Updating Microsoft Project Schedule

Whoops! Small correction to my arithmetic.

I did your example in MSP after my post.

I used the Task Usage View to put in 1 Hour of Actual Work on Day 1 and 1 Hour of Actual Work on Day 15.

MSP makes the necessary adjustments to put unused Duration into the future so that there is somewhere to do the Remaining Work.

In your example, the days not worked on at all, all 13 between day 2 and day 14 inclusive, are not counted as Duration, so Actual Duration = 2 Days only, RD = 18, so 18 Hours of Work in 18 Days, and now predicts a finish date 13 days beyond the baseline finish or 18 days beyond the Status Date, and 33 Days from the Baseline Start and Actual Start.

% Duration Complete = 2/20 = 10%

% Work Complete = 2/20 = 10%



In this example we assume that the planned Work is distributed uniformly over the Duration, and this is a reasonable assumption. Then Actuals are whatever they are.



In your example you said work gets done 1 Hour on day 1 and 1 Hour on Day 15, and then % Complete = 80%.

I think you meant 15/20 = 75%, but even so that’s not how MSP sees it if there was no work on days 2 - 14 inclusive.

It sees Actual Duration as 2 Days, not 15 Days, which is valid, logical etc.

I am not suggesting using % Complete as a surrogate or proxy for anything, except for just what it is, Actual Duration/Total Duration.



In order to measure status, you have to define "status".



The "status" of the task cannot be measured by any of:



% Duration Complete

% Work Complete

% Cost Complete (doesn’t exist in MSP but can be calculated)



Each is just a measure of one isolated aspect or facet of the Task.

Days can elapse, Hours can be logged, $ can be spent, but none of them are results or achievement of the Task or can tell you the "state" or progress of the Task underway.



Perhaps in the IT industries or the engineering drafting industry, racking up hours in itself might be considered achievement, but what if those Hours are not equivalent to results?



The only reason (almost) for wanting to know the state of the Task is so that the Remaining Duration can be estimated, based on what has happened so far and what you intend to do to achieve what remains of the Task, and consequently the Remaining Work and Cost.



If you set out to lay 10000 bricks in 10 days, and on day 6 discover that only 3000 bricks have been laid in 6 days of continuous assignment, you must re-estimate the Remaining Duration, ie 7000 bricks remain, at 500 bricks per day, 14 days, giving a total Duration of 20 Days.



The real measure of the Task is the results, and it is always the countdown to what remains which is more important than the countup to the current status.



In your example, % Work = 20% and % Complete = 75% but only until the final step in the update process.

The update is not yet complete.

You still have to re-estimate the Remaining Duration.

That guy has only achieved, we presume, 2/15 of whatever the Task was.

20 Days of Duration and 20 Hours of Work implies (average) 1 Hour per day.

At the end of Day 15, you still have 13 Hours and 13 Days not used.

Where are you going to put those 13 Hours?

In the remaining 5 days of duration?



Your % Complete = 75% implies yes, ie RD = 5 days and there is no intention to change it, even though everything planned and observed so far strongly suggests it is not long enough.



Losing 13 Hours has consequences for production, achievement of the Task, of course.

But losing 13 Days in which that Work could have been done has consequences for the schedule/program.

You can’t stand by an improbable remaining duration and hope for a miracle.

If you don’t want to know when the new overall finish date will be (and that is the whole point of the Critical Path Method), you can leave the RD at 5 days, but that is just denial of performance so far, ie haven’t been able to throw more than 2 Hours at it in 15 Days.



5 Days of Remaining Duration plus 13 Days to make up for the 13 Days wasted before the Status Date makes 18 days RD and 18 Hours of Remaining Work.

Actual Duration = 15 Days

Total Duration = 15 + 18 = 33 Days

Actual Work =2 Hours

Total Work = 20 Hours



% Duration Complete = 15/33 = 45%

% Work Complete = 2/20 = 10%

A nice succinct summary and I agree with all of it except your reference to %Complete. You are correct that Project will update it in the manner you describe but ... the %Complete field is a complete waste. The only field that counts is %WorkComplete.



Imagine a task that has Duration of 20WD and Work of 20H. The resource does 1H of work on Day 1 and then does no work until day 15 when he records 1H of work.



%Complete shows 80%; %WorkComplete shows 10%. Which number more accurately reflects the current task status?



Using %Complete as a surrogate for %WorkComplete is useful only if a resource is assigned 100% to a task and, although that happens, that doesn’t reflect reality.

Here is a concise procedure for getting set up properly so that you can update progress properly in MSP, and see what you are doing. It is very important to be able to see what you are doing.

Save a Baseline.

Set a Status Date.

Show the Tracking Gantt.

Show the Tracking Table.

Show the Tracking Toolbar.

Format the gridlines to show a vertical red line on the Gantt Chart at the Status Date.



Tasks are either started, and then either finished or not, or not started.



For each Task which has started, usually tasks with a start date to the left of the status date, enter the actual start and finish dates, actual duration, ie facts, records, and re-estimate the remaining duration.

If the task started on the as planned start date, and was worked on continually to the status date, just click the 2nd button on the tracking toolbar.

If the task started on some other date, enter that date and then, if the task was worked on continually to the status date, just click the 2nd button on the tracking toolbar.

If the task was started but interrupted before the status date, input the actual start date and the actual duration.

Then use the 3rd button on the tracking toolbar to move the unused duration into the future of, ie to the right of, the status date.



For tasks in progress, always re-estimate the remaining duration, even if it is left as it is.



Never type in % Complete. MSP will calculate it for you (ie, actual duration/total duration) from the actual start date and actual duration.

The answer to your question is, actually, another question: What do you want to manage?



Once you know what you want to manage, it’s fairly easy to tell you what you’ll need to do.



At the "easiest" level ... simply update %WorkComplete to reflect progress in deliverable production.



At the next level, also change the Start Date to reflect the actual start and then continue by tracking %WorkComplete.



At the next level, also change the Finish Date to reflect when the task is scheduled to finish.



In all three cases, view your progress against the baseline by using the View | Tracking Gantt display. This will show you three things: 1. Your baseline (the grey Gantt bars); 2. Your tasks (the blue Gantt bars); and 3. The Critical tasks (the red Gantt bars).



Note: when you enter a Start Date or a Finish Date instead of letting Project calculate them (by predecessor/successor links and by Duration) you will impose a Constraint on the tasks where you have changed the date.



In the upper right corner of Project, you’ll see a box labellled "Type a question for help". Enter "About Constraints". You should read and understand this information.



Then enter "About scheduling". You should read and understand this information.