Percent Work Complete

[Julie]

What is the difference between % Complete and % Work
Complete? I have tasks where the two are wildly different
even though there are resources assigned. I have been
updating the % Complete only. Thanks for any advice.

 

[Gérard Ducouret]

Hello Julie

If the assignments are evenly spread along the task, we can expect that %
Complete and % Work Complete are equal.
NB : %Complete is a percentage of the task duration.
If on the first half of the task you assigned a poor resource part time. On
the second half of the task you assigned 5 persons full time. When the
%Complete is 50%, the %Work Complete is only 10%.

Hope this helps,

Gérard Ducouret [Project MVP]
Pragmasoft ® - Paris

 

[James G]

Hi Julie,

Notwithstanding Gerard's answer. % Complete refers to the DURATION of a task. % Work Complete refers to the WORK (hours assigned via resources). Example: A task of 5 days DURATION might contain 40 hours of WORK. For most practical purposes, those hours would be approtioned equally across all 5 days (ie, 8 hrs/day). If at the end of day 1, the resource has only done 4 hrs WORK, then your % Complete is 1/5 days = 20%, and your % Work Complete is 4/40 = 10%. If on day 2, your resource still only does 6 hrs work (lazy git!!), then your % Complete is 2/5 days = 40%, and your % Work Complete is (4+6)/40 = 25%. At the end of day 2, your analysis would read: 40% of the DURATION has elapsed, but only 25% of the WORK has been done. Someone has few long days ahead of them if they want to finish the task on time!!

You do have to be a bit wary, though, owing to the fact that your % Complete does change as you extend or shorten the duraton of the task, and it is also dependent upon your Task Type. Moreover, when amending the task duration, the WORK that you have assigned to that task might also change, depending upon HOW you amend the task duration, in conjunction with the Task Type.

Hope this helps.

James.