Progress Line

What a planner means

Progress Line is a Gantt Chart decoration. Oracle: it "enables you to quickly view the progress of activities with regard to their scheduled deadlines" and is "a way to graphically trace progress on activities." It is not Progress Spotlight (the yellow curtain that selects the update window — Progress Spotlight (a View, Not a Field)), not the Data Date (P6 Data Date (Time-Now / As-Of)), not typed actuals (Actual Start/Finish Are Dates; Remaining Duration), and not Update Progress (Update Progress Estimates On-Schedule Progress for a New Data Date).

Oracle (Professional and EPPM About): "When the progress line is drawn to the left of the data date, the activity is behind schedule. When the progress line is drawn to the data date, the activity is on schedule. When the progress line is drawn to the right of the data date, the activity is ahead of schedule."

Oracle: progress lines are progress point lines or variance lines.

• Variance line — Professional Apply page: "a variance between the planned and actual start dates or finish dates of a task." The same page's option is Based on Difference between Current and Baseline Activity's: Finish Date ("variance between the baseline finish and the current finish") or Start Date ("variance between the baseline start and the current start").
• Progress point line — "shows either the remaining duration of an activity or the percent of the activity that has been completed." Option By Connecting Progress Points Based on Activity's: % Complete ("the same as viewing the % Complete bar") or Remaining Duration. For Remaining Duration, Oracle: "the progress line is drawn to activities that have started or that should have started (when the project baseline start is earlier than the current data date) relative to the baseline start dates." The Progress Line tab also says "relative to the baseline start and finish dates."

Professional — Activities window Gantt only. Oracle: "This feature applies to the Gantt Chart in the Activities window only."

• Configure: View > Bar Chart Options, Progress Line tab. Size 1 to 10 points, color, and Project baseline or Primary baseline (Apply page). The tab labels the baseline pick Baseline to use for calculating progress line.
• Display: Apply page: View, Progress line. View menu: Progress Line "Shows or hides the progress line in a Gantt Chart. The progress line shows the progress of activities and how the project is performing relative to the baseline project." Tools toolbar: the same icon; that page lists the corresponding menu as Tools > Progress Line.
• Oracle tip: "The progress line will not be drawn if you do not display a baseline bar and you choose to base the line on activity % complete or remaining duration." The tab also says "Display the baseline bar when using this option" on the current-vs-baseline difference choice, and "You must display the baseline bar when using this option" on connecting progress points.

EPPM web — Oracle published About Progress Lines with the left / on / right of data date meaning, and the progress-point vs variance split. As a progress point line, EPPM About: "Progress points are determined by calculating the difference between current and baseline dates for each activity, or based on actual progress determined by each activity's remaining duration or percent complete." As a variance line: "an inconsistency between the planned and actual start dates or finish dates of a task." The Professional Apply / Bar Chart Options / View menu pages fetched do not appear on that EPPM About page. Do not copy View > Bar Chart Options or View > Progress line onto EPPM as if Oracle printed them there.

EPPM "Show Progress" on a current bar (progress color / style on the bar) is a bar setting, not this line. See Oracle Configuring Activity View Gantt Chart Bars.

XER

The line is a Gantt / layout setting. Oracle's project XER data map TOC lists no PROGRESSLINE, PROGLINE, PROGRESS_LINE, or PROGRESS table. Do not invent one. Layouts travel as .plf, not in a project XER. See Filters and Layouts Are a View, Not the Schedule.

Oracle did not name an XER column for show/hide, thickness, color, Project vs Primary baseline, Start vs Finish variance, or % Complete vs Remaining Duration.

A Viewer parse of one XER cannot reconstruct whether the planner had the line on, or how it was drawn.

Microsoft Project

Desktop Project has a documented Progress Lines decoration. It is not P6 Progress Spotlight and not the P6 Data Date.

Microsoft: "If you use progress lines to display progress information, you can display progress lines for the status date, current date, or regular intervals." To show them correctly: File > Options > Advanced, Calculation options for this project, Edits to total task % complete will be spread to the status date. Microsoft: that "ensures that Project evenly spreads the work reported through percentage complete up to the status date. Then, when you display progress lines, the progress lines reflect the likely progress of work on any given date."

Microsoft also: the status-date placement options (move completed / remaining parts relative to the status date) are "particularly useful when you want to see 'ahead of schedule' progress lines."

Microsoft VBA: Progress Lines is the command in the Gridlines drop-down, Format group, Gantt Chart Tools tab. It opens the Progress Lines dialog. No effect if the active view is not a Gantt view. AddProgressLine "enters interactive progress line mode, enabling the user to manually draw progress lines" (Gantt only; requires user interaction). ChangeStatusDate: "The project status date enables Project to show progress lines in tasks on the Gantt chart."

Not the same objects (Microsoft documents them separately):

• Status Date gridline — Gantt Format > Gridlines, Line to change Status Date. A vertical date line, not Progress Lines.
• Complete Through / Progress bar — a bar style on the Gantt bar ("the point up to which actuals have been reported"). Not Progress Lines.

Do not map P6 Progress Line to MSP Progress Lines and call them the same command. Oracle ties the P6 line to the data date and a baseline; Microsoft ties Progress Lines to the status date, current date, or intervals. The pages fetched do not print the same Start/Finish vs % Complete / Remaining Duration enum. Do not claim MPXJ can write a real MPP. See msp/progress-line.md and msp/status-date.md.

Don't

• Treat Progress Line as Progress Spotlight, as the Data Date, as typed actuals, or as Update Progress.
• Treat it as the EPPM current-bar Show Progress color/style, or as the MSP Complete Through / Progress bar.
• Invent a PROGRESSLINE / PROGLINE / PROGRESS_LINE XER table, or treat any TASK / PROJECT date column as this decoration.
• Copy Professional View > Bar Chart Options / View > Progress line / Tools > Progress Line onto EPPM as if Oracle printed those menus there.
• Copy Oracle's left / on / right of data date meaning onto MSP Progress Lines as if Microsoft printed it.
• Map this object to MSP Progress Lines, the Status Date gridline, or the Progress bar and call them the same.
• Claim MPXJ writes a real MPP.
• Claim a Viewer reconstructed the planner's last Progress Line on/off or draw options from an XER.