project hours vs finish date

[Trevor]

Good day,

I have a problem setting up a task that has two resources
allocated to it from a separate resource file.

The task has been estimated for 52 hours, actual work is
25. I need the remaining hours complete by (let's say)
Feb. 24.

My problem is that it would appear that not all these
conditions/criteria are realized within in MS Project.
Although only 47% of the estimate is complete (actual
recorded resource hours), Project registers 100% complete
for the estimated 52 hours.
The second problem is that MS Project will not move the
finish date to Feb. 24, instead it lists the 19th.

How can I manipulate the task to finish on the 24th with
an estimated 52 hours and reflect that only 47% of the
task is actually completed?

BTW I have tried 'Must Finish On' as a constraint but the
problem still exists.

Trevor

 

[Steve House]

Percentage complete refers to duration, not work. When the task is
finished, it is 100% complete - that's what the word "complete" *means*,
ie, when the task is complete it has zero remaining duration and all
the work you're going to do on it has been done. Whether it's the same
that you originally estimated or not is irrelevant. So you simply
cannot show an actual finish simultaneously with 47% complete. You
*can* show the task was 100% complete on such and such a date and took Y
hours of work to get there. Then you can compare the original work
estimate as recorded in the baseline (you did save a baseline did you
not? - that's what they're for) with the actual work that was required
to complete the task and create a calculated field that expresses it as
a percentage if you like and find that useful.

The duration not when you *need* to have it complete - it is when it
*will* be complete (or was complete). As far as moving the finish date
from the 19th to the 24th, it's hard to say for sure but I'd expect it's
because the resource allocation says he's working x hours per day when
he's actually working something less than that and at the original rate
the required hours were done on the 19th. Mark the task fixed work, set
the duration accordingly and see if that fixes it (that should reduce
his allocation a bit to reflect the reality of what he's working).