How to match progress with current day...

[MichaelBoldiston]

I know people say there's no such thing as a dumb question - but this may be
one.

In a project plan, I have multiple tasks all nicely cascading down with the
previous task as a predecessor. In the beginning, I saved a baseline. I
have been recording progress by means of % complete and I currently have a
given task in the chain that is 30% complete. However, it wasn't meant to be
30% complete for another fortnight, (i.e. that task is two weeks ahead of
schedule).

My question is, how can I now make the project completion date reflect the
fact that it will now come in two weeks early? All it currently does is say
"yup, you're technically up to August 14th in your progress". It does say
"ah! you've progressed two weeks better than expected, therefore I'll adjust
the tasks following this one so that they all start two weeks earlier". The
only way I can see to do it would be to cheat the system and move the start
date of the 30% complete task back by two weeks. That would show the task as
being 30% complete AT TODAY'S DATE, and would pull all other tasks back with
it. Hence, the finish would look correct against the baseline, but I suspect
I'm missing something fundamental about how tracking should work...

Apologies for the long question.

 

[MichaelBoldiston]

Pretty sad when you answer your own post, but like I said the answer that
came to me was a pretty obvious one. Namely, there are only two ways a task
can come in two weeks early:

1. It actually DID start early, in which case moving the start date is the
correct thing to do.

or

2. The work was actually less than originally planned, so the work should be
reduced.

Either of these could conceivably bring the %complete line back to today's
date...which would in turn pull back the Project's end date.

Am I right here, or is there something else I'm missing...

Thanks!

 

[Rod Gill]

Sound's like you've got it! Always update tasks to reflect what actually
happened.

 

[Wiley]

I would recommend not having such long tasks in the future. If 30%
completion is weeks early, how long is your task? I hope I don't sound too
preachy, because I may be missing something in your example. Many PM's use
the 8/80 rule. Meaning a project schedule is best constructed with tasks no
shorter than 1 day in duration (8 hrs) or no longer than 2 weeks (80 hrs).
It is a general rule, and everyone has their own parameters - for which they
will surely defend.

The reason I bring this up is that Project would help you with your dates if
you had shorter tasks. Let's say that the tasks you are referencing is
"Design" and that your 30% meant that the rough draft of a design is
complete. If "Design Rough Draft" had been a task in and of itself, ti would
be 100% complete. And if you recorded the Actual Finish date for when it
really finished, then project would change all of the successor dates for
you. (that is as long as Tools -> Options, Calculation Mode is set to
'Automatic'.

Hope this helps.