% Complete

[David]

Is there a way to use the timescaled data functionality to plot the change in
Percent Complete over a specified duration of a project schedule?

When I tried using the 'Analyze Timescaled Data in Excel' functionality that
MS Project 2003 includes for 'Percent Complete', all the data for the total
values are all o, even though I visually see non-zero valued data.

Please help, thanks!

David

 

[John]

David,
Yes there is a way but not with the "Analyze timescaled data in Excel"
utility. Unfortunately the utility does not export summary line values.
Why? I don't know. However, a custom VBA macro can be written that
essentially replicates what the utility does with the exception that any
Project data field or custom calculated value can be exported as
timescaled information to Excel. Besides being able to export any and
all data the formatting in Excel can also be customized with the macro
code to be whatever you need. I have written this type of macro many
times.

Hope this helps.
John

 

[David]

How did you obtain cumulative % complete data for more than one given task?
I am looking to extract the progress of % complete for a block of tasks. I
can not simply sum the % complete data because it will sum up to more than
100%.

Would computing the Total Actual Work / Total Work map to the % Complete?
If so, is there a way to obtain baseline % complete progress (Projected
behavior of % complete)?

David

 

[John]

David,
I "obtained" cumulative % complete at the summary line by using the Task
Usage view. And you're right, simply summing up the values won't give
the "correct" value. I say "correct" because duration data (including %
complete) at a summary line is calculated by Project based on certain
assumptions. It is therefore only an approximation and shouldn't be
taken too seriously.

Percent Complete for a summary line is calculated by taking the sum of
the Actual Durations of all subtask divided by the sum of the Durations
of all subtasks and converting it to a percent. And yes, a similar
calculation can be performed using the baseline data but to do it in
timescaled fashion, VBA is required. However, have you considered using
the built-in EV parameters to gage the completeness of the task? I am
not a big fan of SPI because I don't believe converting everything to
cost is a good way to measure schedule progress but it is the
classically accepted approach.

Note that I used the term "completeness of task" when talking about
Duration. Keep in mind that Duration time and Work time are two
completely different concepts in a schedule. Duration is the time span
during which the task is perfomed. Work is the resource effort to
complete the task. If Duration hours and Work hours for a task are
equal, (they may be but not always), the % Complete and % Work Complete
will show the same value. If you want to gage completeness of effort,
you should be looking at % Work Complete.

Hope this helps.
John

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Work is not the measure of % Complete as Project uses the term. There are 2
different metrics (actually 3 when you include % Physical Complete). "%
Complete" refers to duration. "% Work Complete" refers to work. While they
may turn out to be the same number, there's no reason they always will. To
see a case that illustrates the difference, imagine a task where we're
painting a room with several coats that need to dry between times. The task
starts Monday at 8am and there's 2 hours of work on Mon, then 2 hours each
on Tue, Wed, and Thu, and then we have a big day Fri working all day to
finish everything off, do the trim, and so forth so it takes a full day of
work on Fri. Our duration is Mon 8am to Fri 5pm, 40 hours. Our work is
2+2+2+2+8 or 16 man-hours. It's presently Thursday at 5pm an we're right on
schedule. Remember duration is defined working time since the task began,
regardless of whether we've actually worked during every possible minute or
not. Thus the task is at 32/40 hours duration, or 80% Complete. But the
work is at 8/16 man-hours or 50% Work Complete.

To obtain the percent complete for a block of tasks in the same way Project
computes summary task progress, you would sum the tasks Actual Durations to
date and divide by the sum of the scheduled task durations. I have 5 tasks
of 5 days each. I've worked for 1 day on the first one, 3 days each on the
2nd and 3rd, and 2 days each on the 4th and 5th tasks. The total number of
days to be worked on all tasks is 25 days. The actual days worked so far is
11 days. Therefore the group's progress is 11/25 or 44% Complete. OR if
you prefer to use % Work Complete, do a similar computation using work
instead of duration.

Still thinking about a good way to track the percent complete you should be
at versus the one you are at.