Relation between % COmplete and % Work COmplete

[Ehsan Khan]

Hello again...

I tried to create a project for testing reasons.. Following are the steps
that I followed....

1) created a task assigned a resource to that
2) Made the duration of task to 3 days
3) Updated the progress on the task to 30% work complete
4) Then I edited the Units of the resource to 50%

Now wht happens is that:
1) The duration of this changed to 5.4 days??? why??? I changed the units
to 50% shouldn't the duration change to 6 days?? does the calculation take
into account the % work complete???

2) Also The % complete changed to 11% whereas % work complete changed to
20%?? why ??? I can't figure this out....

Now if in case I make the units to 100% again and try to update the % work
complete field ... the difference in % work complete and % complete stays in
place...... Please help me out....... its over my head..... how are these
field attached to each other?????????

Thanks..........................

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Ehsan --

When you assigned a resource to the three day task at 100% Units, Microsoft
Project assigned the resource's Work on the task at 8 hours per day over
each of the three days. When you updated the task as 30% complete,
Microsoft Project set the % Complete and % Work Complete values at 30%, and
entered 7.2 hours of Actual Work on the task. The software assumes that if
the task is 30% complete, this means that 30% of the work is complete. If
7.2 hours of Actual Work have been completed, this means that there are only
16.8 hours of Remaining Work left to be performed (24 - 7.2 = 16.8).

When you changed the resource's assignment Units to 50%, Microsoft Project
reassigned the 16.8 hours of Remaining Work at 50% Units, or 4 hours of Work
per day. Therefore, by reassigning the Remaining Work at 50% Units, the
software recalculates the Duraton at 5.1 days. The key to how the software
recalculates the Duration is to remember that it can only reassign
uncompleted work, which is represented by the Remaining Work value.

After you changed the resource's assignment Units, Microsoft Project
recalculated the % Complete value at 18%, but the % Work Complete value
remains at 30%. How did the software determine these numbers? The %
Complete value represents the percentage of the Duration completed, while
the % Work Complete value represents the percentage of the actual work
completed. When you manually enter a % Complete value in Microsoft Project,
the software sets the same value in the % Work Complete field. When you
changed the assignment Units on the task, the total amount of Work has not
changed, therefore the percentage of the work completed is still 30%.
However, because the change in the assignment Units resulted in a new
Duration, the software recalculates the % Complete value against the new
Duration. Hope this helps.

 

[Ehsan Khan]

Thanks dale...... for the detailed reply....

I totally understand wht you just said... and its pretty logical as I
assumed that it does take into account the % work complete and thats wht u
said... however.... if in case I reassign the value 100% as the unit again
.... the duration does not change even though the resource is now putting in
the specified 8 hours.... it seems that it only increases the duration not
decrease that..... If I manually decrease the duration it starts increasing
the % complete and % work complete (after giving me an option of whether I
want to change work complete or are resources putting in extra time)
.........which seems to be logical as it is still calculating based on the old
values for work remaining as the work is now spread out throughout the new
duration.....

To summarize the question.....

If in case someone changes the resource units from 100% to 50% and the
duration changes along with the % complete value he can never revert it back
to the original values even if he assigns resource units at 100%.... although
it gives and option to select whether the duration should be changed or not..
but even on selecting that nothing happens.......

Thanks Again.....