While a baseline plan records how the entire project looks before any progress is recorded, an interim plan is a snapshot of your project as it progresses. You can then compare interim plan data to baseline plan data to assess task progress.
Interim plans are not nearly as detailed as baseline plans. A baseline saves 20 pieces of information, compared to an interim plan that saves only two pieces of information: the start and finish date of a task. You can save up to 10 interim plans at a time.
Tips
Save an interim plan after you begin progress and updating the project.
1. Select Tools Tracking Set Baseline from the
menu.
2. Click the Set interim plan option.
Notice that the Copy and Into boxes are no longer shaded. When saving an interim plan you must specify the information you want to save in the Copy field, and specify where you want to save that information in the Into field.
Copy: Specifies the fields you want to use to create the interim plan. For example, if you want to create an interim plan using the information in your baseline plan, select Start/Finish.
Into: Specifies the fields that you want to use to store the interim plan; in other words, the plan name.
Now select the name of the current plan and select a name for the new interim plan.
3. Click the Copy list arrow and select the name of the
current interim plan.
Notice that there are many options from which to choose; one for each plan you can save. For example, if you select Start/Finish, the information in the Start and Finish fields will be recorded in the interim plan. Now choose where you want to store this
information.
4. Click the Into list arrow and select the name for the
next interim plan.
The interim plan information will be stored under this plan name.
Exercise
• Exercise File: Progress10-1.mpp
• Exercise: Save an interim plan for the project.
Figure 10-11: Saving an interim plan in the Set Baseline
dialog box.
You can either choose ―Entire project‖ to save an interim plan for the whole project, or you can choose ―Selected tasks‖ to save a portion of the project.
5. Choose to save the Entire project or Selected tasks
and click OK.
After saving an interim plan, you can view the plan's start and finish dates by inserting its fields into the task sheet. For example, if you've saved three interim plans, you can view the dates saved in the third plan by inserting the Start3 and Finish3 fields into Task Sheet view.
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Quiz Questions
80.
You cannot view information about _____ in the Project Statistics dialog box. A. Cost of the projectB. Finish date of the project C. Percent of work that is complete D. Project tasks
81.
The project summary task is always displayed. (True or False?)82.
Tasks that affect the overall project schedule are called what? A. SubtasksB. All tasks affect the project equally C. Critical tasks
D. Major Tasks
83.
Variance is the difference between baseline information and actual information in a field. (True or False?)84.
A variance in work probably means there is variance in task duration as well. (True or False?)85.
By checking cost variance, you can:A. See if there are any tasks that cost more than you budgeted for. B. Check how much total work a resource is accomplishing. C. None of these.
D. Identify resource overallocation.
86.
In order to identify any slipped tasks, you must be in ___________ view. A. Task FormB. Tracking Gantt C. Gantt Chart D. Resource Sheet
87.
An interim plan records how the entire project looks before any progress is recorded. (True or False?)Quiz Answers
80. D. The Task Drivers task pane will not work in Resource Usage view because unlike the other views listed, it is not a task driven view
82. False. The project summary task is hidden by default, and is only displayed if you go through the steps to display it. 83. C. Critical tasks affect the project schedule more than other tasks do.
84. True. Variance is the difference between baseline information and actual information in a field.
85. True. For example, if a resource doesn't have to work on a task as much as scheduled, the duration of the task will be shorter.
86. A. By checking cost variance, you can see if there are any tasks that cost more than you budgeted. 87. B. You must be in Tracking Gantt view in order to identify slipped tasks.
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Opening a Report ... 142
Adding Page Elements to a Report... 144
Sorting a Report ... 145
Defining Report Contents ... 146
Create a Visual Report ... 147