How do I get total percentage of cost for work completed?

[Jay P]

All I can find for percent complete is for task durations. I need it for cost
only.

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

It wouldn't be a % complete measure but Earned Value has a Cost Performance
Index that is the Budgeted Cost of Work Performed/Actual Cost of Work
Performed that is probably what you're really looking for.

 

[Noel]

I have done something similar for work. I inserted a new column Renamed it
for actual %work complete. Then customised the field, under the custom
attributes -Formula. I added the formula:
([Actual Work]/[Baseline Work])*100 &"%"

You could adapt this for costs.
Does that help?

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Your formula works fine mathematically but I wonder at the accuracy of using
Baseline Work. Consider - I originally though it would take me 5 days full
time to do this task and when I finalized my plan I saved the baseline. I'm
now 5 days into it and I've discovered I really blew the estimate and it's
going to take me 5 more days to complete. I enter my Actual Work (40 hours)
and update Remaining Work (40 hours). Total Work (required) is really 80
hours. Baseline Work is 40 hours. By your computation that task would be
100% Actual Work Complete but in reality only 50% of the work actually
required has been done. Work is what the task is going to require, Baseline
Work is just a record of what you originally *thought* it would require. If
we are tracking progress to see how we are doing, your metric doesn't give a
true indication, in my example vastly over-estimating the health of our
project. It is really only measuring your personal estimating skills. The
built-in field "% Work Complete" seems to me to be a much more reliable
indicator of the project's progress while the Earned Value metrics SPI and
CPI are more valid metrics of performance against planned schedule and
budget.

Your calculation is essentially "What have we done so far versus how much in
total did we originally plan to do?" SPI is "How much have we accomplished
versus what did we plan to accomplish by this date?"

--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer/Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

I have done something similar for work. I inserted a new column Renamed it
for actual %work complete. Then customised the field, under the custom
attributes -Formula. I added the formula:
([Actual Work]/[Baseline Work])*100 &"%"

You could adapt this for costs.
Does that help?

It wouldn't be a % complete measure but Earned Value has a Cost
Performance
Index that is the Budgeted Cost of Work Performed/Actual Cost of Work
Performed that is probably what you're really looking for.

 

[Noel]

Steve,
I get your point. It is perhaps as a result of the quirky way I am having
to run my projects, which is based on time.

However, in terms of the costs (to get back to the original question), it
will indicate how much of your budget is used up and if you are over budget
for a particular task. So it could be useful there. Even if the estimates of
how long it takes to do a task were screwed up at the start. in my (limited)
experince the budget tends to stay the same.

Cheers
Noel

Your formula works fine mathematically but I wonder at the accuracy of using
Baseline Work. Consider - I originally though it would take me 5 days full
time to do this task and when I finalized my plan I saved the baseline. I'm
now 5 days into it and I've discovered I really blew the estimate and it's
going to take me 5 more days to complete. I enter my Actual Work (40 hours)
and update Remaining Work (40 hours). Total Work (required) is really 80
hours. Baseline Work is 40 hours. By your computation that task would be
100% Actual Work Complete but in reality only 50% of the work actually
required has been done. Work is what the task is going to require, Baseline
Work is just a record of what you originally *thought* it would require. If
we are tracking progress to see how we are doing, your metric doesn't give a
true indication, in my example vastly over-estimating the health of our
project. It is really only measuring your personal estimating skills. The
built-in field "% Work Complete" seems to me to be a much more reliable
indicator of the project's progress while the Earned Value metrics SPI and
CPI are more valid metrics of performance against planned schedule and
budget.

Your calculation is essentially "What have we done so far versus how much in
total did we originally plan to do?" SPI is "How much have we accomplished
versus what did we plan to accomplish by this date?"

--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer/Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

I have done something similar for work. I inserted a new column Renamed it
for actual %work complete. Then customised the field, under the custom
attributes -Formula. I added the formula:
([Actual Work]/[Baseline Work])*100 &"%"

You could adapt this for costs.
Does that help?

It wouldn't be a % complete measure but Earned Value has a Cost
Performance
Index that is the Budgeted Cost of Work Performed/Actual Cost of Work
Performed that is probably what you're really looking for.
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer/Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs


All I can find for percent complete is for task durations. I need it
for
cost
only.

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Nothing quirky about running the projects based on time metrics. But a big
caveat here - work is NOT a time measure. Duration is time, work is sweat
expended. If you were really tracking based on time, your calculation would
be [Actual Duration]/[Total Duration] (that's the built-in % Complete) or
perhaps [Actual Duration]/[Baseline Duration] to compare time spent with
time budgeted. The issue I was raising is that the baseline work is the
total, including both the work we had planned to do up to now and the amount
that we are planning for the future. A much more accurate measure of where
we stand with regard to the schedule and the budget is how much have we
actually done to date versus how much were we supposed to do by today.
Baseline Work is NOT the amount of work we were supposed to do to date, it
is the total amount we need to do for all time, both up to today and into
the future. But SPI and CPI use the Timephased Baseline Work, which is the
total pro-rated out on a day-by-day basis. If we're halfway through a 10
day task and are right on schedule, we should have done half the baseline
work by today. Actual to Date should equal 1/2 Baseline if we're on
schedule and budget and SPI would equal 1.0.

--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer/Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Steve,
I get your point. It is perhaps as a result of the quirky way I am having
to run my projects, which is based on time.

However, in terms of the costs (to get back to the original question), it
will indicate how much of your budget is used up and if you are over
budget
for a particular task. So it could be useful there. Even if the estimates
of
how long it takes to do a task were screwed up at the start. in my
(limited)
experince the budget tends to stay the same.

Cheers
Noel

Your formula works fine mathematically but I wonder at the accuracy of
using
Baseline Work. Consider - I originally though it would take me 5 days
full
time to do this task and when I finalized my plan I saved the baseline.
I'm
now 5 days into it and I've discovered I really blew the estimate and
it's
going to take me 5 more days to complete. I enter my Actual Work (40
hours)
and update Remaining Work (40 hours). Total Work (required) is really 80
hours. Baseline Work is 40 hours. By your computation that task would
be
100% Actual Work Complete but in reality only 50% of the work actually
required has been done. Work is what the task is going to require,
Baseline
Work is just a record of what you originally *thought* it would require.
If
we are tracking progress to see how we are doing, your metric doesn't
give a
true indication, in my example vastly over-estimating the health of our
project. It is really only measuring your personal estimating skills.
The
built-in field "% Work Complete" seems to me to be a much more reliable
indicator of the project's progress while the Earned Value metrics SPI
and
CPI are more valid metrics of performance against planned schedule and
budget.

Your calculation is essentially "What have we done so far versus how much
in
total did we originally plan to do?" SPI is "How much have we
accomplished
versus what did we plan to accomplish by this date?"

--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer/Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

I have done something similar for work. I inserted a new column Renamed
it
for actual %work complete. Then customised the field, under the custom
attributes -Formula. I added the formula:
([Actual Work]/[Baseline Work])*100 &"%"

You could adapt this for costs.
Does that help?


:

It wouldn't be a % complete measure but Earned Value has a Cost
Performance
Index that is the Budgeted Cost of Work Performed/Actual Cost of Work
Performed that is probably what you're really looking for.
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer/Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs


All I can find for percent complete is for task durations. I need it
for
cost
only.

 

[Noel]

Thanks for the advice. It's been most instructive.
Cheers
Noel

Nothing quirky about running the projects based on time metrics. But a big
caveat here - work is NOT a time measure. Duration is time, work is sweat
expended. If you were really tracking based on time, your calculation would
be [Actual Duration]/[Total Duration] (that's the built-in % Complete) or
perhaps [Actual Duration]/[Baseline Duration] to compare time spent with
time budgeted. The issue I was raising is that the baseline work is the
total, including both the work we had planned to do up to now and the amount
that we are planning for the future. A much more accurate measure of where
we stand with regard to the schedule and the budget is how much have we
actually done to date versus how much were we supposed to do by today.
Baseline Work is NOT the amount of work we were supposed to do to date, it
is the total amount we need to do for all time, both up to today and into
the future. But SPI and CPI use the Timephased Baseline Work, which is the
total pro-rated out on a day-by-day basis. If we're halfway through a 10
day task and are right on schedule, we should have done half the baseline
work by today. Actual to Date should equal 1/2 Baseline if we're on
schedule and budget and SPI would equal 1.0.

--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer/Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Steve,
I get your point. It is perhaps as a result of the quirky way I am having
to run my projects, which is based on time.

However, in terms of the costs (to get back to the original question), it
will indicate how much of your budget is used up and if you are over
budget
for a particular task. So it could be useful there. Even if the estimates
of
how long it takes to do a task were screwed up at the start. in my
(limited)
experince the budget tends to stay the same.

Cheers
Noel

Your formula works fine mathematically but I wonder at the accuracy of
using
Baseline Work. Consider - I originally though it would take me 5 days
full
time to do this task and when I finalized my plan I saved the baseline.
I'm
now 5 days into it and I've discovered I really blew the estimate and
it's
going to take me 5 more days to complete. I enter my Actual Work (40
hours)
and update Remaining Work (40 hours). Total Work (required) is really 80
hours. Baseline Work is 40 hours. By your computation that task would
be
100% Actual Work Complete but in reality only 50% of the work actually
required has been done. Work is what the task is going to require,
Baseline
Work is just a record of what you originally *thought* it would require.
If
we are tracking progress to see how we are doing, your metric doesn't
give a
true indication, in my example vastly over-estimating the health of our
project. It is really only measuring your personal estimating skills.
The
built-in field "% Work Complete" seems to me to be a much more reliable
indicator of the project's progress while the Earned Value metrics SPI
and
CPI are more valid metrics of performance against planned schedule and
budget.

Your calculation is essentially "What have we done so far versus how much
in
total did we originally plan to do?" SPI is "How much have we
accomplished
versus what did we plan to accomplish by this date?"

--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer/Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs




I have done something similar for work. I inserted a new column Renamed
it
for actual %work complete. Then customised the field, under the custom
attributes -Formula. I added the formula:
([Actual Work]/[Baseline Work])*100 &"%"

You could adapt this for costs.
Does that help?


:

It wouldn't be a % complete measure but Earned Value has a Cost
Performance
Index that is the Budgeted Cost of Work Performed/Actual Cost of Work
Performed that is probably what you're really looking for.
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer/Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs


All I can find for percent complete is for task durations. I need it
for
cost
only.

 

[Steve House [MVP]]

Glad I could be of help ...

Thanks for the advice. It's been most instructive.
Cheers
Noel

Nothing quirky about running the projects based on time metrics. But a
big
caveat here - work is NOT a time measure. Duration is time, work is
sweat
expended. If you were really tracking based on time, your calculation
would
be [Actual Duration]/[Total Duration] (that's the built-in % Complete) or
perhaps [Actual Duration]/[Baseline Duration] to compare time spent with
time budgeted. The issue I was raising is that the baseline work is the
total, including both the work we had planned to do up to now and the
amount
that we are planning for the future. A much more accurate measure of
where
we stand with regard to the schedule and the budget is how much have we
actually done to date versus how much were we supposed to do by today.
Baseline Work is NOT the amount of work we were supposed to do to date,
it
is the total amount we need to do for all time, both up to today and into
the future. But SPI and CPI use the Timephased Baseline Work, which is
the
total pro-rated out on a day-by-day basis. If we're halfway through a 10
day task and are right on schedule, we should have done half the baseline
work by today. Actual to Date should equal 1/2 Baseline if we're on
schedule and budget and SPI would equal 1.0.

--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer/Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs

Steve,
I get your point. It is perhaps as a result of the quirky way I am
having
to run my projects, which is based on time.

However, in terms of the costs (to get back to the original question),
it
will indicate how much of your budget is used up and if you are over
budget
for a particular task. So it could be useful there. Even if the
estimates
of
how long it takes to do a task were screwed up at the start. in my
(limited)
experince the budget tends to stay the same.

Cheers
Noel

:

Your formula works fine mathematically but I wonder at the accuracy of
using
Baseline Work. Consider - I originally though it would take me 5 days
full
time to do this task and when I finalized my plan I saved the
baseline.
I'm
now 5 days into it and I've discovered I really blew the estimate and
it's
going to take me 5 more days to complete. I enter my Actual Work (40
hours)
and update Remaining Work (40 hours). Total Work (required) is really
80
hours. Baseline Work is 40 hours. By your computation that task
would
be
100% Actual Work Complete but in reality only 50% of the work actually
required has been done. Work is what the task is going to require,
Baseline
Work is just a record of what you originally *thought* it would
require.
If
we are tracking progress to see how we are doing, your metric doesn't
give a
true indication, in my example vastly over-estimating the health of
our
project. It is really only measuring your personal estimating skills.
The
built-in field "% Work Complete" seems to me to be a much more
reliable
indicator of the project's progress while the Earned Value metrics SPI
and
CPI are more valid metrics of performance against planned schedule and
budget.

Your calculation is essentially "What have we done so far versus how
much
in
total did we originally plan to do?" SPI is "How much have we
accomplished
versus what did we plan to accomplish by this date?"

--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer/Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs




I have done something similar for work. I inserted a new column
Renamed
it
for actual %work complete. Then customised the field, under the
custom
attributes -Formula. I added the formula:
([Actual Work]/[Baseline Work])*100 &"%"

You could adapt this for costs.
Does that help?


:

It wouldn't be a % complete measure but Earned Value has a Cost
Performance
Index that is the Budgeted Cost of Work Performed/Actual Cost of
Work
Performed that is probably what you're really looking for.
--
Steve House [MVP]
MS Project Trainer/Consultant
Visit http://www.mvps.org/project/faqs.htm for the FAQs


All I can find for percent complete is for task durations. I need
it
for
cost
only.