Where is the web portal pulling PPM completion percentages from?

[bbergman]

I probably should have noticed this before, but I use the web portal as an appeasement for some executive types who want to see only the big picture, so I wasn't honestly paying as much attention to them as I should have been. Today that changed.

I noticed that all of the initiatives (projects) which I have entered into Inventory, with a start date and end date, and some with a few tasks and work packages, are showing a certain percentage complete when no tasks have been completed. For example, I have one small project starting 30-Sep-2026, end 31-Jan-2027. It has 5 tasks and a milestone. All tasks are at 0% complete. Yet in the Initiative view web portal, that project shows 71% complete. Clearly, that can't be. So how is it calculating percentage complete?

Thanks,
Bruce

[bbergman]

Here's the Gantt view of the tasks, percentage complete:

Then the view in the web portal, percentage complete:

[bbergman]

Somewhat related...

I see that items I create on the Tasks tab get shown in the Gantt chart, yet they have no Completion percentage slider. It appears that once you move them into In Progress, a task jumps to a percentage complete based on start + end, but with no way to modify that.

Conversely, tasks entered in the Gantt Chart tab do NOT show up in the Task list. Should they? It feels like the two concepts could stand alone, but they have some crossover point, and I'm just not sure how to manage where a task should go (in the Tasks or a Task in the Gantt Chart?) or where it is updated. Tasks in the Task tab also don't seem to influence the overall completion percentage for the project...

[vincentmakes]

Hi Bruce

Thanks for the detailed report, and I looked into all three points

1. The 71% is not project progress. A card-list portal shows each card's data quality score (how many of its fields are filled in). It was labelled "% complete", which is misleading in the case of an Initiative card type. In 2.142.0 it is labelled "data quality".

2. Tasks don't have a percentage of their own. A task's fill follows its status: To Do 0%, In Progress 50%, Done 100%. That is why it jumps when you move it to In Progress. The work package above rolls those up, weighted by task duration. Nothing uses today's date. 2.142.0 labels the slider stops with the status names, lets you drag a task bar to change its status, and shows the derived percentage in the task dialog.

3. The Gantt "+" row created a work package, not a task. The Tasks tab only lists tasks, and hid work packages that had no tasks yet. Now the "+" row asks what you want to create, and the Tasks tab (grouped by work package) shows every work package with an "Add Task" button.

If you want real progress on the card and in the portal, 2.142.0 adds a way: in Admin → Metamodel add a Percentage field to Initiative, in Admin → Calculations give it the formula ppm.completion, and tick that field in the portal settings. It updates whenever a task, work package, risk or status report changes.

[bbergman]

Good stuff! I was thinking that percentage was data quality (just "happened" to match), but was thrown off by the label. I'll look into #3 - great idea, and thanks for the new field type!