Calculations

[Té]

Does anyone know exactly how ALL the calculations work when you are in task
sheet view and on the tracking table? if I enter a number in % complete,
everything changes, then if I enter a number in actual duration everything
changes. I'm really confused on how its calculating the % complete, act.
duration, remaining dur., etc.

 

[Jack Dahlgren]

Generally:

%Complete = Actual Duration / Duration * 100

There are some options in the tools menu/ options / calculation tab which
can change how this works in subtle ways depending on resource assignments,
but for most cases you can use the formula above to understand how it all
works.

 

[Té]

My calculations are incorrect. I have a project that is 57 days. I switched
to task sheet view and the tracking table and I marked a task 100% that was a
total of 2 days and actual duration says 2.07.

 

[Jack Dahlgren]

What time did the task start and finish?

Switch to a date format which shows date and time.

-Jack

 

[Raghu]

I have a detailed project plan where i track the % complete by putting a
subjective value in the column. The summary of some of the tasks need to be
put in a high level plan and when I take about a dozen summary tasks and put
the same start, end, and duration data in the high lvel plan, the percent
complete data changes. For example I may have the overall project showing 5%
complete in the detailed plan but when I take the summary lines alone and
stick them in the high level plan, the % complete is different - say 8%. I
dont know how to fix this problem. any suggestions please?

BTW, i have tried copying from detailed to high level and also entering all
data one more time in high level plan. both yield similar results!

 

[John]

I have a detailed project plan where i track the % complete by putting a
subjective value in the column. The summary of some of the tasks need to be
put in a high level plan and when I take about a dozen summary tasks and put
the same start, end, and duration data in the high lvel plan, the percent
complete data changes. For example I may have the overall project showing 5%
complete in the detailed plan but when I take the summary lines alone and
stick them in the high level plan, the % complete is different - say 8%. I
dont know how to fix this problem. any suggestions please?

BTW, i have tried copying from detailed to high level and also entering all
data one more time in high level plan. both yield similar results!

Raghu,
How exactly are you "putting" the detail summary lines into a higher
level plan? Simply copying and pasting summary lines from separate
detail plans will NOT replicate the information. If that is how you are
doing it, then the "fix" is, don't do it. Instead, create a master file
(Insert/Project). You can then filter the master to display only the
summary data from the detail plans.

John
Project MVP

 

[Steve House]

Percent complete is always based on duration - time passed versus the total
time required. For summary tasks, it is based on the sum of the actual
durations of the subtasks divided by the sum of the total durations of the
subtasks. Without seeing exactly what you're doing step by step as you go
from the detail plan to the high level plan it's impossible to say just
where the discrepency is creeping in but the explanation has to lie
somewhere within the definition of "% Complete." If you want to use a
subjective estimation of progress towards completion of the deliverable
instead of cut-and-dried, totally objective recording of duration I'd
suggest you consider using "% Physical Complete" since it really is a
subjective guesstimation in most cases (what does "35% Physical Complete"
mean when the task is "Write User Interface" - 35% of the code written? All
the code written but testing not started? Program logic designed but no
code written? You get the idea - it's something loosey goosey that really
can't be measured objectively.

HTH