The critical issues that assist you in monitoring a project's status
and progress generally (and that I have encountered are) :
a. Have the tasks started on time or as per schedule ?
b. Have the tasks completed per schedule or on the date by which they
were supposed to get completed ?
c. Which of the tasks have not yet started ?
d. Which tasks have not yet finished ?
e. Earned Value Management. This is one measure that assists you in
measuring the overall health of the project in terms of schedule and
cost.
IMHO, it is going to be a difficult (if not very difficult) task to
determine % completion of each task for each week and then to derive
the health of a project.
There are ready filters that are available within MS Project and you
can also develop custom filters easily. You could start with the 'Auto
Filter' that is available on: Project ->Filtered For -> then from the
menu 'Auto Filter' can be seen right at the bottom of the fairly huge
selection. Once you select 'Auto Filter', then you will drop down in
all the columns that are visible on the screen.
Suppose I want to see which tasks are due to be completed this week
(week ending 10/06/06), then I would go the 'Finish' Column, and click
on the drop down and select this week. This will filter all the tasks
that are supposed to be completed by this week. Similarly, you could
make a selection for the tasks that are supposed to start this week and
for other selections. For my own projects, I decided that if a task
has not started within 5 days of its original start date or if a task
is not finished within 7 days of it becoming due, then it is a matter
of concern and I used to raise a red flag.
I hope I have given you a general idea. Let us have your thoughts.
