Do I use MEAN or MEDIAN when the number events will vary?

I am working on a project in which I need to show progress towards completion. The project is broken in to five (5) milestones. Each milestone may have anywhere from two (2) to seven (7) sub-projects. Each sub-project may have anywhere from two (2) to ten (10) tasks. We have determined that each milestone, sub-project, and task is evenly weighted; that is the number of events for each specific task, sub-project, or milestone should not be a factor when progress is reported.

I am concerned that I present progress that reflects the actual status of my project. For example, I have three events. The MEAN is 58%, whereas the MEDIAN is 50%. Which is the right number to provide as my status?

I am almost out of characters, so I will present the problem I am working on in a seperate question.

Thank you to all the math wizzes out there for helping. I am envious of your aptitude for math!

Do I use MEAN or MEDIAN when the number events will vary?performing arts show

Actually, I think you should use both to descibe the progress, Mean is the most useful, but knowing the median adds useful information. If the mean and median are close together (as in your example) that means you have a well-behaved distribution. But if the median is a lot different from the mean, that means that one or more elements are abnormal, and that some projects are not progressing normally.

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Do I use MEAN or MEDIAN when the number events will vary?

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