Are you done yet?
Project managers often fall into the percent complete trap when running projects. Percent complete gives the feeling of making progress, but provides no value to the managing the project. In There is no such thing as percent complete, Johanna Rothman says:
"Percent complete makes no sense. Features are done or not done. You can count done features and see how far along you are. You can’t reliably count any percentage done."
This doesn’t apply to just software development, this is true in an type of project. The only questions about completion that matter to coordinating and managing the project are:
1. Are you done? Done means that the consumer of what you were working on knows you are done and you don’t owe them anything else for them to use it. You should mark the task as 100%.
2. If not, are you working on it and when will you be done? This allows the consumer of whatever you are working on to get ready to work on it. You should mark these tasks as 50%.
3. If you don’t know, what do I (the project manager) need to do to help you answer #2? Are you short of resources, do you have unclear requirements, are you waiting on someone else’s work, have you even started on it? You should mark these as 0% done. You aren’t working on it until you are have the resources, requirements, prerequisites, and intention to work on it.
If tasks are too long, then the only way to show progress is to update percent complete on tasks. Try to keep tasks to verifiable pieces of work that are relatively short, probably two to three weeks. Reflecting a percent done just to demonstrate progress doesn’t provide any insight into the status of the project, doesn’t help coordinate work through the project, and artifically demonstrates progress. As project managers or executives with projects reporting to you, are you keeping track of percent complete or what is done?