The Project Schedule provides for managing the schedule throughout the life of the project. The schedule entered during project creation process will more than likely require some adjustment during the course of project delivery.
When modifying schedule dates the system requires that dates cascade with the end of each phase preceding the start of the subsequent phase.
In the above screen the Feasibility phase baseline date has been changed to be later than the Concept phase start date which is now accepted.
Similar changes to the Actual / Forecast dates can be made as well.
Schedule dates are also controlled from the perspective of Actual vs Forecast date lines.
An Actual date is any start or end date that is associated with a closed lifecycle phase. In the following example the current phase is ‘Develop’ and so the start and end of the Submission and Concept phases are considered to be actual, while the dates for the phases Develop and later are considered as Forecast dates.
Actual dates cannot be future dates and conversely Forecast Dates cannot be in the past.
However, if dates must be modified for past phases, then adjusting the project lifecycle phase from the project summary screen to an earlier or later phase will allow for modifying the dates to be consistent.
Where specific dates are inconsistent with the schedule rules the error message appears in red above the schedule and the offending date row is marked with a red asterisk.
Entering the Baseline dates first and using the Copy Baseline option will copy all the baseline dates to the Act/Fcst fields. This highlights that the first Baseline schedule should be reflected in the forecast at the earliest stage of the project. As the project commences and revisions to forecast are made comparisons between the Baseline dates and the Forecast can be made.
This screenshot demonstrates the Project dates at the top of the screen being populated from the lifecycle phase dates. In this case only the baseline dates have been detailed, so the overall Project Actual and Forecast dates are editable at the top level. Selecting the Copy Baseline option will duplicate the baseline dates into the Act / Fcst fields
Note that not all lifecycle phases need to be dated if the project does not have that phase.
Lifecycle Phases and Project Schedule
The Actual date of the end of a Lifecycle Phase and the Actual Start date of the next Lifecycle phase will be updated by the system when the Status of the project Lifecycle is changed.
i.e. Moving a project from Concept to Develop on the 15/07/2023 will update the Actual End Date of the Concept phase as the 15/07/2023 and the Actual Start Date of the Develop phase as 16/07/2023.
· Phase dates cannot be out of sequence and cannot overlap. They may have gaps between them. The start date of any phase must be at least one day later than the end of the previous phase.
· The Project Baseline Start is for the first Post-Award Lifecycle phase and will not include Pre-Award phases. The Project Baseline End Date is for the last scheduled Post-Award Phase end date.
Comments