How to produce an S curve without cost

The XER Toolkit provides a great way to generate S-curves when there is no resource or cost information within a schedule. The Toolkit can produce S-curves based on the number of tasks starting or finishing within a set time period. In this video, we will be using the Toolkit’s Dashboard Creator to generate an S-curve based on the number of tasks finishing per period.

Open your current dashboard or create a new one by clicking Blank Canvas. Click the add chart button, select Time Distributed, and then Tasks Finishing. You can resize and move the chart with your mouse. The default Tasks Finishing chart produces lines for plans, as well as at-completion early and late curves.

You can also add other data series by raising the chart menu in the top left corner, and then selecting Add data series. Here, we will add a data series for the number of tasks starting within the periods. As well as adding the data to the chart, this will also automatically open the Chart Settings menu. However, this can be manually opened by clicking Chart settings on the chart tile’s hamburger menu.

In this menu, the Data Series tab offers customisation options for your chart. The green plus button allows you to add more data series to your chart. You can delete data series from the chart by selecting the series from the list and pressing the red X. The order of the data series can also be changed with the two arrow buttons. You can also change the formatting of a data series. For example, you can customise the chart colour and display.

You can use your designed chart across different dashboards by saving it as a template. This is done by heading to the chart’s hamburger menu and clicking Manage chart templates. Enter your template name and then click the save button. The template is now saved and can be applied to other charts.

To use the template, click Add item at the top of the dashboard interface. Select save template and then press the Load button next to the template you want to use. The XER Toolkit will then generate a chart using the information from your open project with the settings from your saved template.