Tasks - project completion percentage?

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ConLand
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Tasks - project completion percentage?

Post by ConLand »

EssentialPIM has come a long way since I looked at it some years back, and is nearly perfect!

However, one thing I can't seem to find is how to use it as a project manager. For instance, if I have a root task called "Project X", I need to see how close it is to completion. In most programs, the main folder will inherit this information from the sub-tasks and their completion/hours, and display this in the form of a horizontal bar field.

Is there any way to do this in EPIM? It requires that duration of some tasks would be able to be set manually, and not automatically calculated from the start/end times. For instance, I might have sub-tasks called "Research X-files" that will take 10 hours, "Do analysis" that will take 20 hours and "Write report" that will take 10 hours. Then, updating the completion of these tasks would move the Project X percentage from 0.

Is this currently possible, or could you implement it? It would make keeping track of projects a whole lot easier!
/CL
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Re: Tasks - project completion percentage?

Post by admin »

Please make a sceenshot from another app to better illustrate your request. Will have a look at it. Thanks.
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ConLand
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Re: Tasks - project completion percentage?

Post by ConLand »

Hi, here are a few screenshots:

In MLO, the completion is shaded on the main project ("Plan a vacation with Kelly and friends"). In GoalEnforcer, a new field is present for "Status" as a percentage. It's also possible to do this quite easily in excel ("% complete").

Note that another field called "estimated duration" could be set by the user and then used to calculate the "Completion" for a project (or task at root), with the hours used to calculate the actual percentage.Thus, duration from start/end times could be unaffected.

Best, /CL
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MLO.jpg
GoalEnforcer.jpg
Excel.png
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Re: Tasks - project completion percentage?

Post by admin »

I see what you mean now, thanks. Will place this suggestion into our internal to do list.
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Jon
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Re: Tasks - project completion percentage?

Post by Jon »

None of the other task/project managers have the combination of tools offered in EPIM with the possible exception of Chaos Intellect. But in my experience even with this competition, I find the tools in EPIM to be better integrated and easier to use.

Having said that, the suggestion about inheritance and dependencies (I would add this to the suggestion), would make EPIM very formidable.

Jon
ConLand
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Re: Tasks - project completion percentage?

Post by ConLand »

Thanks for the comment, Jon. I came to the same conclusion, namely that no other tool integrates as well as EPIM and the notes/mail/tasks have come so far as to make it the best product in the field.

As you also mention, my suggestion would enhance EPIM as a serious project management tool by adding powerful visual information regarding project status and deviation from scheduled timelines.

The middle option (GoalEnforcer style) with a single field "status" would be the easiest to implement. It would require two fields:
1) Estimated duration: hours estimated for each task
2) Status: the actual bar with color coding corresponding to the percentage. It might be good to print the percentage at left as they did as well. The status percentage would be calculated based on all sub-tasks (1 level down only) and the total estimated duration and completions. Hence, each sub-task level would auto-calculate from the lowest level upward, and the top level would give the overview.

I really hope this can be implemented in short time, perhaps for version 10.0?
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Re: Tasks - project completion percentage?

Post by admin »

Not in 10.0 for sure. That would probably delay its release by at least a month, maybe two. But it does have one of the top spots for features to be implemented soon.
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