In order to obtain the true progress to date, the outstanding tasks must be rescheduled to calculate the revised forecast completion date.
Or for standard ‘Slip to Date’ functionality, go to Progress Toolbar > Reschedule Tasks.
Reschedule Tasks (Slip to Date)
Note: Before rescheduling the tasks, make sure a Baseline has been set.
Based on the ‘Time Now’ date (e.g. Today), this option will reschedule any uncompleted part of selected tasks, by applying a ‘Resume On’ date. The ‘Remaining Duration’ will now commence after the ‘Time Now’ date.If an activity has been commenced out of sequence, then any applied logic will act on the remaining part of that task.Thus, if a task is falling behind scheduled progress, then a gap will appear between the completed portion of the work and the remaining part.
Professional Edition Features
If using the Professional Edition further options are available by using the Progress > Feedback Date toolbar.
The date at which the rescheduling is to commence is entered at the prompt (i.e. the date at which the update is current to) and the method of calculation chosen.
Update As Scheduled (% Complete from date)
This option will update all or selected tasks to their expected % completion on the feedback date, based on the present scheduled position.
All activities scheduled to finish before the feedback date, will have their percent complete values updated to 100%. For activities scheduled to start before the feedback date but finish after the feedback date, percent complete will be calculated on a pro-rata basis.
All other activities that are scheduled to start after the feedback date will be unaffected.
Accrue Actuals from Date
This option will calculate the actual units on all uncompleted activities scheduled to start before the feedback date, but will not change the percentage complete value of the activity. The actual start date for those activities will be set if not existing.
Slip to date
Reschedules the remaining duration of all activities which start before the feedback date and have not yet been completed.
Activities that have not yet started (i.e. zero percent complete) are rescheduled (delayed) to start on the feedback date.
Activities that have started but have not yet been completed, are rescheduled that the remaining duration is scheduled from the feedback date onwards. The percent complete will remain the same after this operation.
All remaining activities that are scheduled to start after the feedback date are unaffected by this operation.
This option is normally used if the performance (progress) from the feedback date onwards is assumed to proceed as planned. If you are running behind schedule this would give you an optimistic estimate for the remaining schedule. If you are running ahead of schedule this would give you a pessimistic estimate for the remaining schedule.
Stretch to Date
This option will reschedule all activities which start before the feedback date and have not yet been completed. Activities that have not yet started (i.e. zero percent complete) are rescheduled to start on the feedback date.
Activities that have started but have not been completed, are rescheduled (stretched or compressed) such that the remaining duration is scheduled from the feedback date onwards. The remaining duration is recalculated based on the actual duration and percent complete values. For activities with resources assigned the actual duration and actual units fields will be taken into account.
All remaining activities that are scheduled to start after the feedback date are unaffected by this operation.
This option is normally used if the performance (progress) from the feedback date onwards is assumed to proceed as it has in the past. If you are running behind schedule this would give you a pessimistic estimate for the remaining schedule. If you are running ahead of schedule this would give you an optimistic estimate for the remaining schedule.
Early Completion of Tasks
If a task is ahead of schedule, then the completed part may show extending beyond the feedback date and the remaining part set tight against it. This can lead to a pessimistic forecast of completion date, so use the Option ‘Line tasks ahead of schedule up with date’.