Can I Change the Calucation for Percentage Complete?

[Laney]

We would like to have a high-level task calculate an average of the sub-task
percentages complete and NOT simply use the least percentage complete value.
Can this be done?

 

[Perfect Reign]

We would like to have a high-level task calculate an average of the sub-task
percentages complete and NOT simply use the least percentage complete value.
Can this be done?

Which version are you using?

IIRC, in version 10 (2002) you might be able to this with the Percent Work
Complete field. You could also type in percentages in the sub tasks which
will be calculated in the high-level task.

AFAIK, this will work for you.


--
kai - perfectreign at yahoo dot com
www.perfectreign.com

In fact I have been blown up ridiculously often, shot at, insulted,
regularly disintegrated, deprived of tea, and recently I crashed into a
swamp and had to spend five years in a damp cave.
- Arthur

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

It doesn't use the least percentage complete value anyway - don't know where
you got that idea. The % Complete of a summary task already is a weighted
average based on the sub-tasks. Imagine a summary task with 3 subtasks,
durations of 5 days each. Task 1 has 4 days work done (80% complete), task
2 3 days (60% complete), and task 3 2 days (40% complete). Linkages don't
influence the % Complete calculation so it doesn't matter how they're linked
or even if they're linked (but the links do, of course, determine the
duration of the summary). Total duration to be worked on all tasks is 15
days (in contrast to the duration of the summary which could be anything
from 5 to 15 days or even more depending on the linking). Total days that
have been worked on all tasks is 9 days. Summary % Complete is 9/15 or 60%.
Whatever the duration of the summary will then be multiplied by 60% to
determine the equivalent of "actual duration" for the summary and that in
turn is subtracted from the summary duration to calculate the equivalent of
its "remaining duration." That's exactly the way the average you're asking
about should be calculated if you're doing the math properly - too often
people might try to simply take an average the % Completes themselves
without regard for the differing subtask durations but that's simply not
valid mathematically.

 

[John]

We would like to have a high-level task calculate an average of the sub-task
percentages complete and NOT simply use the least percentage complete value.
Can this be done?

Laney,
I'm not sure what you mean by "high-level task" but I assume you mean a
Summary Line. Also when talking about percentage complete I assume you
are referring to "% Complete" and not "% Work Complete" or "% Physical
Complete" (later versions of Project). I also don't know what you mean
by "least percentage complete" value. A Summary Line does not show the
least percent complete of its subtasks. Rather, it calculates % Complete
by the formula:
Summary % Complete = (sum of subtask Actual Durations)/(sum of subtask
total Durations) * 100%

The validity of % Complete at a Summary Line is always of questionable
value although I personally believe the formula shown above is more
valid than an average value would be. For example, what if one subtask
is 2 weeks in duration and all other subtasks are 2 days in duration?
More than likely the 2 week task is of more importance but in an
averaging scheme, its weight would be the same as the lesser tasks.
However, you can use any formula you wish to calculate % Complete for a
Summary Line. You will probably have to use VBA because a formula in a
custom field wouldn't know how many subtasks to include in the averaging
equation.

Now that you've go my take on the averaging method, If you still want to
pursue an averaging technique for % Complete at a Summary Line and need
help with the VBA code, post again and we can help.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP