Scheduling tools usually provide users with an opportunity to extend/collapse schedules to a certain WBS level. However, schedules usually have activities at different levels, and when a scheduler needs to update the schedule it is not possible to extend the schedule to the “WORKING” level.
In this example, activities are on levels 2, 3, 4 and 5, and to update them schedulers need to do many clicks.
It will be convenient to have an opportunity to extend the schedule to the “working level”. Collapse all WBSs with all completed activities and extend WBSs with ‘Not Started’ and ‘In Progress’ activities:
Another good option could be to extend only WBSs with “In Progress” activities but consider an activity be in progress based on planned (Start and Finish) dates, not % Complete:
If (Start <= Status Date) and (Status <> “Completed”) then RealActivityStatus = “In progress”.
In some scheduling tools, it is possible to develop a filter and completely hide completed activities and WBSs. It is not convenient as:
– Users need to see ‘In Progress’ activities in the overall context;
– Be able to expand any WBS to review logic between activities;
Such WBS views save a lot of time for schedulers.
Alex Lyaschenko
PMO | Portfolio Planning & Delivery | PMP | P3O Practitioner | AgilePM Practitioner | Six Sigma
