Targets, progress and status
Progress bar
Shows completed work or achieved quantity relative to a total or goal.
- Indicator
- Progress
- Composition
What it answers
How much of the goal is complete?
- Shape
- Partially filled rectangle
- What it shows
- Completion and remaining work.
Example
The question
How far along is each project?
Project completion, end of September (share of planned work done)
Illustrative data. It belongs to no company.
When to use it
Use it when
Completion toward a clear positive goal.
Avoid it when
Undefined total, unclear scope or comparing unrelated goals.
How to read it
Read filled fraction and its numeric label.
Note
Define treatment of progress above the goal.
The data you need
- Layout
- Long table
- Fields
- Item: text; Completed: number; Goal: positive number
- One row is
- One item with completed amount and total goal. What is the grain?
- Rules
- Calculate completion as Completed/Goal. Define negative or over-goal handling.
- Optional
- Alternative: FractionComplete between 0 and 1 with an explicit scale.
- Preparation
- Confirm the metric definition, reporting period, target and favourable direction. Calculate rates or progress before applying transparent status rules.
- Units
- Completion fraction =Completed/Goal; goal must be positive. State handling of over-goal values.
Worked example
Completed 72, goal 100 gives 72% complete and 28 remaining units.
| Item | Completed | Goal |
|---|---|---|
| ProjectA | 72 | 100 |