Project Work Contour Indicators

by Cecille Ramirez on November 23rd, 2010

Not too many Project Managers are aware of the work contour field in Microsoft Project.  This is why we have to explain this a little bit. Especially for those planning to take and pass the exam on Project.

Work contour field is a column you can add in the Usage View of Microsoft Project. Whenever a contour is applied or have been changed from the default value of flat, a shape or symbol will appear on the indicators column.

The flat contour will not show any shape or symbol being the default in every project plan file. The moment the work contour field is added to the view, it will automatically show the value “flat” for each resource.

This shape tells you how a scheduled work for a resource is distributed across time. You can use this to control how Microsoft Project schedules the work for a resource.  To change it to a different contour, you just have to click on that cell in that work contour field for a resource and an arrow will automatically appear that lists all of the work contours. There are eight (8) choices available. Each following the shape will distribute work accordingly.

For example, a bell curve contour that appears like this shape  will contour the work hours to continually increase to a peak but gradually drops off until work completes. That is why the shape seems to show highest peak in the middle following the bell shape.

To learn more about these Contour Indicators, Microsoft website has some documentation on it.  Just look for the following types: Flat, Bell, Turtle, Front Loaded, Back Loaded, Double Peak, Early Peak, and Late Peak.

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