Schedules

As a project manager, you can track three types of schedules - expected, planned, and actual. Each of these schedules are created at a specific stage during project planning and execution. A schedule comprises the start date, finish date, duration, and effort.

You can view all the schedule types in the Schedule Gantt viewlet.

Expected schedule

You create an expected schedule when you plan a project, and enter expected dates and duration for a project and the project elements. You can continue to edit the expected schedule during the project planning stage, until you assign resources to an element.

After you assign resources to an element, you cannot modify the expected schedule.

Planned schedule

By default, the planned schedule dates are the same as the expected schedule dates, and the planned effort is 0. When you assign resources to project elements with a start and finish date, and effort, the planned schedule and effort is updated with the assignment schedule and effort. The planned schedule can vary from the expected schedule.

If no resource assignments (active or inactive) exist, you can update the expected schedule and the plan schedule is updated to reflect the expected schedule. If resource assignments (active or inactive) exist, the planned schedule cannot be modified from the Schedule Gantt viewlet. To modify the planned schedule, you must modify the resource assignment schedule from the Resources view. If you remove an assignment where the work is not started, the planned schedule reverts to the default schedule. If you remove an assignment where the work is already started, the assignment is made inactive. However, the planned schedule continues to reflect the inactive assignment schedule.

If there are inactive and active assignments, the planned schedule includes the schedule of the inactive and active assignments.

Actual schedule

An actual schedule is created when resources report time in the timesheet on the project elements they are assigned to. The date of the first timesheet entry for the element is the actual start date. The date on which the remaining effort or duration for the element is 0, is the actual finish date. The actual duration is calculated from the actual start and finish dates. The actual effort is calculated from the hours entered in the timesheet. The actual schedule can vary from the planned schedule.

You cannot modify the actual schedule in the Schedule Gantt viewlet. Actual schedule is always derived from timesheet entries.


Feedback