Here we go again, redefining project management terminology to make a point that doesn’t need to be made if we simply read the literature and followed the guidance and explored a little outside the narrow confines of agile…

There is no such thing as percent complete

Is Johanna Rothman’s post about how percent complete makes no sense. Johanna needs to do some homework along with her class on this subject.

1. Physical percent complete is a contractual statement used on large project acquisition to mean How much of the physical deliverable has been completed.
   • How much of I-25 has been completed as of this date and how much should the State of Colorado and the Federal High Way Administration pay the prim contractor for this work?
   • This is not an arbitrary measurement. Nor was it an arbitrary assessment.
   • The measure of Physical Percent Complete is clearly and concisely stated in the contract
2. Physical Percent Complete is a Earned Value Management System (EVMS) term, clearly and concisely defined in ANSI 748B.
3. Physical Percent Complete is evidenced by artifacts from the work effort. Pieces of metal, working segments of code, walls of a building, assembled elements of an aircraft, numbers of drawings for the design of that aircraft, subcontracts issued to the components for the assembly of the aircraft.

In the software world, without tangible evidence of physical progress, the project is late and no one knows it.

Physical Percent Complete is the Only Measure of Progress.

In Johann’s class room example how many features were planned to be done? How many features were done? Johanna is factually correct

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.

Percent complete makes no sense if you don’t know what done looks like. Counting features when you don’t know how many features were planned for this iteration makes no sense.

This is a core failing in all software projects. No wonder they’re over budget and behind schedule. No one knows what done looks like. So there is no way to assess if progress toward done is being made other than the passage of time and the expenditure of other peoples money.

Author: Herding Cats