ASTA Asta Powerproject is an innovative Project, Portfolio, and Resource Management solution enabling forward-thinking organizations to produce and manage strategic plans, while maintaining the ability to identify and respond to change efficiently. Projects can be managed individually, but can also be viewed in the context of a project portfolio. We really like Asta as a project scheduling software for the Construction industry. This is going to be the first of many blog posts discussing Asta and providing tutorials that explore the functionality of the software for managing projects.
Asta PowerProject allows organizations to deliver projects and portfolios:
- Within budget
- On time
- Efficiently
ASTA PowerProject allows organizations to setup role-based views tailored to different types of users. Data is retrieved from the central database and utilizing intuitive forms, graphical charts and flagging systems. Project Managers are able to easily monitor status against a baseline plan and track variances.
Project Managers are also able to create new project plans quickly utilizing templates, baseline the project to track planned versus actual performance, and schedule activities with critical path analysis.
This Asta PowerProject tutorial provides instructions for and the benefits of “Creating Multiple Progress Periods” for display on the Gantt Chart.
Progress periods enable us to record when the actual work was performed on an activity. Asta PowerProject allows you to create multiple progress periods, record actual work performed as of each progress period, display multiple progress reporting periods on the Gantt chart, and display color-coded shading on each activity corresponding to the appropriate progress reporting period. These features enable Project Managers to quickly understand when delays or problems may have occurred resulting in slippage from the baseline plan.
Step 1: Create multiple progress reporting periods in Asta PowerProject and select desired color-coding. The image below depicts 8 monthly reporting periods with the corresponding color and line style.
Step 2: Create your project plan and establish the baseline. The image below depicts a schedule prior to the first update cycle, including baseline bars displayed as the black bars. Notice the colored vertical lines on the bar chart showing the multiple monthly progress periods established in Step 1.
Step 3: Record activity progress. The image below shows the first update period of Dec. 31, 2013 as indicated by the red vertical line on the bar chart. The blue vertical shaded area depicts non-working holiday time. In the example below one activity, Drawing 1, was progressed with an actual start date of Dec. 18 and a remaining duration of 4 days. NOTICE THE RED SHADING ON THE BAR FOR DRAWING 1 DENOTING THE PORTION OF THAT ACTIVITY COMPLETED DURING THE REPORTING PERIOD ENDING ON DEC. 31, 2013. Also note the remaining duration reported of 4 days will cause the activity to exceed the baseline plan.
Step 4: The image below shows project status for the second reporting period of Jan. 31, 2014 displayed as green shading on the progressed activities. Notice activity bar for Drawing 1 displays both red and green shading indicating the portion of work completed during the 1st reporting period (red) versus the 2ndreporting period (green).
Step 5: The image below illustrates progress update during the 3rd reporting cycle of Feb. 28, 2014 and is reflected with blue shading.
Step 6: This image reflects progress update as of Mar. 31, 2014 (cyan).
Step 7: The yellow bar shading & yellow vertical line reflect update as of April 30, 2014. Notice the activities slipping from the baseline.
Step 8: This image shows the status as of May 31, 2014 (pink).
Step 9: The image below depicts the schedule upon completion. Notice that you can quickly determine the reporting period in which an activity’s work was performed.
Step 10: The example below illustrates the completed project including the vertical shading showing nonworking holiday time. THIS PROVIDES A GREAT GRAPHICAL DEPICTION OF PROJECT PROGRESS!
If you want to explore Asta PowerProject in greater depth, click here to access a free trial. Does anyone have any experience using Asta PowerProject? Comment below and tell us about it.