The Calculated Progress

Contents

• Calculated progress
• Duration-based and Effort-based weighting
  • How to set the progress calculation method
  • Duration-based weighting
  • Effort-based weighting
• When does progress get calculated?

The Calculated Progress

This section applies to waterfall projects. Agile progress tracking is explained in Tracking projects based on Agile Methodology

The calculated progress applies both to summary tasks and the whole project.

The calculated progress is determined by its tasks’ progress and a measure of weight for those tasks: duration or effort.

In the example, the summary task (1) has a calculated progress of 14% based on the progress of its tasks. Similarly, the project calculated progress (2) is 13% based on the progress of all tasks.

Task weighting

Progress calculations are made based on each task’s progress and on a measure of weight that will determine how important each task is in relation to the others. Having completed a very relevant task is not the same as having done so on one that has little impact on the summary task or the project.

The two units used to weight tasks are their duration and the number of estimated hours. Every project will use one of these methods, so calculations within the project will be consistent.

How to set the progress calculation method

The progress calculation method can be set in the project’s General section, under the section “Methods.” You will be able to choose between the two available methods. Please notice that if you change the method, the progress of all summary tasks will be recalculated, as well as the project’s calculated progress. The project’s % Competed will remain unchanged until you decide to do so.

This setting can also be set for all projects or just those of a particular type.
To do so, go to CONFIGURATION→PARAMETERS→Project Parameters→Methods, and select the method of your choosing as well as whether you want to allow the project settings to override the company’s preference. You also can set the progress calculation method per project type on CONFIGURATION→PARAMETERS→Project Parameters→Project Type

Duration-based weighting

This is the default method used to calculate the progress of summary tasks and the whole project.

It assumes that a task having a longer duration has a higher weight on the overall progress calculation. Let’s see the formula used to calculate the progress in a project or summary task with “n” tasks:

Let’s see this formula in action with an example. In the following 20-day project, there are three tasks:

• Task 1: 9-day duration, with a 35% of completion
• Task 2: 7-day duration, with a 22% of completion
• Task 3: 4-day duration, with a 0% of completion
• Total Duration: 9+7+4= 20 days

Replacing the variables with values in the formula:

Effort-based weighting

This method uses the estimated hours per task to weigh the progress of each one of them. As a result, tasks having more estimated hours will weigh more than those having fewer hours.

The estimated effort will be the sum of all estimated efforts for each team member assigned to the task plus the unassigned estimated effort if any.

This method is useful when the task duration doesn’t represent the total effort involved in carrying out the task. For example, when some tasks have more team members than others.

When does progress get calculated?

Whenever you update a task’s progress, summary tasks and the project will have their calculated progress automatically updated. You can update the task’s progress from the task file (Progress section), form the Gantt, the API, or any connector, such as Teambot for Slack or the Jira Connector

If, in addition to getting the calculated progress, you also want to create an automatic progress report, you can:

• In the Gantt section, next to the “Save” option, tick the “Create an automatic progress report.”
• In the task’s Progress section, tick the “Create an automatic progress report.”

Related articles

Tracking the progress of tasks and Waterfall projects (Gantt)
Expected progress of summary tasks and projects

Follow-up tasks, projects & portfolio

Monitoring of a task

ITM Platform can be used to monitor projects and tasks, making sure to achieve objectives and execute activities planned.

While a task is ongoing, you can perform monitoring to indicate the percentage progress on the task and record events jeopardizing task completion (changes in functionality, etc.)

You can perform monitoring of the task manually or otherwise update task progress from the Scheduleand create automatic project monitoring.

Go to My Tasks from MY DESKTOP or select the project 1 where the task is located on the menu MANAGEMENT. Click on the section Follow-up 2 of the task and add the new monitoring data.

Complete the data, including the percentage completed to indicate progress on the task and the monitoring creation date.

Monitoring on a project

ITM Platform can also be used to monitor projects and tasks with similar goals.

while a project is being executed, you can perform monitoring to evaluate its status with two objectives:

• Report on the project evolution and progress
• Record major events and maintain a full historical project development record

Go to My Projects from MY DESKTOP or select a project 1 on the menu MANAGEMENT. Click on the section Follow-up 2 and add a new process.

Complete the required data marked with an asterisk for the new monitoring process, including the percentage of the project that has been completed.

You can perform project monitoring processes from this section Schedule and automatically create monitoring processes when the task completion percentage is updated. See Monitoring of a task.

Monitoring in the portfolio

Portfolio monitoring presents an overview of the progress of components and significant events – in other words, the projects and tasks included in the portfolio.

In this section you will see two separate areas.

• Under the first, Component Follow-ups show the monitoring of portfolio elements.
• Secondly, Special Follow-up events show tasks and aspects marked as being of particular interest, illustrating their degree of progress in the portfolio.

Which tools are available on the software to alert the project manager on the expiration of a task?

The Project Manager will be able to assign the tasks they wish to receive notifications for and each project manager can decide how many days before the expiration of the task they would like to receive a notified by clicking here .

How to export project’s follow-ups?

To export a project, click the Projects category and then go to Follow Up and click the Add Project Follow-Up tab:

If you want to export all of your task follow-ups, you can look under Reporting:

Next, you can add filters to select data from specific tasks:

Once this is done, save your work and it will be available the next time you need it. Your information can also easily be exported to Excel.

How can you know the % that should be the follow-up date to determine progress or delays in the schedule?

In order to check the execution of the project in terms of schedule and budget I recommend using the earned value management in the document  here .

Additionally, you can compare the progress of tasks (internal yellow shading of each task) with the current date (vertical dashed line) so that you can graphically check which tasks are delayed.

The same happens for the portfolio of projects.