Control Schedule

Project Management
Monitoring, Tracking and
Control
 Monitoring and controlling processes overview
▪ Monitoring and controlling processes:
➢ Track, review, and orchestrate the progress and performance of the
project
➢ Identify any areas in which changes to the plan are required
➢ Initiate the required changes to the plan

Adapted from Figure 2-10 PMBOK Guide, 5th Edition

 Monitor and control project work
Represents a project management integration knowledge area
process concerned with keeping the project attributes on
their planned trajectories
➢ Project attributes include schedule, scope, cost, quality, resources,
and risks
▪ Monitoring is performed throughout the project and consists
of collecting, assessing, and distributing information about
project performance
▪ Monitoring health of project allows the PM team to respond
to problems with appropriate control actions
▪ Controlling consists of corrective or preventative actions
taken to maintain or improve project performance
 Monitor and control project work
▪ Monitor and control activities include:
➢ Compare actual project performance to project management plan
➢ Assessing performance and deciding if corrective or preventative
actions are needed
➢ Identifying new risks, Monitor project risks and execute risk response
plans when needed
➢ Maintaining an up-to-date information base of the project’s products
➢ Track project schedule and update schedule if needed
➢ Monitor implementation of approved changes
 Project Control
Ongoing effort to keep your project on track
▪ 4 primary activities:
1. Planning performance
» A SDP, schedule, and a control process
2. Measuring status of work performed
» Actuals
3. Comparing to baseline
» Variances
4. Taking corrective action as needed
» Response
▪ Prerequisite to good control is a good plan
 Project Control
▪ “Control”
➢ Power, authority, domination. No.
➢ Guiding a course of action to meet an objective. Yes.
▪ Principles
➢ Work is controlled, not workers
» Control helps workers be more effective & efficient
➢ Control based on work completed
» Use concrete deliverables
➢ Balance
» Appropriate level between too much and too little
» Includes:
• Micro-managing vs. neglect
• Too much tracking detail vs. too little
 Integrated change control
Represents another process within project management integration
knowledge area
▪ Recognizes that projects will often require changes to the
established project plan
▪ All changes must be carefully controlled to maintain the integrity
and consistency of the project plan
▪ Integrated change control encompasses all aspects of change to
the project:
➢ Reviewing and approving requested changes
➢ Managing the changes when they actually occur
➢ Controlling elements of the project management plan (scope,
cost, budget, schedule, and quality) in response to changes
 Scope verification
Scope verification is a process in the project scope
management knowledge area
▪ Concerned with getting stakeholders’ formal acceptance of
completed project scope and deliverables associated with
scope
➢ In practical terms, this means performing product
deliverable reviews with stakeholders
▪ Quality control — ensuring that project deliverables meet
appropriate standards — is usually done before or in parallel
with scope verification
▪ Scope verification is concerned with the boundaries of the
deliverable while quality control is concerned with what is
inside those boundaries
 Scope control
Scope control is a process in the project scope management
knowledge area
▪ Concerned with control of factors that create project scope
changes and the control of the impact of those changes
▪ Scope control works hand-in-hand with integrated change
control. Scope control is part of the integrated change
control process
▪ Scope control also oversees the implementation of
approved scope changes
▪ Scope creep occurs when scope is expanded without
integrating changes and/or without approval
 Schedule control
Schedule control is a process in the project time management
knowledge area
▪ Concerned with:
➢ Monitoring the current status of the project schedule
➢ Controlling the factors that lead to schedule changes
➢ Determining when the schedule has changed, based on
performance report input
➢ Monitoring and controlling the actual project changes
when they occur
▪ Schedule control is part of the integrated change control
process
 Progress Monitoring
▪ The 3 key Progress Monitoring Questions
➢ What is the actual status?
➢ If there’s a variance, what is cause?
➢ What to do about it?
▪ Possible responses
1. Ignore
2. Take corrective action
3. Review the plan
 Progress Monitoring
▪ Monitoring rates
➢ Daily, weekly, monthly
➢ If problems occur – then adjust
» You may have to monitor problem areas more closely
» For some period of time
» Almost always there’s one or more areas under closer
scrutiny
▪ Status Reporting
➢ Part of the communications management plan
» Which is usually just a section of SDP
 Variances
▪ Variances are deviations from plan.
▪ A variance is the difference between what was planned and
what actually occurred.
▪ There are two types of variances:
➢ Positive Variances: These are deviations from plan that
indicate that an ahead-of-schedule situation has occurred
or that an actual cost was less than a planned cost.
➢ Negative Variances: Negative variances are deviations
from plan that indicate that a behind-schedule situation
has occurred or that an actual cost was greater than a
planned cost.
 Measuring Duration and Cost Variances
▪ There are five reasons why we want to measure duration
and cost variances [see following slide]:
1. Catch deviations from the curve early.
2. Dampen oscillation.
3. Allow early corrective action.
4. Determine weekly schedule variance.
5. Determine weekly effort (person hours) variance.
 Measuring Duration and Cost Variances
1. Catch deviations from the curve early. The cumulative actual cost or
actual duration can be plotted against the planned cumulative cost or
cumulative duration.
2. Dampen oscillation. Planned versus actual performance should display a
similar pattern over time. Wild fluctuations between the two may imply a
project that is not under control.
3. Allow early corrective action. The project manager can be alerted to a
schedule or cost overrun early.
4. Determine weekly schedule variance. Reporting progress on activities
open for work should be reported on a weekly basis. This allows the
project manager to discover overrun and take corrective action before the
situation escalates to a point where it will be difficult to avoid schedule
slippages.
5. Determine weekly effort (person hours) variance. The differences
between the planned effort and actual effort has a direct impact on both
planned cumulative cost and schedule. If effort is less than planned, it may
suggest a potential schedule slippage.
 Milestone Trend Charts
▪ Milestones are zero-duration activities and merely represent that a
certain condition exists in the project.
➢ For example, a milestone event might be that the approval of several
different component designs has been given.
➢ This event consumes no time in the project schedule. It simply
reflects the fact that those approvals have all been granted.
➢ The completion of this milestone event may be the predecessor of
several build-type activities in the project plan.
▪ Measure milestones and plot the difference between the planned and
estimated date of a project report period. The following are examples of
certain patterns that signal out-of-control situations [See next slides]:
1. Successive slippages (or ahead of schedule).
2. Radical change.
3. Successive runs.
4. Schedule shifts.
 Milestone Trend Charts
1. Successive slippages (or ahead of schedule).
Each report shows additional slippage since the last report period. And
require special corrective action from the project manager.
2. Radical change.
While the chart may show the milestone to be ahead of
schedule, it reports a radical change between report periods. Activity
duration may have been grossly over-estimated. There may be a date
error. In any case, the situation requires further investigation.
3. Successive runs.
A project that may have encountered a permanent schedule shift.
In the example, the milestone date seems to be permanently varying
around one month ahead of schedule. Barring any radical shifts and the
availability of resources over the next two months, the milestone will
probably come in one month early.
 Milestone Trend Charts
4. Schedule shifts.
The chart may depict a major shift in the milestone schedule. The
cause must be isolated and the appropriate corrective measures taken.
One possibility is the discovery that a downstream activity will not be
required. Perhaps the project manager can buy a deliverable rather
than build it and remove the associated build activities from the project
plan.
 Cost Schedule Control
▪ Cost schedule control is used to measure project
performance and uses the dollar value of work as the
metric. Or the resource person hours can be used when the
project manager does not directly manage the project
budget.
▪ Actual work performed is compared against planned and
budgeted work expressed in these equivalents.
▪ These metrics are used to determine schedule and cost
variances for both the current period and cumulative to date.
▪ One drawback that these metrics have is that they report
history.
 Earned Value Analysis (EVA)
▪ One method of cost schedule control is Earned Value
Analysis (EVA)
➢ a.k.a. Earned Value Management (EVM)
➢ a.k.a. Variance Analysis
▪ Metric of project tracking
▪ “What you got for what you paid”
➢ Physical progress
▪ Pre-EVA ‘traditional’ approach
1. Planned time and costs
2. Actual time and costs
➢ Progress: compare planned vs. actual
▪ EVA adds third dimension: value
➢ Planned, actual, earned
 Cost Schedule Control
▪ The following figure shows an S curve, which represents the baseline
progress curve for the original project plan. It can be used as a
reference point.
▪ You can compare your actual progress to date against the curve and
determine how well the project is doing; progress can be expressed as
either dollars or person hours.

Progress 2/3 Time – ¾ Progress

1/3 Time – ¼ Progress

Time
 Cost Schedule Control
▪ As shown in Figure A [next slide], by adding the actual
progress curve to the baseline curve, you can now see the
current status versus the planned status which shows the
actual progress curve to be below the planned curve.
▪ If this represented dollars, we may falsely conclude that the
project is running under budget; Projects rarely run
significantly under budget.
▪ A more common reason for the actual curve to be below the
baseline is that the activities that should have been done
and thus the dollars or person hours / day that were planned
to be expended have not been.
▪ The schedule variance is depicted in Figure B below.
Cost Schedule Control

Progress

Cost Variance

Update
Date

Time

Figure A
Cost Schedule Control

Progress

Schedule Variance
Cost Variance

Update
Date

Time

Figure B
 Cost Schedule Control
▪ To determine whether there has really been a progress schedule
variance, you need some additional information.
▪ Cost schedule control (CSC) comprises three basic measurements:
➢ budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS),
➢ budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP),
➢ and actual cost of work performed (ACWP)
▪ These measurements result in two variance values, schedule variance
and cost variance.
▪ The following Figure is a graphical representation of the three
measurements
▪ The figure shows a single activity that has a five-day duration and a
budget of $500. The budget is prorated over the five days at an average
daily value of $100.
 Cost Schedule Control

BCWS BCWP ACWP

5 days 5 days
5 days

$500 $300 $200 $400 $200

Scheduled/ Schedule slippage Actual cost of work

Budgeted to do work over 5 permits only 3 days/$300 performed-$400
days in a 5-day window work to be performed ACWP=$400
BCWS=$500 BCWP=$300 Actual cost
Schedule variance=($100)
variance=($200)
 Cost Schedule Control
▪ The left panel of the above Figure shows an initial
(baseline) schedule with the activity starting on the first
day of the week (Monday) and finishing at the end of
the week (Friday). The budgeted $500 value of the work
is planned to be accomplished all within that week. This
is the budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS).
▪ The center panel shows the actual work that was done.
Work did not begin until the third day of the week. Using
an average daily budget of $100 we see that we were
able to complete only $300 of the scheduled work. This
is the budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP).
▪ The rightmost panel shows the actual schedule as in
the center panel, but now we see the actual dollars that
were spent to accomplish the three days work is $400.
This $400 is the actual cost of work performed (ACWP).
 Cost Schedule Control
▪ The BCWS, BCWP, and ACWP are used to compute and
track two variances.
➢ The first is schedule variance (SV). SV is the difference
between what was done and was planned to be done,
expressed in dollars or person hours equivalents.
➢ The second is cost variance (CV). CV is the difference
between the BCWP and the ACWP, which is $100 in this
example. That is, we overspent by $100 (ACWP-BCWP)
the cost of the work completed.
 Cost Schedule Control
▪ Generally, it will be misleading just when we find the actual
cost is below the baseline to conclude that the project is on
a healthy track.
▪ The more reliable conclusion will be inferred by comparing
both budget variance and schedule variance, as shown in
the following Figure.
▪ In the following figure, by Comparing the BCWP curve with
the BCWS curve you see that you have under spent
because all of the work that was scheduled has not been
completed.
▪ And Comparing the BCWP curve to the ACWP curve also
indicates that you overspent for the work that was done.
▪ Clearly, management would have been misled by the
previous Figure A.
 Cost Schedule Control

Progress
Schedule
Variance

Cost
ACWP Variance

Time
 Cost Schedule Control
▪ The CSC (EVA) can also be used to predict the future
status of a project.
▪ From the previous figure, By cutting the BCWS curve at the
height from the horizontal axis, which has been achieved by
the BCWP, and then pasting this curve on to the end of the
BCWP curve, you can extrapolate the completion of the
project. Note that this is based on using the original
estimates for the remaining work to be completed. And
doing the same for the ACWP.
 Cost Schedule Control

Progress Schedule
Variance

Cost
ACWP Variance

Time
 Cost Schedule Control
▪ The three basic indicators yield one additional level of
analysis for us.
▪ Schedule performance index (SPI) and Cost
performance index (CPI) are a further refinement. They
are computed as follows:
» SPI = BCWP / BCWS
» CPI = BCWP / ACWP
 Cost Schedule Control
▪ Schedule performance index. The schedule performance
index (SPI) is a measure of how close the project is to
performing work as it was actually scheduled.
▪ If we are ahead of schedule, BCWP will be greater than
BCWS, and therefore the SPI will be greater than 1. On the
other hand, an SPI below 1 would indicate that the work
performed was less than the work scheduled.
 Cost Schedule Control
▪ Cost performance index. The cost performance index
(CPI) is a measure of how close the project is to spending
on the work performed to what was planned to have been
spent. If you are spending less on the work performed than
was budgeted, the CPI will be greater than 1. if not, and you
are spending more than was budgeted for the work
performed, then the CPI will be less than 1.
▪ Some managers may prefer this type of analysis. Any value
less than 1 is undesirable; any value over 1 is good.
 Earned Value Analysis
To summarize
▪ 3 major components
➢ BCWS: Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled
» Now called “Planned Value” (PV)
» “Yearned”
» How much work should be done?
➢ BCWP: Budgeted Cost of Work Performed
» Now called “earned value” (EV)
» “Earned”
» How much work is done?
» BCWS * % complete
➢ ACWP: Actual Cost of Work Performed
» Now called “Actual Cost” (AC)
» “Burned”
» How much did the work done cost?
 Derived EVA Variances
▪ SV: Schedule Variance
➢ BCWP – BCWS
➢ Planned work vs. work completed
▪ CV: Cost Variance
➢ BCWP – ACWP
➢ Budgeted costs vs. actual costs
▪ Negatives are termed ‘unfavorable’
▪ Can be plotted on ‘spending curves’
➢ Cumulative cost (Y axis) vs. Time (X axis)
➢ Typically in an ‘S’ shape
▪ “What is the project status?”
➢ You can use variances to answer this
 Derived EVA Ratios
▪ SPI: Schedule Performance Index
➢ BCWP / BCWS
▪ CPI: Cost Performance Index
➢ BCWP / ACWP
▪ Problems in project if either of these less than 1 (or 100%)
 Earned Value Analysis
▪ Other Derived Values
➢ BAC: Budget At Completion
» Sum of all budgets (BCWS). Your original budget.
➢ EAC: Estimate At Completion
» Forecast total cost at completion
» EAC = ((BAC – BCWP)/CPI) + ACWP
» Unfinished work divided by CPI added to sunk cost
» If CPI < 1, EAC will be > BAC
➢ CR: Critical Ratio
» SPI x CPI
» CR = 1: everything on track
» CR > .9 and CR < 1.2 ok
» Can be charted
 Earned Value Analysis
▪ BCWS
➢ Use ‘loaded labor’ rates if possible
» Direct pay + overhead
▪ Remember it’s an aggregate figure
➢ May hide where the problem lies
➢ Beware of counterbalancing issues
» Over in one area vs. under in another
 Earned Value Analysis
▪ Benefits
➢ Consistent unit of measure for total progress
➢ Consistent methodology
» Across cost and completed activity
» Apples and apples comparisons
➢ Ability to forecast cost & schedule
➢ Can provide warnings early
▪ Success factors
➢ A full WBS is required (all scope)
➢ Beware of GIGO: Garbage-in, garbage-out
▪ FYI: MS Project supports EVA (see reading list)
 Three Fundamental Values
• BCWS (PV)
– The budgeted cost of work scheduled

• ACWP (AC)
– The actual cost of work performed

• BCWP (EV)
– The budgeted cost of work performed
 BCWS
 The budgeted cost of tasks as scheduled in the project
plan, based on the costs of resources (resources: The
people, equipment, and material that are used to
complete tasks in a project) assigned to those tasks, plus
any fixed costs (fixed cost: A set cost for a task that
remains constant regardless of the task duration or the
work performed by a resource.)
 For example, the total planned budget for a 4-day task is
$100 and it starts on a Monday. If the status date is set
to the following Wednesday, the BCWS is $75
 ACWP
• The actual cost (actual cost: The cost that has actually been
incurred to date for a task, resource, or assignment. For
example, if the only resource assigned to a task gets paid
$20 per hour and has worked for two hours, the actual cost
to date for the task is $40.)
• For resources, the total amount of work to which a
resource is assigned for all tasks. Work is different from task
duration. For example, if the 4-day task actually incurs a
total cost of $35 during each of the first 2 days, the ACWP
for this period is $70 (but the BCWS is still $75).
 BCWP
• The value of the work performed by the status
date, measured in currency. This is literally the
value earned by the work performed and is called
the budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP).
• For example, if after 2 days 60% percent of the
work on a task has been completed, you might
expect to have spent 60 percent of the total task
budget, or $60
 Earned Value Measure
• Cost variance (CV) – The difference between the
budgeted cost of work performed [BCWP] on a task
and the actual cost of work performed [ACWP]
CV = BCWP – ACWP
– If the CV is positive, the cost is currently under the
budgeted amount; if the CV is negative, the task is
currently over budget
– For example, the status date is set to the following
Wednesday, the BCWS is $75, the ACWP for this period is
$70, and the BCWP is $60. In that case, the task's CV is
-$10.
 Schedule variance (SV)
• The difference between the budgeted cost of
work performed [BCWP] and the budgeted
cost of work scheduled [BCWS]
SV = BCWP – BCWS
– the difference between the current progress and
the scheduled progress of a task, in terms of cost
(the formula SV = BCWP - BCWS). In the example
above, the task's SV is -$15.
 The cost performance index (CPI)
• Ratio of budgeted costs of work performed to
actual costs of work performed
CPI = BCWP / ACWP
• The cumulative CPI [sum of the BCWP for all tasks
divided by the sum of the ACWP for all tasks] can
be used to predict whether a project will go over
budget
• In the example above, the task's CPI is about .86,
or 86 percent
The schedule performance index (SPI)
• The ratio of the budgeted cost of work
performed [BCWP] to the budgeted cost of work
scheduled (BCWS), which is often used to
estimate the project completion date. calculated
as :
SPI = BCWP/BCWS
– the ratio of work performed to work scheduled (the
formula SPI = BCWP / BCWS). In the example above,
the task's SPI is .80, or 80 percent.
The task to complete performance index (TCPI)
• The ratio of the work remaining to be done to funds remaining to
be spent, as of the status date

[BAC - BCWP]/[BAC - ACWP]

• A TCPI value greater than one indicates a need for increased

performance; less than one indicates performance can decrease.)—
the ratio of the work remaining to be done to funds remaining to be
spent as of the status date, or budget at completion (the formula
TCPI = [BAC - BCWP] / [BAC - ACWP]).
 Interpreting Earned Value
• cost variance (CV):
– A positive variance indicates that the project is ahead
of schedule or under budget. Positive variances might
enable you to reallocate money and resources from
tasks or projects
– A negative variance indicates that the project is
behind schedule or over budget and you need to take
action. If a task or project has a negative CV, you
might have to increase your budget or accept reduced
profit margins
 Ratios
• The cost performance index (CPI) and the schedule
performance index (SPI), can be greater than 1 or less
than 1
– A value that's greater than 1 indicates that the project is
ahead of schedule or under budget.
– A value that's less than 1 indicates that you're behind
schedule or over budget. For example, an SPI of 1.5 means
that you've taken only 67 percent of the planned time to
complete a portion of a task in a given time period, and a
CPI of 0.8 means that you've spent 25 percent more time
on a task than was planned.
 Estimate at completion (EAC)
• The expected total cost of a task or project, based on
performance as of the status date. EAC is calculated as
follows:
EAC = ACWP + (BAC-BCWP)/CPI)
is the expected total cost of a task or project, based on
performance as of the status date. EAC is also called
forecast at completion, and is calculated like this:
EAC = ACWP + (BAC - BCWP) / CPI
 The Earned Value Chart
• One way of measuring overall performance is by
using an aggregate performance measure called
earned value
• A serious difficulty with comparing actual
expenditures against budgeted or baseline is that
the comparison fails to take into account the
amount of work accomplished relative to the cost
incurred
 The Earned Value Chart
• The earned value of work performed (value completed)
for those tasks in progress is found by multiplying the
estimated percent completion for each task by the
planned cost for that task
• The result is the amount that should have been spent
on the task so far
• The concept of earned value combines cost reporting
and aggregate performance reporting into one
comprehensive chart
The Earned Value Chart
 The Earned Value Chart
• Variances on the earned value chart follow two primary
guidelines:
– 1. A negative means there is a deviation from plan—not good
– 2. The cost variances are calculated as the earned value minus some other
measure
– EV - Earned Value: budgeted cost of work performed
– AC - actual cost of work performed
– PV - Planned Value: budgeted cost of work scheduled
– ST - scheduled time for work performed
– AT - actual time of work performed
 The Earned Value Chart
EV - AC = cost variance (CV, overrun is negative)
EV - PV = schedule variance (SV, late is negative)
ST - AT = time variance (TV, delay is negative)
If the earned value chart shows a cost overrun or performance
underrun, the project manager must figure out what to do to get
the system back on target

Options may include borrowing resources, or holding a meeting of

project team members to suggest solutions, or notifying the client
that the project may be late or over budget
 The Earned Value Chart

• Variances are also formulated as ratios rather than

differences
– Cost Performance Index (CPI) = EV/AC
– Schedule Performance Index (SPI) = EV/PV
– Time Performance Index (TPI) = ST/AT
• Use of ratios is particularly helpful when comparing
the performance of several projects
 Variance Analysis Questions
• What is the problem causing the variance?
• What is the impact on time, cost, and
performance?
• What is the impact on other efforts, if any?
• What corrective action is planned or under way?
• What are the expected results of the corrective
action?
 Example
Planned $1500 to complete work package.
Scheduled to have been finished today.
Actual expenditure to date is $1350.
Estimate work is 2/3 complete.
What are cost and schedule variances?
 Cost variance
Cost variance = EV – AC
= $1500(2/3) - $1350
= $1000 - $1350
= -$350
 Schedule variance
Schedule variance = EV – PV
= $1500(2/3) - $1500
= -$500
 CPI (cost performance index)
CPI = EV/AC
=($1500(2/3) / $1350)
= 1000/1350
= 0.74
 SPI (schedule performance index)
SPI = EV/PV
= ($1500(2/3))/$1500
= $1000/$1500
= 0.67
 ETC and EAC
Estimate to complete = (BAC-EV)/CPI
=(1500-1000)/.74
= $676

Estimate at completion = ETC + AC

= $676 + $1350
= $2026