Percentage Values In Timeline (MS Project)

Question

in the photo below you will notice four work packages. Each one is 70% done (column % Work Complete). Nevertheless, for the first three activities in the timeline I see 9%, 6% and 31% completion respectively. I assumed that those are the same values and therefore should be identical, as you can see in the fourth row (% Work Complete = 70% and in the same row in the timeline 70% is showed).

I have also found that % work complete is calculated as follows: (Actual Work - Work) x 100. My checks do give me the same value as showed in the column % work complete, but I do not understand (and that is the reason for this post) why different percentages are shown in the timeline. Can anyone explain me that please?

Answer 1

The default progress bar in the Gantt chart depicts (duration) % Complete, which is Actual Duration / Duration * 100. Percent Work Complete, on the other hand, is Actual Work / Work * 100 (this is different from what you’ve said.) Normally these two values are closely linked by the default schedule setting: Updating Task status updates resource status. (Unchecking the box makes them independent.)

Even if this box is checked (the default condition), then these two values can diverge when, a) the task is Fixed Duration, and b) the actual work expenditure, as entered, is not level-loaded over the duration of the task. The first line of your image, for example, suggests that the task was planned as a fixed duration task with relatively light resource loading spread over 24 days of the task, but 70% of the hours have been expended within the first 2-1/8 days (9% of 24) of the task. This may reflect actual performance, or it may be a result of imprecise time-recording processes.