% Complete vs % Work Complete

If your task is half complete, then the work is half completed. Right? Not always.
% Complete = Actual Duration / Duration% Work Complete = Actual Work / Work
Many times, when you assign a resource to a task, the work is evenly spread across the duration and hence both these percentages will be same. This could vary if the work contour is other than flat. Let say you have a 5 days duration task assigned to a resource (100%). If the resource reports actual duration as 2.5 days, and actual work is 1h + 3h + 2h = 6h, then % complete is 50% and % work complete is 25%.
This difference would be visible in schedules with summary tasks, where the beginning tasks have minimum resources and tasks after the middle are loaded with more resources.
Extracted from http://saipower.wordpress.com/2010/08/01/is-projects-complete-and-work-complete-same/

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. --