Hi,
some people asked me about difference between %Complete, and %Work Complete. I’ll show you the difference with a very simple example in MS PROJECT 2013.
First, I will create a Simple Project with a single Task:
I will have a single Resource, John, of course:
and I will assign John to the Task:
I’ll switch to the Task Usage View, and I’ll add two columns %Complete, and %Work Complete:
On the right site of the View I’ll add Actual work row:
and I’ll get:
As you can see John has to work 40 hours (5 Days * 8 hours per day)
But, I need only 32 hours for that Task, and I want John to work 4 hours at Monday, and Tuesday, and 8 hours at Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. So I’ll manually update work field:
Now I will enter 50% at %Complete field, and I’ll get:
As you can see, %Complete is 50%, but % Work Complete is 38%. Where is the difference?
%Complete is 50%, and that means that John has worked 50% of duration, e.g. 5 Days * 50% = 2,5 days! So, if he worked only 2,5 days Actual work (in hours) is 4 hours at Monday, 4 hours at Tuesday, and 4 hours at Wednesday (half day, because John has to work 8 hours at Wednesday). This is what %Complete means = %Duration
On the other hand, John is supposed to work 32 hours to complete his Task. Hi already worked 12 hours (4 hours at Monday, 4 hours at Tuesday, and 4 hours at Wednesday). Simple math: %Work = 12 hours (Sum of Actual hours)/ 32 (Sum of work) = 0,375 = 38%
As simple as that!
Regards!
Nenad Trajkovski 
Hi Thank you!
Hi,
I know the post is really old, but I have doubts what you exposed.
I will explain what I’m doing:
Project configuration:
1- Create a blank project 2013 file.
2- Go to options, schedule, select fixed units, auto scheduled tasks.
3- Go to options, advanced, Physical % complete.
Task creation
1. Create a resource with a 100$ rate.
2. Create a task with 40 hours work (instead duration).
3. Assign my resource.
4. Follow your steps to assign the 4, 4, 8, 8, 8 hours as actual work to the task.
Ok, doing all of that I get different %, instead of 50% and 38, I’m getting 83% and 80%.
But what I’m worried about, is that I’m trying to do the Earned Value Management, and for me, the task is completed after do only 32 hours. How can I do to update the task as 100% but without changing work hours automatically? Because I want to know that my team is more efficient than expected.
Thanks in advance for your help,
Can the % Work Complete parameter be used if the project is NOT resource loaded?
Yes it can. Read my blog from 12/13/2016
Thank you for the article, it’s very help to me
Great article and example! Thank you for posting.
Hi Nenad,
Is there a feature that can show an S curve with the Gantt Chart in MSProject2010 ?
It does not work properly.You can try add on from here: http://www.projectprocorp.com/products.php
Great stuff! But, when I enter the 50% at %Complete field I get everything you get except the %Complete and %Work complete updating on “My Project” summary task. What do I need to do?
As I mentioned in the Article:
1.Make sure that you have put value greater than 0 in Standard Rate in Resource Sheet.
2.Change Earned Value Method to Physical % Complete:
3. Save the Baseline:
So as I understand, these changes will not be in effect unless I set the baseline? Correct?
Yes, correct
Hi thank you
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