Types of Variances: What Are the Different Variance Fields in Microsoft Project?

In our last post, we covered the differences between Favorable and Unfavorable Variances. This post will cover the differences between the various Variance Types in Microsoft Project. The below summarizes the variances, how they’re calculated and where they can be viewed:

		Available In	Available In	Available In
Variance Name	Calculated as:	Task field?	Phase field?	Resource field?
Work Variance	(Current Work – Baseline Work)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cost Variance	(Current Cost – Baseline Cost)	Yes	Yes	Yes
Duration Variance	(Current Duration – Baseline Duration)	Yes	Yes	No
Start Variance	(Current Start – Baseline Start)	Yes	Yes	No
Finish Variance	(Current Finish – Baseline Finish)	Yes	Yes	No

It’s important to note that variance calculations in Microsoft Project require baseline data. If there is no baseline, there will be no variance.

The two tables that follow illustrate how Microsoft Project automatically generates variances to the baseline based on the application of actual progress information.

Before applying actual progress:

Current Estimate	Field content	Baseline(original   estimate) field content	Field content	Variance(current est.–original est.)	Field content
Work	40h	Baseline Work	40h	Work variance	0h
Actual Work	0h	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Remaining Work	40h	N/A	N/A	N/A
Cost	$4,000	Baseline cost	$4,000	Cost Variance	$0
Start	11/5/2022	Baseline Start	11/5/2022	Start Variance	0d
Finish	11/8/2022	Baseline Finish	11/8/2022	Finish Variance	0d
Duration	4d	Baseline Duration	4d	Duration Variation	0d

After applying actual progress:

Current Estimate	Field content	Baseline(original   estimate) field content	Field content	Variance(current est.–original est.)	Field content
Work	56h	Baseline Work	40h	Work variance	16h (unfav.)
Actual Work	24h	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Remaining Work	32h	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Cost	$5,600	Baseline cost	$4,000	Cost Variance	$1,600
Start	11/6/2022	Baseline Start	11/5/2022	Start Variance	1d
Finish	11/14/2022	Baseline Finish	11/8/2022	Finish Variance	4d
Duration	7d	Baseline Duration	4d	Duration Variation	3d

For a comprehensive coverage of all the features and functions of the Microsoft Project suite, our training guide is available to the public on Amazon.