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Tasks Status Collection
 
This solution targets those project management environment which use MS Project Professional but do not use Enterprise Project Management tools or the project teams have written communication through MS Outlook emails. The focus user group for this solution is Project Planners who burn an appreciable amount of effort in collecting tasks status and maintaining the MS Project plans. With the use of RASS's Task Collection solution, a project planner can easily support multiple projects simultaneously. It provides simple but effective way of collecting tasks status. The tool is MS Excel based and interfaces with MS Project Professional for importing tasks data and outlook for automatically emailing the Status Excels.  The following are the main features of this solution.
 
  • The solution is completely implemented in MS Excel.
  • Importing of tasks data from MS Project plans to MS Excel is done by simply clicking an action button.
  • Schedule Performance Index (SPI) is calculated at task lead level.
  • The display of SPI acts as a motivating factor for task leads
  • A separate tab filled with tasks status is created for each task lead
  • Tasks Status Collection Excels are emailed with custom messages at a click on an action button
  • When task status is changed by the task leads, validation checks prevent mistake at the source level
  • Team Leads returns the Tasks Status collection Excel to Planner by just clicking on an action button
  • Planner has the option of directly updating the tasks status into MS Project plans or do it manually to avoid dependency conflicts.

 

Instead of using MS Outlook, this solution can also be implemented using MS SQL Server. Though this solution has not been targeted when MS EPM is used, companies can benefit if they want to integrate Timesheets with Tasks Status collection.
 
 

The graphics on the left shows the users view of RASS's Tasks Status Collection solution.

 

This solution uses team leads or task leads to collect the tasks status. However, there is no restriction to collect the tasks status from individual team members. We have used task leads as in most of the situations an individual is not in a position to give task status when more then one resource work on the task. The standard implementation of this solution does not collect actual effort burned on the tasks, instead it collect tasks status in slabs of 25% of task progress. This has been done to improve planner's productivity as making small changes to tasks status does not make a difference to project control.

 

This solution is implemented as such with a little customization. However, if you require enhancements to the available functionalities, we shall do it to meet you needs.

 

If you feel you can benefit from this solution, get in touch with us through Contact us.

 

The following graphics shows a sample main menu as implemented in one solution.