Creating Project Versions

Milestone trend analysis (MTA) is used to monitor the project schedule clearly and promptly identify variances and trends. The scheduled dates of the milestones, which are relevant for the course of the project, are compared at various points in time. Deviations from the planned schedule are made apparent.

At chosen points in time, dates from milestones relevant to project progress are recorded in special project versions. These milestone dates can then be compared graphically (using an MTA chart) or in table form. They can also be compared with current dates or dates from a simulation version. Consequently, for example, you can quickly notice if a project is running late.

In the graphical form, an MTA chart is used, with the sides representing the time's axes. The milestone dates are plotted against the report dates. If the project runs according to plan, the curve remains horizontal. If the project deviates from the plan, the curve rises (delay) or falls (in advance) with time.

To use milestone trend analysis, you have to assign milestones to your project's WBS elements or network activities. Select the corresponding milestones that are relevant for trend analysis.

When you manually create a project version or the system automatically creates a project version, the relevant MTS checkbox must also be selected.

You can open a milestone trend analysis using the information system or the project planning board. It displays the dates of the relevant milestones in a project or part of a project at different report dates, both in graphical and tabular form. In the information system, you can limit the number of milestones displayed by using the selection resources.

Either basic dates or forecast dates are used in milestone trend analysis. Actual dates have priority over scheduled dates. The information about the previous states of a project is taken from the project version. This state is compared with the current milestone data. In the project planning board, you can use data from a simulation version instead of the operative project.

In milestone trend analysis, you can choose between two views as follows:

• Historical Curve: This standard view displays milestones with the MTA indicator set at the time of the current report. These milestones are displayed across the entire reporting period. This also represents milestones when the indicator was not set for them at an earlier reporting time.

• Historical Milestones: In this view, the milestones for which the MTS checkbox was selected at an earlier reporting time are displayed. The checkbox is not selected for the milestones for the current reporting period.

If you generate status-dependent project versions, the version profile determines which data is copied to the project version. If you manually create project versions in network maintenance (transaction CN22) or WBS maintenance (transaction CJ02), the version profile also determines which data is copied to the project version. Suppose you generate project versions manually with transactions CN71 and CN72 or using the structure info system. In that case, the data is copied to the project version depending on the database but independent of the version profile.

You maintain the version profile in Customizing for the SAP Project System and enter it in the project profile and network profile. You use a version profile to define two different kinds of information. First, specify which version is created automatically when a specific system or user status is set. Then, you specify which data is to be written to the versions that are created automatically.

You need to define a version profile if you wish to have versions created automatically based on the status or if you want to generate versions directly from the work breakdown structure or network maintenance transactions. You do not need to define a version profile if you create versions manually from the structure information system or want to use transaction CN72.