Hi,

today I will answer on may questions I’ve got from my Blog Readers, regarding to entering  % Complete, and Actual work in Summary Task, instead in Sub Tasks. I will do it in MS PROJECT 2013!

As always, I’m going to create simple Project:

few Resources:

and I will assign Resources to Sub Tasks:

As you can see I added % Complete, Work, and Actual work in Gant Chart View.

Now suppose that I finished all Tasks below Summary Task 50%, on time. I will put 50% in % Complete, and I will get:

WOW! Did you expect something else? I bet you did! I will explain the results:

• Total work is 88 hours
• I have two “branches”: Task1 – Task 3 (Branch 1), and Task 4 (Branch 2)
• 50% Complete means I have 44 hours completed.
• Since I have two branches, 44 / 2 = 22, e.g. 22 hours was spent on Branch1, and 22 hours on Branch 2
• Task 1 has 8 work hours, so it is 100% completed. Task 2 has 16 work hours, and I have 14 hours remaining (22 – 8 spent on Task 1 = 14). So % complete is 14/16 = 0,87 (87%). There is no remaining available hours for Task 3 so it remains at 0%
• Task 4 (from Branch 2) has Actual work 22 hours (as explained above), and it has 40 hours Work so it is 22/40= 55% completed.

Let me give you another example. I will create New Schedule like this:

• I have 3 Branches (Branch 1: Task 1 – Task 2, Branch 2: Task 3 – Task 4, and Branch 3: Task 5)
• Forget about over allocation, it is not important for our case.
• Total hours (work) is 216 hours: Branch1: 40 hours, Branch 2: 80 hours, and Branch 3: 96 hours).
• Now I will make Summary Task 50% Completed:

• 50% complete from total Work is 216 / 2 = 108 hours
• Since I have 3 Branches those hours will be distributed among those branches with 108 / 3 = 36 hours per Branch
• Task 1 in Branch 1 has 16 hours work, so it is 100% completed. Remaining hours for distribution in this branch is 36-16=20 hours
• Task 2 in Branch 1 has 24 hours work, actual work is 20 hours, so it is 20/24=83% completed. Remaining hours for distribution in 0 hours
• Task 3 in Branch 2 has 40 hours work, actual work is 36 hours, so it is 36/40=90% completed. Remaining hours for distribution in 0 hours
• Task 5 in Branch 3 has 96 hours work, actual work is 36 hours, so it is 36/96=38% completed. Remaining hours for distribution in 0 hours

But what if I did not put anything in %Complete field, but I put 108 hours in Actual work field in Summary Task? What would happen? Same as I put 50% in %Complete in Summary Task field!

You do not believe me? Try it!

Regards!