Task progress tracking in Project Management - Introduction

In project management, tracking and updating task progress can be approached through two main metrics: Remaining Duration and Percentage Complete. However, when considering which metric to use for tracking and communicating project status, there are compelling advantages to prioritizing Remaining Duration (also referred to as "Expected Time To Complete").

To illustrate, consider navigating through traffic: while planned durations often prove inaccurate due to unexpected delays like traffic jams or roadblocks, your navigation system continually assesses real time conditions to forecast your Expected Time of Arrival (ETA). This real-time adjustment makes the ETA, or "Remaining Duration," the most accurate and realistic forecast.

Another critical perspective is that "percentage complete" frequently fails to correlate with remaining duration, leading to inaccuracies in project planning and subsequent time and cost estimations. This assumption rests on the flawed notions that:

• Physical progress (effort/manhours) progresses linearly with time, which is rarely the case.
• Progress aligns perfectly with estimates without any variations.

Advantages of "Remaining Duration" - Overview

Here are several key advantages:

• Forward-looking perspective: Remaining duration focuses on the time needed to complete tasks or projects, offering a forward-looking view compared to the retrospective nature of percentage complete. This perspective aids project managers in anticipating and addressing potential delays or issues more effectively.
• Accounts for variations in work effort: Unlike percentage complete, which can be misleading when tasks vary significantly in required effort, remaining duration considers the actual work remaining, regardless of initial estimates, providing a more accurate task status representation.
• Ease of understanding: Remaining duration is a straightforward and intuitive metric, easily grasped by team members, stakeholders, and project managers alike. Typically expressed in time units (e.g., hours, days, weeks), it's accessible to a broad audience.
• Promotes proactive management: Tracking remaining duration encourages proactive
  problem-solving and deadline focus among project teams, fostering a proactive management
  approach.
• Enhances communication: Clear understanding of remaining duration facilitates better progress communication, expectation management, and necessary adjustments, fostering transparency and collaboration within the project team.
• Aligns with critical path/critical chain analysis: Remaining duration aligns closely with critical path/critical chain analysis, allowing project managers to prioritize critical tasks essential for project timing.
• Enables more realistic forecasting: Knowledge of remaining duration per task aids in predicting project completion, facilitating informed decision-making and stakeholder expectation management.
• Integrates with agile and iterative methodologies: Agile and iterative approaches often utilize remaining duration for progress measurement, reflecting their emphasis on adaptive planning and value delivery over fixed percentage completion.

In summary, Remaining Duration offers more precise, adaptable, and objective information for effective project management.