Viewing the Legend

November 24, 2016

Q: Viewing the Legend
I was giving a quick orientation of RiskyProject Enterprise and somehow have hidden the Legend. I don’t always use it, but I thought it was helpful when I first started. How can I turn it on?

A: The Legend pane provides a quick key to the various elements on the current screen. It can be toggled on or off by going to the Tools tab > View and clicking the Legend check box. It works the same way in RiskyProject Professional and RiskyProject Enterprise.

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Analysis Reports

November 24, 2016

Q: Analysis Reports
There seems to be a lot of different reporting/analysis views that available in RiskyProject. Other than the standard statistical reports, is there any particular report that you think is valuable?

A: The histograms, cumulative probability and tornado charts tell us what, but they don’t tell us why. There is on report that I do think is often over looked and underused because it doesn’t have the eye catching charts, but is extremely effective at communicating the “why” of the analysis: the All Risks report.

The All Risks report is available in RiskyProject Professional in the Reports tab. It provides a very good overview of all important risk modeling information per risk in an easy to read and customize format. In many ways it is the counterpart to the Risk Register view which provides a high level view of the results of the simulation. However, if you really need to understand how each risk was assigned or modelled, you would have to drill down into the risk information. The All Risks report automatically provides this risk assignment information for all the project risks in an easy to understand format and can be customized to show as little or as much information about risk assignment that you require.

Below is an example of the report. As you can see, it quickly provides information regarding how the risk has been assigned to the project and is a great tool if you need to review your modelling assumptions with our team or other stakeholders.

To generate the All Risk report, simply click Reports > Report All Risks. Use the Customize Report button at the top to add or delete report elements. You can easily print the report, from the File > Print menu.

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Exporting schedules to RiskyProject from the Addin

November 24, 2016

Q: Exporting schedules to RiskyProject from the Addin
Other than saving the file as a xml file in project and then importing the schedule into RiskyProject, is there any other format I can use. The xml creates extremely large files that are quite slow.

A: With the RiskyProject Addin, you can quickly transfer your project file to RiskyProject automatically. To do this click on anyone of the View buttons (Project Results or Risks) in the Addin. The latest versions of RiskyProject use a new process to directly extract data from the Microsoft Project data model. When you click one of these views, this starts the export process and automatically launches RiskyProject with the schedule loaded. This process is much quicker and greatly improves the time and computer resources required to load the schedule and run a simulation.

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Does version 6.1 support cost type resources?

November 15, 2016

Q: Cost type resources.
Does version 6.1 support cost type resources?

A: Yes. Cost type resources are a resource type that was introduced into MS Project 2010. Cost resources are different from other resource types in that they do not have any units or cost /use. Rather they are a single cost that can be assigned to an activity. In this way, they act similarly to fixed costs in that they are not time dependent.

If your MSP schedule has cost type resources, RiskyProject will interpret them In correctly Costs for cost resources are not entered in the Resources view, but in the Task Information > Resources tab and is accounted for as a resource cost.

In the example below, a cost type resource ($5000) has been assigned to an activity. This assignment is reflected in the Cost and Income view as a resource cost (Res. Cost) and included as part of total costs (Tot. Cost). Cost type resources are useful, if you have many fixed cost items and would like to be able track and account for them in a similar manner as other type of resources.

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What is the difference between variable and fixed costs

November 15, 2016

Q: What is the difference between variable and fixed costs
Is there a difference between variable and fixed costs in RiskyProject and how are they entered?

A: Variable costs are those costs associated with resources that include a rate and units (allocation). Costs are calculated as a function of the rate * units consumed. Generally, the variable cost will fluctuate with the duration of the activities to which resources are assigned.
Fixed costs are those costs incurred that are not time dependent. Commonly, fixed costs can represent costs for materials or other one time fees etc. when the amount is not dependent upon the project schedule. Unlike resources, fixed costs are assigned to specific activates. In RiskyProject, fixed costs are added in the Cost and Income view.

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Viewing Project results for Work

November 15, 2016

Q: Viewing Project results for Work
Is it possible to create a chart that shows results for Work (#of hrs or effort) for the entire project?

A: Yes, if you have a resource loaded schedule, work for all resources, tasks, and the project is calculated during the Monte Carlo simulation.
To view Work for the entire project:

1. Run a simulation.
2. Open Analysis > Project Summary.
3. Click Statistical Data for Work (lower right). A chart showing the probabilistic results for work opens.

The chart can be a histogram, cumulative probability, or as in the example below, a combination of the two.
The work data or statistics can be copied for use in other programs by right-clicking and using shortcut menu.

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Launching Microsoft Project from RiskyProject

November 4, 2016

Q: Launching Microsoft Project from RiskyProject
Can I launch Microsoft Project from RiskyProject Enterprise and transfer RiskyProject schedules to it?

A: RiskyProject schedulr can be exported in Microsoft Project using XML file. RiskyProject offers a way to launch Microsoft Project directly from RiskyProject. In this case schedule in RiskyProject will be exported to Microsoft Project "behind the scenes", saved in the temporary file, then Microsoft Project will be executed and file will be opened in Microsoft Project. If RiskyProject containts only deterministic project schedule, it will be presented in Microsoft Project. If RiskyProject has results of Monte Carlo simulations, the dialog will come up:
You can choose what results would you line to export to Microsoft Project.

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How to disable low/high traingles on the Gantt chart

November 4 2016

Q: How to disable low/high traingles on the Gantt chart
How can I disable triangles depicting low and high estimates of task start and finish times in the Gantt chart within Result Gant View?
Project risk management, decision and risk analysis

A: The blue "triangles" are used to display low and high start and finish times for tasks. They are presented within Result Gantt view. Sometimes projects have a lot of uncertainties. In this case the chart can be very crowded, because these "triangles" can be very long. It is possible to disable these "triangles". To do it just right click on the Gantt chart. The drop down menu will come up. Then click on "Show Both Low/High Results". But default these "triangles" are enabled.

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Elapsed duration

November 4, 2016

Q: Elapsed duration
We have tasks with elapsed duration in Microsoft Project. How is it handled in RiskyProject?

A: Elapsed duration is a feature of Microsoft Project. Elapsed days are used when a task’s duration needs to disregard any ‘nonworking time’ or resource constraints. For example if you need a task to be scheduled over 10 consecutive days including weekends and ignoring resource availability you could set the duration to ‘10 edays’. It is defined by symbol 'e' before duration units, although this symbol can be different for different local versions of Microsoft Project.

Recent version of RiskyProject 6.1 does not support elapsed duration directly, although new version RiskyProject 7 will support it. Currently if Microsoft Project has task duration or lag with elapsed duration RiskyProject calculates equivalent non-elapsed duration based on task start and finish times:
In other words schedule with elapsed duration tasks in RiskyProject will have the same start and finish times for all tasks as in Microsoft Project, but absolute duration of these elapsed duration tasks can be different.

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