Nice post by Mr. Abdul Samad.. ! Keep up...!

Dear Abdul Samed,

I followed your steps by using the custome field to calculate the formula for the column weighted progress and it is ok, my question how to show this column in the graph as it is the indicator i am using to calculate the progress of the project?

Best,

Muataz

Jaga,

you create a new column of type Number.

Assume that you want to measure the project progress with 1000 points( weightage points or simply weightage). The project then will be completed if 1000 points are achived by the project. How to distribute these points against activities is based on the many factors. Some companies distribute these points in proportion to the budget allocated for each activity. Some companies distribute these points based on the importance or criticality of the activities. Some people do it based on the durations of activities and some others based on combination of all these.

Any way, distribute these weightage points in this column against all significant activities totalling 1000 points for the entire project.

Insert another standard column called Physical Progress %. Enter the physical progress achieved against all the activities as of a particulare cut off date( Data Date/ Status Date).

Have another column of type Number, and name it as Weighted Progrss. Put a formula for this column to multiple the physical progress % with the weightage points. This value contribute the real progress of the activity towards the project progress. The sum of all the values in the Weighted Progress column can be considered as the over all progress of the progress. When the sum of values in this column becomes 1000, the project is completed.

For example, if the sum of the pints in Wighted Progress column is 750, the project is progressed 75 %.

Mail me if you need more info: samadmail@yahoo.com

Trevor, I like your bricklaying example -- with your permish, I may adapt it for my undergraduate class.

An example I use is that we are building a highway 100 miles ling and have completed 90 miles:

1. What percent complete are we?
2. And what percent complete are we if the last 10 miles are through a mangrove swamp?

In project management, almost any yardstick of measurement is going to have potential to distort and to be "gamed", to a greater or lesser extent, due to the fact that:

1. Every project consists of various different types of work, and different types of work are completely different.
2. Even where the work is identical, often different people will be performing it, and each is different.
3. The most important aspect that every project shares is a critical path, and even identical work may be completely different in implication if some is on the critical path and others have various amounts of float.
4. Even identical activities on the critical path maybe different, in Drag, Drag Cost and True Cost (True Cost = burdened resource costs plus Drag Cost). This makes them completely different in their implications for progress tracking.

Some general comments about progress management:

1. Earned value based on cost is rarely sufficient -- earned value based on manhours can give a very different and often more accurate picture (factoring out the less-volatile materials and equipment costs and factoring in unpaid overtime hours).
2. Cost progress and schedule progress are completely different: a dollar is a dollar is a dollar, but a day of Critical Path Drag is completely different from a day of float! Thus, SPI based on budget or resource use and which does NOT take into account whether work is on the CP or not is more than useless -- it actually leads to doing out-of-sequence work simply to keep the BCWP (EV) numbers high.  If a project manager is being gigged for a low CPI and/or SPI, and in the next period has a choice of doing activities with big budgets that have lots of float or ones with small budgets that are ON the CP, he will ALMOST ALWAYS choose the former, even to the point of doing out-of-sequence work!  In the long run, this will delay and/or destroy the project -- but the PM will usually survive for a few more months (long enough to find another job)!

If one wants to use earned value based on cost or resource use to measure schedule performance, it is crucial to use a completely different EV baseline (BCWS or PV) for schedule: 

1. The weighted milestones should be on the backward pass (as late as possible) dates of the schedule, to factor put float.
2. No credit should EVER be given for finishing a task ahead of the period in which it is due. (To do so makes sense for cost but NOT for schedule!)  Thus whereas a project with a "traditional" forward pass SPI of .90 may actually be on schedule (in that the delays are all off the CP), a backward pass SPI of .99 indicates that SOMETHING has slipped beyond its float and we are running late.

Fraternally in project management,

Steve the Bajan 

. 

Hi,

Another  way is to attribute M/H to work field and then display percentage of work. This way MSProject calculates and displays correct weighted progress on summarys.

BR

JMFrade

Jaga

i have a couple of files that you may find interesting, it is about process for project controls ( Progress, reporting time sheet, scope and such) my advice to you let the planning software do what they are best in doing, time management, calculating dates.

the tools are generic, they works with any planning software.

https://www.box.net/s/ryfxdtnnyhz7qpufgp5l

regards

mimoune djouallah