Steps Tab of the Change Details View

Activity steps are like milestones and can add significant value to project scheduling. A scheduler can assign several steps to an activity and assign a weight to each step to apportion its value compared to other steps. Steps allow you to measure the progress of an activity objectively. If the activity Earned Value Technique (EVT) is Steps, 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.

You can add percent complete on steps if you select the Open Plan option Allow % Complete on Steps. This allows you to input a percent complete for a step so that a portion of the Physical Percent Complete is recorded for the step rather than only recording progress when the step is fully complete. 

The order of steps is remembered.  

This tab is only visible when the project is linked to an Open Plan schedule.  

Steps Grid

This grid on the Steps tab is used to add, edit, and delete steps on the activity.

Grid Toolbar

Option

Description

Steps

Click the drop-down arrow to display the following options:

  • Print: Select this option to display the Print Preview form with the grid’s contents displayed.

  • Export to Excel: Select this option to display the Microsoft Excel application with the grid’s contents displayed.

Insert

Click this button to add a new step.

This button is disabled in any of the following conditions:

  • The Open Plan System Preferences setting _USERCANNOTCHANGEBASELINEDSTEPS=1 and the selected activity is included in the project  baseline.

  • The Open Plan System Preferences setting  _USERCANNOTCHANGEPROGRESSEDSTEPS=1 and the selected activity has an actual start date.

Move Up

Click this button to move the selected step one row up.

Move Down

Click this button to move the selected step one row down.

Delete

Click this button to delete the step on the selected row.

This button is disabled in any of the following conditions:

  • The Open Plan System Preferences setting _USERCANNOTCHANGEBASELINEDSTEPS=1 and the selected activity is included in the project baseline.

  • The Open Plan System Preferences setting  _USERCANNOTCHANGEPROGRESSEDSTEPS=1 and the selected activity has an actual start date.

  • The _USERCANNOTCHANGEPROGRESSEDSTEPS=0, the selected activity has an actual start date, and the step has already started.

  • The _USERCANNOTCHANGEPROGRESSEDSTEPS=0, the selected activity has an actual start date, and the step is already completed.

 

 

Grid Columns

Field Name

Description

Step Name

This column displays the unique name of the step.

This column is disabled if the Open Plan System Preferences setting _USERCANNOTCHANGEBASELINEDSTEPS=1 and the selected activity is included in the project baseline.

Step Weight

This column displays the step weight, which defaults to 1. This field is used in the activity Physical % Complete calculation.

This column is disabled in any of the following conditions:

  • The Open Plan System Preferences setting _USERCANNOTCHANGEBASELINEDSTEPS=1 and the selected activity is included in the project baseline.

  • The Open Plan System Preferences setting _USERCANNOTCHANGEPROGRESSEDSTEPS=1 and the selected activity has an actual start date.

  • The step is completed or the Open Plan Project Properties Preferences option Allow % Complete on Steps is selected and the step has a % Complete value greater than 0.

Step Weight %

This is a read-only column that 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.

Step % Complete

This column is only visible if the Allow % Complete on Steps option on the Project Properties Preferences tab in Open Plan is selected.  

You can enter or edit the percentage complete for the step.

If you enter 100%, the Completed checkbox is automatically selected.

Completed

Select this checkbox when the step is completed.

Notes

This column displays the first 100 characters of the notes entered for a step. The notes are displayed as a hyperlink. Click the hyperlink to display the Note dialog box, which you use to view the full notes entered for the step or update the existing notes.

Changes to the notes are displayed in the modeling session when you load changes and are applied to the live project during the complete step.

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