PART 2 | Worked Example | Generating Percentage S‑curves
Using Task Duration as a Quantity | PART 4

Using Task Duration as a Quantity

Extreme caution should be exercised when using Task Duration as a quantity to generate S‑curves.

Consider the following Production Schedule.

Table 12: Production Schedule

The % Complete values represent the Task's physical percentage completion, as inspected on 4th February 2016 (The Cut Off Date).

Task Duration S-curves

The S-curves generated using Task Duration as the Quantity are shown in Figure 20.

Figure 20: Percentage Task Duration S-curves (Target = 100%)

Analysis of the above S-curves reveals the Project as of the 4th of February 2016:

• Is 27.86% Complete (Actual)
• Should be 42.86% Complete (Target)
• Is 15.00% behind target (42.86 - 27.86)

Task Man Hour S-curves

The S-curves generated using Task Man Hours as the Quantity are shown in Figure 21.

Figure 21: Percentage Task Man Hours S-curves (Target = 100%)

Analysis of the above S-curves reveals the Project as of the 4th of February 2016 is:

• 7.95% Complete (Actual)
• Should be 13.00% Complete (Target)
• 5.05% behind target (13.00 - 7.95)

A comparison of the above figures reveal using Task Duration as a quantity paints a very different picture of the Project's progress as compared to using Task Man Hours as a quantity.

The reason for the variance in the Project's progress is that by using Task Duration as a quantity, the assumption is all Tasks require exactly the same amount of Man Hours per Day. This is often not the case in real life.

In Part 4 I will justify why S-curves are so important as a reporting tool

Generating Percentage S‑curves

PART 4

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