MS PROJECT 2019

[Molalenge]

I have a few projects that started in the late 90! Some of these are completed but need to be closed

Three questions:

1. Is Ms. Project effective in analyzing older projects with little data?

2. How good is MS Project with Financial Management-can it appropriate budgets like other software such as Pentamation?  

3. How do you define a baseline for a project that is 28 years old with limited data on resources?

Thanks.

TM

[#2]

TM,
1. What exactly is "effective"? And what do you need to analyze?
2. First, Project is not an accounting app but it does support budgets. I have no idea what Pentamation is or what it does.
3. If the project has been ongoing for 28 years, it's a little late to be thinking about a baseline. If the project is still active, the best you can do is to set a baseline to capture variance data from this point on. What exactly is the "limited data"?

John

[#3]

@John-project 

Here is a scenario: we have two projects started in the late '90s, both multi-million-dollar projects. One is funded from internal revenue (we sell products and services) and the other from external sources. One is completed, but not closed; the other is still active. We have two baselines: one from the late 90s and the other is set with the commencement of our fiscal year, July 2023. We use two budget fields: one is the Actual Cost from the funding sources and the other is internal! All info is embedded in Pentamation- a Financial Management Software, and some in Task Management Software. I have populated the information into MS Project and run a few samples. My data is flawed because specific budget works and costs are not detailed due to the length of these project life cycles. In addition, we have utilized internal and external resources to execute these projects, and we plan to analyze and acknowledge the significant contribution of our internal resources toward these projects. Despite the limited nature of some of this data, these projects are run by competent, top-notch engineers and PMPs. I am working to create a high-level report to capture the value of these projects. I am PMP certified and utilized MS Projects for 20 years to manage projects (mostly, a year duration) and academic programs (a semester). Large projects were done in phases and with proper WBS! Is it possible to reconstruct these two projects with limited budget works and cost data? Am I asking MS Project to perform outcomes that it is not capable of? Thank you for enhancing my MS project skills. TM

[#4]

Molalenge,
Thank you for the more detailed description. To answer your questions, and I'm sure you already know the answer to the first one, you can only "reconstruct" a project to the extent of available data. It sounds like you have actuals and you have the current plan. What you likely do not have is the original plan (i.e. baseline). However, if you are lucky enough to have access to saved copies of the plan from the beginning, (or at least periodic saves over the course of execution), you might be able to reconstruct what the original baseline would have been. A lot of "ifs".

And for your second question, and I'm sure you already know the answer on this one also, Project cannot "create" data, it is only capable of operating on data that you can supply.

So it all gets back to being limited by the available historical data. If you are looking for a full set of earned values data from day one, you're not going to get it. Use the data you do have, make some reasonable assumptions, and then create the analytical reports that useful.

Hope this helps.
John