Hi,

I will show you how can you track Task progress in MS PROJECT 2010

First I will add a Task with 3 days duration:

Now I will save the Baseline (Baseline means “PLAN”)

and then:

Now I will choose the Variance Table:

and I will add the Duration field:

O.K. I’ve made a setup. Now I will show you where and how can you put various durations, and effects of those.

I will do it through Update task window:

In the first example I will put 4 days in Actual duration field and click on the OK button:

and I will get:

You can see that Finish date is changed, Finish Variance is 1 day (because Actual duration is 4 days instead of planned 3 days),  and that the task is 100% completed.

Now I will put 4d in Actual duration field, and 1d in Remaining duration field:

and I will get

You can see that Finish date is 21.06.2011, Finish Variance is 2 days, Duration is 5 days, and the task is 80% completed. Why? Because I told that is already spent 4 days, and that I need 1 more day for the task. That means that task will take 4 + 1 = 5 days, and because I already spent 4 days the task is 80% completed (4/5=0,8 –> 80%). Finish Variance is 2 days because in the baseline is 3 days and we need 5 days for the task.

Now I will put 14.06.2011 in the Actual Start field, and 20.06.2011 in the Actual Finish field:

and I will get:

This is because I tried to start working on the task before project start date. I will choose to continue with that, so I will finally get:

You can see that the task is 100% completed, Start Variance is –1 day, Finish Variance is 1 day, and Duration is 5 days. Duration is 5 days because Start date is 14.06.2011 (Tuesday), Finish date is 20.06.2011 (Monday), and we have weekend between. Start Variance = –1d and that means that we have started 1 day EARLIER (minus sign means EARLIER), and Finish Variance = 1d and the means that we have finish LATER (positive number means means LATER). And our task took 2 days more then was planned (Finish Variance – Start Variance = 1 – (-1) = 2)

Now I will put 14.06.2011 in the Actual Start field, and 16.06.2011 in the Actual Finish field:

and I will get:

You can see that the task is 100% completed, Start Variance is –1 day, Finish Variance is -1 day, and Duration is 3 days (unchanged). Duration is 3 days because Start date is 14.06.2011 (Tuesday), Finish date is 16.06.2011 (Thursday) Start Variance = –1d and that means that we have started 1 day EARLIER, and Finish Variance = –1d and the means that we have finish EARLIER. And our task take exactly 3 days (as was planned)(Finish Variance – Start Variance = -1 – (-1) = 0)

Finally, I will try to confuse MS PROJECT 2010. I will put 50% in %complete field, 4 days in Actual duration field, and 1 day in Remaining duration field:

and I will get:

You can see that the task is 80% completed (open Update task screen again):

and not 50% as I told MS PROJECT 2010. Why? Because Actual duration is 4 days, and Remaining duration is 1 day, the Total Duration is 4+1 = 5 days. And, because we already spent 4 days (Actual duration) the task is 80% completed (4/5=0,8 –> 80%), so MS PROJECT 2010 has overwrites my 50%

See you!