If your TPD is year 200x and you get 100% EE the year leading up to this date, does this almost guarantee promotion?

Not necessarily. There's a lot of grade inflation going on, with most people getting EEs or SEEs on projects, so a 100% EE track record doesn't count for much at year-end when you're being compared to your peers and forced into the bell curve. Also, there are several other metrics that determine your year end grade (and hence promotion prospects), e.g. contributions to people development, knowledge sharing, sales, recruitment, etc. (the relative importance of these varies at different grades, with sales targets becoming more important as you go up the ladder), so you may still end up with an ME or MSE at year-end and having your promotion pushed back by 6 or 12 months.

They always bleat on about trying to reduce grade inflation but not sure anything ever happens..

does anyone have anything they are will to share on this, specifically how it works (behind scenes rather than the step by step process for it)?

Can somebody please explain these acronyms for those of us who are not privy to Deloitte's insider jargon.

TPD = target promotion date (e.g. TPD 2010 = January 2010 for most grades, except Analysts and Directors, who get promoted in July)The grades given on individual projects are U = underachieving, MSE = meets some expectations, ME = meets expectations, EE = exceeds expectations, SEE = substantially exceed expectations.The year-end grade is on scale 1-5, 1 being the lowest and 5 highest. The "average" performers are further broken down to 3a and 3b, with usually only 3b and above being eligible for bonuses.