Chapter 13 Flashcards
Creating a Project Monitoring System Involves determining
What data to collect
How, when, and who will collect the data
How to analyze the data
How to report current progress to those that need the information
Project Monitoring Information System
What data are collected?
Current status of project (schedule and cost)
Remaining cost to complete project
Date that project will be complete
Potential problems to be addressed now
Out-of-control activities requiring intervention
Cost and/or schedule overruns and the reasons for them
Forecast of overruns at time of project completion
Project Monitoring Information System
Collecting data and analysis
Who will collect project data?
How will data be collected?
When will the data be collected?
Who will compile and analyze the data?
Project Monitoring Information System
Reports and reporting
Who will receive the reports?
How will the reports be transmitted?
When will the reports be distributed?
Project Control
The process of comparing actual performance against plan to identify deviations, evaluate courses of action, and take appropriate corrective action.
The Project Control Process
Project Control Steps
Setting a baseline plan.
Measuring progress and performance.
Comparing plan against actual.
Taking action.
The Project Control Process
Tools
Tracking and baseline Gantt charts
Control charts
Budget updates
Developing an Integrated Cost/Schedule System
Define the work using a WBS.
Scope Work packages Deliverables Organization units Resources Budgets
Developing an Integrated Cost/Schedule System
- Develop work and resource schedules.
- Schedule resources to activities
- Time-phase work packages into a network - Develop a time-phased budget using work packages included in an activity. Accumulate budgets.
- At the work package level, collect the actual costs for the work performed Multiply percent complete times original budget.
- Compute the schedule variance and the cost variance
Purposes of a Baseline
An anchor point for measuring performance
- A planned cost and expected schedule against which actual cost and schedule are measured.
- A basis for cash flows and awarding progress payments.
- A summation of time-phased budgets (cost accounts as summed work packages) along a project timeline.
What Costs Are Included in Baselines?
Labor, equipment, materials, project direct overhead costs (DOC)
Rules for Placing Costs in Baselines
Costs are placed exactly as they are expected to be “earned” in order to track them to their point of origin.
Percent Complete Rule
- Costs are periodically assigned to a baseline as units of work are completed over the duration of a work package.
Additional Earned Value Rules
Rules applied to short-duration activities and/or small-cost activities
0/100 percent rule
- Assumes 100 % of budget credit is earned at once and only when the work is completed.
50/50 rule
- Allows for 50% of the value of the work package budget to be earned when it is started and 50% to be earned when the package is completed.
Percent complete with weighted monitoring gates
- Uses subjective estimated percent complete in combination with hard, tangible monitoring points.
Performance Indexes
Cost Performance Index (CPI)
- Measures the cost efficiency of work accomplished to date.
Scheduling Performance Index (SPI)
- Measures scheduling efficiency
Percent Complete Indexes
- Indicates how much of the work accomplished represents of the total budgeted and actual dollars to date.
Time-Phase Baseline Plan
Corrects the failure of most monitoring systems to connect a project’s actual performance to its schedule and forecast budget.
- Systems that measure only cost variances do not identify resource and project cost problems associated with falling behind or progressing ahead of schedule.
Earned Value Cost/Schedule System
- An integrated project management system based on the earned value concept that uses a time-phased budget baseline to compare actual and planned schedule and costs.
Methods of Variance Analysis
Cost Variance (CV) Schedule Variance (SV)
Cost Variance (CV)
Indicates if the work accomplished using labor and materials costs more or less than was planned at any point in the project.
Schedule Variance (SV)
Presents an overall assessment in dollar terms of the progress of all work packages in the project scheduled to date.
Methods to revise estimates of future project costs:
EACre
EACf
EACre
Allows experts in the field to change original baseline durations and costs because new information tells them the original estimates are not accurate.
EACf
Uses actual costs-to-date plus an efficiency index to project final costs in large projects where the original budget is unreliable.
Estimated total cost of completion
Forecasting Model: EACf
ETC + AC
ETC
Estimated total cost of remaining work
AC
cumulative actual cost of work completed to date
CPI
cumulative cost index to date
BAC
Total budget of the baseline
EV
Cumulative budgeted cost of work completed to date
EAC Equation
Work remaining/CPI = (BAC-EV)/(EV/AC)
Other Control Issues
Issues In Maintaining Control Of Projects
Scope Creep
Baseline Changes
Data Acquisition Costs and Problems
Methods of Variance Analysis
Comparing Earned Value
Assessing Status of a Project
Comparing Earned Value
With the expected schedule value.
With the actual costs
Assessing Status of a Project
Required data elements
- Data Budgeted cost of the work scheduled (PV)
- Budgeted cost of the work completed (EV)
- Actual cost of the work completed (AC)
Calculate schedule and cost variances
- A positive variance indicates a desirable condition, while a negative variance suggests problems or changes that have taken place.
Key Acronyms
Budget at Completion (BAC) Cost Performance Index (CPI) Cost Variance (CV) Earned Value (EV) Schedule Performance Index (SPI) Schedule Variance (SV) Variance at Completion (VAC)
