Deriving Milestone RAG Indicators from tasks to the Project Center

updated on 10 Dec 2010 - MS1-Var-P field names were wrong.  Hope Ive got it right this time!!! - Carl
updated on 13 Dec 2010 - data types and task level rollups added to field definition (shame)


Problem

In the Project Centre you wish to show the status of your "Gateway" events that are held as Milestones in the project plans to provide a Milestone Summary view.  However there is no out of the box solution to doing this.

The Approach

Firstly you need a Task Level Custom Field that links to a lookup table that defines your milestones.  For Example:

Field Name = C3_Milestone Type

Lookup Table = Gateways

LUT List = MS1, MS2, MS3, MS4, MS5

For each milestone you want to report on in the Project Centre (MS1...5), create the following field structure:

Note:   -T represents task fields, -P represents project fields

- MS1 Switch-T

this is the control field that identifies the relevant task that is tagged with the Gateway = MS1 value (1), Baselined (2), Complete (4), not set (0)

IIf([C3_Milestone Type]="Phase.IT Specification and Design Complete",IIf([% Complete]=100,4,IIf([Baseline Finish]>56000,1,2)),0) 

Type = Number
Rollup = Max

Note:  you will notice 3 result isn't included.  I did this in case we needed a 4th State to be defined later

- MS1 Finish-T  

This field received the finish date of the task where the above flag has been enabled.  Note:  Rollup set to MAX

IIf([MS1-Switch-T]>=1,[Finish],"NA")

type = date

Rollup = max

- MS1 BaseFinish-T

As above but captures the baseline finish date. Note:  Rollup set to MAX

IIf([MS1-Switch-T]=2,[Baseline Finish],"NA")

type = date
Rollup = max

- MS1 Finish-P

this project field receives the finish date captured by the previous task level custom field

SWITCH([MS1 Switch-T]=0,"",[MS1 Switch-T]>=1,[MS1-Finish-T])

Type = date

- MS1 BaseFinish-P

this project field receives the baseline finish date captured by the previous task level custom field

IIf([MS1-Switch-T]=2,[MS1 BaseFinish-T],"NA")


Type = Date

** UPDATED **
 

- MS1-VAR-P

This field does a Date Diff between the Finish-P and BaseFinish-P fields

IIf([MS1-Switch-T]=2,([MS1 Finish-P]-[MS1 BaseFinish-P]),0)


Type = Text

- MS1 RAG

Here you can apply a formula to derive your RAG indicator based on the VAR field above.

IIf([MS1 Switch-T]=0,"Not Set",IIf([MS1 Switch-T]=4,"Complete",IIf([MS1 Switch-T]=1,"No Baseline",Switch([MS1-VAR-P] >20,"4 weeks late",[MS1-VAR-p] > 10 And [MS1-VAR-p] <=20,"2-4 weeks late",[MS1-VAR-p] >0 And [MS1-VAR-p]>=10,"<2 weeks late",[MS1-VAR-p] <=0,"On Track"))))


Type = Text

** deliberate mistake = the above formula should say >0 and <=10 (rather than >=10).  Sorry about that :/

The Result

** UPDATED **

CAVEAT:   it appears that the issue with incorrectly calculating tiered/dependant formulas when publishing via the PSI  has never been fixed.  Therefore any PWA based Publish MAY cause Gateway milestones to fail or show incorrect values (or no indicators).  Mileage may vary...