Project percentage calculation

[MA]

Hello...any sort of help regarding this matter will be highly appreciated.

** I am trying to customize the factors that affect the project completion
(in %) that is calcualted for a project. Currently as far as i know the
calculation of the percentage of completion of a project is calculated on the
basis of the Start date and deadline date.
Now, what i ud like to know is that if it was possible to change the
criteria or factors that is used to calcualte this percentage. Can i
customize this to depend on factors of my choice for a project. **

Thank You.

 

[Rob Schneider]

MA,

Project has two % complete fields that it computes: "% Complete" and
"%Work Complete". If you put those fields on the view, then hover your
mouse over the field names you'll see a link to Help where you can get
all details on how these fields computed.

You can't change these fields as this is how Project computes these
documented fields.

I personally think that doing any other computation of completion
percentage is not worth the effort.

However, if you have your own algorithm you wish to use for whatever
reason, you can create a custom Number field and define your own formula
based on other Project fields, or the content of your own custom field.

 

[aaren]

To add to what Rob has mentioned, % complete is not calculated
automatically by MS Project. You have take the best guesstimate from
the owner of the task concerned to know what % of the task is complete.
But the other % i.e. % work complete, is calculated by MS Project. It
is a simple calculation based on the number of hours expended on a task
Vs. the total estimate to complete the task.

If possible, the better way would be go through the route of EV method
and that would be the most accurate.

Hope this helps.

Natarajan
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[Rob Schneider]

Natarajan,

Humm. Based on what I read in Help, and how I see Project work, "%
Complete" will compute based on input of duration, remaining duration,
or actual work. Or, if you input a value for "% complete", Project will
compute actual duration and remaining duration. It all just depends on
which of the fields you input and it computes the other.

"% complete" is a duration-based measure of progress, and "% work
complete" is a work-based measure of progress".

Earned Value Analysis is something for measuring the project's
performance with respect to budget, schedule, etc.

The original question was about using a self-invented algorithm of
progress assessment. While not possible to achieve by changing how "%
complete" and "% work complete" fields are computed, one can indeed do
the calculations in project using forumulae in computed fields. That
being said, I'd be cautious about using an invented computation either
because a) it's already available as a computation in Project, or b) it
gives an unrealistic and untested view of project performance.