What is the difference between using % complete and % work complete columns?

What is the difference between using % complete and % work complete columns? What are the major impacts and limitations of using each?

A)

%Complete is a duration based measure of complete. A 10 day task is 60% complete on day 6.

%Work Complete claims against the amount of work loaded into a task. If the work is level loaded (same number of hours/day) then %Complete and %Work Complete essentially accomplish the same thing.

Here is a more complex example. Two workers are assigned to a 10 day task. The work is loaded as 8 hours/day for the first week and 1 hour/day for the second week. Total work is 45 hours. for convenience Worker1 works the first week, Worker2 works the second week. On day 6 the task is 60% Complete for duration, but is 41/45 (91%) Work Complete, assuming only one worker per day on the task.

Try this, do some research on Physical%Complete as well. It relates a little more to the value produced. For our example above, suppose we assign two workers to the task. The first week Worker1 works at $30/hour for 40 hours. The following week Worker2 is a consultant at $125/hr and he works the second week (alone). The total value of the task is 10 days, 45 hours, $1825 (40*30+5*125). On day 6, assuming everyone accomplished what they are supposed to: Physical%Complete goes to ($1200+$125)/$1825 = 73% . To use this technique you need costed resources and a baseline. I know this was beyond your question, so post back if you need additional guidance. --

Create a Dependency Analysis view

Your goals for the custom Dependency Analysis view include:

• Creating a View that displays the immediate Predecessor and Successor tasks for any task you select.
• Determining which Predcessor task is the Task Driver for any task you select.

To meet these goals, create a custom Combination View by completing the following steps:

1. Click View More Views.
2. In the More Views dialog, click the New button.
3. Select the Combination view option and click the OK button.
4. In the Name field, enter a useful name for your custom view, such as _Dependency Analysis.
5. Click the Top pick list and choose the Gantt Chart view.
6. Click the Bottom pick list and choose the Relationship Diagram view.
7. Select the Show in menu option and then click the OK button.
8. Click the Apply button to apply the new custom View.

After creating the custom View, select any task in the Gantt Chart pane (top pane) and you'll see the Predecessor and Successor tasks in the Relationship Diagram (bottom pane).

Assuming you have multiple Predecessors, you can determine which Predecessor task is actually the Task Driver by clicking Project Task Drivers (or by clicking the Task Drivers button on the Standard toolbar). Reselect the task in question and the Task Drivers pane will reveal which task is the Task Driver for the selected task.

Courtesy:

This article is based on a presentation given by Dale Howard MVP, MCT, MCITP, is the VP of Education for MSProjectExperts, during Microsoft Project Conference 2009 at a special MPUG member session

Best Practices for Schedule Planning

Following are few best practices to be followed while developing schedule in MS Project

• Define holidays
• Define resource vacations
• Define resource availability (with start/finish end dates, work load (whether resource is available 50%/100%) for the project
• Avoid over/under allocation of resources
• Define Milestone tasks
• Make use of deadline date option for tasks instead of ‘Finish no later than’ or ‘Must Finish on’ constraints
• *Do not* assign resources at Summary task level
• *Do* Assign resources only at task level
• You should only link *like tasks* - for example, subtasks to subtasks and summary tasks to summary tasks.
• planned work / effort for a task should not be more than 40 hours (for effective tracking)
  planned duration for a task should not be more than 5 days
• Ensure all tasks have successor or predecessor values
• Establish parallelism/overlapping between tasks using (FS – x) / SS / FF days tasks (eg., FS-3 days/SS/SS+2/FF-2 days etc)
• Avoid assigning flexible / semi-flexible constraints / hard coded dates to tasks
• Avoid assigning multiple resources to tasks for effective identification of responsible/accountable task owner
• Use recurring task feature for meeting tasks
• Consider review/rework effort
• Configuring ‘Project Start Date’, which avoids introducing ‘Start No Earlier Than’ constraint for most of the tasks (Most of entry level PMs does this mistake with lack of knowledge)

Red-Amber-Green - Stoplight indicator

Refer the whitepaper on RAG indicator

Schedule Deviation in MPP

As soon as a beautiful schedule has been prepared, delays happen inevitably after a short time. It is good practice to document these by updating the schedule. An important information, that is not immediately obvious, is the plan deviation in hours or days (depending on the project size). This deviation primarily serves to get an order of magnitude to implement counter measures.

Refer the detailed article @ Calculation of Schedule Deviation

Project status in Traffic light indicators

For a summary representation of the status of work packages and projects a three-stage indicator in the style of the traffic light is often being used. This article shows how to implement this in Microsoft Project.
Refer the following article for more details
Graphical Indicators

Hammock Task???

How to Build a Hammock Task
A "hammock" task is dependent on external dates for both its start and finish dates and, ultimately, its duration. The name, hammock task, is derived from the way a hammock's shape is determined by the distance between the points to which it is attached.

As scheduled dates in other tasks change, the duration and start and/or finish dates of the hammock task change as well. In other words, given three tasks A, B, and C, task B must start on some date from task A (date A) and task B must finish on some date from task C (date C). For an illustration of this task B, see Example 1.
Example 1--Hammock Task B
A
--------------C
------B-------
The span of time between dates A and C dictate the available time to accomplish task B. As Date A changes, the start date for task B changes as well; If date C moves, task B must finish appropriately. The difference between dates A and C is the duration for task B. See example 2.
Back to the top
Example 2--Date A Late, Date C Early
A
-----C
--B--

To build a hammock task between two other tasks, follow these steps:

1. Create or determine three tasks that correspond to A, B, and C in the example above.
2. Highlight the cell that contains date A (the date that will determine when task B starts).
3. On the Edit menu, click Copy (Cell).
4. Highlight the cell that contains the Start date for task B (the hammock task).
5. On the Edit menu, click Paste Special, and click Paste Link.
6. Highlight the cell that contains Date C (the date that will determine when task B finishes).
7. On the Edit menu, click Copy (Cell).
8. Click the cell that contains the Finish date for task B (the hammock task).
9. click Edit, click Paste Special, and click Paste Link.

Notes and Cautions

• Do not specify a predecessor for a hammock task. Only Paste Linked dates will determine start and finish. You may specify predecessors for the tasks from which dates are paste linked into the hammock task.
• A negative duration (finish date is before start) is not allowed. Depending on the source of the dates, the hammock task may turn into a milestone (zero duration) or erroneously calculate duration before the finish date or after the start date.
• An OLE update is different from a calculation. You may not see expected changes in the hammock task after calculating project. From the Edit menu, click Links to edit/update OLE links (Paste Links). Alternatively, press the F9 function key twice.
• Because the hammock task relies on other tasks for start/finish information, anything that affects those other tasks (resource leveling, constraints) will ultimately affect the hammock tasks dates.
• If the hammock task is a child to a summary task, it may inherit predecessor behavior from the summary task that may affect its duration and/or start and finish dates or create a circular relationship.

Reproduced from Microsoft Support site

Ideal way to update task status in MS Project

Normally most of PM's update task status in MPP by updating %complete field alone. This kind of updation is holds good when tasks start as per planned start and there are no changes in work/effort/duration to planned values.
Incase if start date of the task is different than planned and if there are any deviations to work/duration then better to update the fields in following manner.
Set a Status Date
Show the Tracking Gantt View
Show the Tracking Table
Show the Tracking Toolbar
Format the Gridlines to show the Status Date as a vertical red line on the
Gantt Chart.

Type in the Actual Start Date and Actual Duration.
Do not type in % Complete. The software will calculate it for you.
Have a look at the Remaining Duration and amend it up or down if you need to
re-estimate it.

Do not leave planned duration in the past. If only 3 Days were done out of 6
planned, move the unused 3 days to the right of the status date (3rd button
on the tracking toolbar).

Closing Out the Project - Part 1

When you’ve reached the end and deployed the solution, then it’s time to make sure everything has been completed, all paperwork is done, and no stones are left unturned. It’s best to do that with some sort of checklist and I propose using a list similar to this....