Deltek Open Plan Help

Using the Help Search
Using the Help Search
  • Phrase:Returns all topics that contain the exact phrase in the search criteria. Use quotation marks around the phrase.
    Ex."system administration"
  • And:Returns all topics that contain all the words in the search criteria, in any combination. Insert a plus sign between all words in the search criteria.
    Ex.system + administration
  • Or:Returns all topics with any combination of words in the search criteria. This is the default.
    Ex.system administration
For more information:Searching Online Help

Steps Tab

Activity steps are similar to milestones and can add significant value to project scheduling.

A scheduler can assign several steps to an activity and weight each step to apportion its value compared to other steps. Steps allow you to objectively measure the progress of an activity.

If you select Steps as the activity earned value technique (EVT), then when a step is completed, the weight on the step is used to calculate the physical percent complete on the activity, which in turn is used to calculate the earned value. If the EVT for the activity is not set to Steps, you can still define steps to provide additional information of the breakdown of the work but completing a step will not impact the physical percent complete of the activity. You select EVT for an individual activity on the Activity Details Advanced tab or the default EVT for a project on the Project Properties Preferences tab.

Note: The steps that display on this tab follow the same order that you see in the STP_NUM column for the OPP_STP table.

You can create, edit, delete, copy and paste activity steps into a Spreadsheet View of a project provided that the required key fields (such as Activity ID and Name) exist. Moreover, the displayed details in the Spreadsheet View and in the grid on the Steps tab of both the Activity Details and Activity Progress dialog boxes are in sync with one another other.

  • When you select an activity in the spreadsheet, the steps associated with that activity display in the grid. Selecting another activity in the spreadsheet updates the displayed steps in the grid accordingly.
  • When you update an activity step in the spreadsheet, the displayed data in the grid also updates, and vice versa. For example, adding a step in the spreadsheet also adds the step in the grid or updating the % Complete value and applying the change in the grid also updates its corresponding column in the spreadsheet.
  • When copying an existing step, the pasted step uses the original step name plus an underscore (_) and a three-digit number appended to it to make it unique. For example, copying Activity Step 2 and pasting it into the same activity results in a step named Activity Step 2_001.
Note: You can insert, delete, and edit steps until an activity is In-Progress unless the UserCannotChangeBaselinedSteps user preference in the System Preferences Defaults dialog box is set to 1 and the selected activity is included in the currently selected baseline. In this case, you cannot add or delete steps and you cannot edit step weight; however, you can edit step descriptions and notes, and steps can be progressed.

Contents

Field Description
ID, Desc., Status, Duration

These fields are common to all tabs. See Common Fields for a description of these fields.

Activity Physical % Complete

When the earned value technique (EVT) for the selected activity is Steps, Activity Physical % Complete (PPC) is calculated based on the progress of the weighted steps. The value in this field is updated when the Weight, % Complete, or Completed fields are modified. The activity EVT is set on the Activity Details Advanced tab.

Attention: For information about how the EVT field affects the Physical % Complete field, see Rules For EVT and Activity Physical % Complete.

Activity PPC is calculated as follows: Activity PPC = the sum of (Step Weight % * Step % Complete) for each step/100

For example, if we have the following progress report:

Step Name Step Weight % Step % Complete
Step 1 10 100
Step 2 20 50
Step 3 30 0
Step 4 40 20

Activity Physical % Complete is calculated as follows:

[(10% * 100%) + (20% * 50%) + (30% * 0%) + (40% * 20%)]/100 = 28%

Grid

Field Description
Name

This is the name of the step. Each step name must be unique for the selected activity.

Weight

This is the step weight. This field, together with % Complete, is used in the Physical % Complete calculation. This field is read-only when the activity is In-Progress or Complete.

Weight %

This is a read-only column and displays the step weight as a percentage. Since the step weights do not have to add up to 100, use this field to determine the relative weight of the step. When a step is complete, it's Weight % is added to the activity Physical % Complete.

This field is read-only when the activity is In-Progress or Complete.

% Complete

Use this column to enter the percentage complete for each step (for example, 16.32%). When this field is updated, the sum of (% Complete * Weight %) is added to the activity Physical % Complete.

This column only displays when Allow % complete on steps is selected on the Project Properties Preferences tab.

Completed

Select this check box when the step has been completed.

Delete

Click to delete the selected step. Steps may not be deleted once an activity status has been set to Complete.

Change Order

Use these arrows to move a step up or down.

Note

Use this to add a note to a step.

The ABC spell check button allows you to check the spelling in the note.