How can I assign weights for subtasks

[yomtov]

I am trying to assign percentage weights for subtasks towards the summary
task. For example, if I have 4 subtasks to a summary task, I would like that
each one should count as 25% of the summary task, regardless of each tasks
duration or resource usage.

I would also like to do this to summary tasks to a higher level summary
task, if possible.

All help is appreciated.


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[Mike Glen]

Hi yomtov ,

I believe you will need some vba code to do this. Try posting on the
microsoft.public.project.developer newsgroup (forum). Please see FAQ Item:
24.
Project Newsgroups. FAQs, companion products and other useful Project
information can be seen at this web address:
http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Mike Glen
Project MVP

 

[yomtov]

Thank you. I will try over there.

Hi yomtov ,

I believe you will need some vba code to do this. Try posting on the
microsoft.public.project.developer newsgroup (forum). Please see FAQ Item:
24.
Project Newsgroups. FAQs, companion products and other useful Project
information can be seen at this web address:
http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

Mike Glen
Project MVP

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

25% of what metric of the summary task? "Percentage weight" implies percent
of something measurable, which pretty well limits it to duration, work, or
cost.

 

[yomtov]

I am trying to measure the outcome of the tasks, so the outcome of a task can
sometimes have a greater weight towards the summary task then the work or
costs that is put in. For example if you have to reach a certain sales goal,
each sale will contribute the same weight towards that goal however some
sales will take more time, money or resources to achieve.

I hope this makes sense.

25% of what metric of the summary task? "Percentage weight" implies percent
of something measurable, which pretty well limits it to duration, work, or
cost.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

I am trying to assign percentage weights for subtasks towards the summary
task. For example, if I have 4 subtasks to a summary task, I would like
that
each one should count as 25% of the summary task, regardless of each tasks
duration or resource usage.

I would also like to do this to summary tasks to a higher level summary
task, if possible.

All help is appreciated.


----------------
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suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...aabb-9e2880b70268&dg=microsoft.public.project

 

[yomtov]

I am trying to measure the outcome of the tasks, so the outcome of a task can
sometimes have a greater weight towards the summary task then the work or
costs that is put in. For example if you have to reach a certain sales goal,
each sale will contribute the same weight towards that goal however some
sales will take more time, money or resources to achieve.

I hope this makes sense.

 

[BGT]

You could assign a weighting comparable to hours (Work) in the Resourc
Usage table for each subtask and status it using a quantifiable metric
for example if you had task for "Complete 50 Engineering Drawings" an
you finished 25 of them then you'd be 50% complete regardless of the M
Project default % Complete (duration based), etc, you could force th
"real" percent complete from a metric that you kept in Excel or MSP.

Quantifying "where you say you are" on a project task provides a hig
degree of accuracy and fidelity to a schedule benchmarked against a lo
of schedules out there where people are assessing their status, o
guessing where they think they are. If you could figure out "what
really qualifies the status of your subtasks in your case and the
assign a weight I think you'd be on the right track, but just trying t
assign a weighting without any real qualification to the status fo
those subtasks isn’t very accurate.


Another method you could potentially use since work, cost, duration
etc is irrelevant based on your post, is to assign a hard weigh

 

[yomtov]

Thank you. Your second method sounds exactly what I am trying to do. I am
trying to assign my own weights towards a summary task (as with your case of
the 50 drawings or my case with the sales). However how do I do this? How
do I assign a "hard weight"? Please explain, it will very much appreciated.
Also when I want to do it, I do not want to assign this "hard weight" to the
whole project, only to specific summary tasks.

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Sorry but it doesn't, at least not to me. You're trying to quantify an
intangible concept rather like trying to assign some sort of point value to
a subjective assessment of "importance." Tasks are not things like sales
goals with no clearly defined ending criteria ... project tasks are always
observable physical activities that produce a specifically defined outcome.
Until that outcome is achieved the task isn't done and once it is achieved
the task stops since there's nothing remaining to do. Summary tasks and
subtasks are the same in that regard, just the summary is a bigger piece of
the overall project that encompasses all its children. The amount of
deliverable a subtask produces is fixed. A subtask doesn't HAVE a variable
percentage contribution to the summary task since if any subtask does not
complete its fixed amount of deliverable, the summary task's fixed amount of
deliverable isn't completed either - the deliverables required to complete
the project either are or are not done. So in that sense, all the tasks
have equal weight since if any one of them is left partially done the
project itself is not complete - some of the mandatory deliverable for
completion is still missing. That really just leaves 3 things about it that
it's even possible to measure and relate to the summary - the time required
to make the deliverable, the work effort expended in making it, and the
money spent to make it - anything else is simply the subjective feelings of
the PM.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

I am trying to measure the outcome of the tasks, so the outcome of a task
can
sometimes have a greater weight towards the summary task then the work or
costs that is put in. For example if you have to reach a certain sales
goal,
each sale will contribute the same weight towards that goal however some
sales will take more time, money or resources to achieve.

I hope this makes sense.

25% of what metric of the summary task? "Percentage weight" implies
percent
of something measurable, which pretty well limits it to duration, work,
or
cost.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

I am trying to assign percentage weights for subtasks towards the
summary
task. For example, if I have 4 subtasks to a summary task, I would
like
that
each one should count as 25% of the summary task, regardless of each
tasks
duration or resource usage.

I would also like to do this to summary tasks to a higher level summary
task, if possible.

All help is appreciated.


----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the
"I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and
then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...aabb-9e2880b70268&dg=microsoft.public.project

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

What BGT's suggestion is, is Project's "Physical % Complete" but that still
doesn't rank your tasks by some sort of weighting scheme.

 

[Jim Aksel]

I agree with all the comments of our peers.... % of what means money, time,
work, or maybe units. Take that to heart. My advise is to use money as the
measure and Physical%Complete.

Now to answer your question, although I may disagree with your approach. It
will probably take some programming. The reason why is because we cannot
know for sure how many subtasks will be under each individual summary task
and how the summary tasks are indented in relation to each other. If we know
with certainty the number of subtasks is always constant the solution becomes
quite easy, especially if there is only one level of indenture.

You will need to write a macro that counts the number of subtasks under a
given subtask and remember that number (let's say it is 4). Now, look at
each subtask in the group. If it is 100% Complete (by some measure), then it
will contribute 1/(task count) to the total. In this case 1/4. Put that in
a spare column such as "Number1." Do that for all the subtasks under this
summary task. You may be able to do it with 0 or 1 and then normalize it at
the summary level.

The value of "Number1" for each summary task will be the sum of the
"Number1's" below it. It will total to 1, meaning this summary task is 100%
complete as weighted by the count of tasks below it. Or, if you used a 0/1
technique for the details, you will have to normalize it at this level (total
divided by count).

Now you have to count the number of summary tasks, at that level of
indenture, and perform the same exercise but only on the summary tasks. Now
move out to the next level of indenture and repeat the process. It may be
best to do it recursively until you reach outline level 1. Then you need to
roll it up for the entire project (outline level 0). The process needs to
repeat until you reach a level of indenture where there is exactly one task
at that level.

You also need to consider how the indenture tree is going to be treated.
For example, if you have an outline level 2 that has summary tasks and detail
tasks under it at level 3.

This will take some VBA programming to do it right and get the answer all in
one column. You are effectively duplicating the code that Project uses for
%Complete but weighting it differently.

You could consider a separate column for each of the variables I mentioned
and then use some formulas. However, since formulas in Project are agnostic
to any other line, you are going to have problems counting the number of
subtasks in a summary, etc. Those would need to have a "1" in a column with
a summary task formula that sums up those "1" values.

Should you need this done for you, there are some links around here you can
click.

--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, PMP, MVP

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

 

[BGT]

Using a metric to "quantify" a tasks status is one of the most accurat
methods to determine status, I agree with you about making up somethin
that's not quantifiable or definable but that was not at all what
said, on the contrary it has to be relative to the task at hand. I'
not sure how much simpler one could make a metric (100 drawings planned
50 were completed) and 50% PPC being the result is much more accurat
than deriving a % from duration, work or cost because it's relative t
the Criteria of the task completion. Remember the Event
Accomplishment, Criteria requirement portion of PM training and it's us
for scheduling? Indeed one could use duration, work and cost t
determine % complete, but it's been proven over and over that using i
alone in an EVM or even non-EVM environment for that matter provides
lesser degree of accuracy.

That said trying to figure out a weighting or metric for a summary i
not common or good practice as Steve stated, the children tasks are th
key.

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

What you are describing is Project's "Percent Physical Complete" field. The
task is to do 100 drawings and we have done 50, we are 50% physical
complete. But remember, we are looking at progress along a timeline - are
we on schedule or are we not. That means the more important metric is time,
hours completed versus hours required. We are also looking at budget -
man-hours of work used (and thus paid for) versus estimated total man-hours
required (estimated cost, ie, budget). The important question in bringing
the project in sucessfully is not how many of the drawings have we done so
far or how many we have left to do but WHEN will we be done with all the
drawings. If we don't bring in 100 drawings, we haven't done the project at
all, so it's a given that we eventually will do them all. The essential
management questions are when and how much will it cost to do it.

 

[BGT]

I think we're somewhat in agreement on principles and I enjoy learning
the various thought processes in our industry. Just to share what I've
learned over the years, it's best "not" to rely on just a partial belief
of what's important, rather the full spectrum of what's relative to a
projects success. You stated it's not so important to know _how_ many
drawings are done or what's _remaining_ but "_when_" they would
complete. I agree on knowing "when" as being paramount to the projects
sucess but I also see the value in knowing how many drawings we've done,
what we have left along with when we'll finish and how all of this
relates to cost and performance against calendar time. EVM provides the
best method for doing this, schedule drives cost and if a PM uses an EVM
method/tool to track/control the project it will provide the "real"
picture of "when" those drawings will complete along with the ability to
track what's been earned against the budgeted and actual costs.

;4145490']What you are describing is Project's "Percent Physical
Complete" field. The
task is to do 100 drawings and we have done 50, we are 50% physical
complete. But remember, we are looking at progress along a timeline -
are
we on schedule or are we not. That means the more important metric is
time,
hours completed versus hours required. We are also looking at budget
-
man-hours of work used (and thus paid for) versus estimated total
man-hours
required (estimated cost, ie, budget). The important question in
bringing
the project in sucessfully is not how many of the drawings have we done
so
far or how many we have left to do but WHEN will we be done with all
the
drawings. If we don't bring in 100 drawings, we haven't done the
project at
all, so it's a given that we eventually will do them all. The
essential
management questions are when and how much will it cost to do it.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Using a metric to "quantify" a tasks status is one of the most accurate
methods to determine status, I agree with you about making up something
that's not quantifiable or definable but that was not at all what I
said, on the contrary it has to be relative to the task at hand. I'm
not sure how much simpler one could make a metric (100 drawings planned,
50 were completed) and 50% PPC being the result is much more accurate
than deriving a % from duration, work or cost because it's relative to
the Criteria of the task completion. Remember the Event,
Accomplishment, Criteria requirement portion of PM training and it's use
for scheduling? Indeed one could use duration, work and cost to
determine % complete, but it's been proven over and over that using it
alone in an EVM or even non-EVM environment for that matter provides a
lesser degree of accuracy.

That said trying to figure out a weighting or metric for a summary is
not common or good practice as Steve stated, the children tasks are the
key.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
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View this thread: http://forums.techarena.in/microsoft-project/1091956.htm

http://forums.techarena.in

 

[Wilkster]

If I understand you correctly, this shouldn't be very difficult. Weighted
percent completes are quiet easy to do, including accounting for sub-tasks. It
will require the use of two-three custom columns however.

Lets assume you use a custom field [number8] to denote the weight of the task
(you can also use [work] or any other metric, just adjust formulas to use it),
populate each task with its associated weight. The scale doesn't matter, just
make it relative to other lowest level tasks.

Create a custom formula for [Number9] called "Weighted Complete". Use the
formula [% Complete]*[Number8]/100 and set the task and group summary rows to
Rollup on the sum. You don't need to display this column, it is used as an
intermediate calculation.

Create a custom formula for [Number10] called "Weighted % Complete". Use the
formula IIf([Number8]<>0,[Number9]*100/[Number8],0). This will compute the
weighted % complete for each task. Set the task and group summary rows to Use
Formula. This is the column you look at for Weighted % complete.

Now just update the % complete (you should also be able to use Physical %
complete and adjust Number9 formula accordingly) and look at the rolled-up
Weighted % Complete fields. They should be weighted properly.

Hope this helps

 

[kgrimm]

This is actually exactly what I used to do a weighted physical % complete
roll up however......

I want to change the value to display as a % as opposed to a decimal. I
know that I could just multiply the field by 100 and concatenate a % to the
end but if it is at all possible, I would prefer to not artifically multiply
by 100 because we export this data to excel. I would excel to treat the data
as a true percent and not have to divide everything I do in excel by 100.

Is this possible?

If I understand you correctly, this shouldn't be very difficult. Weighted
percent completes are quiet easy to do, including accounting for sub-tasks. It
will require the use of two-three custom columns however.

Lets assume you use a custom field [number8] to denote the weight of the task
(you can also use [work] or any other metric, just adjust formulas to use it),
populate each task with its associated weight. The scale doesn't matter, just
make it relative to other lowest level tasks.

Create a custom formula for [Number9] called "Weighted Complete". Use the
formula [% Complete]*[Number8]/100 and set the task and group summary rows to
Rollup on the sum. You don't need to display this column, it is used as an
intermediate calculation.

Create a custom formula for [Number10] called "Weighted % Complete". Use the
formula IIf([Number8]<>0,[Number9]*100/[Number8],0). This will compute the
weighted % complete for each task. Set the task and group summary rows to Use
Formula. This is the column you look at for Weighted % complete.

Now just update the % complete (you should also be able to use Physical %
complete and adjust Number9 formula accordingly) and look at the rolled-up
Weighted % Complete fields. They should be weighted properly.

Hope this helps

I am trying to assign percentage weights for subtasks towards the summary
task. For example, if I have 4 subtasks to a summary task, I would like that
each one should count as 25% of the summary task, regardless of each tasks
duration or resource usage.

I would also like to do this to summary tasks to a higher level summary
task, if possible.

All help is appreciated.


----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...aabb-9e2880b70268&dg=microsoft.public.project

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

You need to be really careful with this approach because - no offense
intended - it really dosn't make a lot of sense. It's rather like saying:
"I have 5 boxes of chocolates, the first weighing one pound, the second two
pounds, the third one three pounds, the fourth weighs 4 pounds and the fifth
weighs 5 pounds. I have a total of 15 pounds of chocolate. I want a report
that says after I've eaten any one of those boxes I've eaten 20% of the
total." Sure I can come up with a calculation that will do that by counting
boxes and ignoring their content but would such a report be giving me any
sort of meaningful and accurate information about my chocolate consumption?
I don't think so. In fact, such a report would only be mathematically valid
if the luck of the draw was such that the first box I chose to eat was the
three pounder and only for when all I've eaten I've eaten is just that one
box. Similarly, a calculation that compares the number of tasks done versus
the number of tasks required in total, all the while ignoring their
durations and work requirements, gives you a number that looks nice but
means nothing at all in terms of measuring progress towards the goal of
project completion. To actually give you numbers that measure something
useful, progress needs to be measured by the amount of time spent versus the
total time required, the amount of work done versus the total amount of work
required, or the amount of deliverable created versus the amount of
deliverable required. The number of tasks done versus the number of tasks
required to do it is completely irrelevant.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

This is actually exactly what I used to do a weighted physical % complete
roll up however......

I want to change the value to display as a % as opposed to a decimal. I
know that I could just multiply the field by 100 and concatenate a % to
the
end but if it is at all possible, I would prefer to not artifically
multiply
by 100 because we export this data to excel. I would excel to treat the
data
as a true percent and not have to divide everything I do in excel by 100.

Is this possible?

If I understand you correctly, this shouldn't be very difficult. Weighted
percent completes are quiet easy to do, including accounting for
sub-tasks. It
will require the use of two-three custom columns however.

Lets assume you use a custom field [number8] to denote the weight of the
task
(you can also use [work] or any other metric, just adjust formulas to use
it),
populate each task with its associated weight. The scale doesn't matter,
just
make it relative to other lowest level tasks.

Create a custom formula for [Number9] called "Weighted Complete". Use the
formula [% Complete]*[Number8]/100 and set the task and group summary
rows to
Rollup on the sum. You don't need to display this column, it is used as
an
intermediate calculation.

Create a custom formula for [Number10] called "Weighted % Complete". Use
the
formula IIf([Number8]<>0,[Number9]*100/[Number8],0). This will compute
the
weighted % complete for each task. Set the task and group summary rows
to Use
Formula. This is the column you look at for Weighted % complete.

Now just update the % complete (you should also be able to use Physical %
complete and adjust Number9 formula accordingly) and look at the
rolled-up
Weighted % Complete fields. They should be weighted properly.

Hope this helps

I am trying to assign percentage weights for subtasks towards the
summary
task. For example, if I have 4 subtasks to a summary task, I would
like that
each one should count as 25% of the summary task, regardless of each
tasks
duration or resource usage.

I would also like to do this to summary tasks to a higher level summary
task, if possible.

All help is appreciated.


----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the
"I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and
then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...aabb-9e2880b70268&dg=microsoft.public.project

 

[yomtov]

Sorry to bring up this old thread, but I was away for a month.

Thank you all for all the replies and help that you gave me. However I
still cannot get this to work. Here is an example that I think will
accurately explain what I am trying to accomplish.

For example, if my project is to purchase 100 identical steel beams. I
create a subtask for each beam. Now each of these "buy 1 beam" tasks will
have subtasks under it with wide variations in work, time etc. Some beams
will take only 2 hrs to purchase and some will take weeks with many resources.

I would like to track at any point how many beams have been purchased. That
means, that the only time that the "buy 1 beam" task will "earn its value" is
when all the subtasks under it will be 100% complete. There is no EV for
something that is 50% or 75% complete since as long as the beam was not
purchased we would not want to include that task in our project's EV. We can
keep track how much percent is still missing to complete that "buy 1 beam"
task within its subtasks, but they should not count towards the projects EV.

Additionally, I would like that each of the 100 "buy one beam" tasks should
be calculated as 1% of the project regardless of the subtasks under it. This
way I can know at any given moment how many beams have been purchased and how
many are still needed.

I understand the academic debate above if this is good PM practice, however,
this is the way we want to track our project. Is there a way in MS Project
to do this?

All help is greatly appreciated.

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Project, and critical path methodology, recognizes the passage of time
compared to the total time that is required, the expenditure of money
compared to the total project budget, and the performance of man-hours of
work compared to the total man-hours required as valid metrics of project
progress. Your method as you've described it isn't looking at any of those.
You might be able to get the subjective "percent physical complete" field to
approximate your requirements but I'm not sure you can get it to roll-up
precisely the way you want it to. I'm afraid you're going to have to go
with old-fashioned paper and pencil to do what you want. No disrespect
intended but your insistance on redefining the meaning of "project progress"
and the calculation of EV so that the purchase of 1 beam requiring 1 hour of
time, 2 man-hours of work, and costing $5 has the same weight in terms of
total project progress as does the purchase of another beam requiring 6
weeks of time, 1000 man-hours of work, and the expenditure of $5000 is
rather like saying "I know what the laws of mathematics say it should be,
but we need Excel to report that 2+2 is 5.7956 when we generate our balance
sheets." IMHO it's no more a merely academic debate on a matter of
management preference or PM style than is the correct answer to 2+2.

 

[yomtov]

Steve,

Thanks for your reply. I understand what you are saying, and maybe I have
not phrased my question right.
I am not looking at the "beams purchased progress" as my only calculation of
EV, and I understand that this would not be an objective assessment of the
projects progress. However, I would like to keep track of that progress too,
as it is crucial to the project. And I can't seem to get MS Project to do
that. This might be because of my lack of knowledge of the software and that
is why I am here requesting help.
I will try to rephrase my question so maybe you or anyone else can help.
The way I understand, and as you explained it, Project is keeping track of
the total "expenditure" of time, money and work that is projected (or
budgeted) compared to what actually happened. So in essence you are keeping
track of what you are "spending" (money, time and work) and what you can
expect to "spend". However, you are not keeping track of what you are
"accomplishing". There is nowhere, at least to my knowledge, to input and
keep track of what you have "accomplished" and what you still have to
"accomplish". I understand that this tracking will not reflect the real
progress of the project as you pointed out, but it is information that I
think is important and sometimes crucial to many project managers. Even
"percent physical complete" is only relative to your baselined "expenditures"
and not accomplishments.
To put this in context to my example with the hundred beams, how can I keep
track of how many beam i have purchased and how many I still have to
purchase? If I have one task for every beam this might theoretically be
tracked by simply looking at how many uncompleted task there are. But if it
something more complex than that, for example if each task is to purchase
different amounts of beams, how can this be done?

I would appreciate any help, as I am sure this is possible and it is only a
lack of knowledge of Project in my part.

Project, and critical path methodology, recognizes the passage of time
compared to the total time that is required, the expenditure of money
compared to the total project budget, and the performance of man-hours of
work compared to the total man-hours required as valid metrics of project
progress. Your method as you've described it isn't looking at any of those.
You might be able to get the subjective "percent physical complete" field to
approximate your requirements but I'm not sure you can get it to roll-up
precisely the way you want it to. I'm afraid you're going to have to go
with old-fashioned paper and pencil to do what you want. No disrespect
intended but your insistance on redefining the meaning of "project progress"
and the calculation of EV so that the purchase of 1 beam requiring 1 hour of
time, 2 man-hours of work, and costing $5 has the same weight in terms of
total project progress as does the purchase of another beam requiring 6
weeks of time, 1000 man-hours of work, and the expenditure of $5000 is
rather like saying "I know what the laws of mathematics say it should be,
but we need Excel to report that 2+2 is 5.7956 when we generate our balance
sheets." IMHO it's no more a merely academic debate on a matter of
management preference or PM style than is the correct answer to 2+2.
--
Steve House [Project MVP]
MS Project Trainer & Consultant
Visit http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Sorry to bring up this old thread, but I was away for a month.

Thank you all for all the replies and help that you gave me. However I
still cannot get this to work. Here is an example that I think will
accurately explain what I am trying to accomplish.

For example, if my project is to purchase 100 identical steel beams. I
create a subtask for each beam. Now each of these "buy 1 beam" tasks will
have subtasks under it with wide variations in work, time etc. Some beams
will take only 2 hrs to purchase and some will take weeks with many
resources.

I would like to track at any point how many beams have been purchased.
That
means, that the only time that the "buy 1 beam" task will "earn its value"
is
when all the subtasks under it will be 100% complete. There is no EV for
something that is 50% or 75% complete since as long as the beam was not
purchased we would not want to include that task in our project's EV. We
can
keep track how much percent is still missing to complete that "buy 1 beam"
task within its subtasks, but they should not count towards the projects
EV.

Additionally, I would like that each of the 100 "buy one beam" tasks
should
be calculated as 1% of the project regardless of the subtasks under it.
This
way I can know at any given moment how many beams have been purchased and
how
many are still needed.

I understand the academic debate above if this is good PM practice,
however,
this is the way we want to track our project. Is there a way in MS
Project
to do this?

All help is greatly appreciated.