SSI Toolbox Status Workbook Overview SSI Status Workbook

SSI Toolbox Status Workbook Overview SSI Status Workbook Overview • The SSI Status Workbook tool makes a turn-around status worksheet for each task owner in a Microsoft Project file • A task owner is the person responsible for assessing the performance of certain tasks in a schedule • Task owners must be identified, in a text or Contact field, for each task and milestone in a project file in order to use this tool • The SSI Status Workbook tool makes a worksheet in the workbook, based on the sheet named “Template”, for each unique task owner • Distribute these sheets to each task owner as a “look ahead” report of near term tasks in the schedule • Task owners can markup their worksheet and return to the scheduler for incorporation into the Integrated Master Schedule • The workbook tool automates much of the status gathering and posting process, allowing maximum time for change & variance analysis www. ssitools. com

SSI Toolbox Quick Guide – When Starting a New Status Workbook 1. Open a new workbook in Excel 2. Press Status Turnaround Workbook on the SSI Tools menu With the tab named Template Sheet Setup open 3. Press Get The Master Template to add a worksheet named Template to the active Excel workbook 4. If needed, add or edit Columns in the Excel sheet named Template as follows: • Add or Delete columns in the Excel sheet named Template sheet between columns D through T • If adding a column, enter “user friendly” column title (one your team will recognize) on Row 2 in the Excel sheet named Template • Right-Click and select Insert Comment or Edit Comment in the new column on row 2 • Enter the actual Microsoft Project field name (exactly as used in Microsoft Project) as the cell comment. • Make the items below the section named Map Columns in the Worksheet (WS) to Project Field Names match the columns in the Excel sheet named Template. Be sure to use actual Microsoft Project field name (exactly as used in Microsoft Project) instead of your “friendly” titles With the tab named Make Status Sheets open 5. Use the drop-down list next to the button named Get Task Owner Names Listed in Project Field >> to select a Microsoft Project text field containing Task Owners (sometimes called Control Account Manager or CAM) 6. Click the button named Get Task Owner Names Listed in Project Field >> 7. Select the names that appear in the list box next to the button named Make a Sheet for Each Select Name 8. Click the button named Make a Sheet for Each Select Name >>. Notice that a new worksheet is added to the workbook for each named selected in the list. 9. Click the button named Get Tasks Copyright 2017 by Structured Solutions Inc.

SSI Toolbox Quick Guide – When Using an Existing Status Workbook 1. Open a existing Status Workbook in Excel 2. Press Status Turnaround Workbook on the SSI Tools menu With the tab named Template Sheet Setup open 3. If needed, add or edit Columns in the Excel sheet named Template as follows: • Add or Delete columns in the Excel sheet named Template sheet between columns D through T • If adding a column, enter “user friendly” column title (one your team will recognize) on Row 2 in the Excel sheet named Template • Right-Click and select Insert Comment or Edit Comment in the new column on row 2 • Enter the actual Microsoft Project field name (exactly as used in Microsoft Project) as the cell comment. • Make the items below the section named Map Columns in the Worksheet (WS) to Project Field Names match the columns in the Excel sheet named Template. Be sure to use actual Microsoft Project field name (exactly as used in Microsoft Project) instead of your “friendly” titles With the tab named Make Status Sheets open 4. *Use the drop-down list next to the button named Get Task Owner Names Listed in Project Field >> to select a Microsoft Project text field containing Task Owners (sometimes called Control Account Manager or CAM) 5. *Click the button named Get Task Owner Names Listed in Project Field >> 6. *Select the names that appear in the list box next to the button named Make a Sheet for Each Select Name 7. *Click the button named Make a Sheet for Each Select Name >>. Notice that a new worksheet is added to the workbook for each named selected in the list. 8. Click the button named Get Tasks * Note skip steps 4 – 7 if you are not making changes to the Template and you already have sheets for each Task Owner. SSI Tools will refresh existing Task Owner sheets whenever you press Get Tasks Copyright 2017 by Structured Solutions Inc.

SSI Toolbox Status Workbook Content Generating Status Worksheets • Setup a Template for extracting project data • Setup the Template to meet your project’s needs • SSI Status Worksheet Generation Saving Worksheets for Task Owners • File Save Location Completion of Status sheets by Task Owners • Color Codes and Other Indicators • Tracking changes in a user’s sheet Compare Original Vs. Updated Worksheets • Setup and Change Indicators Posting Changed Data to a Project • Posting worksheet values to Microsoft Project • Advanced Features & Recommendations www. ssitools. com

Generating Status Worksheets Create a Template Add a Template sheet to a new workbook • If the active Excel Workbook does not contain a Template for Status Worksheets, you can add one by Pressing Get The Master Template • Then use Map Columns in the Worksheet (WS) to Project Field Names to identify which Microsoft Project fields contain Press Get the Master the data for each Template if you are column in the using an Excel Template from D-T workbook that does The column names in the map must match the exact field names in Microsoft Project www. ssitools. com not have a sheet named Template

Generating Status Worksheets Create a Template Setup the Template to meet your project’s needs • Open the sheet named Template and create a layout to meet your needs Row 1 automatically captures the Project Status Date above the Name or Task Name column. Columns A-C are fixed and should not be changed Columns D-T can be added, deleted or changed to meet the project’s needs. Titles on row 2 in Columns A – T can be “user friendly” and do not need to match Microsoft Project field names since you will map these columns to MS Project fields using the section named Map Columns in the Worksheet (WS) to Project Field Names • It’s helpful to add cell comments in row 2 showing the exact Microsoft Project field names used for the source of data for the column • • www. ssitools. com

Status Workbook Making Worksheets for Task Owners SSI Status Worksheet Generation • Open a Microsoft Project file, remove all filters and select a task view such as the Gantt Chart. • Press Ctrl Shift S to start the SSI Status Worksheet tool or pick the macro named Show. SSIStatus. Workbook. Tools. 1. Click Get Task Owner Names in Project to create a list of unique task owners (Task Owners are taken from the Project field selected) 2. Select task owner names in the list and click Make a Sheet for Each Selected Name to create a worksheet in the workbook for each name selected (new worksheets will be based on the sheet named “Template” 3. Click Get Tasks to get items from the project for each task owner that match the date range criteria on Setup Options for Project Data www. ssitools. com

Status Workbook Saving Worksheets for Task Owners Save Options for Worksheets • Once worksheets have been created, you can create a separate Excel file for each worksheet (or tab in the workbook) by entering a “Save to” and “Save as” options. 1. Browse to the system location to save each individual worksheet and press Save Sheets as. 2. Individual sheets can be posted to a common network location, sent by email or any other method of providing them to task owners. www. ssitools. com

Status Workbook Worksheet Completion By Task Owner SSI Status Worksheet Completion • Yellow highlights note that task performance must be assessed by the task owner. Tasks with Start/Finish dates prior to the project status, but no actual performance, show as Yellow cells with red text to indicate an update is required. • Blue cells are tasks due to Start or Finish in the next reporting period and gray cells show Actual Start or Finish dates. Some cell contain notes to provide additional information about a task like its baseline date or resource assignment details. Mouse over a cell to see these comments. www. ssitools. com

Status Workbook Track Changes in a Worksheet Track Change • Use Track Changes to identify updates provided by the task owners Click Track Changes to compare the current value in each cell with its original value (original values are recorded in each cell’s notes) Changed values appear as cells with a thick border and a slash through the cell. Changed values may be highlighted using Color Options for Tracking Changes www. ssitools. com

Status Workbook Posting Changes in the Project Post changed values directly in Microsoft Project or use the tab named Post Status to copy values from an updated worksheet to mapped fields in Microsoft Project. 1. Select the Workbook and Worksheet containing updates to be posted 2. Match the columns in the worksheet to fields in Project. Note - This mapping can be different than the mapping on the tab named Setup Options for Project Data 3. Select a Project Field Used to Indicate a Task Change Was Posted values from the worksheet appear as shown below – thick cell borders and a X through the cell www. ssitools. com When a value is copied from a worksheet to a Project field a log entry is recorded in the Project Field Used to Indicate a Task Change was Posted

Status Workbook Posting Changes in the Project SSI Recommends the following when posting data from worksheets to an active project: 1. Post Date changes to “Static” date fields using Start/Finish 1 – 10 ü Allows the analyst to inspect and evaluate each date change, in turn, for its impact on linked tasks before entering updated dates as scheduled Start or Finish dates 2. Post Percent Complete changes to Physical % Complete or a Number field. ü Allows the analyst to inspect and evaluate each percent complete change, in turn, for its impact on linked tasks before entering them as duration or work percent complete 3. Post updates to Work or Cost to Number fields. ü Allows the analyst to inspect and evaluate the impact of each change to resource assignments before moving these values to Remaining Work or Remaining Cost 4. Meet with each task owner to review status, to ensure complete and accurate status was provided and to review how changed values impact key dates in the project. www. ssitools. com Anytime a value is copied from a worksheet to a Project field a log entry is recorded in the Project Field Used to Indicate a Task Change was Posted

Status Workbook Additional User Notes – advanced features • If you use the key words “EV Method” as a column title in your status worksheet, SSI Tools will attempt to convert MPM Earned Value Methods into “user friendly” definitions such as “LOE” or “Pct Cmp”. This only happens if SSI Tools detects an expected value in the Microsoft Project field you map to this column. • Use the word “None” as the “Field in Project on the tab named “Setup Options for Project Data” to ignore a column in a worksheet • Use the key words “Latest Start” or “Latest Finish” as the “Field in Project on the tab named “Setup Options for Project Data” to calculate the latest date a task can start or finish without delaying a successor task. • The word “Formula” in a column (after column T) on row 1 on the Template worksheet is a SSI Tools keyword. This causes any formula you type on row 3 of the same column to be applied when extracting data to worksheets. www. ssitools. com

Copyright 2017 by Structured Solutions Inc. Office: 386 Rim Trail Prescott , AZ 86303 Contact Us: Phone: 480 -650 -1605 Fax: 866 -323 -5740 www. ssitools. com Providing “Solutions” since 1994. Copyright 2017 by Structured Solutions Inc.