Reporting: What SHOULD percentage complete be?

[JP]

Hi all,

Using 2003 standard, roughly 30 projects with durations of 6 mo to 8 years,
and a shared resource pool of around 25 (personnel only at this point).

I currently use a customized To Do task list, exported in Excel format, to
mine the following columnar data for each project (from left to right):

Task & Subtask titles
(Current) Task Start & Finish Dates
Baseline Task Start & Finish Dates
Resource Name(s)[percentage of allocation]
Percent Complete (of subtasks as reported by the project manager, and of
major Tasks as calculated by MSP from subtask status data)

I'm looking to add one more column: the percentage complete the task &
subtask SHOULD be as of the status date. Inferred from the baseline as
intersected by the status date? Dunno. Any light shed will be appreciated.
Thanks, JP

 

[Jim Aksel]

I have a rant on this on my website. Please visit the link below and on the
left side click on MS Project Tips. After a rant, I give you a formula that
works nicely.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

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

 

[JP]

Thanks for the reply, Jim. I've taken a look at your website and have read
the specific 'rant' concerning this a couple of times.

I think I see the end result, and I have the baseline dates and the status
date. As I understand it I have two pieces:

1. elapsed task baseline duration (status date minus a tasks's baseline
start date)
2. total baselined task days (the task's baseline finish date minus baseline
start date)

To create the ratio, is it as simple as 1 divided by 2?

I have a rant on this on my website. Please visit the link below and on the
left side click on MS Project Tips. After a rant, I give you a formula that
works nicely.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

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

Hi all,

Using 2003 standard, roughly 30 projects with durations of 6 mo to 8 years,
and a shared resource pool of around 25 (personnel only at this point).

I currently use a customized To Do task list, exported in Excel format, to
mine the following columnar data for each project (from left to right):

Task & Subtask titles
(Current) Task Start & Finish Dates
Baseline Task Start & Finish Dates
Resource Name(s)[percentage of allocation]
Percent Complete (of subtasks as reported by the project manager, and of
major Tasks as calculated by MSP from subtask status data)

I'm looking to add one more column: the percentage complete the task &
subtask SHOULD be as of the status date. Inferred from the baseline as
intersected by the status date? Dunno. Any light shed will be appreciated.
Thanks, JP

 

[Jim Aksel]

Certainly you can modify the formula to use [Baseline Start] instead of
[Start]. The second item you refer to is [Baseline Duration] and that's an
easy fix in the formula too.

There are two schools of thought here. Yes, if everything is according to
plan then using the baseline dates as you state would be wonderful. Things
rarely go to plan. So, if a predecessor tasks pushes out a target task by
about 3 weeks then my formula says where you should be according to current
plan. With your formula it would give a %Complete that would be much higher
(maybe even 100%). This gets frustating because the task owner may not be
able to start the task yet (becuase of a late predecessor) and here we are
pounding on the task owner saying they should be 100% and they are at 0%.
There would be nothing they could do to recover. I call that artificial
madness.

Either set of rules works, I perfer to give people the benefit of the doubt
and hold them to their promises (current forecast), not their baseline per
se. As long as your team agrees on what they are going to be beat up by I
guess either one will work.

In the formula I provided, just be consistent with baseline or current
forecast and all will be well. Remember to apply that rule accross the
board. Every variable I use has a corresponding baseline..... [Finish] &
[Baseline Finish], etc.

Let me know how it works out for you.

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

Jim

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

Thanks for the reply, Jim. I've taken a look at your website and have read
the specific 'rant' concerning this a couple of times.

I think I see the end result, and I have the baseline dates and the status
date. As I understand it I have two pieces:

1. elapsed task baseline duration (status date minus a tasks's baseline
start date)
2. total baselined task days (the task's baseline finish date minus baseline
start date)

To create the ratio, is it as simple as 1 divided by 2?

I have a rant on this on my website. Please visit the link below and on the
left side click on MS Project Tips. After a rant, I give you a formula that
works nicely.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

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

Hi all,

Using 2003 standard, roughly 30 projects with durations of 6 mo to 8 years,
and a shared resource pool of around 25 (personnel only at this point).

I currently use a customized To Do task list, exported in Excel format, to
mine the following columnar data for each project (from left to right):

Task & Subtask titles
(Current) Task Start & Finish Dates
Baseline Task Start & Finish Dates
Resource Name(s)[percentage of allocation]
Percent Complete (of subtasks as reported by the project manager, and of
major Tasks as calculated by MSP from subtask status data)

I'm looking to add one more column: the percentage complete the task &
subtask SHOULD be as of the status date. Inferred from the baseline as
intersected by the status date? Dunno. Any light shed will be appreciated.
Thanks, JP

 

[JP]

Thanks again. Yeh, would that all projects evolve as planned. Most likely
I'll only apply such a formula for tasks whose duration (or whose baselined,
'prophesized' duration) intersects the status date; typically a small
percentage of a given project's tasks. This will at least give the project
lead something to hang their hat on.

Certainly you can modify the formula to use [Baseline Start] instead of
[Start]. The second item you refer to is [Baseline Duration] and that's an
easy fix in the formula too.

There are two schools of thought here. Yes, if everything is according to
plan then using the baseline dates as you state would be wonderful. Things
rarely go to plan. So, if a predecessor tasks pushes out a target task by
about 3 weeks then my formula says where you should be according to current
plan. With your formula it would give a %Complete that would be much higher
(maybe even 100%). This gets frustating because the task owner may not be
able to start the task yet (becuase of a late predecessor) and here we are
pounding on the task owner saying they should be 100% and they are at 0%.
There would be nothing they could do to recover. I call that artificial
madness.

Either set of rules works, I perfer to give people the benefit of the doubt
and hold them to their promises (current forecast), not their baseline per
se. As long as your team agrees on what they are going to be beat up by I
guess either one will work.

In the formula I provided, just be consistent with baseline or current
forecast and all will be well. Remember to apply that rule accross the
board. Every variable I use has a corresponding baseline..... [Finish] &
[Baseline Finish], etc.

Let me know how it works out for you.

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

Jim

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

Thanks for the reply, Jim. I've taken a look at your website and have read
the specific 'rant' concerning this a couple of times.

I think I see the end result, and I have the baseline dates and the status
date. As I understand it I have two pieces:

1. elapsed task baseline duration (status date minus a tasks's baseline
start date)
2. total baselined task days (the task's baseline finish date minus baseline
start date)

To create the ratio, is it as simple as 1 divided by 2?

I have a rant on this on my website. Please visit the link below and on the
left side click on MS Project Tips. After a rant, I give you a formula that
works nicely.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim

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



:

Hi all,

Using 2003 standard, roughly 30 projects with durations of 6 mo to 8 years,
and a shared resource pool of around 25 (personnel only at this point).

I currently use a customized To Do task list, exported in Excel format, to
mine the following columnar data for each project (from left to right):

Task & Subtask titles
(Current) Task Start & Finish Dates
Baseline Task Start & Finish Dates
Resource Name(s)[percentage of allocation]
Percent Complete (of subtasks as reported by the project manager, and of
major Tasks as calculated by MSP from subtask status data)

I'm looking to add one more column: the percentage complete the task &
subtask SHOULD be as of the status date. Inferred from the baseline as
intersected by the status date? Dunno. Any light shed will be appreciated.
Thanks, JP