How to Track Schedules, Costs and Earned Value with Microsoft Project

This is the second of two eBooks that cover the full cycle of planning, tracking and controlling projects. This eBook focuses on the very elaborate facilities of in Microsoft Project needed to track the progress of schedules and costs. Schedule tracking is simple and straightforward. However, tracking costs and earned value analysis are not so direct. Most textbooks that address tracking do not go into enough depth when dealing with Earned Value Analysis. This facility is available “out of the box” with Microsoft Project but is not straightforward. This eBook couples the tracking of costs with the analysis of earned value indicators. (The author has written an eBook called “Practical Earned Value Analysis” that develops the 25 indicators of EVA.).

The elaborate nature of tracking is not given its due in the literature. There are many check boxes in the Options Dialog that have major effects on your results. There are many methods and techniques needed to track costs and earned value at two levels: the task and the assignment. There are different ways of tracking your actuals. Choosing which to use and how to use it is one of the nightmares facing a practitioner.

This eBook goes through all such methods always providing the rationale behind using different options, facilities and methods. The eBook has 39 tracking workouts that are presented step by step. Most workouts are supported by images to save time searching for menu items, options and buttons.

All the workouts are solved and are available for download from the author’s website.