Create Graphical Indicators

Quick reference

• 00:04 One of the biggest challenges in reviewing a project schedule is all of this data.
• 00:10 It's really hard to read.
• 00:12 It all kinda flows together.
• 00:14 It's a little taxing to the eyes.
• 00:16 So what we wanna do is, create some graphical indicators
• 00:19 to make it very clear the message that we're sending to the reader.
• 00:23 The first thing that we're going to do to create a graphical indicator,
• 00:26 is to right-click on our custom field, which is Percent Dur Var.
• 00:31 Right-click on there.
• 00:33 Choose Custom Fields.
• 00:36 And now you see a Custom Fields dialog.
• 00:39 We already created the formula.
• 00:41 So what we're gonna do is create some graphical indicators.
• 00:45 So click the Graphical Indicators button.
• 00:49 First I'm gonna show you how graphical indicators work at a high level and
• 00:53 then we'll go ahead and finish defining them.
• 00:56 So here's our test field.
• 00:59 In the test field, we're gonna start with, is less than and choose 0.
• 01:07 And what this is saying is, if our percentage is negative, meaning we're
• 01:12 actually doing better than the schedule than we thought, then display this image.
• 01:18 I'm gonna choose an image with this dashed green.
• 01:22 And the dashed green essentially says, hey, we're doing well,
• 01:26 although why are we doing well?
• 01:28 This is gonna make us ask the question, are we ahead of schedule,
• 01:32 because maybe things are not getting done?
• 01:36 Or we could move things a little bit faster.
• 01:39 So even though we're ahead of schedule doesn't necessarily mean that
• 01:43 everything's okay.
• 01:45 So that's why I'm not just having a check box or smiley face there.
• 01:50 The next thing we'll do is choose equals and type 0.
• 01:55 And for the image, I'm going to just choose this neutral grey,
• 01:59 cuz what this is saying is, we're neither ahead of schedule or behind schedule.
• 02:06 We're neutral. Everything's at zero.
• 02:08 Now before we go any further, I'm just gonna click the OK button and
• 02:12 click the OK button again.
• 02:14 Notice how our values have turned into images and all these grays represent 0s.
• 02:21 Now you might be wondering, how come this acquire land Is blank?
• 02:26 Well that's because it doesn't meet our criteria.
• 02:28 If I mouse over, you can see it says, I'm over by 33%.
• 02:33 So now I'm gonna show you how to finish configuring all of your indicators.
• 02:40 We'll just go back to the Percent Dur Var column.
• 02:44 Right-click and choose Custom Fields.
• 02:48 We'll choose Graphical Indicators one more time.
• 02:50 Now, underneath equals,
• 02:54 we're going to say is greater than or
• 03:00 equal to .10.
• 03:03 And this is saying, if it's greater than 10% then make it red.
• 03:11 Here I'm going to choose this red sad face.
• 03:15 The next thing I'm gonna do is say, is greater than or equal to
• 03:24 .05, 5% over.
• 03:27 And we'll make this yellow.
• 03:29 And here is this sad face.
• 03:35 And now, we're gonna go ahead and
• 03:40 choose is less than .05.
• 03:44 And we'll choose green, saying that
• 03:48 everything's okay and we're still on schedule.
• 03:54 Now, you might be wondering,
• 03:56 why would project say if it's less than .05 make it green?
• 04:01 Yet, it would still display if it's 0,
• 04:06 or less than 0, make it these two images instead.
• 04:09 You might be wondering, how does pProject figure out which image to display?
• 04:14 Well, the answer is right here.
• 04:15 Tests are applied in order listed, and
• 04:19 processing stops at the first successful test.
• 04:22 So, what it's saying is, if it sees a 0, for instance, it's gonna do that.
• 04:25 If not, it moves on to the next one.
• 04:27 If not, it moves on to the next one.
• 04:29 So that's how that works.
• 04:31 Now here's a quirky thing with setting up graphical indicators.
• 04:35 If you want them to be available for not only tasks but
• 04:39 summary tasks, you need to come over here and
• 04:42 click the Summary rows and check the Summary row checkbox.
• 04:47 It's basically saying, use the formula, the indicators rather that we created.
• 04:52 And come down here one more time and check that checkbox and click Yes.
• 04:57 I know it look like radio buttons, so you're selecting one or the other,
• 05:00 but you are actually selecting multiples.
• 05:04 So now go ahead and click the OK button, and click the OK button once more.
• 05:08 And now we have our indicators displayed.
• 05:11 So basically what we have here, is a situation where Prepare House Purchase
• 05:17 is over the 10% mark that the homeowner wants us to track against, yet
• 05:22 the new house is not, but it's at .06,
• 05:26 which is basically 6% over the schedule duration.
• 05:32 You can go ahead and
• 05:34 add that same exact graphical indicator set to this percent-cost variance.
• 05:40 I'm gonna show you a real quick tip.
• 05:42 I can click this Import Indicator Criteria button, choose my project,
• 05:48 choose the field that already has one of the formulas in it, and click OK,
• 05:52 and that brings in the formula.
• 05:55 Then all I need to do, is click these check boxes like we did before in
• 05:59 the other one, and once we click OK, our formula is now set up in both fields.

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