Project Monitoring and Updating: Project Management Course Prepared by Dr. Pierrette Zouein 1

Project Monitoring and Updating
Project Management Course

Prepared by Dr. Pierrette 1
Zouein
Reporting Progress
The initial project plan is just that, an initial plan. A

project plan soon becomes out-of-date and of
minimal use if it is not continually updated and
reworked in response to the changing conditions of
the project.

2 Prepared by Dr. Pierrette
Zouein
Project Tracking
Special Sub Initial work plan
Team Meeting
Assessment Review Contingency and/or Team review

Reports Analysis and Team Meeting Action Plans
Preparation
Plans are
Project Management implemented.
System Recalculates Members Assess &
Report Progress.

Zouein
Reporting Progress
• A task leader is assigned to each task in the plan. The task

leader is responsible for monitoring the progress of the task
and reporting task progress to the team leader.
• Task progress is reported every week to the team leader.
The data is analogous to Statistical Process Control used in
manufacturing. The process data is the project talking back
to us. We can see tasks heading out of control before a
disaster hits.
• The team leader is the nerve center for all the data

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Reporting Progress
 Why is it important?
– React quickly to potential slippages and/or changes
in the plan
– Provides data required to anticipate changes in the
plan
 Roles and responsibilities of team members

– Updates task progress
– Identifies task slippages
– Identifies issues
– Identifies expenses incurred

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Chemical Lab Example
Baseline Schedule

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Reporting Progress
Work has been underway for 15 days. Reported problems
and progress indicate the following:
• The cabinet supplier reported that it is impossible to deliver

all cabinets within 10 days  Procurement problem.
– Base cabinets can be delivered on time.
– Wall cabinets take longer to build and expected delivery will be
delayed 2 weeks Wall cabinets are expected on the 20th day.
• The fume hood manufacturer needs 17 days to deliver the

hood instead of 15 days projected.
• Replacement of the fume duct took 4 days to complete but it

is now finished.
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Baseline Schedule
20
17

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Reporting Progress
Impact on Activity durations and planned start and
finish dates of activities
• Obtain wall cabinets remaining duration = 5

• Obtain fume hood remaining duration = 2
• Painter availability remaining duration = 5
• Install wall cabinets is delayed because of Act 15 “Obtain

cabinets”
• Act 65 “Install new fume hood” is also delayed because Act 25

was delayed. And so on.

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Remodeling Chemical Lab Example
Updated Schedule

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Project Progress Data
“MY” Bank Project
Days entered by
Data Date: 05/21/2001 user as required
Project Task Task Scheduled Actual Days of effort %Task

ID description Start Finish Start Finish Comp+Rem=tot Complete
RCRBB 2 Survey of Comp.

Rooms 5/18/01 6/7/01 5/18/01 6/10/01 3 20 23 13%
12 Identify Bank
requirements 5/9/01 5/11/01 5/9/01 5/11/01 3 0 3 100%
13 Develop typical
layout 5/14/01 5/18/01 5/20/01 6/25/01 1 4 5 50%
14 Validate design
5/15/01 5/16/01 5/15/01 5/16/01 2 0 2 100%
15 Prepare a
checklist 5/17/01 5/17/01 5/17/01 5/17/01 1 0 1 100%

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Recording weekly Activity Progress
• The task leader is responsible for completing the progress data
• Only the actual start and finish dates, along with the number of
days complete and the number of days remaining, are entered
by the task leader.
• Percent complete when entered are normally estimated by the

task leader. Care must be taken when evaluating percent
complete.

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Recording weekly Activity Progress
 As a rule if the planned time is 50% used up, the task should be
approximately 50% complete
 There are exceptions to the rule. The amount of work
completed is not necessarily linear with the amount of time
used. For example, we can have 1 day out of 5 complete but
50% task complete.
 Be careful to use common sense when evaluating percent work
complete and amount of time used.

Zouein
Measuring Progress
1. Units Completed
2. Incremental Milestone
3. Start / Finish
4. Supervisor Opinion
5. Cost Ratio

14
Prepared by Dr. Pierrette Zouein
Units Completed
• This method is applicable to those tasks involving repeated
production of easily measured pieces of work, each
requiring approximately the same level of effort
• Example: 10000 LM of wire is to be pulled and 4000 LM

has been pulled then
% Complete = 4000/10000 = 40%

15
Incremental Milestone
• This method is applicable to any control account which includes
subtasks that must be handled in sequence. Method is also called level
of effort (C/SCSC)
• Example: Consider the installation of a major vessel in an industrial
facility as being the task in question. This tasks includes the sequential
subtasks or operations in the following list:
– Received and inspected 15%
– Setting complete 35%
– Alignment complete 50%
– Internals installed 75%
– Testing complete 90%
– Accepted by owner 100%
• Completion of any operation is considered to be a milestone, which
when completed represents a certain percentage of total installation
• The % chosen to represent each milestone is normally based on the
number of work-hours estimated to be required to that point in
relation to the total.

16
Start/Finish Method
• This method is applicable to those tasks which lack readily definable
intermediate milestones and/or the effort/time required is very
difficult to estimate.
• Example: Alignment of a major fan and motor may take from a few
hours to a few days depending on the situation. Workers know when
this work starts and when it is finished, but they never know the
percentage completion in between.
• With this approach, one arbitrarily assigns a percent complete to the
start of the task with 100% being recorded when it is finished.
• For short-duration tasks, one can assign a 50% completion with the
start of the task
• With longer-duration activities something between 20-30% is typically
used.

17
Supervisor Opinion
• This is a subjective approach and should be used

for relatively minor tasks.
• Supervisor simply makes a judgment on the

percent complete

18
Cost Ratio
• Method is applicable to tasks, such as project management,
quality assurance, contract administration which involve a long
period of time or are continuous during the life of a project.
• Such tasks are estimated and budgeted on bulk allocations of

dollars or work-hours rather than on the basis of production.
• % Complete = Actual cost or Work-hours to date

Forecast at completion

19
Defining General Activity
Information in P6
• You can choose to calculate an activity’s percent
complete according to its duration, units, or physical
percent complete
– Select physical if percent complete is to be entered by user
– Select duration if to be calculated from original (planned)
duration and remaining duration
– Select units if to be calculated from planned and
remaining units

Zouein
Project Tracking
Special Sub Team Initial Work
Meeting Plan
Assessment
Review and Team Contingency Team
Reports Analysis and/or Action Review
Meeting
Preparation Plans
Members Assess and

Project Management report Progress. Plans
System are Implemented.
Recalculates

Zouein
Tracking Reports
 All the progress data from individual task is fed into the
computer.
 Looking at the entire project (sometimes 1000 to 2000 task) is
not sufficient because it is so overwhelming. There is simply
too much work to look at.
 We use tracking reports to focus on areas of concern.
 Different people will want to evaluate the project in different
ways.

Zouein
Tracking Reports
 Different people will want to evaluate the project in different ways.
 The team leader needs to look at the complete project. Area of concern
may be applied labor and cost to date.
 The task leader will be more concerned with a particular task and the
immediate impact it has on other tasks. This person will be concerned with
a subset of the total project.
 An individual team member will want to evaluate the project from the
perspective of activities for which they are responsible.
 Bringing the project back within schedule is accomplished with action and
contingency plans.

Zouein
Tracking Reports
Feedback Data Required to Control Project
• Many ways to examine project

– Summarize complete project
– Scrutinize complete project
– Look at it from personal perspective
• Presents data required to:

– Quickly understand what is expected
– Quickly assess project / task status
– Quickly surface issues
– Justify requests for support
– Highlight areas of concern
– Formulate action and contingency plan

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Key Reports
 Tracking Gantt graphically show progress versus plan
 Task reports focus on specific tasks of interest
 Applied labor reports depict how much labor has been in

relation to original estimates (actual labor used versus plan)
 Cost reporting is similar to labor reporting only we are

tracking actual cost versus planned cost

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Key Reports
 Logic Network (PERT Chart) show task dependency and
where the bottlenecks are in relation to what has been
accomplished to date versus the plan
 Resource Histogram are used to evaluate how labor is
being utilized
 Open issues reports allow to focus on areas of the project
that are experiencing challenges
 Project summary reports only show the highest level of the
project and are used for a large scale view of the project

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Task Reports
 Things to do  Filtering and/or Sorting
– Starting next week, 2 weeks By project
– In progress − By group
– Not started as scheduled − By individual
 Critical path tasks
 Task status
– Not finished on schedule
– Behind schedule
– Ahead of schedule
– Completed
– Durations extend

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Keeping Projects On Track
• Techniques for keeping projects on track
– Focus on critical path
– Look for inconsistencies
– Look for opportunities to recover time

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Focus On Critical Path
• Slippage impacts the project end date if task(s) is critical
• Missing a task end date is serious
– Create a mini-crisis, don’t wait until the project end date is missed
and be forced with a major crisis
– Consider working overtime, adding resources, or revise task
dependencies to ensure that task will finish as scheduled
– Look at tasks downstream and develop a plan to minimize the impact
– Have contingency plans ready ahead of time
• Be Proactive! Don’t wait until something happens to have a plan.

Anticipate critical path problems.

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Look for Inconsistencies
• Dollars or hours spent and no progress made
• Dollars or hours not spent and progress claimed
• Task show complete but deliverable not available
• Look for major changes in logic or levels of effort
Would you believe this task will be completed on time?

If so, do you have any questions regarding quality of deliverables?
% complete Today’s date
Assume:
A constant level of resource applied.
A linear effort required to complete task
5 Weeks 1 Week
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Look For Opportunities
To Recover Time
• Utilize resources of non-critical tasks
– If skills match tasks in trouble
 Delay start of non-critical tasks
 Transfer resources to tasks that need support
– If skills do not mach task in trouble
 Build some slack downstream by seeking critical
tasks that need skills of resources working on non-
critical tasks.
 Transfer resources to critical tasks downstream to
recover time

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Look For Opportunities
To Recover Time
• Use resource Histogram to identify available resources
• Add resources cautiously
– Consider communication time
– Consider time it takes to come up to speed
• Use a little overtime before crisis hits

– Reinforces commitment to schedule
– Reduces chance of burnout

Zouein
Project Tracking
Special Sub Team Initial Work

Meeting Plan
Assessment
Contingency Team
Reports Analysis Review and Team
and/or Action Review
Meeting
Plans
Preparation
Members Assess and

Project Management
report Progress. Plans
System
are Implemented.
Recalculates

Zouein
Internal Communication of
Project Status
 Prior to a team meeting the project leadership
– Reviews and discusses project management data
– Use reports like: Not started as scheduled, behind Schedule, Not
finished on Schedule, Duration Extended, Open Issues and Starting-
Next-Week reports, ”What if” Analyses that have been done (if any),
Observations that have been made
– Determines critical issues to be recovered
– Focuses on key issues that will have a major impact on project
– Not all issues need to be discussed in the team meeting
– If an issue needs more in depth analysis or action plan, a sub-team is
formed
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Internal Communication of
Project Status
• A typical sub-team might include team members working
on the tasks involved, subject matter experts and perhaps
a meeting facilitator
• Sub-team meetings
– Very focused (working meeting) and problem solving oriented
– Define issue/determine root causes
– Develop plan of action
– Assess impact
• The output of the sub-team meeting is reported to the
team during the team meeting for their review

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Action Plans
• Action plans are developed in response to
unanticipated issues
• Hence they are reactive rather than proactive
plans
• Failure of test equipment during testing of a
component is an example where an action
plan might be developed

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Updated Schedule

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Corrective Action (Action Plan)
• Installation of the wall cabinets can be speeded up if we assign one
additional carpenter to this task, and its duration will be reduced by
one day.
 This will shorten project duration by 1 day because
this activity is critical
• Start painting walls and ceilings before cabinets are in place and
before plumbers and electricians have completed their work
 Break walls and ceilings into 2 activities and break paint
cabinets
into 3 activities: one for the wall cabinets, one for the base
cabinets and one for touch up paint.
• Painters have one day to touch up around the cabinets and the
plumbing and electrical fixtures after their installation
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Revised Schedule

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Contingency Plan Development
When the risk of failure is high and the task

or deliverable is critical to the success of the
project, it is best to have a backup plan ready
to go. The time and resource spent in the
development and/pr execution of a
contingency plan is well spent.

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Action plans are REACTIVE while
Contingency plans are PROACTIVE
• Contingency plans are preplanned response to high risk events
– Events critical to success of project
– Events having high risk of failure
• Contingency plans
– Cost $ to develop
– Develop only when necessary

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Example
– A critical part to the design has never been
manufactured before. There is risk involved if the
part is not available by certain date. We should
have an alternative to this part just in case we have
problems making it and are not able to get it by
the required date. We need a contingency plan to
determine how we would deal with this risk if it
should occur.
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• Methodology is similar to developing action plans

– Identify high risk events
– Identify and recommend alternatives
To improve performance
To minimize schedule risks
To accommodate shift in requirements scope
– Evaluate alternatives

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Example
Review the following case description
– During the customer requirements definition phase of the

Laptop Power Supply, Steve Hershey determined that
Motorola was developing a new ASIC controller chip for
high frequency switching power supplies. Designing this
into the product would enable the team to meet the
customer size and weight requirements with room to spare.
They would be able to leap frog the competition.

Zouein
Example
– Motorola’s schedule for chip introduction meshed perfectly
with the Laptop Power Supply’s schedule and Steve
initially felt very good about the project. But, something
kept gnawing at him. Motorola is known for their high
quality products (that certainly was good), however their
last two ASIC efforts were 2-4 weeks late. In the world of
personal computers 2-4 weeks would mean a 25-30% drop
in market share and that was totally unacceptable. Steve
knew he needed a contingency plan.

Zouein
Example
• What options exist?
– Go with two different power supply designs (electrical
and mechanical). One with discrete components and
one with the new chip
– Pay additional $ to Motorola to encourage overtime and
potentially minimize the risk of being late
– Go with one power supply design (using the ASIC) but
develop in parallel a hybrid circuit which would have
the same footprint as the ASIC. The thinking was that
the hybrid could be used until the ASIC was ready.

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Example
• Steve talked it over with his teammates and they agreed
to go with the latter approach
– Go with one power supply design (using the ASIC)
but develop in parallel a hybrid circuit which would
have the same footprint as the ASIC. The thinking
was that the hybrid could be used until the ASIC
was ready.
• Work with your team to determine how you would
approach the task of developing a hybrid circuit in
parallel with Electrical Design. What are they?
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Example
• Bring in the schedule as far as possible using
the following information:
– Start the hybrid task as soon as possible
– Team members have the following skills:
• Systems engineer has software background
• Mechanical engineer works well with suppliers
• Electrical engineer has circuit simulation background
• Quality Engineer has done a lot of work in Test Plan
generation
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Internal Communication of Project
Status
• Team meeting are focused on
– Communicating/reviewing status
– Surfacing and resolving issues and gaining consensus on
the course of action
– Highly technical issues are typically not discussed in team
meeting because of its cross-functional nature and size

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Effective Communication
Communication is essential to the success of a project
• Project management is a communication enabler

- Provides a focal point for communication
- Everyone is “looking at the same play book”
- Facilitates communication of progress, status and issues
• Project management does not ensure effective
communication
• People are responsible for effective communication
• Effective meetings are essential

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Effective Meetings
A meeting is an excellent tool for sharing information
and building team consensus
• Preparation is critical to the success of a meeting

• Use the correct meeting format
- Issues meeting (Team Meeting)
- Working Session (Sub-team Meeting)
• Good meeting process should be observed
• Adhere to effective communication precepts
• Use the work plan to focus discussions
• Follow up with meeting minutes
- Decisions reached
- Actions items
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Project Status Report
 Project Status reports are used as communication tool
 Provide the feedback control loop for the project
 Status reporting provides the complete picture of the project
in condensed form
 Members of the team may be too involved with one specific
aspect of the project to get a vision of the entire project.
“They can’t see the forest through the trees”
 Status reporting takes us “above the tree line” so we can look
at the complete picture

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Project Status Report
• Compiled by Project Manager

• Rollup of summary tasks on Project Work plan
– What tasks are completed?
– What tasks are on schedule?
– What tasks are not on schedule?
• Variance Reports (difference between actual & planned)
– Cost
– Labor
– Time (Schedule)

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Earned Value
Earned Value on Cost Account = (% Complete) (Budget for that
Account)
• Budget is Expressed as Work hours or Dollars

• Since progress in all accounts can be reduced to earned work-hours
and dollars, this provides a method for summarizing multiple accounts
and calculating overall progress using the following
% Complete = (Earned work-hours/dollars all accounts)

(Budgeted work-hours/dollars all accounts)

54
Earned Value
Example:
• Assume that $10,000 and 60 work hours

have been budgeted for a given account and
that account is now 25% complete. This
means that 2,500 of 15 work hours have
been to earned to date

55
Earned Value Example
Level 2 Building
Structural
Level 3 Budget = $57K Mechanical
Floor 1 Floor 2
Budget =Level
$30K 4 Budget = $27K
Slab Columns Slabs Columns

Level 100%
5
50% complete* 0% complete* 30% complete*
complete*
Budget = $20K Activity Level Budget = $20K Budget = $7K
Budget = $10K
* Progress data reported from field measurements

** Computed values
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Measuring Deviations
From Target Plan
• Budgeted Work-hours or $ to date is called Budgeted Cost of
Work Scheduled (BCWS)
 What I plan to do
• Earned Work-hours or $ to date is called Budgeted Cost of

Work Performed (BCWP)
 What I did
• Actual work-hours or $ to date is called Actual Cost of Work

Performed (ACWP)
 What I paid for

57
Measuring Deviations
From Target Plan
• Performance against schedule is a comparison of What I
planned to do against What I did
• Schedule Variance
SV = BCWP – BCWS
• Performance against budget is measured by comparing What I

did to What I paid for
• Cost Variance
CV = BCWP – ACWP

58
S-Curves
• S-Curves are one of most frequently
prepared graphical displays for project
control
• Called so because plot of targeted cost vs.

time has the appearance of a letter S
• In small projects S-curve can be anticipated

by a technique given by Miller

59
Example Constructing S-Curves
Project Cost Data
Activity Duration Cost Rate Total Cost
_______(Days) ($/Day) ($)_____
A 2 500 1,000
B 17 200 3,400
C 3 3,000 9,000
D 5 1,000 5,000
E 6 2,000 12,000
F 2 500 1,000
G 1 1,000 1,000

60
Early Schedule Late Schedule

61
Target Network

62

63
Example
Planned Performance
• Project consists of pulling 10 m of a certain type
of wire
• Project Total Budgeted Cost is $ 5,000
Actual Performance to Date
• Total length of pulled wire to date is : 4 m
• Dollars spent to date: $3,000

64
Example
• % Complete = 4/10 = 40 %
• BCWS = $2,500 from target S-Curve
• BCWP = (40%) 5,000 = $2,000
• ACWP = Dollars Spent to Date = $3,000
• CV = $2,000 - $3,000 = ($1,000)
Cost overrun
• SV =$2,000 - $2,500 = ($500)
Project behind schedule

65
Schedules of Budget vs. Actual Cost & Work
Performed

66
Cost-Performance Reporting
Key Data Elements

67
Estimated vs. Budgeted Cost at Completion
• Budget at completion (BAC) is the sum of all
budgets allocated to the project. Also
known as project baseline
• Estimate at completion (EAC) identifies
dollars or hours that represent a realistic
appraisal of the work when performed.
EAC = Cumulative actuals + estimate-to-complete

68
Projections of Cost & Schedule Performance

69
Book Shelving Project Management Data
• Why do it?
Continuous improvement of process. Reduce cycle
time and leverage past efforts
Learn from Past Experience. Data could be used on

other projects to prepare improved estimates for
resource requirements and costs.
Jump-start planning process

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• What is in it?
– Project management templates
– Statistical data- effort and duration
– Model work plans
– Lessons learned
– Alternative project plans (accepted and not
accepted)
– Benchmark data

Zouein
• How does it work?

– Data submitted throughout the project
– Major effort at the end of project
– Not a garbage dump
– Team effort
– Submittals reviewed by “some committee”
– Librarian catalogs and adds to bookshelf

Zouein

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Project Monitoring and Updating

Project Management Course

The initial project plan is just that, an initial plan. A

Project Management Course

Assessment Review Contingency and/or Team review

Project Management Course

• A task leader is assigned to each task in the plan. The task

Project Management Course

 Roles and responsibilities of team members

Project Management Course

Project Management Course

• The cabinet supplier reported that it is impossible to deliver

• The fume hood manufacturer needs 17 days to deliver the

• Replacement of the fume duct took 4 days to complete but it

Project Management Course

• Obtain wall cabinets remaining duration = 5

• Install wall cabinets is delayed because of Act 15 “Obtain

• Act 65 “Install new fume hood” is also delayed because Act 25

Project Management Course

Project Management Course

Project Task Task Scheduled Actual Days of effort %Task

RCRBB 2 Survey of Comp.

Project Management Course

• The task leader is responsible for completing the progress data

• Percent complete when entered are normally estimated by the

Project Management Course

Project Management Course

Project Management Course

• Example: 10000 LM of wire is to be pulled and 4000 LM

Project Management Course

Project Management Course

Project Management Course

• This is a subjective approach and should be used

• Supervisor simply makes a judgment on the

Project Management Course

• Such tasks are estimated and budgeted on bulk allocations of

• % Complete = Actual cost or Work-hours to date

Project Management Course

Project Management Course

Members Assess and

Project Management Course

Project Management Course

Project Management Course

• Many ways to examine project

• Presents data required to:

Project Management Course

 Tracking Gantt graphically show progress versus plan

 Task reports focus on specific tasks of interest

 Applied labor reports depict how much labor has been in

 Cost reporting is similar to labor reporting only we are

Project Management Course

Project Management Course

Project Management Course

• Techniques for keeping projects on track

– Focus on critical path

– Look for inconsistencies

– Look for opportunities to recover time

• Be Proactive! Don’t wait until something happens to have a plan.

Project Management Course

Would you believe this task will be completed on time?

Project Management Course

• Use a little overtime before crisis hits