Background Information
The use of stoplight indicators is entirely dependent
on your organization’s project management methodologies for rating date
slippage, cost over budget, and work over budget. Before your Project Server
administrator attempts to create stoplight indicators, your organization must
decide its tolerance for project and task variance, and describe what levels of
variance generate each specific graphical indicator. Beyond this, your
organization must also decide where to display the graphical indicators. The
choices are as follows: in a View in Microsoft Project Professional, in a
Project Center view in Project Web Access, and in a detailed Project view in
Project Web Access. The results of your decision-making process will guide your
Project Server administrator in creating the stoplight indicators according to
your variance reporting needs.
Note: For
the purpose of this FAQ, I am assuming the following:
·
Your organization wants to use stoplight indicators to show the severity of date
slippage (Finish Variance).
·
Your organization wants the stoplight indicators to show the severity of date
slippage Early/On Schedule, Late, or Very Late.
·
Your organization needs to display stoplight indicators in a task View in
Microsoft Project Professional and in both a Project Center view and a detailed
Project view in Project Web Access.
·
Your organization’s project managers save a Baseline for each of their projects
before updating actuals into the project. If they are not presently doing so,
they must begin baselining their projects immediately; otherwise, the slippage
indicators will be useless to your organization.
Create Custom Enterprise Task
and Project Fields
To create the Finish Variance stoplight indicators,
the Project Server administrator must create a custom enterprise Task field by
completing the following steps:
1. Launch
Microsoft Project Professional and log into Project Server with administrator
permissions
2. Click Tools -
Enterprise Options - Open Enterprise Global
3. Click Tools -
Customize - Enterprise Fields
4. Select the
"Task" set of fields, select Duration as the field Type, and select the
Enterprise Duration1 field
5. Click the
Rename button, rename the field "Date Slippage" and click OK
6. Click the
Formula button
7. Click the
Field button, select the Date fields, and select the Finish Variance field
8. Click OK and
then click the OK button again when warned about overwriting data
9. Select the
"Use formula" option in the Calculation for task and group summary rows section
10. Click the
Graphical Indicators button
11. Enter
something similar to the following, based on your company's methodologies (make
sure you order the tests from the largest value to the smallest value):
| Test |
Value(s) |
Image |
| Is greater than or equal to |
20d |
Red stoplight |
| Is greater than or equal to |
10d |
Yellow stoplight |
| Is greater than or equal to |
0d |
Green stoplight |
| Is less than |
0d |
Green smiley face |
12. Click OK
To create the Finish Variance stoplight indicators,
the Project Server administrator must also create a custom enterprise Project
field by completing the following steps:
1. Select the
"Project" set of fields, select Duration as the field Type, and select the
Enterprise Project Duration1 field
2. Click the
Rename button, rename the field "Schedule Slippage" and click OK
3. Click the
Import Custom Field button
4. In the Import
Custom Field dialog, set the Field type value to Task, and select the Enterprise
Duration1 (Date Slippage) field
5. Click OK and
then click OK again
6. Save the
Enterprise Global file
Create a Custom Table and
View in Microsoft Project Professional
The Project Server administrator must create a custom
Table in Microsoft Project Professional to display the stoplight indicators for
each task in a project. To do so, complete the following steps:
1. Click View -
Table - More Tables
2. Select the
Variance table and click the Copy button
3. Name the table
something like "_Date Slippage"
4. Select the
"Show in menu" option
5. Select the
Start field and click the Insert Row button
6. Insert the
Date Slippage (Enterprise Duration1) field
7. Set the Align
Data value to Center for this new field
8. Delete all of
the Start fields (Start, Baseline Start, or Start Variance)
9. Cut the Finish
Variance field and Paste it directly below the new Date Slippage field
10. Click OK and
then click the Close button (do
not click the Apply button!)
11. Save the
Enterprise Global file
The Project Server administrator must create a custom
View to display the new “_Date Slippage” table. The new View must use the
Tracking Gantt screen. To do so, complete the following steps:
1. Click View -
More Views
2. Click the
Tracking Gantt view and click the Copy button
3. Name the new
View something like "_ Schedule Slippage"
4. Set the Table
value to the "_ Date Slippage" table
5. Click OK and
then click the Close button (do
not click the Apply button!)
The Project Server administrator must delete any
non-enterprise objects that the system copied into the Enterprise Global
automatically while creating the new Table and View. To do so, complete the
following steps:
1. Click Tools -
Organizer
2. Select the
Tracking Gantt view on the right side of the dialog and click the Delete button
3. Click the Yes
button when prompted to delete the View
4. Click the
Tables tab
5. Select the
Variance table on the right side and delete it as well
6. Click the Yes
button when prompted to delete the Table
7. Click the
Close button
8. Save and close
the Enterprise Global
9. Close
Microsoft Project Professional
Create Custom Views in
Project Web Access
To display the stoplight indicators in a detailed
Project view in Project Web Access, the Project Server administrator should
complete the following steps:
1. Log into
Project Web Access with administrator permissions
2. Click Admin -
Manage views
3. Select the
Tasks Summary view in the Project section and click the Copy View button
4. Name the new
View something like “_Task Stoplight Summary” and click OK
5. Select the new
“_Task Stoplight Summary” view and click the Modify View button
6. Add the
Enterprise Duration1 (Date Slippage) field to the custom View
7. Select the
Enterprise Duration1 (Date Slippage) field and use the Up button to position the
field directly below the Task Name field
8. Click the Save
Changes button and then click OK
To display the stoplight indicators in a Project
Center view in Project Web Access, the Project Server administrator should
complete the following steps:
1. Scroll to the
Project Center section, select the Tracking view, and click the Copy button
2. Name the new
View something like “_Stoplight Summary” and click OK
3. Select the new
“_Stoplight Summary” view and click the Modify View button
4. Add the
Enterprise Project Duration1 (Schedule Slippage) field to the custom View
5. Select the
Enterprise Project Duration1 (Schedule Slippage) field and use the Up button to
position the field directly below the Project Name field
6. Select the
Baseline Finish field and use the Up button to position the field directly below
the Enterprise Project Duration1 (Schedule Slippage) field
7. Select the
Finish field and use the Up button to position the field directly below the
Baseline Finish field
8. Click the Save
Changes button and then click OK
Apply the New View and
Publish Each Project in Microsoft Project Professional
Each project manager now needs to open each existing
project, apply the new custom View, and then recalculate the project by
completing the following steps:
1. Log into
Project Server through Microsoft Project Professional
2. Open an
existing project
3. Click the View
menu and select the _Date Slippage view
4. Press the F9
function key to manually recalculate the project and display the stoplight
indicators
5. Click
Collaborate - Publish - All Information
6. Repeat steps
#2-5 for every project in the Project Server database