Project management · Running it · Component
The progress measure
What is actually finished, established rather than reported — because percentage complete is an opinion.
The deliverable
What it is
Self-reported percentage complete rises steadily to ninety and then stops, which is the recognisable signature of the measure being an estimate of effort spent rather than of work finished.
Counting things that are actually done — verified, accepted, working — is harder to report and considerably more honest.
One level in
What it is made of
Each element is a constituent part of the component. Follow one to see the attributes it carries.
The completed
What is finished and verified.
3 attributes: Items complete · Total items · Verified
LearnThe remaining
What is left and how long it will take.
3 attributes: Remaining estimate · Original remaining · Re-estimated
Learn
Forty per cent of the work with sixty per cent of the time elapsed is the finding, and it needs only counting.
The other components in running it
The change log
What was added or changed, and what it cost in time — because absorbing changes without adjusting the date is how projects slip invisibly.
LearnThe early warning
What would show a problem before the deadline does — because a project is reported on track until shortly before it is not.
Learn