In an embodiment, a test installer is executed that includes woven advice located at join points. The join points are associated with methods in the test installer. When the advice in the test installer is executed, the advice saves identifiers of the associated join points and times of execution. Subsets of the join points are assigned to installation options. Each installation option causes a production installer to execute a combination of methods. In response to receiving an installation option, advice is woven into the production installer at the join points specified by the assigned subset. When the advice in the production installer is executed, the advice reports its join point identifier, and the production installer presents completion progress status based on the time that was saved for the join point identifier during execution of the test installer. In this way, progress status may be provided during the installation of programs.