Example 4.11: Comparing Progress against a Baseline Schedule

The GANTT Procedure

Example 4.11: Comparing Progress against a Baseline Schedule

Suppose that the widget manufacturing project is currently in progress and you want to measure its performance by comparing it with a baseline schedule. For example, the baseline schedule may be the originally planned schedule, a target schedule that you would like to achieve, or an existing schedule that you intend to improve on. The data for this example come from Example 2.13 which was used to illustrate the options available in PROC CPM. Prior to the beginning of the project, the predicted early schedule is saved by PROC CPM as the baseline schedule. Progress information for the project as of December 20, 1991 is saved in the ACTUAL data set. The variables SDATE and FDATE represent the actual start and actual finish times, respectively. The variables PCTC and RDUR represent the percent of work completed and the remaining days of work for each activity, respectively. PROC CPM is then invoked using the baseline and project progress information with TIMENOW set to December 20, 1991. The scheduling is carried out with the AUTOPUPDT option in order to automatically update progress information. The Schedule data set WIDGUPDT produced by PROC CPM is shown in Output 4.11.1. Notice that the building of the prototype (activity 5: 'Protoype') and development of a marketing strategy (activity 6: 'Mkt. Strategy') have a specified value for A_START and a missing value for A_FINISH, indicating that they are currently in progress at TIMENOW.

PROC GANTT is next invoked with the data set WIDGUPDT. This data set contains the actual schedule variables A_START and A_FINISH and the baseline schedule variables B_START and B_FINISH. The Gantt chart is drawn with three schedule bars per activity. The first bar represents the predicted early/late schedule based on the actual data specified, the second bar represents the actual schedule, and the third bar represents the baseline schedule. The TIMENOW= option is specified in the CHART statement to draw a timenow line on December 20, 1991. Actual schedule bars for 'Prototype' and 'Mkt. Strategy' are drawn up to TIMENOW to indicate that they are currently in progress. You can use the CTNOW=, LTNOW=, and WTNOW= options to change the color, linestyle, and width of the timenow line, respectively. To suppress the timenow label displayed at the bottom of the axis, specify the NOTNLABEL in the CHART statement.

   * estimate schedule based on actual data;

   proc cpm data=widgact holidata=holidays
            out=widgupdt date='2dec91'd;
      activity task;
      succ     succ1 succ2 succ3;
      duration days;
      holiday  holiday / holifin=(holifin);
      baseline / compare=early;
      actual / as=sdate af=fdate timenow='20dec91'd
               remdur=rdur pctcomp=pctc
               autoupdt;
   run;


   * sort the data;

   proc sort; by e_start;


   title 'Gantt Example 11';
   title2 'Progress Data';

   * print the data;

   proc print;
      var task e_: l_: a_start a_finish b_: ;
   run;

   title f=swiss 'Gantt Example 11';
   title2 f=swiss 'Comparing Project Progress against a Baseline Schedule';

   * plot the actual and baseline schedules using proc gantt;

   proc gantt data=widgupdt holidata=holidays;
      chart / holiday=(holiday) holifin=(holifin)
              timenow='20dec91'd dur=days
              scale=2 height=1.25 font=swiss
              pcompress;
      id task;
      run;

Output 4.11.1: Comparing Project Progress against a Baseline Schedule

Gantt Example 11

Progress Data

Obs	task	E_START	E_FINISH	L_START	L_FINISH	A_START	A_FINISH	B_START	B_FINISH
1	Approve Plan	02DEC91	06DEC91	02DEC91	06DEC91	02DEC91	06DEC91	02DEC91	06DEC91
2	Anal. Market	06DEC91	10DEC91	06DEC91	10DEC91	06DEC91	10DEC91	07DEC91	11DEC91
3	Drawings	07DEC91	17DEC91	07DEC91	17DEC91	07DEC91	17DEC91	07DEC91	16DEC91
4	Write Specs	08DEC91	13DEC91	08DEC91	13DEC91	08DEC91	13DEC91	07DEC91	11DEC91
5	Mkt. Strat.	11DEC91	22DEC91	11DEC91	22DEC91	11DEC91	.	12DEC91	21DEC91
6	Prototype	18DEC91	05JAN92	18DEC91	05JAN92	18DEC91	.	17DEC91	04JAN92
7	Materials	06JAN92	15JAN92	06JAN92	15JAN92	.	.	05JAN92	14JAN92
8	Facility	06JAN92	15JAN92	06JAN92	15JAN92	.	.	05JAN92	14JAN92
9	Init. Prod.	16JAN92	25JAN92	16JAN92	25JAN92	.	.	15JAN92	24JAN92
10	Evaluate	26JAN92	04FEB92	31JAN92	09FEB92	.	.	25JAN92	03FEB92
11	Test Market	26JAN92	09FEB92	26JAN92	09FEB92	.	.	25JAN92	08FEB92
12	Marketing	26JAN92	26JAN92	15FEB92	15FEB92	.	.	25JAN92	25JAN92
13	Changes	10FEB92	14FEB92	10FEB92	14FEB92	.	.	09FEB92	13FEB92
14	Production	15FEB92	15FEB92	15FEB92	15FEB92	.	.	14FEB92	14FEB92

Output 4.11.2: Comparing Project Progress against a Baseline Schedule

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