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Understanding Project Statistics

If you open a project, on the right side of the screen there is a panel that show all relevant Project Statistics:

This article explains which statistics are displayed and how these are calculated. 

Not started

To explain the data within the the Statistics Panel, we have created an example project. Which can be seen below:

We will use the example of a project that is planned Just in Time, with feeding buffers that are also planned Just in Time. 

The statistics we can take away from the first view:

• Milestone:
  • Task 7: Installation shows an orange diamond, which means that this tasks has a deadline. So, it should be finished before that date.
• Duration (1st): 
  • The difference between the Project Start and the Project End.
• Duration (2nd):
  • The difference between Calculated Start and Calculated Finish.
• Project Start vs. Calculated Start:
  • Depending on the prefered scheduling engine. Lynx will schedule the tasks As soon as possible or Just in Time. In this case, the tasks are scheduled Just in Time, so the tasks are scheduled from the End date of the project to the left.
  • The Project Start is the current date (green line), while the Calculated Start is the 24th of October, the day on which the project should start.
• Project End vs. Calculated finish
  • The (scheduled) Project end is the same as the input which you have given within Project Properties -> Project Dates -> Project End Date. The Project end is shown by the end of the white/grey area or the start of the darker blue area on the right. In this example we added the red line to highlight the end date.
  • The difference from Project End and Calculated Finish:
    • If a project is delayed, the end date of a project would still be the the same, but Lynx will calculate the date when it should be finished. This calculation is based on the tasks (durations) that need to be completed, giving the Calculated Finish.
    • If this project would be scheduled As soon as possible, the project would be scheduled from the start date (in this case today) to the right. In that case the Project End will still be determined by what you've scheduled as the end date, but the Calculated Finish will be calculated from the current date until the date when all tasks are finished. See figure below:

Adding buffers (CCPM Parameters)

When the scheduling of project has been completed, we can add buffers to the project. Use the left button next to CCPM and use the preffered CCPM Parameters. In this example, all percentages are 50%. Meaning, in short, that 50% of the total task duration is added to the project as Milestone and Project Buffer. For more information about buffers: Add buffers and CCPM behaviour to your plan

• Longest path vs. Critical chain:
  
  • Changing the view:
    • The easiest way to check the difference between the Longest path and the Critical chain is to change the view of the project. If you select the Project Buffer ánd there is resource contention, this will be highlighted by a red text. This caused the longest path to change, making this project 5 days longer.
  • Resource contention:
    • In the originaln plan you can see that two tasks with the System Tester are planned in consecutive order, because there is only 1 resource available with this skill. When you would have two resources with this skill, these tasks could be performed in parallel, which would save you 5 days in this project.

Released

After the project has been released, additional information is added to the the Project Statistics. 

Project Buffer Statistics

• Expected Finish:
  • In this case the date is the same as the original Project End Date. This has to do with the percentage that has been implemented within the Project Execution. Within this example the Expected Buffer consumption is 100 percent. Which means that you expect that all buffer that has been added will be consumed.
  • See paragraph Expected Finish Calculation for some examples of the calculation of the expected buffer consumption.
• Due date performance:
  
  • This the difference between the Calculated Start till the Calculated Finish is compared to the Calculated Start till the Expected Finish.
    • Calculated Start - Calculated Finish: 40 days.
    • Calculated Start - Expected Finish: 60 days.
    • Due date performance: 60 days - 40 days = 20 days early.

•  
• Current Chain Length:
  
  • At the start of a project the Current Chain Length is most likely to be the same as the Critical Chain, because there have been no progress/ delay.
  •  

Controlling Buffer Statistics

Project and Project Portfolio Statistics

Measuring Progress

Current Longest Chain (clc) and Critical Chain (cc)

Expected Finish Calculation

Gaps on the Current Longest Chain