Entering Activity Estimates—Exercises

Basic Data Setup

Project Cost Element

Purpose: The purpose of this exercise is to show you how to create project cost elements.

Windows:
Project Cost/Revenue Elements

  1. Create a project cost element on which the activity estimate can be reported.
  2. Save your changes.

General exercise for Setting Up Project Cost/Revenue Elements

Required Data

Creating Activities

Purpose: The purpose of this exercise is to familiarize you with the data that must be in place before you can perform the exercises below.

  1. Create activities in your subproject structure.
  2. Save your changes.

General exercise for Building Project Plan

Main Exercise

Purpose: The purpose of these exercises is to show you how to enter activity estimate values for different cost elements. In addition, you will learn how to retrieve planned values for an activity, when you cannot specify project deliverables by using the estimated cost.

Windows:
Project Navigator/Activity
Project Navigator/Connections
Activity/General
Activity/Estimate

Entering Activity Estimates

  1. Open the Project Navigator window. Alternatively, open the Activity window.
  2. Query for your project.
  3. In the Navigator, select an activity for which you want to enter the estimated values. Alternatively, in the Activity window, select the desired activity in the Project list.
  4. Click the Activity tab, and click the Estimate sub tab. Alternatively, in the Activity window, click the Estimate tab.
  5. In the table, create a new record.
  6. Enter a cost or revenue element in the Cost/Revenue Element field, or select from the List of Values.
  7. In the Estimated field, enter an appropriate estimated value for the selected cost element.
  8. Create a new record to enter the estimated values for each additional cost element as required.
  9. Save your changes.
  10. Click either the Cost, Revenue or the Hours sub tab on the Activity tab or in the Activity window, depending on the change you made.
  11. Note that the values you entered are shown in the Estimated column.
  12. Click the Connections tab, which shows all the objects connected to the activity. Note that the object type Activity Estimate is connected to the activity.

Using Activity Estimates for Planning

  1. Open the Project Navigator or the Activity window.
  2. Query for your project.
  3. In the Navigator, select an activity that has estimated values. Alternatively, in the Activity window, select the desired activity in the Project list.
  4. Click the Activity tab.  Alternatively, in the Activity window, click the General tab.
  5. In the Planned Cost Driver list, click Estimated Cost. Save your changes.
  6. Note that the activity planned values on the Cost or the Hours tab are updated from the estimated values.
  7. Click the Estimate tab, and change some of your estimated values. Save your changes.
  8. Click the Cost or the Hours tab depending on the change you made. Note that the activity planned values are updated with your changes.

Note: For an example of an activity that uses estimated values for planning, see Project P101 and Activity 10050.