Project planning

<< Prev   Next >>

Keeping the registry of investment projects

To organize and store the list of all company projects, you can use the Projects and phases catalog in 1C:Perform.

The catalog has a hierarchical structure. The top level always contains projects. Lower levels contain phases subordinate to a certain project. When you move a phase to the catalog top level, it automatically becomes a project. When you move a project inside the hierarchy, it becomes a phase. All project and phase data is divided into groups and specified in different tabs of the item form. Let us review each of them in more detail.

The Projects and phases catalog item form contains the following tabs:

• Project (phase) attributes
• Key indicators
• Predecessor projects

Let's review each of these tabs.

On the Project (phase) attributes tab, you can fill the main attributes, such as Parent, Name, and Full name. Besides, you can fill the following attributes:

• Company. Business unit related to a project or a phase. You can use this attribute to set up project approval, filter projects for an investment program, and calculate project indicators.
• Functional area. Functional area of the company that is responsible for a project or a phase.
• Investment program section. Investment program section related to a project. In the investment program breakdown, projects are evaluated by experts within a multi-criteria evaluation subsystem. An investment program contains projects of the same type with a single template of the multi-criteria evaluation process.
• Do not evaluate by criteria. Select this check box if you do not want to calculate a total integral evaluation for a project within an investment program. Such project always gets the highest integral evaluation.
• Responsible person. User responsible for a project or a phase.
• Project phase stage. Project phase stage for additional classification in an investment program.

On the Key indicators tab, you can display and edit key project indicators and perform the scenario analysis by key indicators. Project investment indicators are calculated in the currency specified in the General catalogs and settings – Investment projects – Performance indicator calculation currency section. All indicators on this tab are displayed broken down by scenarios and grouped into the following sections:

• Project/phase duration indicators. They include: Start date and End date.
• Project CFB indicators, such as CFB receipts and CFB write-off. You can enter the indicators manually or calculate them automatically. To calculate the indicators automatically, map them with the respective report type indicators in the General catalogs and settings – Investment projects section.
• Project IEB indicators, such as Income and Expenses. You can enter the indicators manually or calculate them automatically. To calculate the indicators automatically, map them with the respective report type indicators in the General catalogs and settings – Investment projects section.

Inventory balance indicators of the project, such as Cost of resources received and Cost of resources written off. You can enter the indicators manually or calculate them automatically. To calculate the indicators automatically, map them with the respective report type indicators in the General catalogs and settings – Investment projects section.

• Indicators of the project investment potential evaluation, such as: Net present value (NPV) of cash flows, Internal rate of return (IRR), Payback period (PBP), Free cash flows (FCF), and Profitability index (PI). You can calculate the indicators automatically by clicking Update performance data.

There are two project indicator modes. The first one is the list mode that allows you to view all key indicators for any number of scenarios. The second one is the mode of comparison with the basic scenario. In this mode, columns display the basic scenario data, the current scenario data, absolute variance from the basic scenario, relative variance from the basic scenario, and progress percentage.

Click Update performance data to recalculate the following indicators of the project investment potential evaluation by all scenarios with budget flow data: Net present value (NPV) of cash flows, Internal rate of return (IRR), Payback period (PBP), Free cash flows (FCF), and Profitability index (PI). The calculation is carried out by report indicator data of the custom reporting subsystem by the selected scenario.

On the Predecessors tab, you can specify predecessor projects or phases to maintain the order of project phases when it is required. The tab data is used to build a project group network diagram and Gantt chart. Both phases and projects can be predecessors. However, you cannot define a predecessor for a project.

Project approval

Projects and phases are connected to the approval system. You can find more information on how to set up and start object approval processes in chapter "Universal processes".

Investment project cost planning

To plan an investment project cost, you can use budgeting tools such as the Report instance documents and the Pivot table data processor.

In the Report instance document, you can set the main limiting budgets by projects: Cash flow budget, P&L budget, and Resource flow budget. These budgets are also used to calculate project performance indicators.

Also, you can fill project indicators using a pivot table. In the General catalogs and settings – Investment projects section, fill pivot table templates that will be used for IEB, CFB, and resource budgets. These forms must contain EIB, CFB, and inventory balance indicators of the project.

You can also use the Pivot table tool for project cost planning. To open a pivot table template by each budget profile, click Project budgets on the form command bar.

Calculating project performance indicators

Project performance indicators, among other criteria, help you understand whether a project is viable. The indicators include: Net present value (NPV) of cash flows, Internal rate of return (IRR), Payback period (PBP), Free cash flows (FCF), and Profitability index (PI).

In the subsystem of investment project management, these indicators can be automatically calculated for each project based on planned cost data.

To use this feature, you need to do the following:

Step 1. Create report types that correspond to budgets of an investment project.

Step 2. In the General catalogs and settings – Investment projects section, specify the following parameters to calculate project performance indicators:

• Performance indicator calculation currency.
• Automatic project data update if necessary.
• Specify the following parameters for each budget profile (CFB, IEB, and resource flow):
  • □ Report type. Item of the Report types catalog that contains data of the respective budget.
  • □ Receipts. Report type indicator that contains the sum of all receipts for this budget profile.
  • □ Write-offs. Report type indicator that contains the sum of all write-offs for this budget profile.

Step 3. To calculate indicators, you also need to plan budget flows. To do it, enter report instances for the report types set up at step 1 and distribute data by key dimensions.

Changing project parameters using Gantt chart

Gantt chart (projects, phases, and operations) is a data processor used to control the project progress. You can use this tool not only to view the plan-schedule or cost of a project, but also to edit project indicators, compare data in different scenarios, plan the project cost by budget profiles, and so on.

Chart operations

To open the chart form, go to the list of projects or a project card and click Gantt chart.

This tool allows you to view the sequence of project phases and their duration. You can also change deadlines of the entire project or its phases. Budget data can also be displayed broken down by scenarios.

If a stage is specified for a project phase, it will be displayed on the chart next to the project phase name.

To change the deadline of a project or its phase, select the red line of a certain phase and stretch it to the right to extend the period or to the left to shorten it.

Phase duration in days can remain the same, but you can move the phase period on the timescale. To do it, select the required period, right-click and hold it to move it on the timescale.

In case of any time shifts, the start and end dates of the phase will be automatically changed.

If a predecessor phase is specified for a phase, they will be connected by an arrow pointing at the successor phase. This link is not broken if periods move on the timescale.

In the chart, you can also view the planned cost of a project for each budget profile broken down by phases, calculate performance indicators, and analyze scenarios.

Project key indicators

Project indicators are displayed to the right of the chart on a separate panel called Project indicators. Key attributes match the ones on the Key indicators tab in the Projects and phases catalog.

To display the panel, click Display indicators. To hide the panel, click the button again.

Scenario analysis

You can also use the Gantt chart data processor to analyze scenarios. Value of the Scenario attribute in the chart header is used as the basic scenario.

If you select the Scenario analysis check box, the Scenario for comparison attribute becomes available above the project indicator panel and a column with data of the basic scenario appears for indicators.

When you select a scenario for comparison, columns of the selected scenario, relative variance, and absolute variance appear for key indicators. Indicator data of the scenario for comparison is filled from respective documents. Variances are calculated automatically.

Pivot table

You can also use the Pivot table tool for project cost planning.

Click Project budgets and select a budget profile above the chart. This will open a pivot table for this budget profile.

To use this tool, create a pivot table template for report types respective to the project budgets. In the General catalogs and settings – Investment projects section, specify these table templates in the Pivot table parameters group.

For more information on how to set up a pivot table template, see chapter Developing report and budget forms.

<< Prev   Next >>