Calculating project completion %

[Shahriar Nour Khondokar]

This is probably more about project management in general, then MS Project
specific. But somebody please help me here or atleast guide me to a
place/resource where i can find the answers...
....
Here is the problem:
Lets say I got a project consisting of 5 tasks with estimated work and
status as shown below:
T1 - 5hrs - 100% complete - Actual work logged is 5hrs
T2 - 10hrs - 100% complete - Actual work logged is 10hrs
T3 - 10hrs
T4 - 20hrs
T5 - 5hrs - 100% complete - Actual work logged is 5hrs

So, percentage work complete is: 20/50 * 100 = 40%

Now lets think of a slightly different scenario:
We still got the 5 tasks above but with different Actual values:
T1 - 5hrs - 100% complete - Actual work logged is 10hrs
T2 - 10hrs - 100% complete - Actual work logged is 20hrs
T3 - 10hrs
T4 - 20hrs
T5 - 5hrs - 100% complete - Actual work logged is 10hrs

WHAT I badly NEED
is a mathematical formula that can be used to calculate percentage work
completion in such scenarios.

Somebody please, please help me. I would have posted it somewhere else if i
knew of any other place where as knowledgeable responses are received as
promptly as they are here.

Thank you.

 

[Dale Howard [MVP]]

Shahiar --

The formula for the % Work Complete field is as follows:

% Work Complete = Actual Work / Work x 100

Work is calculated as follows, by the way:

Work = Actual Work + Remaining Work

Hope this helps.

 

[Jim Aksel]

If you need more information than provided by Dale and Trevor, try the link
below and read about percent complete under MS Project tips and tricks.
--
If this post was helpful, please consider rating it.

Jim Aksel, MVP

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

 

[Shahriar Nour Khondokar]

Thank you all for your replies . Here is a little more detail and a new
twist to the situation; hope you will find it worth your time
....

I work in a software company. We use MS Project to create our project plans
and schedules. But resources log their time in a separate online application
(called BigTime) i.e. Actuals are recorded outside of MS Project.

So, we get the Total Estimated Hours (Total Work) from the .mpp file and the
Actual Hours Billed (total Actual Work) value from the online application.

For percentage complete we have been using this formula:

(Total Estimated Hours)/(Actual Hours Billed) * 100

But we realized that this calculation is not always correct as sometimes
(but certainly not always) hours billed exceeds the estimate, for example if
the task (work) has been wrongly estimated at the beginning.

Also, lets say we cant distinguish/identify the task for which the actual
work exceeds the estimate.

So, my question is
WHAT FORMULA DO WE USE FOR A SITUATION SUCH AS DESCRIBED ABOVE? or put
otherwise, WHAT WOULD BE THE SOLUTION FOR CALCULATING PROJECT COMPLETION %
ACCURATELY IN SITUATIONS AS DESCRIBED ABOVE?

If we use the formula (% Work Complete = Actual Work / Work x 100), it does
not seem to give the right % complete value for the situation below:

T1 - 5hrs - 100% complete - Actual work logged is 5hrs
T2 - 10hrs - 100% complete - Actual work logged is 10hrs
T3 - 10hrs
T4 - 20hrs
T5 - 5hrs - 100% complete - Actual work logged is 5hrs

% complete = 20/(50 + 30) * 100 = 25%

Please help.

Thank you.

 

[Steve House]

The project is 100% complete when the deliverable is complete, regardless of
the number of hours it takes. Thus your percent complete at a given status
date would be the hours worked to date dividied by total hours at
completion. Total hours at completion, in turn, would be hours worked to
date plus estimated remaining hours to completion. Once work begins, if
there are signifigant variances in actual work versus estimated, the
*original* estimated hours ceases to be of much relevance in measuring
percent work complete. Percent Complete is all about how much you've done
versus how much you've got to do.
--
Steve House
MS Project Trainer & Consultant