Using PERT to calculate task duration in Microsoft Project
Jeremy Cottino
March 13, 2014
Methodology
,
MS Project
,
Project Management
,
Technical Topics
58 comments
Following the definition found in Wikipedia, "the Program (or Project) Evaluation and Review
Technique is a method to analyze the involved tasks in completing a given
project, especially the time needed to complete each task, and to identify the
minimum time needed to complete the total project."
For those who passed or are preparing for the PMP exam, you should
know the famous formula to calculate the expected duration of a task. This is
also known as the "three point
estimate".
Calculation of the expected time (TE): the best estimate of the
time required to accomplish a task, accounting for the fact that things don't
always proceed as normal (the implication being that the expected time is the
average time the task would require if the task were repeated on a number of
occasions over an extended period of time).
The formula is:
TE = (O + 4M + P) ÷ 6
There might be other solution(s) to do it (I don't know any so I'm
open to your suggestion :)), but I will present you how to update the task duration using a macro.
Note that you can also use the same technique to calculate task’s
work (or any other task properties by the way).
How to implement this?
First of all, we will create a project plan with 3 tasks. For this
demo, tasks will be manually scheduled; we don't need to link tasks neither
assign resources.
Now, to be able to calculate the duration using PERT technique, we
need to allow the input of 3 values for:
·
Optimistic duration
·
Pessimistic duration
·
Most likely duration
We have to create 3 Custom fields, using field
"Task" and type "Duration". Right click on any column
headers, and select Custom Fields.
Rename Duration 1 to 3 as follow:
·
Duration 1 =
"Optimistic duration"
·
Duration 2 =
"Pessimistic duration"
·
Duration 3 = "Most
likely duration"
You now need to display the 3 fields on the Entry table, to let
you input data. Right click on a column header and select Insert Column. Your columns can be found either under the
generic name (Duration1 to Duration3) or with the updated name.
Now let's create the macro
To create Macro, you have to open the Visual Basic editor.
Click on the View tab and under Macros, select Visual Basic. You can also press Alt + F11.
On the left hand side, double click the current project "ThisProject" and paste the
following code.
Sub PERT()
'Declare
variable
Dim myTask As Task
'Loop
all tasks to update duration
For Each myTask In ActiveProject.Tasks
If Not (myTask Is Nothing) Then
'You
might want to add here another check on % complete, not to update started tasks
'E.g. If
(myTask.PercentComplete = 0 & myTask.PercentWorkComplete = 0) Then
'User
PERT formula to update Duration, knowing that Duration1 = Optimistic
duration...
myTask.Duration = (myTask.Duration1 + 4 *
myTask.Duration3 + myTask.Duration2) / 6
Else
'Extremely simple error handling, you might need to
replace it
MsgBox Prompt:="Error on calculating duration"
End If
Next myTask
End Sub
Note that this sample code is given as information, this does not
contains a proper error handling and should be reviewed before using it in
production environment.
We can execute the macro
You may input some values on the 3 fields for our tasks.
Then to execute the macro you have 2 options:
Option 1: Using the View macro and Run.
Click on the View tab and under Macros, select View Macros. You can also press Alt
+ F8.
On your Macros’ list, select the PERT one (named
<filename.ppt>!PERT) and click Run.
Option 2: Adding a button on the Quick Access Toolbar (my favorite option)
On the Quick Access Toolbar, click on the option button and select
More Commands…
On the customization screen, select Macros in the “Choose
commands from” list item.
Select your PERT macro and click Add >>
You can change the icon or modify the link name by clicking on the
Modify… button.
Your link appears on the Quick Access Toolbar.
Click on it to play the macro and update the tasks duration.
Our three tasks’ duration is updated
Security aspect
As macros are considered as potential security concern, you
might see the following warning when you open your project plan. If you want to
use the macro, you have to “Enable
Macros”.
Note that this is a configuration (common to all Office
tools). To change the behavior of Project regarding macros, click on the File tab, then Options. On the Trust Center
section, click on Trust Center
Settings…
By default, the macro settings is set to “Disable all macros with notification”;
you can change this option.
To digitally sign your macro, you can refer to this article Digitally sign a macro project on Microsoft website.
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Nice post related to itil it will certainly help for my MSP Training.
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ReplyDeleteMany thanks Mauricio
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post... i´m trying to do the same thing with the work, i mean, i´m want to calculate the work of a task using the pert method. But i don´t know if i can change the work using the script that you post (changing the sentence "myTask.Duration=" for "myTask.Work=" )....i hope that i´m explaining myself well....best regards
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteYes, just change with myTask.Work = (myTask.Duration1 + 4 * myTask.Duration3 + myTask.Duration2) / 6
It's working fine with this.
Jeremy
Thanks Jeremy, but it doesn´t work, perhaps i´m do something wrong. When I replace the sentence and run the macro, the system throws me an error 1101. If you don´t mind, would you like to share me the script that works for you.
ReplyDeleteRegards
Sub PERT()
ReplyDeleteDim myTask As Task
For Each myTask In ActiveProject.Tasks
If Not (myTask Is Nothing) Then
myTask.Work = (myTask.Duration1 + 4 * myTask.Duration3 + myTask.Duration2) / 6
Else
MsgBox Prompt:="Error on calculating duration"
End If
Next myTask
End Sub
I tried changing myTask.Duration to myTask.Work but still got the 1101 error. I'm wondering if it has something to do with the mismatch in column types (i.e. we're using duration columns to calculate a value and then plugging it into a work column). Any help would be appreciated.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
Made de test with this formula and it worked for me:
ReplyDeletemyTask.Work = (myTask.Duration1 + 4 * myTask.Duration3 + myTask.Duration2) / 6
Error 1101 is related to your code, you might rule out all mistakes
Very good. I made my activities in project 2013.
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