Deadline Follow-Up (v10.xx)

Deadline Follow-Up (v10.xx)

Are projects on-time?


The main project list provides some key information. The colored "Deadline" indicator icons provide a quick overview of project deadlines.



  1. Green: Project is on time. 
  2. Yellow: Actual expected end date is after planned end date.
  3. Red: Actual date is after expected end date and/or planned end date.


Note: Planned, actual (expected), and initial start and end dates can be displayed at the user’s discretion.


A project manager can access more information on project delays by opening the project description.


The "Project description" record above displays where more information on delays can be viewed.


Project deadline calculation



The project deadline, shown in the project header, is calculated as follows:

General


The project deadline is only computed for active projects. No deadline is computed for stand-by, cancelled or postponed projects. Once a project is completed, the deadline remains as it was upon completion.

Two deadlines are calculated:

  • Based on initial dates.

  • Based on planned dates.


A parameter in the setup determines which one is displayed. Hover over the deadline in the project description to see a tooltip indicating which deadline is shown. The parameter is located in the "General" setup document under the "Projects" table. By default, deadlines based on planned dates are displayed. Existing projects are updated when synchronized. Once they are updated, the modification of the parameter is applied at once. There is no need to synchronize the dates of the project again.
The project deadline is updated when synchronizing the plan, or directly from within the project description, by clicking the refresh icon in the "Plan" table.

Project not yet started


If an active project has no actual start date:

  1. Red: Initial/planned end date is in the past.
  2. Orange: Initial/planned start date is in the past.
  3. Green: Neither of the two conditions above are met.

Project started


Once an actual start date exists, calculations compare initial/planned end dates to the current end date (EAC in Cerri Planner).
  1. Red: EAC end date is in the past.
  2. Orange: EAC end date is after the initial/planned end date, but the initial/planned end date is not in the past.
  3. Green: EAC end date is in the future and not later than the initial/planned end date.


If deadlines cannot be calculated due to missing dates or inactive project status, a white dot is displayed.


Modifications in the project description


The project start date has moved from the "Plan" to the "Description" table .


The "Plan" table now includes a planned start date, which can be locked or unlocked. When the dates are locked, they are also calculated from the data in Cerri Planner.


Initial and EAC dates are also added to the "Plan" table, and hidden by default. An option allows to select between displaying or hiding them.


The dates of a new project are locked by default. EAC dates cannot be unlocked.

Delayed milestones (deliverables) and tasks



Project progress and delays are tracked through completed/delayed deliverables (milestones) and completed/delayed tasks. The project overview provides a report of this.


Note:  Refer to the "Project Overview" section for more details on color codes.

Calculation of delay



Two definitions of delay exist. In both, the task workload is required:

  1. Days behind scheduled progress.
  2. Remaining working days beyond remaining duration. The delay is calculated in days and gives a value X, which indicates how many days the task is allowed to be behind.

The delay is calculated in percentage of workload of the overall time from task (duration), not in full days. E.g. A 3-day workload for an assignment of 5-day duration will result in a daily workload of 60%.


Definition from Application Manager Manual:


Indicates after how many days an assignment is considered delayed, and the calculation mode to apply. (Note: a task is delayed as soon as one of its assignment is delayed)

Possible values for the calculation mode are:
  1. 'Days behind scheduled progress'
  2. 'Remaining working days beyond remaining duration'.
Default value is '0 days behind scheduled progress'. Delayed assignments are marked with a bomb icon in views.


Calculation of delay (Notes Help):


If the status of the corresponding task is 'Stand-by', 'Requested', 'In progress' or 'To control' and the assignment has no actual end date, the calculation is done according to the setup. So an assignment is delayed if:
  1. The assignment is not started and the planned start date is in the past,
  2. The assignment is started and the planned end date is in the past,
  3. The task is started and the planned end date is still in the future, but:
    1. The setup for delayed tasks is 'x days behind scheduled progress' and less work has been done on the task than planned.
    2. The setup for delayed tasks is 'x remaining working days beyond remaining duration' and there is not enough remaining duration to complete the task.


Note: Assignments from tasks marked as 'Never delayed' are 'Never delayed'.


'Days behind scheduled progress'

Case 3 example a.

To compute this case, it is considered that the assignment is being worked on regularly throughout the assignment duration. So if on the nth day the progress percentage is less than it should be then the assignment is late (depending on the gap defined in the setup).


Let us consider an assignment with a duration of 5 days and a workload of 3 days. The default gap was kept, that is 0 days.


On day 4 the actual workload is 2 days. So, the remaining workload is 1 day, for a remaining duration of 1 day. But the assignment is considered delayed anyway, here is why:


Actual progress percentage: 2/3 = 66.67%


Planned workload per day: 3/5 = 0.6 days of workload each day (week-ends included). Planned progress percentage on day 4: (0.6*4)/3 = 80 %

The actual progress is less that the planned percentage, so the assignment is delayed. In other words, on day 4, we should have done 80% of the workload, but did only 66.67%.


The formula does indeed return a date. Here it is:


actualDate = assignment.PlannedStartDate + (assignment.PlannedEndDate - assignment.PlannedStartDate)*assignment.Percent


So here the actual date should be 1 + ((5 - 1) * 66.67%) = 3. But it is actually 4, so the assignment is 1 day behind planned schedule.



'Remaining working days beyond remaining duration'



Case 3 example b.


To compute this case, the remaining working days are multiplied by a factor of 7/5 to consider week-ends.


Let us consider the same assignment as above with a duration of 5 days and a workload of 3 days. The default gap is 0 days.


On day 4, the actual workload is 2 days. So, the remaining workload is 1 day, for a remaining duration of 1 day. The assignment is delayed, here is why:


The formula does indeed return a date. Here it is:


actualDate = assignment.PlannedEndDate - (assignment.RemainingWork * factor)


So here the actual date should be 5 - (1 * 7/5) = 3. But it is actually 4, so the assignment cannot be completed within the remaining duration.


Note: In both cases, if the gap for delayed tasks is set to 1 day or more, the assignment would not be considered as delayed.

If actualDate < (Today - taskLateGap): 3 < 3 would not be verified.



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