Progress tracking

You can track the completion of projects in OpenProject by assigning a % Complete (earlier called Progress (%)) value to individual work packages. OpenProject will automatically roll-up progress to parent work packages.

% Complete for work packages with children will show two values:

  • the % Complete value from the work package progress itself, set manually (on the left)
  • the value, calculated as an aggregation of % Complete values of the children work packages. This calculated value is a hyperlink, clicking it will open the detailed view of the children and illustrate the computation.

Manual progress tracking

Topic Content
Manual progress tracking How to track progress manually per work package.
Progress tracking in the work package hierarchy How to track progress for multiple work packages.
Status based progress tracking How to track progress use work package status.

Manual progress tracking

After the initial installation, OpenProject is configured for manual progress tracking. In order to log progress, please open the details of a work package. The % Complete (earlier called Progress (%)) field shows the default value of 0%.

Work package progress field

Clicking on the progress bar opens an in-place editor that allows you to enter a percentage value between 0 and 100.

Work package progress field with editor

Pressing enter saves the value and updates dependent work packages (see below). Progress is rounded to the next integer.

Work package progress field with 50%

You can also bulk-modify the % Complete in the list of work packages.

Bulk editing progress

Progress tracking in the work package hierarchy

The progress of work package with children is calculated as the weighted average of all direct children, using the field Work (earlier called Estimated time) as the weight. When adding the % Complete (earlier called Progress (%)) column to a work package hierarchy view, please also add the Work column as well so that you can track the calculation. The screenshot below shows an example hierarchy with aggregated % Complete.

Please note the Work column to the right. Here, values next to the sum icon (for example 43 h next to the Main task) indicate the sum of estimated time of the task itself and its children, while values without the sum icon (3 hours) refer to estimated time directly assigned to a work package.

Progress calculation in the WP hierarchy

Calculation examples:

  • Sub-Task 1 has 50% completion calculated as (16h * 60% + 8h * 30%) / 24h.
  • Sub-Task 2 has 25% completion calculated as (8h * 50% + 8h * 0%) / 16h.
  • Main Task has 40% completion calculated as (24h * 50% + 16h * 25%) / 40h.

Status-based progress tracking

As an alternative to the manual progress tracking mode above, you can configure your OpenProject system to associate work packages statuses with fixed values for % Complete . In the Administration, please navigate to Work packages -> Settings and change “Calculate the work package done ratio” to “Use the work package status”.

Change calculate the work package done ratio

In this mode, OpenProject does not allow you to manually modify the % Complete (earlier called Progress (%)) field in the work packages. Instead, the % Complete value will be set automatically based on the work package status configuration page.

Within the Administration, navigate to Work package -> Status and select the status you want to edit regarding the progress tracking. Here you can select the desired progress percentage from the drop-down menu in the progress line and add it to the status. Please do not forget to save your changes.

Progress calculation in the WP hierarchy

The screenshot above shows a sample configuration of work package statuses together with suitable % Complete values. For example, setting the status of a work package to “In progress” is equivalent to setting **% Complete ** to 50% manually.

Note: The status and its associated progress value from the administration screen also determines the **% Complete ** of work packages with children. So there is no roll-up of progress in the work package table hierarchy in this configuration.