Progress Summary of Milestone tasks

[glen.e.mettler]

I have about 30 milestones that rollup to a summary task that covers
about 1 year.
Problem -
I can't get the summary task to display progress. About 20 of the
milestones are complete but none of this progress shows on the summary
bar and I can't change/update the summary bar progress manually.

How can I do this?

Glen

 

[John]

I have about 30 milestones that rollup to a summary task that covers
about 1 year.
Problem -
I can't get the summary task to display progress. About 20 of the
milestones are complete but none of this progress shows on the summary
bar and I can't change/update the summary bar progress manually.

How can I do this?

Glen

Glen,
Milestones are a problem when it comes to progress at the summary level.
Project creates progress lines based on a formula that uses the sum of
Actual Duration of subtasks under the summary. Milestones have no
duration so they don't contribute to the formula. However, when the are
all done, then the summary level progress is obviously 100%. Anything
less is undefined.

You could create a custom field with your own formula to display
"progress" but consider the following. Milestones mark important events
in the plan's timeline. Milestones have binary values, the milestone is
either not complete or complete - there is no middle ground. Also,
milestones in a plan do not necessarily carry the same weight or
importance. For example, let's say there are 5 milestones in a plan. The
first two may be relatively close together in timeline (e.g. Prime Item
Spec Review and Initial Design Review). The last three are spaced out
(e.g. Preliminary Design Review, Critical Design Review and Final Design
Review). Where is the bulk of the work most likely performed - during
the middle two, PDR and CDR. Now, does it make sense to weight each of
the 5 milestone equally (i.e. 20%)? Probably not. None of them have
duration, none of them have work so that can't be used as a measure of
"progress". Therein lies the problem. How does the user define progress
of a plan based on milestones only? Perhaps if the milestones represent
equally spaced points in a plan and all are of equal significance to the
overall plan, then a linear relationship might be in order. But no
single approach works in every case. So, as I said you could create your
own definition but then again....

John
Project MVP

 

[Jim Aksel]

Continuing with the previous posting by Jon... Since milestones represent a
culmination of a series of activities, we never place all the milestones
together in a summary task.

Instead, we use other tasks (Significant Accomplishments, Accomplishment
Criteria, etc.) which culminate in a Program Event Milestone. As the
previous post implies, loading work into these other actvities and taking
credit for them incrementally will provide you a roll-up into a summary.

I am guessing that you may have all your program milestones loaded into one
summary task and therefore allowing a brief report to management. Consider
other methods of reporting (you can always filter on Miletones) which allow
actually measurable work to drive the %complete on the summary level task.

Although I haven't directly answered your question, perhaps I've given you
an alternative way to present the data that will give you what you seek.

Jim