This is interesting. Most planners define the critical path in the project as the most imporatant thing to critically review in terms of project performance, monitoring and handover. This is correct isn’t it planners ?

However. . . What happens if you have 3 buildings being constructed under a contract programme say A / B / C ?

Say building A is the largest of the three and is where the project critical path is located right ? So the planner using P3 / P6 or MS P 2003 / 7 in his wisdom identifies as building A as the most critical area and places the project performance on this critical path. Correct ?

Then he realises that during a specific reporting period he notices that the baselined critical path has slipped by 1 week. He then reports -1wk behind programme to the Project Manager.

However, he notices that B & C are -2weeks and -1 week behind respectively. He ignores this knowing that their is float in the programme - Right ?

WRONG ...... Most planners forget about Distributed Average Percent Complete v Critical Path Baseline. Whichever is the greater then this is where your project is in terms of current status.

In the above example the project is -4weeks behind programme due to the accrual of deferred / delayed resource allocation to activities, reduction in project expenditure etc. etc


I have yet to find if P6 does this but I know that MSP does and so does Powerproject 9. The easiest way to see this is ALWAYS review the summary bar after you have undertaken progress inputting. But the Rule of Thumb is that if your project is on programme in the last 20% of the contract duration then you will finish on time. If you aren’t within this bracket then you will not finish on time....

ME

I am not suggesting using % Complete as a surrogate or proxy for anything, except for just what it is, Actual Duration/Total Duration.

In order to measure status, you have to define "status".

The "status" of the task cannot be measured by any of:

% Duration Complete
% Work Complete
% Cost Complete (doesn’t exist in MSP but can be calculated)

Each is just a measure of one isolated aspect or facet of the Task.
Days can elapse, Hours can be logged, $ can be spent, but none of them are results or achievement of the Task or can tell you the "state" or progress of the Task underway.

Perhaps in the IT industries or the engineering drafting industry, racking up hours in itself might be considered achievement, but what if those Hours are not equivalent to results?

The only reason (almost) for wanting to know the state of the Task is so that the Remaining Duration can be estimated, based on what has happened so far and what you intend to do to achieve what remains of the Task, and consequently the Remaining Work and Cost.

If you set out to lay 10000 bricks in 10 days, and on day 6 discover that only 3000 bricks have been laid in 6 days of continuous assignment, you must re-estimate the Remaining Duration, ie 7000 bricks remain, at 500 bricks per day, 14 days, giving a total Duration of 20 Days.

The real measure of the Task is the results, and it is always the countdown to what remains which is more important than the countup to the current status.

In your example, % Work = 20% and % Complete = 75% but only until the final step in the update process.
The update is not yet complete.
You still have to re-estimate the Remaining Duration.
That guy has only achieved, we presume, 2/15 of whatever the Task was.
20 Days of Duration and 20 Hours of Work implies (average) 1 Hour per day.
At the end of Day 15, you still have 13 Hours and 13 Days not used.
Where are you going to put those 13 Hours?
In the remaining 5 days of duration?

Your % Complete = 75% implies yes, ie RD = 5 days and there is no intention to change it, even though everything planned and observed so far strongly suggests it is not long enough.

Losing 13 Hours has consequences for production, achievement of the Task, of course.
But losing 13 Days in which that Work could have been done has consequences for the schedule/program.
You can’t stand by an improbable remaining duration and hope for a miracle.
If you don’t want to know when the new overall finish date will be (and that is the whole point of the Critical Path Method), you can leave the RD at 5 days, but that is just denial of performance so far, ie haven’t been able to throw more than 2 Hours at it in 15 Days.

5 Days of Remaining Duration plus 13 Days to make up for the 13 Days wasted before the Status Date makes 18 days RD and 18 Hours of Remaining Work.
Actual Duration = 15 Days
Total Duration = 15 + 18 = 33 Days
Actual Work =2 Hours
Total Work = 20 Hours

% Duration Complete = 15/33 = 45%
% Work Complete = 2/20 = 10%

Here is a concise procedure for getting set up properly so that you can update progress properly in MSP, and see what you are doing. It is very important to be able to see what you are doing.
Save a Baseline.
Set a Status Date.
Show the Tracking Gantt.
Show the Tracking Table.
Show the Tracking Toolbar.
Format the gridlines to show a vertical red line on the Gantt Chart at the Status Date.

Tasks are either started, and then either finished or not, or not started.

For each Task which has started, usually tasks with a start date to the left of the status date, enter the actual start and finish dates, actual duration, ie facts, records, and re-estimate the remaining duration.
If the task started on the as planned start date, and was worked on continually to the status date, just click the 2nd button on the tracking toolbar.
If the task started on some other date, enter that date and then, if the task was worked on continually to the status date, just click the 2nd button on the tracking toolbar.
If the task was started but interrupted before the status date, input the actual start date and the actual duration.
Then use the 3rd button on the tracking toolbar to move the unused duration into the future of, ie to the right of, the status date.

For tasks in progress, always re-estimate the remaining duration, even if it is left as it is.

Never type in % Complete. MSP will calculate it for you (ie, actual duration/total duration) from the actual start date and actual duration.