What constitutes a 'late' task?

[TraceyH]

I added the standard (not customized) 'status' column into Gantt view. 2
related questions.

1) What constitutes a 'late' task? ( I have some tasks that I have updated
actuals today and task still shows late). I have not set a project baseline.
Task is a 'fixed duration' type task.

2) I have a 'placeholder task' that occurs over a 6 month duration (no
resource assigned) that I have set as a milestone. This also show 'late'. How
can I update it (or configure that task differenty) so it never shows up late

 

[JulieS]

Hello TracyH,

From help:
--------------------
Data Type Enumerated
Entry Type Calculated
Description The Status field indicates the current status of a
task, specifying whether the task is Complete, On Schedule, Late, or
a Future Task.

How Calculated If the task is 100 percent complete, then Microsoft
Office Project sets the Status field to Complete.

If the task start date is greater than the status date, then the
Status field contains Future Task.

If timephased cumulative percent complete is spread to at least the
day before the status date, then the Status field contains On
Schedule.

If the timephased cumulative percent complete does not reach
midnight on the day before the status date, then the Status field
contains Late.
-------------------------------

Have you updated your Status date in Project > Project information?

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie
Project MVP

Visit http://project.mvps.org/ for the FAQs and additional
information about Microsoft Project

 

[Jim Aksel]

From the help:

If the task is 100 percent complete, then Microsoft Office Project sets the
Status field to Complete.

If the task start date is greater than the status date, then the Status
field contains Future Task.

If timephased cumulative percent complete is spread to at least the day
before the status date, then the Status field contains On Schedule.

If the timephased cumulative percent complete does not reach midnight on the
day before the status date, then the Status field contains Late.

***
Do you have a Status Date properly set (Project/Project Information)?

2. Consider a hammock task and always update it as "on schedule" from the
Tracking Toolbar.

See FAQ#19 http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

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

Jim Aksel, MVP

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

 

[TraceyH]

Thanks. I checked the status date as suggested. for today 12/7, the status
date appears as 12/4 (which should be OK, no?)

What I discovered, is that if a remove a completed task, the status shows
'on schedule' so it is some problem with the completed task.

I re-entered the task (whose duration was from 9/1-11/30/09) and updated the
'actuals' so that the task would end on 11/30 and be 100% complete. I changed
the % complete to 100% and the task still showed 'late'. I then deleted and
reenetered the task again and tried updating actual work for each day with my
last entry occuring on 11/30. It still showed late. Not sure why this is
happening and would be glad to enter the info in any way that would make the
task show completed on schedule.