This article will familiarize you with the overview, best use, interpretation, deployment, and data dependencies of Schedule Deviation.
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Overview
The effort deviation metric indicates the percentage of additional effort spent during the execution of projects, over what was planned/approved for in the beginning. It is an indicator of the estimation capability, as well as the implementation skills of the project team (or project manager).
The deviation in planned vs. actual effort arises when either the estimation has not been done accurately or the scope is ambiguous and hence it leads to effort and thereby cost overrun.
Effort Deviation is calculated using this formula:
Effort Deviation = (Actual Effort – Baseline Effort) * 100 / (Baseline Effort)
Where,
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Actual Effort = Actual timesheet effort logged by the resources against task/workflow items assigned to the user for the project.
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Baseline Effort = Planned effort for ‘Tasks’ which has been Baselined in the scheduling process. The current project baseline as done in MSP or Nimble’s scheduling type is considered. Note: The default scheduling doesn’t have baseline efforts. So, if you have default scheduling for your Task Plan, we recommend plotting the metrics based on the Task Plan and not on the project basis.
Interpretation:
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A negative (-ve) value for this metric indicates that the project is under control so far i.e. may be completed within the planned effort.
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A positive (+ve) value for this metric indicates that the project activities have consumed more effort than what was planned for, either because of scope creep or poor estimation, and the project may slip from the planned finish and needs some corrective measures.
Best Use:
For development projects, this metric should be plotted by Project, whereas for maintenance/sustenance of the projects, the ‘Task Plan-wise’ view is more relevant.
Deployment:
This metric is available at Project level Analytics. You can group the data by Project or Task Plan as available in the Group By field.
Data Dependencies:
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Actual effort is considered from approved timesheets only.
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Baseline work considers the ‘Current’ baseline of tasks and Assigned Effort entered in the workflow stages of Form items.
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This metric is only computed for ‘Closed’ tasks and ‘Closed’ Form items and gets refreshed using the ‘Refresh’ button on the Analytics page.
- The metric gets updated the next day and not immediately.