Eighth Session

Track progress: Basic

techniques
:We will cover these skills
• Understand progress tracking
• Save a baseline of your plan
• Track a plan as scheduled
• Enter a task’s completion
percentage
• Enter actual values for tasks
 8.1.
8.1. Understand
Understand progress
progress tracking
tracking (1/2)
(1/2)
 By properly tracking project performance and comparing it with the
original plan (as saved in a baseline), you are able to answer such
questions as the following:
 Are tasks starting and finishing as planned? If not, what will be
the impact on the project’s finish date?
 Are resources spending more or less time than planned to
complete tasks?
 Are higher-than-anticipated task costs driving up the overall cost
of the project?
 When planning similar projects in the future, will you be able to
determine how good your (or the team’s) estimating skills were
in prior projects?
 Printing reports in Project is mainly a “what you see is what you
get” action.
 Your choice of a tracking method should depend on the level of detail
or control required by you, your project sponsor, and other
stakeholders.
 8.1.
8.1. Understand
Understand progress
progress tracking
tracking (2/2)
(2/2)
 The different levels of tracking detail include the following, ordered
from simplest to most comprehensive:
 Record project work as scheduled. This level works best if
everything in the project occurs exactly as planned.
 Record each task’s percentage of completion, either at precise
values or at preset increments such as 25, 50, 75, and 100
percent.
 Record the actual start and finish dates, and actual and
remaining work and duration values for each task or
assignment.
 Track assignment-level work by time period. This is the most
detailed level of tracking. Here, you record actual work values
per day, week, or other interval.
 8.2.
8.2. Save
Save aa baseline
baseline of
of your
your plan
plan
 You should save a baseline when:
 You have developed the plan as fully as possible.
 You have not yet started entering actual values, such as a task’s
percentage of completion.
 You want to save a subsequent baseline (up to 11 per plan).

 Saving multiple baselines can be useful for projects with especially

long planning phases, in which you might want to compare different
sets of baseline values.
 One great way to see tasks’ scheduled and baseline values side by
side for easy comparison is in the Variance table.
 To save a baseline

1. On the Project tab, in the

Schedule group, click Set
Baseline, and then click Set
Baseline

2. To save the plan’s initial

baseline, click Set Baseline,
and then select Baseline
from
the list

3. Click OK
 To display scheduled and baseline values by using the Variance table

1. On the View
tab, in the Task 2. On the View tab, in the
Views group, Data group, click Tables
click Other
Views, and then
click Task
Sheet
3. Click Variance
 8.3.
8.3. Track
Track aa plan
plan as
as scheduled
scheduled
 The simplest
approach to
tracking progress
is to report that
the actual work is
proceeding
exactly as
planned.
To record work as scheduled through a specific date

1. On the Project tab, in the Status group, click Update

Project. The Update Project dialog box opens

2. Make sure Update work as

complete through is selected.
In the adjacent date box,
enter or select the date through
which you want to record work
completed as
scheduled

3. Click OK
To record work as scheduled through the current date or status date

1. Select the task or tasks whose

work you want to record
2. On the Task tab, in the
Schedule group, click Mark on
Track
 8.4.
8.4. Enter
Enter aa task’s
task’s completion
completion percentage
percentage
 Ways to enter completion percentages:
 Use the preset increment buttons 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and
100% Complete in the Schedule group of the Task tab.
 Add the percent complete column (labeled % Complete in the
interface) to a table in a task view, and enter the value you want.
 Enter any percentage value you want in the Task Information
dialog box.
 Use the mouse to set progress on Gantt bars.
 To record a task’s percent complete value in preset increments

2. On the Task tab, in the

Schedule group, click the
1. In the Task Name column, select the task for which you 25%, 50%, 75%, or
want to record a percent complete value 100% Complete button
 To record a task’s percent complete value

2. On the Task tab, in the

Properties group, click
1. In the Task Name column, select the task for which you
Information.
want to record a percent complete value
The Task Information dialog
box opens

3. On the General tab of

the dialog box, enter the
Percent Complete value
you want
 To use the % Complete column in a table

1. Right-click any column heading in a task table

2. In the shortcut menu that

appears, click Insert Column.
3. Enter or select
A list of fields appears
% Complete

4. Record the percent complete values

you want for any tasks in the table
 To use the mouse to set or extend progress on Gantt bars

1. Point to a Gantt bar (or progress 2. When the mouse pointer changes to a percent symbol and right
bar within a Gantt bar). arrow, drag the
mouse pointer from left to right within the Gantt bar

3. To see a task’s progress

details, point to the
progress bar inside the
Gantt bar
 8.5.
8.5. Enter
Enter actual
actual values
values for
for tasks
tasks
 A more detailed way to keep your schedule up to date is to record
what actually happened for each task in your plan. You can record
each task’s actual start, finish, work, and duration values.

 For example, when you enter three days of actual duration on a task
with five days of scheduled duration and 40 hours of work, Project
calculates the actual work to be 24 hours, the percent complete to be
60%, and the remaining duration to be two days.
To record a task’s actual values in the Tracking table

1. On the View tab, in the

Data group, click Tables
and then click Tracking.
The Tracking table appears

2. Enter the actual values for the task

 To record a task’s actual values in the Update Tasks dialog box

1. In the Task Name

column, select the task 2. On the Task tab, in the Schedule
for which you want to group, click the arrow to the right of
record actual Mark on
values Track, and then click Update Tasks

3. In the Update Tasks dialog box, enter the

task’s actual values (actual duration,
remaining duration, actual start, or actual finish)