Have gone vs went

Question

I was drafting an email where I needed to indicate some work that was initiated some time back but is still ongoing. I had typed out:

As we have gone through the analysis and restoration activity, we discovered the following issues...

One of my colleagues suggested that I change the sentence to this:

As we went through the analysis and restoration activity, we discovered the following issues...

To me, both seemed correct and I could not differentiate when I should be using one versus the other. Please help me understand the difference.

Thanks,

Dokterjokkebrok · Accepted Answer

have gone through = present perfect tense (preferred in Br. Eng. when result is expressed)

went through =simple past tense (preferred in Am. Engl. when result is expressed)

It seems to me, from the context, that you are talking about a specific point in the past. In that case, I would say that a simple past tense must be applied here, considering that a simple past tense must
always used in case you mention a fixed event in the past.

Fandorin · Answer

dokterjokkebrokhave gone through = present perfect tense (preferred in Br. Eng. when result is expressed)

went through =simple past tense (preferred in Am. Engl. when result is expressed)

Hi. I cannot agree with you here.

We went home last night.
We've gone through so much trouble since we refused to work on their behalf.

Both are expressing the result. Present Perfect and simple aren't only those situations you described above.

In poster's case Past Simple would be prefferable because we don't link it to the present situation and we are reffering to moment in the past when another event took place.

Fisrst part is an adverbial clause of timepointing to an exact mooment in the past. If you used present perfect, you'd be reffering to finished action in future, which is confusing, I guess.

Have gone vs went

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