Presentation of project status reports

In order for project managers to provide their superiors with a monthly summary statement of the progress of each project for which they are responsible, the project status sheet was developed. Prior to the development of this document, a trend chart was produced (using a Calcomp fast plotter) for each pro- ject, but the lines joining the succes- sive predicted dates for each event could not be drawn by the machine but had to be drawn manually. The presentation tended to become con- fused if the number of selected events and the number of review dates increased significantly. To provide a more effective manage- ment presentation, the format of the chart was changed and data relating to the financial status of the project included.

Keywords: project management, reports, graphic representation

Hunting Engineering Ltd is a mem- ber company of the Hunting Organ- ization which was formed in 1874. The company’s work is concerned

Hunting Engineering Ltd, Reddings Wood, Ampthill, Bedfordshire, MK45 2HD, UK

D Lowdell

with the development of defence systems and is organized on a pro- ject basis under the control of pro- ject managers. As head of the Engineering Division, the engineer- ing director is responsible for all development projects and requires his project managers to provide him with a monthly summary statement on the progress of each project for which they are responsible.

To meet this requirement, the project status sheet has been deve- loped. This document provides, in summary form, both the current position and the performance of the project. It is produced using the Artemis management graphics package marketed by Metier Man- agement Systems.

TREND CHART

Initially, the reporting require- ments of the technical director were met by producing a trend chart for each project. These were produced using a Calcomp fast plotter driven by a program designed to draw bar charts. The data for the trend charts was taken from the ICL 1900 PERT files containing the network details for the projects.

A sample trend chart is shown in

Figure 1. It can be seen that the chart is divided horizontally into two portions. The upper part con- tains details of significant events within the project and the target dates for achieving the events are shown on a calendar representing the project timescale. The lower part of the chart shows the pre- dicted achievement dates for the same events on each successive review date. By plotting the pre- dicted dates in this way, trends, whether adverse or favourable, in the anticipated achievements of the selected events can easily be seen.

The use of an existing program for drawing bar charts meant that the lines joining the successive pre- dicted dates for each event could not be drawn by the machine but had to be drawn manually. The presentation tended to become con- fused if the number of selected events and the number of review dates increased significantly. A limit was therefore imposed in this area.

PROJECT STATUS SHEET

To provide a more effective man- agement presentation, it was decided to change the format of the

242 0263-7863/83/040242-05 $03.00 0 1983 Butterworth & Co (Publishers) Ltd Project Management

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chart and to include data relating to the financial status of the project. At the same time as the format of the chart was being changed, the opportunity was taken to improve the efficiency of the system used to produce the chart. One aspect of this was to move the production of the chart to the Artemis computer because of its flexible graphics capabilities. Figure 2 shows the revised chart which is known as the project status sheet.

In the revised arrangement, the project status sheet consists of four sections. The details of the selected events, previously shown in the upper section of the trend chart, are now shown in the top left hand portion of the project status sheet. The trend information for the

events is included in the lower left hand element. The presentation of the trend information has been slightly altered so that the datum date for the events is shown as part of the trend lines, positioned above the production dates for the earliest review. Each event datum date is identified by a corresponding event number shown in the upper left hand box. In the trend chart the trend lines were drawn using black ink. With the transfer to Artemis, full use was made of the colour facility to draw the trend lines in different colours thereby further increasing the clarity of the presentation.

Events with a current predicted achievement date which is later than the predicted achievement

date at the previous review are identified. Where these events have not been achieved, and the current predicted achievement date is later than the original target date, the project manager has to give the reason for this. He is also required to outline the recovery action he has initiated to overcome the delay. This information is displayed in the bottom right hand section of the project status sheet which is called the ‘project manager’s comments’. Each entry in this section is identi- fied by the event number and shown in the colour used to draw the corresponding trend line.

When first produced using the Artemis system, the project status sheet was drawn as a series of separate sections. Six different

Vol 1 No 4 November 1983 243

technical note

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Figure 2. Project status sheet

specifications were used to generate the complete chart:

0 the border and title block 0 the event descriptions, 0 the project manager’s com-

ments, 0 the trend chart axes, 0 the trend chart, 0 the cost report.

With this method of production, users were required to reset the plotting boundaries, PI and P2, manually before running each specification. With further devel- opment and the additional facilities available in later releases of the Artemis software, the number of specifications has been reduced to two and PI and P2 are now set

automatically. This has resulted in decreased selection and sorting time thereby speeding up the pro- duction process.

TREND CHART-PROJECT STATUS SHEET

Initially, a maximum of 10 events could be shown on the project status sheet. However, to ensure that the information was presented clearly, users were advised to re- strict this limit further to six events. In pqctice, however, it was found that users displayed the maximum number of events and needed to include more. To meet this need, the system was extended to allow up to 20 events to be shown on the chart and these can be selected

from a physical maximum of 99. The selection of events to be

included in the chart will represent a window of the project timescale. Consequently, the range of dates along the x axis is dependent upon the events selected. The x axis needs to be dated in regular monthly intervals, but because the predicted dates for the selected events may not conform to a regular pattern, routines have been deve- loped to enable the x axis to be dated automatically by the machine. A special event is included in the system and is used by the DRAW DATES command to provide this facility.

The y axis shows the dates of the completed project reviews. To meet the needs of users, the facility has

244 Project Management

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been provided to enable a range of these dates to be selected and dis- played on the project status sheet. When a window of the review dates is taken in this way, the y axis scale adjusts automatically to display only those review dates that have been selected. This axis is dated using globals that are set during processing.

To enable the dates to be plotted on the trend chart, they are con- verted to numeric x-y coordinate values. The review dates are dis- crete positions on the y axis. Con- sequently, they can be assigned an integer value, starting at one for the latest review date and incrementing by one for each preceding review. The predicted dates are assigned a decimal value representing their

relative position along the x axis. For example, in Figure 3, the x-y values for event 8, for the review on 23 August 1979 are 1.63,9, whereas for event 15 the values are 13.49,6 for the review carried out on 16 May 1980.

COST PLOT

The cost plot, shown in Figure 4, which forms the upper right hand section of the project status sheet, is a standard Artemis report. How- ever, there are two points of interest. First, the scale of the y axis is calculated automatically. Secondly, the year number is posi- tioned automatically as the time- scale on the x axis varies.

The scale of the y axis is cal-

culated during processing. The maximum value of the data to be plotted is taken and factored by 140%. The resultant figure is then rounded to the nearest decade and set in the graphics global y,,,. It was found during development, that factoring these data by 140% ensured that sufficient space was then left above the y axis for the legends on the cost plot.

With time, the number of months along the x axis will increase. Originally, the year number was positioned at the end of the axis using the DRAW x LABEL command. This led to confusion when the x axis extended over more than one year, however. Using graphics- digitizing techniques, it was possible to obtain the plotting co-

Vol 1 No 4 November 1983 245

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ordinates for the axes of-the cost plot. By calculating an offset from the intersection of the axes in plotter coordinates, it is possible to position the year number at the midpoint of the year shown on the x axis.

CONCLUSIONS

The project status sheet was deve- loped to provide a formal project

reporting system, in summary form, for senior management within Hunting Engineering. Its success in meeting this requirement has led to it being used for all major projects handled by the company.

As a plotting requirement, the project status sheet is complex. The use of Artemis management graphics not only enabled the chart to be produced, but with develop- ment the production process has been made both simple and efficient.

J

David Lowdell Pained his BSc in mechvanical engineering from Sur- rey University and joined Hawker Sidde- jey in 1%9, working ’ I_+ on the desizn of the &--.. Blue Streak-Launcher

for the European Space Programme. He studied for a Master’s in Business Administration at Cornell Universiq and then joined Vickers as a business analyst. In 1976 he moved to Hunting Engineering where he is a senior management systems analyst.

246 Project Management