Managing Projects › How to Work with Project Properties › Define Scheduling Properties

Define Scheduling Properties

You define scheduling properties for the following purposes:

• To open or close the project for time tracking.
• To auto-schedule your project.
• To define the default staffing options.
• To set the project-level default earned value calculation method.
• To associate the project to an earned value reporting period.
• To override the earned value.

Best Practice: Set the percent complete calculation method at the beginning of your project and do not change it. Changing the method midway through the project, changes the percent complete values for the project and tasks. The change, in turn, affects other calculations, such as earned value metrics.

Follow these steps:

1. Open the project.

   The properties page appears.

2. Open the Properties menu, and from Properties, click Schedule.

   The scheduling properties page appears.

3. In the Schedule section, complete the following fields:

   Start Date

   Defines the start date. On lists and portlets, the value for this field is display only.

   Default: Current date

   Required: Yes

   Finish Date

   Defines the finish date. On lists and portlets, the value for this field is display only.

   Default: Current date

   Required: Yes

   Set Planned Cost Dates

   Specifies if the planned cost dates are synchronized with the investment dates. Selecting the option for a detailed financial plan does not affect the planned cost dates.

   Default: Selected

   Required: No

   As Of Date

   Defines the date to include data in time and budget estimates. This date is used in Earned Value Analysis (EVA) calculations, such as Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS) and drives the calculations for costs.

   % Complete

   Defines the percent of work that has been completed on the project based on the percentage of completion of the tasks and subprojects. This field is display only and system calculated if the % complete calculation method is set to duration or effort.

   Default: 0

   Values: 0 through 100

   Progress

   Indicates the level of work completed on the tasks.

   Values:

   • Completed (100 percent)
   • Started (1 - 99 percent)
   • Not Started (0 percent)

   Default: Not Started

   Required: Yes

   Priority

   Defines the relative importance of this investment in relation to all other investments. The priority controls the order in which tasks are scheduled during autoscheduling. The priority is subject to dependency constraints.

   Values: 0 - 36 (where zero is the highest importance)

   Default: 10

   Required: No

   Status Indicator

   Indicates the project status.

   Stoplight values:

   • Green. The project is on track.
   • Yellow. A minor variance exists in the overall status of the projects.
   • Red. A significant variance exists in the overall status of the project.

   Status Comment

   Defines any comments about the project status.

   % Complete Calculation Method

   Specifies the method for calculating the percent complete value for the project and tasks.

   Note: If you are using CA Clarity PPM with Microsoft Project, or if you are using an external job to calculate % Complete, select manual as the calculation method.

   Values:

   • Manual. Use this method to enter the percent complete for the project, summary, and detail tasks manually. The % Complete field appears on the task properties page.
   • Duration. Use this method to track percent complete based on duration. The duration is a measure of the total span of active working time for a task: from start to the finish date of a task. In this method, enter the % complete for the detail tasks. The % complete for summary tasks is automatically calculated based on the following formula:

     Summary Task % Complete = Total Detail Task Duration Complete / Total Detail Task Duration
     

   • Effort. Use this method to calculate the % complete for summary and detail tasks, automatically, based on the work units completed by resource assignments. The calculations are based on the following formulas:

     Summary Task % Complete = Sum of Detail Task resource assignment Actuals / Sum of Detail Task resource assignment Effort
     Detail Task % Complete = Sum of resource assignment Actuals / Sum of resource assignment Effort
     

     Note: If you assign a non-labor resource to a task and the % Complete Calculation Method is set to Effort, the effort and actuals for that resource are ignored in the calculation.

   Default: Manual

4. In the Tracking section, complete the following fields:

   Time Entry

   Specifies if team staff members can record the time they spent on this project on their timesheet.

   Default: Selected

   Track Mode

   Indicates the tracking method used by resource assignments to enter time spent on project tasks.

   Values:

   • Clarity. Resource assignments enter time against their assigned tasks using timesheets.
   • None. Resources other than labor resources track actuals from financial transaction records or through a desktop scheduler, such as Open Workbench and Microsoft Project.
   • Other. Actuals are imported from a third-party application.

   Default: Clarity

   Charge Code

   Defines the charge code against which transactions for the project are charged. If you also define task-level charge codes on timesheets, then the task charge codes override this code.

5. In the Staffing section, complete the following fields:

   Default Staff OBS Unit

   Defines the set default OBS unit that is used when you add team staff members to this project. This OBS unit more fully describes a staffing requirement, and can be a resource pool, a specific location, or a department. By mapping roles with OBS units and resource managers, the roles can be filled more accurately. The default staff OBS unit is used during capacity planning for analyzing demand against your capacity using the staff OBS as filter criteria.

   See the Resource Management User Guide for more information.

   Example:

   Use the OBS to find out if you have enough capacity for programmers in Atlanta to fulfill the demand for programmers in that location.

   Requisition Approval Required

   Specifies to have requisitions approved before being booked.

   Assignment Pool

   Specifies the pool of resources allowed when assigning resources to tasks.

   Values:

   • Team Only. Allow only staff members.
   • Resource Pool. Allow team staff members and resources for whom you have access rights to book to a project. With this option, when you assign a resource to a task, the resource is also added as a team staff member.

   Default: Resource Pool

   Required: Yes

6. In the Earned Value section, complete the following fields:

   Earned Value Reporting Period

   Defines the assigned reporting period for this project. Set the period if your organization uses earned value management methodology for measuring project performance. This field becomes locked (read only) the first time the Update Earned Value History job generates historical data for the project.

   Default: Unlocked

   See the Administration Guide for more information.

   EV Calculation Method

   Defines the default earned value (EV) calculation method used when calculating EV. This method sets the default if you have not selected an EV calculation method for the task.

   Values: Percent Complete, 0/100, 50/50, Level of Effort, Weighted Milestones, Milestone Percent Complete (PC), and Apportioned Effort (AE)

   Default: Percent Complete

   BCWP Override

   Defines the Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP). This value overrides the system-calculated BCWP and is used for all earned value (EV) metrics that are based on BCWP.

   Best Practices: If your company does not use CA Clarity PPM to calculate EV but uses an external system, manually enter a value in this field. If you do not enter a value in this field, then the system-calculated value for BCWP is used in all EV calculations.

   BCWP

   Displays the system-calculated value of Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP). The value is calculated and recorded when you baseline a project, or when you update earned value totals. BCWP is also referred to as the earned value (EV). BCWP represents the amount of the budgeted cost (BAC) completed based on performance as measured using the Task EV Calculation method.

   Calculations are made based on the level at which the calculation is made. BCWP is calculated at the following levels:

   • Task. BCWP is based on the selected EV calculation method.
   • Project. BCWP is the sum of BCWP for all WBS Level 1 tasks in the project.

   Current Baseline Required: Yes

   Earned Value Last Updated

   Displays the date the earned value was last updated.

7. Save the changes.

More information:

Edit Team Staff Member Properties

About Team Staff Member OBS Unit

Add Resources to Projects by OBS Unit (Investments)

Edit Task Properties

About Charge Codes

Timesheets

About Earned Value Calculation Methods

Set the Default Earned Value Calculation Method

Earned Value Metrics