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Status Criteria - Biases

This article will explain what Biases are in Playbook, how they affect progress tracking and when each bias should be used.

What Are Biases?

  • Biases control how Playbook calculates and classifies progress statuses for Tasks and Packages within a Plan.

  • Each Bias applies a different tracking logic to determine whether work is progressing as expected, delayed, late, overdue, completed, or verified.

  • This gives teams flexibility in how progress is measured, depending on the level of detail available and how strictly the schedule needs to be managed.

  • Biases are especially useful because not every Plan requires the same level of tracking. Some Plans may only need high-level progress monitoring, while others may require detailed tracking against individual deliverable dates.

Why Biases Are Important

Biases allow progress tracking to reflect the way a Plan is managed.

EXAMPLE: Early-stage Plans may not have detailed Deliverable dates available yet. In this case, a more flexible Bias can be used to track progress using Task or Package dates. For Plans with strict delivery schedules, a more detailed Bias can be used to flag delays as soon as individual Deliverables fall behind.

What are the Biases Available?

Bias

Description

Average

Calculates progress based on the overall number of Deliverables across the Task or Package duration.

Optimism

Allows additional time after the expected date before Tasks or Packages are marked as late or overdue.

Realism

Calculates progress using planned Deliverable dates against actual progress.

TIP: Select each Bias to view more information about how its status logic works.

How Do I Set My Bias?

  1. Open the required Playbook Plan.

  2. Click Summary View.

  3. Click the Bias circles (top-right).

  4. In the Status Criteria pop-up, click Configure Status.

    TIP: The currently applied Bias is displayed in the Status Criteria pop-up.

  5. The Configure Status pop-up will appear with information about the available Biases. Click Continue.

    NOTE: Select Do not show this message again to prevent the information pop-up from appearing the next time statuses are configured.

  6. In the Configure Status Criteria pop-up, select the required Bias.

    NOTE: The status calculation logic displayed in the pop-up changes depending on the selected Bias.

  7. Click Save.

  8. A success message will appear confirming the status configuration has been saved: "Status configuration saved successfully".

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