A number of years ago, I was a part of the Global PMO of one of the Big 4 consulting firms. I was working with great teams on great projects. There was no stopping us from solving problems. And we solved lots of them.
Even though we had a dashboard which we used to provide portfolio, program, and project metrics, the team would meet biweekly to discuss status, issues, risks, and so forth. Snacks were provided, so attendance was pretty much guaranteed.
On one particular Friday, one of the project managers was reporting status and offered that his project was ahead of schedule because one of the tasks started early. As you would imagine, this led not only to some funny looks, but some great conversations.
Not that any of us were not excited that tasks were starting early. I, myself, continually espouse the benefits of front-loading tasks and activities when possible. But using the variance of the task start date as the driver of the metrics can certainly give the wrong message. It doesn't take into consideration any dependencies needed for task completion. Nor does it reflect whether or not downstream tasks can start early. Critical path impact. Resource availability. And so forth.
So the key takeaway is that project managers should start tasks early when possible. But maintain visibility to the big picture.
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