The Barchart Editor Histogram

The Barchart Editor Histogram

In addition to the Grid and the Gantt chart, the Barchart Editor has six panes: Activity information, Link Information, Resources, Histogram, Risk, and Logic Navigator.

The Histogram pane provides feature-rich functions that allow you to view periodic and cumulative data presented as bars and lines together with table data. At the same time, you add, edit, modify, or browse through your project activities.

The Histogram pane not only serves as a barchart sub-view but also as a reporting tool due to its rich formatting capabilities. In addition to presenting scope, cost, and qty data, the Editor Histogram report may give periodic or cumulative summarized and aggregated information in userfields.

The information presented can be grouped, stacked, and spread. You can apply filters across the Barchart and the Histogram, or you can create a filter to be applied to the Histogram view only, and you can create summarized reports or set a “page by” definition to produce a report that spans several pages summarized by the selected field.

The layout and data content features are numerous. You may add horizontal and vertical lines and curtains to highlight important information. You can print the reports directly from the view or examine the graph in a full-size preview before printing. If you create report specifications from this view, they can be included in your report groups and packages. Reports can be saved to SWA, or report specifications may be run from the SWA client.

Specifications can be exported and imported to share them between different Safran Project databases. You can also import Histogram reports contained in Safran Planner files.

Note that Safran Project provides two types of histogram and S-curve reports. This chapter explains the Histogram pane report in the Barchart Editor. For details about the other Histogram report, see the chapter on Reports and Graphics. Both Histograms provide much of the same features you would expect from a histogram. The BE Histogram is slightly more customizable than the other, so most users prefer to start with the Histogram S Curve report if you are a beginner.

How to create a new histogram

• Click View - Histogram or right-click on the legend bar and then click Histogram.
• Drag the grey horizontal line under the legend area to adjust the size of the histogram view.
• Right-click in the histogram view and then click on histogram properties.
• Click the Save As or New button in the top right corner and enter a name in the dialog box.

To modify your report, see Histogram Properties.

Histogram Properties

To specify the appearance of the line graph, profiles, and histogram, use the Histogram Properties window. The Histogram Properties window is a tab-separated window that allows you to specify appearance, content, and data fields. You can also save your formatting with a report name for later re-use. We will now look at the different sections of the Histogram Properties window, starting with the Report section.

Top

The histogram properties can be saved for later use by adding and saving a report name.

Bottom

The comment will also be available in the Report Package 'Order' tab:

The next two topics will look at the following tabbed sections.

Histogram Setup

Histogram Entries

Histogram Setup

The content of these tabs are described in this section.

Page

The Page tab lets you select a background picture to be overlaid by the graph, and it allows you to specify page orientation. Using the 'Page on' options, you can produce multi-page reports divided by codes in a reference field or levels in an Outline Code.

Please note that if you have entered Resource availability for Reference or Outline codes, these can be added as entries for the graph and presented as profiles, line graphs, or bars on the page.

To view a Barchart Editor Histogram with multiple pages, you can either present the graph in the Print Preview window and view this page-by-page or scroll through the Histogram view.

X Axis

The X-axis interval applies to curves, histograms, and table data intervals. The user can set the period, which does not have to be identical to the Gantt period.

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Left/Right Axis

The left and right Y-Axes are formatted individually. The left axis represents the periodic values, while the right axis represents the cumulative lines (S-curves). You can specify axis description, select font and Color, tics, max value, number of decimals displayed, and factor for large numbers (millions, thousands, none). The periodic axis and data can be shown as quantities/numbers or manpower. The cumulative (right axis) can show numbers/quantities or percentages.

Left Axis (Periodic values):

Right Axis (Cumulative values:

Clustered looks like this

(The thickness of the bars is controlled by 'Separation' in the Periodic Entries tab)

Layered looks like this

Major Tics

100 vs 1000

Max Value/Min Value/Major Tics

This

would look like this

Grid Styles

Table/Values tab

The Table/Values tab allows you to specify the data appearance in the table. The formatting options include title font, font size and Colour, grid and more. If you remove the default visible check mark, your report will be displayed without the table.

Lines tab

You use the Lines tab to add vertical or horizontal lines across the graph area. In the Vertical tab, you specify a Date, Line Style, Line Colour, Line Thickness, Text and Text Position. You can add as many lines as needed.

Vertical:

Horizontal:

Curtains tab

Use the Curtains - Vertical tab to define background shading to highlight specific periods ( for example, a shutdown period, a test and commissioning period, holidays, weather windows, lifting campaigns, tow out, and more).

Vertical:

Horizontal:

Symbol Legend

The symbol legends tab allows you to specify text font, font color, font style, and size for the symbol legend display. The appearance of the report is controlled by the page setup.

Header

A Header is used to display additional information in your report. You can include information as company name, schedule title etc.

Footer

The footer is used to display additional information about the schedule.

Legend

The Legend appears at the bottom of the page, above the footer. It is possible to include 19 rows of legend information and four columns of legend Items.

Margins

Specify each margin individually. Changing margins settings align the report on your paper.

Resources

In the Resource tab, you may filter out which resources to report using a window familiarized with the filter window.

Histogram Entries

• Periodic Entries - Defines which bars to be displayed in the histogram report
• Cumulative Entries - Defines which s-curves to be displayed in the report
• Table Entries - Defines which table data to be displayed in the report (periodic, cumulative, totals or stacked values)

Periodic Entries tab

Histograms and profiles show periodic quantities per period. Select a profile to display a continuous profile line across the time scale. Select Histogram to display separate columns for each period. Columns may be stacked, layered, or clustered and separated by specifying a percentage for separation. You can define several entries to be included on your chart.

Specify a legend (description) for the entry, and specify the data field from quantity fields or user-defined data (integer and decimal type fields). Outline codes, reference fields, and user-defined text and flag fields can stack data. If you stack your data, you can click the Stack Groups button to select Color and shading for each element.

Cumulative Entries tab

Cumulative lines or curves show accumulated use for cost, budget, earned value, or other user-defined data. Select the Cumulative Entries tab; then, you can give the entries your description and legend, select the data field, select from and until date fields to spread or summarize data across and specify graph type as a Line graph.

Table Entries tab

A new table entry is added by default for each periodic and cumulative entry you define. You can also include new user-defined table entries or delete entries from the table.

Count Activities Data field

The Data field 'Count Activities' counts the number of hits (activities/milestones/hammocks) based on the filter defined for your data field. You can define as many 'Count Activities' data fields as you wish. The field is only available for usage in the Barchart Editor Histogram/S-Curve report.

Examples of things to count:

• No of handovers
• No of completed, upcoming, or overdue milestones
• No of activities planned, early and late
• No of activities started, planned started, or to be started
• Logic; number of links – any hotspots?
• Document Schedule, no of IDC, IFC milestones
• Hits and Misses

How to create a 'Count Activities' data field?

When creating a new Histogram from scratch, the default data field is 'Planned Qty'.

Click on the arrow and choose 'Count Activities' from the drop-down list. Notice that a 'Filter box' appears. Click on 'Filter...' and enter your filter settings. You may use a previously stored filter or create a new one. The new filter does not need to be saved with a name. However, it is recommended to use the filter again elsewhere.

The 'Name' and 'Legend' texts can be modified, and if this is a report you plan to use later or communicate to others, we recommend renaming it to something more descriptive.

Example Histogram using 'Count Activities'

Below is an example of a histogram showing 'No of completed, upcoming, and overdue milestones' and its filter settings. The same filters are used on the milestone symbols in the Gantt.

In this example, we have used the From date 'Current Actual Start' on completed milestones, while Upcoming and Overdue milestones use the 'Early Start' date. Which dates do you use? It depends on what you would like to reflect. Perhaps the 'Baseline Early Start' or 'Baseline Early finish' is more appropriate for what you want to communicate with your report.

Tip: Major tics should be set to minimum '1'