Formulas/custom field

[Tyler M]

I am a newbie that is very advanced in Excel but extremely green with MS
Project. I am using MS Project 2007 and obviously tracking project status on
different levels, well that is the goal. Currently I am not exactly sure what
I am doing. Anyways I created a field and titled it "Physical % Complete"
this column will let us know where we are physically at on any given project.
This field we manually enter. I know there is the % Complete field but that
tends to base the percentage off of your quoted hours and actual hours.
Anyways this field I will enter the percentage we are at on all sub-tasks but
I can not get a running total for that parent task, it just says 0% and I can
not manually change that. What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions will help,
thank you.

 

[Mike Glen]

Hi Tyler,

Welcome to this Microsoft Project newsgroup

You don't need to create such a field as it is built-in to Project. Try Insert/Column... and in the pick list for the Field, select Physical % Complete. Incidentally, %Complete is the percentage of Duration completed, and %Work Complete is just that. Have a look at Help.

FAQs, companion products and other useful Project information can be seen at this web address: http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Hope this helps - please let us know how you get on

Mike Glen
MS Project MVP
See http://tinyurl.com/2xbhc for my free Project Tutorials



I am a newbie that is very advanced in Excel but extremely green with MS
Project. I am using MS Project 2007 and obviously tracking project status on
different levels, well that is the goal. Currently I am not exactly sure what
I am doing. Anyways I created a field and titled it "Physical % Complete"
this column will let us know where we are physically at on any given project.
This field we manually enter. I know there is the % Complete field but that
tends to base the percentage off of your quoted hours and actual hours.
Anyways this field I will enter the percentage we are at on all sub-tasks but
I can not get a running total for that parent task, it just says 0% and I can
not manually change that. What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions will help,
thank you.

 

[Tyler M]

I am still not understanding why this field is not adding up all sub tasks.
What I have is a "Master Schedule" with many different tasks included under
it, and under them are other sub tasks (see example below). The 'Parent Task'
is not calculating what the sub tasks are showing.

example: (building houses)
Master Schedule 0%
-Mack Residents 0%
BSMT Level 0%
Laying of Course Block 100%
Concrete Floor (bsmt) 100%
Install Mud Sil 100%
1st FLR. 0%
Floor trusses 100%
Ext. Wall system 100%
2nd FLR. 0%
Floor trusses 100%
Ext. Wall System 100%
Roof 0%
Trusses 100%
Membrane 100%
Asphult Shingles 95%

This is just an example of what I am seeing on my "Master Schedule". I
manually enter the sub tasks percentage, but it does not calculate to the
"Parent Task" to give an accurate representation of where the total "Mack
Residents" project is at. I could be missing a column that is needed to add
this figure up but I am not sure. I hope I explained this well, if you have
more questions please let me know.

 

[Andrew Lavinsky]

The field has no way of "knowing" what the rollup mechanism is. Is each
subtask weighted the same...? Are some tasks weighted differently? Are
longer tasks worth more than shorter tasks?

Physical % Complete is best used with some sort of cost measure. Then you
can calculate the Physical % Complete X Task Cost, and roll that up to measure
the Physical % Complete of the entire project.


- Andrew Lavinsky
Blog: http://blogs.catapultsystems.com/epm

 

[Jim Aksel]

I have a series of white papers on this exact topic on my blog (link below).
Read the papers on "What Percent Complete Should I be, etc.

For starters, Physical%Complete requires costed resources be loaded against
the tasks, a baseline set, and proper schedule status.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

Check out my blog for more information:
http://www.msprojectblog.com

 

[Tyler M]

I might not be understanding the uses of MS Project or I may not be
explaining my situation well. What I am trying to do is have a custom field
that resembles where our project is physically at. For example: If I schedule
out a task that is quoted 40 hours and should complete itself during a
regular work week of Mon.-Fri., come Friday at 5pm that project should be
100% complete provided it was quoted correctly and the resource on that task
understands the task and knows how to handle it. However, let’s assume the
resource is new and they cannot complete that task as well/fast as a seasoned
resource. Let’s assume come Friday the task that was assigned is really at
60% complete, However, we still used up the 40 hours and the cost that was
given to that project. At this time we are going to take a hit due to that
resource, regardless of the situations encountered. I would like a custom
field that I can manually enter where that project is actually at, then have
each sub task total up to the main task (see building house example from
3/5/10 for more details). The fields that I am currently using in my project
are as follows; % Work Complete, Actual Work, Physical % Complete, Baseline
Duration, Start and Finish. All that we are wanting to track (again
regardless if it is typical practice or not) is obviously the "Quoted Hours",
how many hours the project has currently used "Actual Hours", a percentage
stating where we should be based from the "Actual Work"/"Quoted Hours"= "%
Work Complete" and then where that project is physically at which will differ
depending on how well that resource can work, some are faster than others
depending on experience and what not. If I can obtain this by adding a
"Number" column that would be fine. However, I would like for it to be in a
percentage form (not number) example I would like it to show; 20% not .2.
Then for each task that has a sub task have all of the sub tasks add up and
give an overall status to that task (Parent Task).

I am not sure if there is a way to obtain what I am seeking but I am
thinking that this program is capable of doing so. Rather it be I need to add
more info into my project or I am selecting the incorrect column. Any advice
will be very helpful. I am currently reading the "Project Bible" and online
post and Jim Aksel's "White Pages" to find the answer but if anyone knows
more about this please let me know or point me in the correct direction.
Thank you for all of your help in advance.

--
Thank you,

Tyler M

________________________________________________________________

 

[Jack Dahlgren MVP]

What you are looking for is very similar to what is called Earned Value.
Google earned value and check the project help on the topic. As the others
have stated, use of physical percent complete and some cost for each
resource are required to make the math work out correctly.

-Jack Dahlgren