Fields of the Basic Project Plan Task

The following lists the fields of the task form for the basic project plan, along with recommendations for their use.

Basic Plan

The Basic Plan field indicates the basic project plan to which the task relates. This is the basic project plan selected within the project to which the task for creating the basic project plan belongs. This specific basic project plan is used for comparing the progress of the project with the original project plan at the time the basic project plan was created.

Task

The Task field displays the project task for which a basic project plan task was created at the time of creating the basic project plan.

Schedule

The Schedule field indicates the difference in calendar days between the planned completion time of the project task (at the time of creating the basic project plan) and the planned start time of the task (at the time of creating the basic project plan). The start and end dates of this schedule are set when the basic project plan is created.

Budget

The Budget field displays the planned effort, which was anticipated to be spent on the task at the time of creating the basic project plan. These efforts are expressed in terms of both time and the cost of that time.

Current Scope

The Current Scope field displays the total current planned efforts for all tasks assigned to a project. The current scope is expressed in terms of time. This field is only displayed when the current scope differs from the budget – i.e., when there is a scope variance. In turn, a scope variance occurs if: the planned efforts for the project task are changed; or the project task is assigned a status of ‘Failure’ or ‘Cancelled’. The current scope of the basic project plan task is set to zero when the status of the project task is set to ‘Failure’ or ‘Cancelled’.

Actual Effort

The Actual Effort field displays the total time spent on all records of work hours associated with the project task. These actual efforts are expressed in terms of time and the cost of that time.

Remaining Effort

The Remaining Effort field displays the total remaining effort for the project task.

Completed Scope

The Completed Scope field displays the total completed scope of the project task. The completed scope is expressed as a percentage of the efforts laid out in the budget, as well as in terms of time and the cost of that time.

Schedule Variance

The Schedule Variance field displays the difference in calendar days between the planned completion time of the project task (at the time of creating the basic project plan) and the current expected completion of the project task. Schedule variance is expressed in terms of calendar days.

Scope Variance

The Scope Variance field displays the difference between the current scope and the budget of the basic project plan task. Scope variance is expressed as a percentage of the efforts laid out in the budget, as well as in terms of time.

Effort Variance

The Effort Variance field displays the difference between actual effort and completed effort (i.e., the completed scope expressed as time spent). Effort variance is expressed as a percentage of completed effort, as well as in terms of time.

Cost Variance

The Cost Variance field displays the difference between the cost of actual effort and completed cost (i.e., the completed scope expressed as the cost of the completed scope) for the basic project plan task. Cost variance is expressed as a percentage of completed cost, as well as in terms of the cost of effort variance.