PPO can calculate the overall planned and actual progress percentages of your project. These calculations provide an accurate, calculated view of the advancement of a project without relying on the project managers to import their schedules on a regular basis.
After the fields and calculations have been implemented they will appear on the project entity and will provide a real-time view of how the project is progressing.
How are these fields calculated?
Although PPO does these calculations, the calculation steps are explained here to provide the user with an understanding of which fields and values are used to determine the planned and actual progress percentages.
FIELD 1: ACTUAL PROGRESS PERCENTAGE
The Actual Progress % field is calculated as follows:
Step 1 - Determine the duration of the ENTIRE PROJECT
This is done by adding up the Planned Duration field of all the tasks on the Tasks entity. This is only done for the tasks where the task type is "Task" (not summary tasks, milestones, deliverables or project task).
In the example above, the total planned duration of the project is: 50.75 days.
Step 2 - Determine the duration of the TASKS ALREADY COMPLETED
Next, the Planned Duration of all the completed Tasks is added together.
In the example above, the Planned Duration of all the completed Tasks is 7.5 days.
However, there is also a Task that is partially completed (62 percent actual progress, marked in blue above). To determine the duration of the portion of the Task that is completed, the Actual Progress % is multiplied by the Planned Duration (62 percent x 1 day). The result is 0.62 days. Thus, we add the 0.62 days which have already been completed for this task to the duration of the completed Tasks.
The total number of days that have already been completed for this project is thus: 8.12 days.
Step 3 - Calculate the ACTUAL PROGRESS %
Lastly, to determine the percentage of work that has already been completed (Actual Progress %) the number of completed days is divided by the total number of days and shown as a percentage.
Therefore, (8.12 days / 50.75 days) x 100 percent = 16 percent
This is then reflected in the calculated field for actual progress percentage on the Projects entity.
Next we will look at the calculation of the Planned Progress Percentage.
FIELD 2: PLANNED PROGRESS PERCENTAGE
The Planned Progress % field is calculated as follows:
Step 1 - Determine the duration of the ENTIRE PROJECT
Determine the duration of the entire project as per Step 1 for the actual progress percentage. To recap this is done by adding up the Planned Duration field of all the tasks on the Tasks entity. This is only done for the tasks where the task type is "Task" (not summary tasks, milestones, deliverables or project task).
Step 2 - Determine the duration of TASKS UP TO TODAY
Next, calculate the duration of all Tasks that were planned to be completed by today.
For example, if today's date is 16 March 2016, the Planned Duration of all the Tasks set to start and end before 16 March 2016 will be added up.
In the example above, the Planned Duration of all the tasks planned to be completed by 16 March is 15.5 days.
Please note there could be tasks that could be partially completed by today. The task could have a Planned Duration of three days. By the end of today a full day's work of the planned task should have been completed. When calculating the planned duration in days just keep this in mind.
Step 3 - Calculate the Planned Progress Percentage
Lastly, to determine the percentage of work that should have been completed by today (Planned Progress %) the number of completed days is divided by the total number of days and shown as a percentage.
Therefore, (15.5 days / 50.75 days) x 100 percent = 30.54 percent,which rounds up to 31 percent.
This is then reflected in the calculated field for Planned Progress % on the Projects entity.
How do I go about setting this up?
To implement the calculated Planned Progress % and Actual Progress % fields on the Projects entity, you will first have to add a field on the Projects entity for each of these calculations.
Click on the Administration menu item and then click on the Data Fields icon. From the Field >> List page select the Projects entity. A list of fields already on the Projects entity will appear. Select one of the unused data fields at the bottom of the page and set it up as follows:
Enter the Field Name in the formula box. The Field Name can be found on the Field >> List page in the field name column.
Once both fields are completed, log a support call requesting the PPO Support Team to implement the calculations. Remember to include the respective Field Names for the newly implemented fields. The PPO Support Team will implement the calculations and notify you once completed.
Additional considerations
According to PPO’s default settings, wherever a Report refers to the Planned Progress % or Actual Progress % of a project, it traditionally refers to the corresponding fields on the project task (in the Tasks entity). However, once the above calculated fields have been implemented on the Projects entity, all reference made to a project’s Planned and Actual Progress % in Reports will point to the new fields on the Projects entity.