listed as end date in dependency setup)
Actual End Date column (manual entry)
Duration column (listed as duration in dependency setup)
Predecessor column (listed as predecessor in dependency setup)

This populates the dates, but doesn't update them with the actuals (or updated estimates).

I also tried having the actual end date referenced in the dependency and using a formula of estimated start + estimated duration, but this only gives the next tasks date once the actual date is entered. Is there a way to pre-populate the estimates and then update with the actuals?

PPS Solutions

• Hi Victoria, would the following work for you:-

• 1) Add in an Actual Start Date column too.
• 2) Add your orignal estimated dates into Actual Start and Actual Finish
• 3) Configure your Start and End Date columns to use Actual Start and Actual Finish values
• 4) Copy all your estimated dates from Actual Start and Actual Finish into Estimated Start Date and Estimated Finish Date.
• 5) Update Actual Start and Actual Finish values as the project progresses with the latest forecasts/completion dates.
• 6) Use a fomula to compare Estimated dates v Actual dates to understand how much the original estimate has varied.

Does that help or have I misunderstood?

Peter