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% complete reporting

8 replies [Last post]
Tue, 2005-02-22 09:01
Angus Duncan
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On non-physical tasks, where there is nothing "tangible" produced as such, such as design tasks, engineering drawings, etc, it can be very difficult to effectivley measure progress. How can you say when something is 50% complete, 75% complete and so on. I have heard of some organisations adopting "milestones" within tasks and allocating specific % complete to those milestones. For example, when a drawing is issued for review it gets a certain % complete. I have never had first hand experience of this. Does anyone use any systems similar to this, or can give me pointers on how to better report % complete on these types of tasks.

Thanks,
Angus
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Replies

Thu, 2005-03-03 08:15
#1
Sundaram Arunan
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We use to follow 60% for major comments which has to be submitted again for AFC , 30% for AFC stage and the remaining 10% till as made drawing.

Can you please explain how to use EV for variable
budgets
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Wed, 2005-03-02 09:06
#2
Jaco Stadler
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I use a thing called earned value for Variable budgets
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Wed, 2005-03-02 05:24
#3
Daniel Limson
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Progress drop is normal on engineering and design progress curves. This will depend on a number of issues involving the project. The design may evolve from the original concept depending on a number of reasons. i.e. Owner requirements, site conditions, engineering issues, international and local standards, etc. What ever the reason maybe the important thing is to track the changes and keep good records so you can justify your claim for additional manhours/cost in order to finish the project.

Again, there are no parameters regarding the number of revisions a drawing may go through, it all depends on the number of changes (revision, addition or deletion).

The drawing is considered 100% when it is approved and issued "For Construction" subsequent revisions is something else.

Regards,
Daniel
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Sat, 2005-02-26 09:52
#4
Jonathan Kirby
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Another problem with design programmes, planning and progress is negative progress.
e.g. a design has reached a certain stage then following a change or whatever the design goes back a stage. Do you "unprogress" the activity or add new activities and will the new activities cause a drop in overall progress ?

or in cycles of producing drafts for review, review and production of final design how many cycles do you allow ?

Equally how many revisions does a drawing go through. if you look at drawings after construction they might be up to rev ’F’, but i bet at rev ’A’ ’for construction’ it was recorded as 100% complete.
A drawing may be complete and progressed to 100% but what if it needs a revision does it become 75 % complete ?

What do PPers out there do or recommend
JK
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Wed, 2005-02-23 07:55
#5
Andrew Pearce
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As per other postings % complete can be misleading. If the object is to establish a realistic programme status then consider updating progress on the basis of remaining duration.
In certain cases this may produce strange %’s ie remaining duration exceeds original duration! but this can often be the case where programme elements have been modified or resources reduced.
Andy
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Wed, 2005-02-23 05:00
#6
Daniel Limson
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In addition to the inputs below , You can actually measure progress by making a list of all your deliverables by discipline and physcially checking the progress on a weekly basis. Base on the estimates you can derived your budget manhours for each deliverable and use this in your plan. Then you can monitor progress against manhour expenditure (Plan Vs Actual) and evaluate performance to check your productivity.

Design and Engineering milestones review process usually comes at 50%, 85% and 95% completion.

Regards,
Daniel
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Tue, 2005-02-22 16:16
#7
Frank Borcherdt
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Breaking it down into discrete packages of drawings/designs and having separate activities for review and issue will allow you to better estimate the true progress.

You can then roll this detail up using an activity code to provide a percent complete for management reporting purposes. There are options are Tools/Options/Summarization on how to weight the calculation (Time/Quantity/Cost).

Nigel’s comments on percent complete being subjective and optimistic are too often true. Whilst EV will assist, but be aware of the 80/80 rule – when you have expended 80% of the effort you still have 80% to go i.e. that people are inherently optimistic in there forecasts to complete, especially if the required date is not imminent. By breaking it down they have a series of deadlines that focuses their attention on meeting the next date.

Overruns on hours/time can then be subjected to a process improvement review and for the subsequent packages either brought within the budget or recognized as being over budget and additional resource and/or time allowed. The impact on the schedule of any ongoing overrun can then be assessed as part of the overall plan.

If its not detailed enough the slippage will emerge towards the end of the design phase and at that stage it is often too late for corrective action to have a major impact.
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Tue, 2005-02-22 10:13
#8
Nigel Ward
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On engineering and design activities, percent complete can be very subjective and usually optimistic! I find a good way to overcome this is to apply earned value to a design process analysis. The validity of the engineers/designers estimate of completion can then be cross checked with actual hours absorbed.
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