Percent Complete

Percent complete is a numeric value from 0% to 100% that records how much of a task's work has been finished. On the Gantt chart, it appears as a progress fill inside the task bar — a task that is 60% complete shows a bar that is 60% filled in. Percent complete is the most common way teams communicate task progress and the primary input for earned value management calculations.

How to Measure Percent Complete

There is no single correct method — the right approach depends on the task type:

• Units completed — 600 of 1,000 components installed = 60% complete. Reliable when output is countable and uniform.
• Duration elapsed — 3 of 5 planned days consumed = 60%. Simple but unreliable: time spent does not equal work done. A task that was underestimated will show high percent complete based on elapsed time while having much more work remaining.
• Physical milestones — the task is 0%, 50%, or 100% based on observable checkpoints. Reduces ambiguity by anchoring percent complete to verifiable events.
• Weighted steps — divide the task into named subtasks, assign weights to each, and sum the completed weights. More setup, but more accurate for complex multi-step work.

Teams often default to duration-based estimates ("we started Monday and it's Thursday, so we're about 80% done"), which can mask real schedule risk. For tasks where the measurement method matters — high-value, high-risk, or long-duration tasks — physical milestone or unit-based measurement is more accurate.

Percent Complete and Earned Value

Percent complete is the core input for earned value management. Earned value (EV) for a task equals its planned budget multiplied by its percent complete. A $10,000 task at 60% percent complete has earned $6,000 of value. Comparing $6,000 in earned value against the $7,000 in planned value at the same point in time produces the schedule variance — revealing whether the task is ahead of or behind plan. Comparing $6,000 in earned value against the $7,500 in actual costs spent produces the cost variance.

Inaccurate percent complete values — guesses, duration-based approximations, or "I'll mark it 90% until it's done" — produce misleading earned value numbers that hide real problems until they're too late to address.

Percent Complete in Maverick

Maverick stores percent complete on every project task. The value displays as a fill inside the task bar on the Gantt chart, letting you see at a glance which tasks are in progress, nearly done, or not yet started. Maverick uses percent complete alongside planned value (from baseline dates and budget) and actual cost to generate earned value metrics. To see how baselines work alongside percent complete for variance analysis, see the guide: Project Baselines: Set, Clear, and Restore.

Related Terms

Gantt Chart  ·  Earned Value Management  ·  Project Baseline  ·  Resource Utilization  ·  Milestone