% progress

Hi,

the main principle is :
- customer requests a change (or else) : in most cases he requests for a tagert date (end date)
- project leader, depending on resource avaialbilty, assigns resources : this defines assigned work
- with complete planning PL can commit on target : validated work, validated end date
- when working, resources enter real work, day by day : real work
and update left work depending on what is left to do (left work is automatically updated when real work is entered, but it must be re-estimated - see below)
- planned work is automatically calculated as real work + left work

So
- validated work = committed work
- assigned work = validated work dispatched to the resources
- real work = work really done by each resources
- left work = new estimate of left work
- planned work = new estimate of full work = real work + left work

And from this data :
- real progress = real work / (real work + left work) = real work / planned work
- expected progress = real work / validated work (where progress should be if validated work was correct)

So, to get the correct progress, the left work must be updated :
- by resource on real work allocation
- by progress leader on assignment in the activity
(this should answer your question)

So now, why only "work driven" principle, why not let the resource estimate the progress ?
Because of expertise and long practice of project management.
Just try this once or twice, you'll be surprised ...
- consider a 10 days task
- after resource has worked 5 days, meet him and ask : "what is your progress on the task ?"
- 99% of change you get : "50% !"
- then, slightly change the question and ask : "how much work do you need to finish the task ?"
- you could be surprised to hear : "7 days !"
- so you request some explanation : "but you just said you did half of the work ?"
- and don't be surprise to hear : "Yes !!! I did half of what's to be done" (half of the rules, of half of the specification), "but I left the hardest for the end, so the end will be a bit longer" ... or alternatively "but I did not run unit tests yet, and I will manage all at the end" ... or possibly "but when all is done I'll have a little of tuning to integrate components and have them work together"...
I heard these so many times that I really made my mind : only plan from "work" and fight to have "left work" restimated at least on a weekly basis.

This was my 2 cents on project Management, hope it can help...