VPVI-33Simplifying Your Project Planning Process

Barbara Bunting, Stambaugh Ness

Introductions

Audience

Basic Planning Concepts

Planning

Vision Planning

Vantagepoint 2.x Planning

Agenda

Reporting

Vision Navigation Tree

Vision Dashboards

Where to Start?

Conclusion

Come See Us

Introductions

Stambaugh NessProvides Professional Services Firms with a Future-

Ready approach that aligns services to our client’s

needs

Years of Professional Experience

in the Architectural and Engineering industries

Years of Experience working with Deltek solutions

Nationally Recognized Deltek Platinum Partner

Clients in 43 States & Canada

Barbara Bunting, Senior Consultant

20+ years working with Deltek systems

Specializes in:Resource Planning (Vision, iAccess, Vantagepoint)

Project Management Training

Project Management Process Assessments and Development

Info Center Design

Security / System Administration

Workflows

Audience

• Actively using Planning• iAccess

• Vision

• Vantagepoint

• Currently implementing iAccess, Vision, or Vantagepoint

Planning

• Possible future implementation of iAccess, Vision, or

Vantagepoint Planning

Audience

Basic Planning Concepts

• What is ETC?• Estimate to Complete

• The effort remaining to finish the project regardless of the

remaining budget (the hours and dollars you have projected

from tomorrow forward to complete the project)

• What is EAC?• Estimate at Completion

• The sum of JTD (Job-to-Date) + ETC (Estimate to Complete)

• Predicts the financial outcome of the project

Terminology

Terminology (cont.)

• Planning % Complete: JTD / EAC• Suggested Vision system wide % Complete: JTD / (JTD +

ETC)

• Automatically set in Vantagepoint as JTD / EAC

• If % Complete seems low, you have too much effort

planned in the future (ETC is too high)

• If % Complete seems high, you don't have enough effort

planned in the future (ETC is too low)

Terminology (cont.)

• Manage projects

• Manage expectations

• Help identify overruns/underruns before they occur

• Conduct project status review meetings

• Identify over/under utilized resources in future time

periods

• Make better business decisions

• Possible revenue projections/forecasting

• Revenue recognition

Uses for Planning Information

• Practice, Practice, Practice! • Update plans weekly/after each timesheet period instead of at

the end of each period (more frequent = better/more accurate)

• Resource Management: base all hiring/layoff decisions

on the information; hold firm

• Hold Resource Management meetings frequently to

balance staff resources

• Use deputy PM’s/task managers to help update plans

• Review ETC/EAC information with your manager/CFO

Ideas to Improve Planning Use / Accuracy

• Review the My Weekly

Schedule report (Labor

Resource Forecast report)

to review assignments with

your project team and ask

for feedback from the

employees doing the work

• Review the Actuals and

Planned report

Ideas to Improve Planning Use / Accuracy

• Talk with other firms using Planning or talk with a

consultant

• Top down / bottom up support with regards to Planning

• Review existing business processes and revise as

needed

• Decide if your firm will use iAccess, Vision Planning,

both iAccess/Vision Planning, or Vantagepoint Planning

Implementation Suggestions

• The functionality of Planning must be incorporated into

your firm’s business processes

• Determine proper Configuration and Security settings

• Review the data that is used in Planning and update as

needed

• Create Planning searches, reports, alerts, and

dashparts

• Less is more. Keep it simple!

Implementation Suggestions (cont.)

Planning

• How• How will we plan? Cost, Billing, or Cost & Billing?

• Remember security settings in this decision

• What• What will be planned and maintained? Labor, Expenses,

Consultants, Units?

• When• When is a plan created?

• When is a plan maintained and which tabs are maintained?

Process Development

• Who• Who will create the plan and from what (opportunity, template,

project)?

• Who will maintain the plan?

• Who will monitor plans (perform “clean up”, monitor for process

compliance, monitor that maintenance is complete, etc.)?

• Document process development• Ensures everyone is on the same page with requirements

• Useful for new hire / new promotion training

• Simple checklists / help text via screen designer

Process Development (cont.)

• Configuration > Plan

Settings• Decimals

• % Complete Formula [Vision]

• Default WBS Mapping [Vision]

Configuration: Keep It Simple!• Configuration > Planning

Grids• Turn off all columns and

rows not needed

• If modifying plans in Vision only, make sure to set

iAccess Project Planning Access to Read Only

• Only give access to what is needed

• Hide unused tabs for each security role

• Consider giving Read Only access to Billing Terms so

Planning rate source can be verified by PM or pull the

billing term information + Planning rate source onto the

project record (via workflow) to compare

Security: Keep It Simple!

• Be aware of what

affect the Labor Cost

Rates/Amounts has on

Planning

• Review the Labor Cost

Rates and Amounts

Security Cheat Sheet

in the Vantagepoint

Portal

Security: Keep It Simple! (cont.)

• Terminology

• Basic functionality: • Tabs

• Toolbars

• Various right-clicks [Vision]

• Shift [Vision]

• Schedule tab [Vision]

Training Tips

• Work left to right• Description/WBS [Vision] or Level/Resource [Vantagepoint]

• Dates

• Planned / ETC

• Fee [Vision]

• Dates• Importance of Start / Finish dates

• Reschedule / Reassign [Vantagepoint]

• Right-click functionality [Vision]

• Shift button [Vision]

Training Tips (cont.)

• Plan maintenance• Clearing the red [Vision]

• % complete “gut check”• If % Complete seems low, too much effort is planned in the future

• If % Complete seems high, not enough effort is planned in the future

• Company business process and plan maintenance

requirements

• Individual or team workshops immediately following

training

• Weekly check-in calls for 4-6 weeks

Training Tips (cont.)

Vision Planning

• Can include user defined fields on the

General tab and/or user defined tabs

• Displays Planned and Actuals as subrows

• Displays unposted time in a different color

• Can plan at labor code level

• Can plan units

• Includes a Gantt chart Schedule tab

General Information

• Fast methods for spreading values / copying a user-

defined pattern

• Flexibility that does not necessarily follow the Project

WBS• Can have more than one Project in a Plan

• Can have a Plan within more than one Project

• Can Plan at the Project, Phase, Task or Labor Code – which

ever works for this specific Project and Plan

• Includes Fee columns which can be different than the

project’s Budget & Revenue tab

General Information (cont.)

• Vision General tab• Hide fields

• Screen layout

• Help icons

• Help text

Screen Designer: Keep It Simple!

• Weekly Maintenance tab• Maintenance

instructions

• Fields to

update weekly

Screen Designer: Keep It Simple! (cont.)

• Planning Tabs• Reorder remaining tabs

• Create a Weekly Maintenance tab for fields to review weekly

• Suggested Standard Column Order• Description, WBS Level, Project/Phase/Task, Start, Finish,

Planned Hrs, Baseline, JTD, ETC, EAC, % Complete, Fee -

work left to right

Additional Tips

• Plan Templates• Show Unposted Actual Labor checkbox

• Set Default WBS Mapping (if different for various projects)

• Create global searches; organize in folders

• Create global reports

Additional Tips (cont.)

Vantagepoint 2.x Planning

• Accessible from any browser, tablet, or personal

computer

• Easy, graphical interface showing key project metrics

• User friendly: numerous info bubbles, tool tips, and

help buttons throughout

• A tool where project managers can review the status of

their project without having to run multiple reports for

the information

General Information

• Includes visual indicators to alert

project managers to possible

issues so that they can respond

proactively

• Automatically uses the project

WBS from the Projects Hub

• Includes the fee from the Budget

& Revenue tab in the Projects

Hub (not Contract Management)

General Information (cont.)

• Resource management [Resource & Project View]• Can now start the planning process/add assignments in

Resource Management

• No labor code or unit planning in Vantagepoint 2.x

• No Gantt/task dependencies in Vantagepoint 2.x

General Information (cont.)

• Labor must be planned at the lowest WBS level of the

project

• Spread hours proportionally in plans• No right-click spreading (i.e. spread per business day or copy)

• No copying rows and replacing resource name

• Entry of ETC hours in summary (left side) and on

calendar (right side) at all levels• Can only plan “tomorrow” forward;

no backwards planning/updating

General Information (cont.)

• Not able to see Planned and Actuals in a timescale view

in Vantagepoint 2.x but can see Planned and Actuals in

the Resource Management list view report

General Information (cont.)

• Project planning dashparts in Projects hub dashboard

• Project Review in browser with plan data• No screen designer available

General Information (cont.)

• Pin important columns for the

“Show less” view

• Suggested Column Order• Dates, Contract, JTD, ETC, EAC,

Contract Less EAC, % Complete,

Contract Less JTD, Notes

• Create global searches;

organize in folders

• Create global reports

Additional Tips

Reporting

• Rename the column headings by using terms that PM’s

are more familiar with – for example:• Rename Total Compensation to Total Project Contract or Total

Project Budget

• Rename JTD Amount Bill to JTD Spent @ Billing Rates

• Rename JTD Billed to JTD Invoiced or to JTD Billed (Invoiced)

Rename Column Headings

• Add letter designations to the columns to clarify

calculations – for example:• Total Project Contract [A]

• JTD Spent @ Billing Rates [B]

• Contract Remaining [A-B]

• % Contract Spent [B/A]

Rename Column Headings (cont.)

Report Dividers / Report Footers

• Create new fields under Configuration

> General > User Defined Components

• Create several new fields

(i.e. Report Divider 1, etc.)• Data Type: Character

• Default Value: |

• Hide the fields in the Info Center

• Add the fields as a column

in the report

Report Dividers / Report Footers (cont.)

• Edit the report footer to include

the original name of the report

(i.e. based on Project Earnings)

• Add help text to guide the user

of the report • Calculations

• Terminology

• Help text

• Report purpose

• Etc.

Report Dividers / Report Footers (cont.)

• Calculations for

Labor/Expense/

Consultants/Total Project

• % Complete (JTD/EAC)

• % Budget Spent

• Potential Overrun /

Underrun

• Remaining Budget

• % Revenue Recognized

Calculated Fields: Examples for PM Reports• Calculations for

Expenses/Consultants

• JTD (Direct + Reimb.)

• Total Budget (Direct +

Reimb.)

• Remaining Budget

• (for Planning users)

• A high-level summary of financial activity for all projects

• Has 467 standard columns available + user defined

fields + calculated columns

• Includes many columns for current, year-to-date, job-to-

date, and custom timeframe totals

• Widely used for Project Managers

• Financial Managers/Accounting tend to use the Office

Earnings report instead

Project Earnings Report

• With Planning:• Include ETC/EAC for areas maintained in Planning

• Without Planning:• Can’t include ETC/EAC

Examples for Project Managers

Vision Navigation Tree

• PM Tools• One-click key reports

• Master documents (i.e. cost

spreadsheet, insurance

certificates, consultant

agreement, etc.)

• Terminology

Modifying the Vision Navigation Tree• Links

• Payroll company site

• 401(k) site

• Intranet

• Firm Wide Documentation• Vision process guides

• Training materials

• HR forms

• Security settings apply to the

Navigation Tree

• If you add an item, you must grant

access to the security roles

• If a security role has Full access to all

menu items, they will see the

Navigation Tree changes immediately

• Other roles won’t see the changes

until access has been granted

Security and the Vision Navigation Tree

Vision Navigation Tree Icons

Vision Dashboards

• Create a user for the “master” role-based Dashboard

(i.e. DASHBOARD_PM, DASHBOARD_EMP)

• Apply the appropriate security role for this user account

and apply a password to the user account

• Create and maintain the “master” role-based,

“actionable” Dashboard under this user

• “Actionable” dashparts should be blank unless there is a

record that needs attention (should say Select data for

this dashpart by clicking Options above this text)

Vision: General Information

• Create “actionable” searches in the Info Centers so they

are easy to apply to the Dashboard searches and can

be used for future reference• Expiring or expired licenses/certifications

• Projects that have spent over a certain amount

• Projects with last posted activity over a certain timeframe

• Projects with missing billing rate transactions

• Expiring or expired contracts

• Expiring or expired vendor insurance certificates

Vision: General Information (cont.)

• Alerts

• AR Invoice Review

• Expiring or expired licenses / certifications

• List of active opportunities with other actionable

information (if using CRM)• Stage

• Probability

• Due dates

Dashparts: Examples for PM’s

• List of active, regular projects with other actionable

information• Contract expiration date

• Last posted activity date

• % of contract spent

• List of active plans (if using Planning)

• List of active plans not maintained within the firm’s

maintenance timeline

• Upcoming deliverables / activities

Dashparts: Examples for PM’s (cont.)

Where to Start?

• Project Management Assessment• Includes a review of the firm’s project management processes,

review of project manager use of Vision, and review of project

management configuration/security settings

• Resource Planning Configuration/Security Review• Includes a review of Planning configuration and Planning

security settings

Suggested Next Steps

• Review/Refine/Simplify Current Planning Process

• Planning Training/Refresher

• Vision Security Role Review

• Vision User Defined Component Review

• Vision Search and/or Report Review

• Vision Workflow Review

Suggested Next Steps (cont.)

Conclusion

• KEEP IT SIMPLE!

• Top down / bottom up support with regards to Planning

• Make business decisions based on the data

• Turn off/hide items not needed

• Use the various tools to simplify the process for the end

users (i.e. iAccess, reports, Navigation Tree,

Dashboards, etc.)

Conclusion

Questions

VPVI-38 Adding UDF’s & Workflows – Where Do You Start?

VPVI-37 Transaction Center – Which Transaction Type Should I Use?

VPVI-55 Don’t Just Fly, Soar (Dumbo) – See How Vision Customization Can Work for You

VPVI-34 Build Out a Marketing Infrastructure – More Than Just an Accounting System

VPVI-56 The Magic of AP Approvals in Vantagepoint and Vision

VPVI-87 Reduce Time & Expense Error & Delays

VPVI-42 Play Nice Together to be More Efficient and Effective in Our Roles

VPVI-88 Leave the Imagination to Disney – Avoid Custom Invoices

VPVI-18 Creating Actionable Vantagepoint Dashboards

VPVI-89 Eliminate Spreadsheets & Harness the Power of User Defined Info Centers

Come See Us Check out the sessions that our team will be presenting!

Contact Information

Barbara Bunting, Senior Consultant

bbunting@stambaughness.com

Visit us at www.stambaughness.com/events

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