Estimating Baseline Schedules and Costs

After users have submitted project requests and action items have been defined, you have the option to estimate baseline schedules and baseline costs for proposed projects before you decide which projects to approve. Baseline cost estimates may be derived from company data or from web sites that provide standard pricing estimates. Baseline estimates are defined prior to a project's approval and are used while an approving manager is determining whether or not to approve a project request.

You can also prioritize project requests before you decide which projects to approve. For information on prioritizing projects, see the Prioritizing Project Requests topic.

From the Commissioning application, you use the Develop Preliminary Commissioning Plan task to access the baseline schedule for your commissioning projects, providing an easy way to update and refine your commissioning plans. The Gantt chart provides a visual way of assessing how project action items are proceeding. It enables you to spot critical dependencies that need to be expedited so that the schedule can proceed

Note The only projects that appear in the Estimate Baseline Schedules and Durations and Estimate Baseline Costs forms are the projects that have been requested and are not yet approved.

Estimating Baseline Schedules

You will be using a Gantt chart to review and edit the baseline schedules. The Gantt chart timelines show time in terms of work days. It is important to remember when estimating baseline schedules that the timeline in the Gantt chart depends on the project Days Per Week setting in addition to the duration. The project Days Per Week setting defines how many days per week will be work days. For example, if an action item is 20 days of duration and the project Days Per Week value is 5, then the timeline will show four weeks because the work will not be done on weekends.

You can edit the project Days Per Week value in the Request/Edit My Projects task.

Note: Before you can estimate baseline schedules using the Gantt chart, you must enter initial values for each action in the Date Planned For and Duration - Est. Baseline fields. You can enter these values in the Prioritize & Estimate/Add or Edit Actions task or the Request/Add or Edit Actions task.

The following image shows the buttons available on the Gantt chart. For information on the Set as Predecessor button, see step 8 in the procedure below.

screen shot showing the Gantt chart buttons

Procedure: Estimate Baseline Schedules

Note: When you edit the Start and End Dates for actions, if any actions are set to be predecessors for other tasks, the Gantt Chart automatically ensures that the date fields for dependent tasks conform to their predecessors. See How the Gantt Chart Updates Dependent Tasks.

To estimate baseline schedules for requested projects:

In the Process Navigator:
For Capital Budgeting and Project Planning, select the Prioritize & Estimate/Estimate Baseline Schedule and Durations task.
For Commissioning, select Planning/Develop Preliminary Commissioning Plan.
The left side of the Gantt chart shows a list of requested projects and their actions.
Use the Filter console in the top frame to locate the project whose actions you want to display:
- To restrict the list of projects shown, select a work package, a project (Project Code), or an Action Type.
- To show only projects having a Date Requested - Start and Date Requested - End that fall within a specific time frame, select a From Date and To Date to specify the time frame.
Click Show.
A Gantt chart is displayed for the project you selected. The project's actions are displayed as timelines.
To edit the Start and End Dates for an action:
1. Mouse over the task icon in the timeline until you see the splitter.
2. Click and drag the splitter on the timeline to expand or contract the time allotted to the action. You can click and drag either end of the task icon to change either the start or the end date, or you can click the splitter when it is in the middle of the task icon to change the start and end dates at the same time. As you click and drag, a tooltip shows the adjusted start and end date, and the duration. Note that the Duration shown in this tooltip is not adjusted for the number of working days.
3. Release the mouse when the task is positioned on the timeline to the desired start and end dates.
  A pop-up appears asking if you to confirm the change. Note that this pop-up provides the Duration adjusted for the number of working days set for the project.
4. Click OK to make the change, or Cancel to revert to the previous start and end dates.
To make additional edits for an action:
1. Double-click the action in the timeline.
  The Action Item Details form for the selected action is displayed.
2. Make edits for the action item as needed. For a description of the data entered, see Adding Project Request Actions.
  Note: The timeline depends on the project Days Per Week setting in addition to the Date Planned For and Duration - Est. Baseline field values that you define here. You can edit the project Days Per Week value in the Request/Edit My Projects task.
3. Click Save in the Action Item details form.
To make changes to a project:
1. Double-click the project in either the list or on the timeline.
  The Project Details dialog appears.
2. Make edits as needed. See Requesting Projects for a description of the fields.
3. Click Save.
To make changes to a work package:
1. Double-click the work package in either the list to the left of the Gantt chart, or the icon for the work package in the Gantt chart.
  The Work Package Details screen appears.
2. Make changes as needed. See Creating and Editing Work Packages for a description of the fields.
3. Click Save.
To set a task to precede another task:
Note: When you edit the Start and End Dates for actions, if any actions are set to be predecessors for other tasks, the Gantt Chart automatically ensures that the date fields for dependent tasks conform to their predecessors. See How the Gantt Chart Updates Dependent Tasks.

In the Gantt chart, click on the icon for the task you wish to be the predecessor.
Hold down the <Ctrl> key and click on the task that the predecessor task should precede.
Click the Set as Predecessor button.
A pop-up message asks you to confirm the change.
Click OK. The action item number for the action that is the Predecessor is entered in the Predecessor field for the action it must precede.

Estimating Baseline Costs

To estimate baseline costs, you enter estimates for baseline capital and expense costs. You first edit baseline costs for each action item within a project. The application sums your entries for the selected project in the Total Baseline Costs for Project pane.

Note: You also have the option to define baseline costs using the Request/Add or Edit Actions task.

To estimate baseline costs:

From the Process Navigator:
From Project Management or Capital Budgeting, select the Prioritize & Estimate/Estimate Baseline Costs task.
From Commissioning, select Planning/Estimate Initial Budget (ROM) for Commissioning task.
If needed, restrict the list of projects shown, by setting a restriction in the Filter console and clicking Show.
All of the projects that meet your restriction are shown in the Select Project panel.
Select the project in the Select Project panel.
The Total Baseline Costs for Project panel shows all the actions for the selected project.
To adjust costs:
1. In the Adjust Costs panel, click Adjust for the action whose costs you want to change.
  The Edit Estimated Costs for Action Items dialog appears.
2. Enter or modify values in the Cost-Est. Baseline (Cap.) and Cost-Est. Baseline (Exp.) fields, and click Save.
Click Refresh to view the updated total costs for the selected project in the Total Baseline Costs for Project panel.
To export the data to Excel, click XLS.
To generate a paginated report of the action item costs, click DOC.