Display Progress Lines in Your Project

If you want to create a visual representation of the progress of your project, you can display progress lines on your Gantt Chart. Progress lines connect tasks that are in progress or should have started to a vertical line that represents the progress date. Tasks that are completed or scheduled to start after the progress-line date aren’t connected to the progress line.

Connecting the progress line to an individual task is an elongated V lying on its side. If the V points toward the right, the task is ahead of schedule. If the V points toward the left, the task is behind schedule. If the line is perfectly straight and vertical rather than looking like a V, the task is right on schedule. The length of the V tells you how far ahead or behind a task is, relative to the date on which the progress line is set.

By viewing a progress line, you can quickly determine whether your project is ahead of or behind schedule. Ask yourself, are there more right-facing V’s or more left-facing V’s? You can view more than one progress line at a time. You do this by inserting them manually or viewing them at set intervals automatically.

To display progress lines in your project

1. On the View Bar, click Gantt Chart .
2. On the Tools menu, point to Tracking, and then click Progress Lines.
3. Click the Dates and Intervals tab.
4. Select the Always display current progress line check box.
5. To show progress for the project status date, click At project status date.
   To show progress for the current date, click At current date.
6. To show your progress relative to a baseline plan, click Baseline plan under Display progress lines in relation to.

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