Health of My Projects on Completion (CPI, SPI, CSI)

[tracy_fox]

I am working with the Health of My Projects report and have customized it to show: Project Name, Project Condition, CPI, SPI, CSI The attachment is filtered on Completed Projects for 2017 How accurate are these calculations when the project is completed? The reason I ask is that in the report snapshot enclosed, I am seeing positive results for SPI, however, the numbers seem to contradict the Project Condition as well as my experience that we generally run late on project schedule ( PM frustration to infinity ). I just want to know I can trust and explain the results if senior management have the same opinion. Tracy Fox Project Manager / Workfront SysAdmin Sykes Assistance Services Corporation

[DavidCo3]

Hi Tracy, Good question......we've just started using the CPI & SPI in some of our reports. I had also wondered about the fact that an SPI can show 1.00 but yet the project condition is At Risk or In Trouble. I don't know for sure, but my guess is that the SPI is effectively averaged at the project level by calculation based on the total planned hours and percent complete. However, the Project Condition (if based on progress status) is based on the condition of tasks on the critical path. Perhaps it is possible for the project to be on track on average but yet the critical path tasks are not on track. Hopefully someone else can confirm either way. Thanks David Cornwell

[Dr_DougWi]

This area of the system is very complex and full of pesky calculations, dependent on the perfect management of the task fields that drive them. And yes, there is a disconnect between how these index values relate to the overall project progress status, which is driven from the combination of the projected dates and the critical path determined in Workfront. Usage of these has several items to pay attention to… Set project condition on the project to set to automatic instead of manual Set up a perfect dependency tree across the tasks to ensure that the flags for critical path are set to most clean start to finish within the project Set up each work task (no children) with perfect estimate on duration, planned hours, and assignments. Set up each work task with perfect estimate for planned expenses, planned revenue, and planned user cost Maintain the work tasks to start on time, finish on time, have hours entered for time of the schedule window, adjust percent complete when exactly needed, enter expenses values as planned, and mark correct status And, I likely forgot one or two things in this list Here are some support references to get into the details of this complex area Project Condition "https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/217239547">https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/217239547 SPI - schedule performance index "https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/216632068-Calculating-Schedule-Performance-Index-SPI-">https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/216632068-Calculating-Schedule-Performance-Index-SPI- CPI - cost performance index "https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/216632028-Calculating-Cost-Performance-Index-CPI-">https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/216632028-Calculating-Cost-Performance-Index-CPI- CSI - cost schedule index "https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/217182237-Calculating-Cost-Schedule-Performance-Index-CSI-">https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/217182237-Calculating-Cost-Schedule-Performance-Inde... EAC - estimate to completion - based on hours or costs values https://support.workfront.com/hc/en-us/articles/216632048-Calculating-Estimate-At-Completion-EAC- Doug Williams

[tracy_fox]

Thank you for the information Doug. I will review and discuss with my managers. Tracy Fox Project Manager / Workfront SysAdmin Sykes Assistance Services Corporation