Project Progress

The Cora PPM Progress feature is a module for tracking Progress of a project. Organisations can have many lists of materials or quantities that they need to track progress on.  Progress is tracked for each item against multiple categories, e.g., Design, Procurement, Installation, Commissioning. Or organisations can capture on categories such as linear meters, surface area, or number of homes connected. 

Progress Administration

Once an administrator has switched on the Progress feature, there will be a new page under Admin/Configuration called Progress.  This page contains three sections; General, Categories, and Profiling Elements.

Progress Configuration:  General
 

This section allows: 

1. The administrator to define the period in which the categories are tracked (once selected it cannot be changed or undone);
2. The administrator to display the grid by a Snapshot of Cumulative View.

Progress Configuration:  Categories

This section allows a user to add in existing categories that are relevant. The user can also add in fields that have already been created for that category, or create a new field that is specific for this category. 

When the user clicks ADD, they will be navigated to a new page that contains one field where the user can name the Category.

• Click SAVE.

•  Continue this process until you have added all the required categories.

Progress Configuration:  Profiling Elements

This section allows a user to choose/add the profiling elements that will be available in the Progress Management page.

When the user clicks ADD, the following pane will open:

• Enter a Name, 
• Assign a colour 
• If the element is to be a calculation of another element, for example you want to have a new element to be called “10.00 Contingency”, you could enable it to be a calculation of Forecast + 10, which would automatically update all periods as Forecast + 10
• Alternatively, you can decide to include the option for “Allow Automatic Profile”.  This allows project team members to update the element on the Category with an automatic range.  For example, you predict that the Forecast Build on a building project will progress at 10% per month.  You can then configure your element with the Allow Automatic Profile” to automatically and linearly profile the element Forecast Build at 10% per period.  Avoid allowing this feature where you want the end users to manually update the element, for example the “Actual” values.  

Your added data will show in the Profiling Elements grid.
 

Project Progress Management

Once Progress has been configured it is then available on Projects as Project Progress.  

Each of the configured "Categories" will appear in the left-hand panel where users with the right access can import the existing values they are currently tracking and need to track in future. If you want to import, start by using the ‘export’ feature which will deliver the template required to be used to import values. 

The values are displayed in the grid and you can click the cells to update these values  

Note:  By default, you automatically see Planned, Actual and Forecast.

You can also edit the categories project to project by clicking the EDIT button at the bottom of the category section. This means the Category name only changes for a specific project(s), however does not change across all projects. It allows for projects to cater for local nomenclature. 

This opens the following pane where you can add categories 

or change the details of the existing categories:

The grid will be updated with any changes made.

Project Progress

Once a User has updated their progress on a project they should save. Cora PPM also adds a “Overall” category to the list that sums all values from all categories, however this is only useful if all categories share the same unit of measure. 

The cell will be annotated with a red triangle, and when hovered over will show a “Comment” icon.

Manually maintaining Progress

Settings

The User should first set up the Profile Period via ‘Settings.

The following pane will open:

• Use the Date Range dropdown field select the profiling period; or manually pick dates in the From/To Date fields. To note, dates are driven from the Gantt by default. 

• You can then enter values and comments directly into the grid for the required profile and period.  

Automatic Profiling

Users can automatically profile each individual Profile.  

This opens the following pane, where you can add the profiles against the categories:

There are four different types of Automatic Profiling:

Flat:

o   Value: Enter a values that will be populated into each period. 

Note: This option should not be used for Cumulative unless there is no change in the profile over the profiling period.

Linear:

o   Start Value: Enter the value that you want to appear in the first month of the profile period

o   End Value: Enter the value that you want to appear in the last month of the profile period

The system will incrementally populate each field with difference between the End and Start values divided by the number of periods.

Linear % Start/End:

o   Start Value: Enter the value that you want to appear in the first month of the profile period. It cannot be Zero.

o   End Value: Enter the Percentage Change that you want to see in the last month of the profile period.

o   % Change: Leave blank

The system will incrementally populate each field with the difference between the End Value (Start Value multiplied by the Percentage Change plus the Start Value) and the Start Value divided by the number of periods.

% Change by Period:

o   Start Value: Enter the value that you want to appear in the first month of the profile period

o   End Value: Enter ZERO

o   % Change: Enter the % Change that you want each month to increase by compared to the previous month.

The system will incrementally populate each field with % Change compared to the previous month.

• Press Save in the bottom right of the screen.

Export

Import

Note:  Before Importing, it is important to run the Export icon, which will deliver a spreadsheet file to the browser, which will have the values as they currently are in Cora PPM.  Each worksheet in the file will represent each Category.  Use that as a template to update the values you are wanting to import. 

Note: You should not import values on elements that have been configured by the Administrator to “Calculate”.  See earlier in this document where elements are configured.  

• Click Import to open the following pane

Your file will be uploaded

Smart Form/Cumulative View

The Grid can be shown as a Snapshot or Cumulative view.  

Note: This is driven by the administration/configuration settings.

Depending on the way that the organisation wishes to see data will depend on what setting is used. 

For example, if the total final values for all elements on all categories are known, it is good to use Cumulative values to plan, forecast and add actuals.  However, if these categories are planned to be just simply tracked over time with no defined total final numbers the the best option to stick with, by default, is Snapshot.