In this article, we will review the Calculation for task groups and the calculation of PPM Express tasks Progress (summary and sub-tasks)
Progress for the task groups
The calculation of Progress for the task groups corresponds to the formulas used for summary tasks and project rollup calculation.
The Project Settings -> Progress calculation for PPM Express tasks settings define which calculation type is used.
By default, a formula based on Completed Work and Effort will be used, but project managers can switch the Progress, % formula for their project to a different one as needed. These settings are applied per project.
Please note: If you are using Story Points or manually input the Progress,% of tasks, the setting needs to be changed to display the Progress value accurately.
To open the Project Settings, click on the ellipsis button on the Project Dashboard -> Project Settings -> Progress calculation for PPM Expres tasks.
- Effort: Progress is calculated by the formula: (Completed Work / Effort) * 100%
- Story Points: Progress is calculated by the formula: (Completed Story Points / Story Points) * 100%
- Average Progress: Progress is calculated as an average of Progress, % from “leaf” tasks
If the calculation type is changed, then the new rule will be saved and applied at once:
- Progress for task groups and Project Progress roll-up will be automatically re-calculated based on the logic of the selected option.
- Progress for the summary tasks will be re-calculated based on the logic of the selected option when Calculate Progress is triggered.
- Progress for non-summary tasks will be re-calculated based on the new logic when the Calculated Progress is triggered or will remain unchanged if the manual input for non-summary tasks is supposed to be used according to the new rule.
Effort for task groups is calculated taking into account the sum of all non-summary values underneath the summary tasks and regular (non-child) tasks values from this task group – i.e., the sum of Effort values from all “leaf” tasks in the task group.
Duration is calculated taking into account the total amount of working days between the task group Start Date and the task group Due Date (calendar settings are applied when calculating the total amount of working days).
Calculation of tasks Progress
The Calculation of the task Progress feature includes auto or on-demand rollup calculation of the summary tasks and horizontal calculation for non-summary tasks.
When the auto calculation mode is on, PPM Express tasks progress, and the related fields will be recalculated automatically when the corresponding changes to the task fields take place.
If the Manual mode is selected to recalculate the task progress and the progress-related fields, users need to select the tasks and click the 'Calculate Progress' button to perform the roll-up calculation. The 'Calculate Progress' option becomes active when one or several tasks of any type are selected-summary or non-summary. If the selection of tasks includes summary and non-summary tasks, then for each task type its own calculation will be performed – rollup or horizontal.
The progress calculation mode is applied per project. By default, all newly created projects will have the Auto calculation mode enabled. However, if the project was cloned, and the original project has the Manual mode selected, this setting will be also cloned to the new project.
To change the calculation mode to Manual or Auto, open the required project -> ellipsis button -> Project Settings -> Default Mode for new PPM Express tasks.
Please note: All tasks created before the mode was switched to auto, will be still calculated manually. Also, tasks created from the .csv file or from the API will have the Manual auto-calculation mode.
To set the mode to auto for all existing tasks (the ones that were created before the mode was switched to auto or created from .csv files) open the tasks page, select the required tasks -> Set mode -> Auto.
The icons for the tasks in the Auto and Manual mode are different. Tasks with the Auto calculation mode will have the round icon. Also, the 'Mode' field can be added to the tasks view and filters.
A roll-up calculation of the summary task fields is available for the following existing fields for any calculation type that is available: by Effort, by Story Points, and by Average Progress.
- Effort
- Completed Work
- Remaining Work
- Original Estimate
- Story Points
- Completed Story Points
Please note: If the calculation type is by Effort and the summary task is in Auto-calculation mode but it has at least one child task in the Manual mode with values for the calculated progress-related fields (Completed work, Remaining work, Progres, Effort), and these values do not correspond to the PPM Express formulas, the rolled up value for the summary task will be still recalculated by the 'Effort = Completed Work + Remaining Work' formula.
Please note: If the tasks are updated in the .csv file or API, and the calculation type is by Effort, then the Progress and Effort fields cannot be edited in the .csv file and imported to PPM Express. Only the Completed Work and Remaining Work fields can be edited.
For the fields below data is also recalculated for the summary task (not as a roll-up, but based on the sub-task field values):
- Start Date – the earliest start of the sub-task is taken into account
- Due Date – the latest finish of the sub-task is taken into account
- Duration – the number of working dates for the sub-tasks is taken into account
- Progress, % – for summary tasks Progress,% will be calculated based on the formula that is used for the selected Progress Calculation rule on the Project Settings page.
The calculation triggered by the Calculate Progress feature or Auto mode also includes the horizontal calculation of progress-related fields for non-summary tasks if the calculation by Effort is selected.
For calculation by Story Points and Average Progress, there is no horizontal calculation available. The Progress %, Effort, Completed Work, and Remaining Work fields can be filled in only manually for tasks and sub-tasks.
The horizontal calculation includes auto or on-demand calculation of the following progress-related fields by the formulas:
- Progress %
- Effort
- Completed Work
- Remaining Work
If all these four progress-related fields have values, and the calculation is triggered manually or automatically for the non-summary task, the values will be recalculated for Effort and Progress,% by the following formula:
- Effort – re-calculated by the formula: Effort = Completed Work + Remaining Work
- Progress, % - re-calculated by the formula: (Completed Work / Effort) * 100%
In this case, Effort and Progress,% will always be overwritten by re-calculation, and Completed Work and Remaining Work will remain unchanged.
If a task’s Progress is set to 100% and re-calculation is triggered, then the Remaining Work will be set to 0, and Completed Work will become equal to Effort.
The table below shows the formulas that are applied if not all four fields have values, but only some of them (Progress %, Effort, Completed Work, and Remaining Work fields):
| Progress, % Effort Completed Work |
1) Remaining Work = Effort – Completed Work 2) Progress = (Completed Work / Effort) * 100% |
| Progress, % Effort Remaining Work |
1) Completed Work = Effort - Remaining Work 2) Progress = (Completed Work / Effort) * 100% |
| Progress, % Completed Work Remaining Work |
1) Effort = Completed Work + Remaining Work 2) Progress = (Completed Work / Effort) * 100% |
| Progress, % Completed Work |
1) Effort = (Completed Work *100) / Progress 2) Remaining Work = Effort – Completed Work |
| Progress, % Remaining Work |
1) Effort = (Remaining Work /(100 – Progress))*100 2) Completed Work = Effort - Remaining Work |
| Progress, % Effort |
1) Completed Work = (Progress /100 ) * Effort 2) Remaining Work = Effort – Completed Work |
| Progress, % | Auto-calculation is not performed |
All progress-related fields for all tasks remain editable allowing users to update the values as per their needs. However, if the auto-calculation mode is on, then all calculated and rolled-up fields will be greyed out for the summary tasks as their values are calculated from the child tasks (these fields cannot be edited through the API or .csv file as well).
Also, for the Story Points and the Calculated Story Points fields, the summary task values are calculated automatically if the auto mode is on or on demand by clicking the 'Calculate Progress' button. The values are calculated based on the sub-tasks field values. The Calculated Story Points field is filled in automatically for the subtasks based on the Story Points and Progress,% fields: when the progress is 100%, all the story points become completed. If the progress is less than 100% the story points are not completed.
