% Complete - Calculate Automatically for the Summary Tasks

Products

• Clarity PPM On Premise

Issue/Introduction

Is there a way to set up my projects so that the percent /percentage complete/status for the summary (parent) tasks calculates automatically based on it's child tasks? 

Environment

Component: Clarity Project Management

Resolution

Option 1: Use Duration or Effort % Complete Calculation Method

If the % Complete Calculation Method of the project is set to Manual, the summary tasks (and lower level tasks) % Complete has to be updated manually if updating the % Complete in PPM. If you use one of the other calculation methods (Effort or Duration), it will calculate Summary tasks based on the calculations set for those types. 

Below are details on these 2 calculation types based on details provided in % Complete Calculation Methods Behavior. 

Important: 

1. Make sure that you run the Update % Complete Job to see changes for summary tasks when using one of these options
2. It's not supported to change the % complete calculation method of a project once it's started as it can cause changes in data.
3. Manual is the only supported % Complete Calculation method with the MSP Interface. It's not supported to use Duration or Effort calculation method types in a project if integrating with Microsoft Project (MSP). 

Duration: This method measures the passage of time. If this option is selected, you can manually enter the percent complete at the detail task level. However, the summary task and project level percent complete will be read-only and will calculate based on the percentage of the completed duration of all the detailed tasks.

% Complete = Completed Duration / Total Duration 

Effort: This method will calculate the percent complete for all tasks. The % Complete on all summary and detail tasks will be read-only. When using this method, only work done by labor resources is considered. (All non-labor actuals and ETC will be ignored.) 

The percent complete will be calculated based on the following formula: 

% Complete = Labor Actuals/( Labor Estimates + Labor Actuals) 

Option 2: Use Microsoft Project (MSP) to manage task data including % Complete
The other option would be to use MSP with the Clarity PPM MSP Interface to update the % Complete, and the % Complete would then roll up to the summary tasks. (Important: Make sure the project is set in PPM to % Complete Calculation Method of Manual which is the supported method in working with MSP)