Julia BragaPMO Manager| The iQ Group GlobalNorth Curl Curl, Nsw, Australia
Hello, I am hoping to get some ideas from the group. I was wondering what are the standards for calculating project status based on schedule only? I am not tracking budget or costs. This is for a simple project. Someone recommended: Expected progress / % Complete (or some variation of it). For example, is a project is 80% complete but should be 90%, we would compute 90/80 = 1.125. Status can then be determined as Off Track where: On Track = 0 - .7; At Risk = 7. – 1; Off Track 1. Any comments/thoughts?
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Jul 25, 2019 3:12 AM
Replying to Julia Braga
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HI Rami,
Thank you for your reply but I still don't understand how I will calculate SV or SPI without a budget. I am assuming I have enough money to do everything. It's just a scheduling issue.
Thank you,
Julia
Julia, in this case you need to define another metric to measure the Schedule such as Square Foot as in the second example I gave you, or Unit Code in Software or Cubic Meter in Concrete and so on but without defining a certain metric to measure your Schedule progress, you will never be able to measure it using EVM.
Regarding your comment, even if you assume you have enough money, what I just explained to you above has to do with how much money you allocated or budgeted, not if there is enough money or not so if you are working on a project without a budget then you certainly need to define an alternative meaningful metric to measure progress / schedule but make sure that this metric is consistent throughout all your project, Hope this clarifies ! Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
First of all we take into account the accepted risk thereshold in our project policies. It means how much +-deviation is acceptable. Second, we have undestand that things do not happend exactly as you plan in your schedule for lot of reasons then it has no sence trying to follow it in this way. What matters is to achieve the objective and how far you are of it in a point of time. Thrid, I was the author of the method I used in other companies and in my actual company right now. The method uses three indicators:
Spot Light: "General Health considering organizationsl accepted corporate thershold
TO Date ACTUAL - To date status taking into account actual vs planned and organizational accepted corporate threshold
TO Complete FUTURE - In which status the project will end if actual tendencies continue (risk-issue-scope-time) considering organizational accepted threshold
For each activity, we calculate the elapsed time and the remainded time.
For each acitvity, we calculate the remainded work to do.
Suppose you have 60% progress and you have 20% remainded time then you have a problem here and the activity could be red or at least you have to explain how you will perform the 40% remainded work in 20% remainded time. Saving Changes...
You may need to use OTD. On-time delivery index. you can calculate this for any task and the whole project or phase. for example:
schedule delivery date: Jan 12
Actual delivery/finish date of the task: Jan 15
OTD= 12-15=3 days
You can use the average of this OTD as an index. Moreover, you can calculate the ratio of the delayed tasks to the total number of tasks completed as an index. Saving Changes...
Mark BilyeuProject manager | Edward J. Rice Co.Mo, United States
Julia,
I have a similar situation with my projects. I use hours of work as the numbers to plug into the EVM formula rather than $'s. I don't know if this is the perfect PMBOK answer, but it gives me a quick method to see the general shape of the project schedule and where I need to focus my attention. Is this sort of what you are asking about?
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1 reply by Julia Braga
Jul 25, 2019 6:25 PM
Julia Braga
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Hi Mark,
Thank you for your reply. Maybe I didn't ask the question correctly. I am just trying to define parameters for the traffic lights (on track, at risk, off track) on our project management software.
It would be something as simple as completed work/planned work and determining what range is acceptable for on track, at risk, off track. We can pick any range we want but I was reaching out to see what other PMs use.
It's a simple concept as we are not taking budget or costs into consideration.
Thank you,
julia
Saving Changes...
Wade HarshmanScrum Master| GDITIndianapolis, In, United States
Julia,
I understand the scenario you're describing. Your method will work, as long as you are transparent about it. The people you're reporting to need to understand the numbers you're giving them. It may be a simple metric, but it's still better than a subjective, color-coded project status.
Similar to EVM, though, you need to dig deeper as a project manager and find the facts hidden by the numbers. Numbers are indicators, they don't tell the whole story. For example, your schedule may appear behind, but if that's not part of the critical path, then your real situation might be better than the numbers make it sound. As another example, you may have a team member who is 2 days behind, but that person might have new priorities and won't get back to your project for a week. In that scenario, the real situation is worse than the numbers indicate.
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1 reply by Julia Braga
Jul 25, 2019 6:27 PM
Julia Braga
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Than you Wade. This is just a simple calculation to start with as we are not taking budget or costs into consideration. We are just trying to define parameters for the traffic lights (green, amber, red) on our PM software only based on work complete.
Kind Regards,
Julia
Saving Changes...
Oliver HairstonAssociate| Booz Allen HamiltonTx, United States
Julia,
You can calculate your SV and SPI with the amount of days, hours, percent complete planned versus what you actually spent to complete the activity. Though the parameters in this case would be subjective to whatever you determine to mean behind or ahead of schedule since you are not calculating with cost. Hope this helps. Saving Changes...
I would suggest, you keep it simple and have the schedule by itself forecast your project: You just need to make sure that all tasks that are (partially) done, have the correct actual dates (i.e. are scheduled in the past) and that all tasks still to be done are scheduled in the future. If you have complete and correct network logic, this will make the schedule forecast your project without any of the performance measurement techniques recommended above. This way of working is also known as "Forecast Scheduling" which happens to be the title of my published textbooks.
Sure you could implement EVM, but it requires the following:
- Data transfer of actual cost for your project (ideally by deliverable or by work package) from your accounting system to your project scheduling application. Ideally, this is done electronically with an automated bridge. If you do not have an automated bridge between accounting and scheduling software, I recommend you use "Forecast Scheduling" instead.
- Smart choice of what type of Earned Value is best applied to your project in terms of determining the value earned: 0-100%, 50-50%, 25-75% methods for work packages or milestone method or other methods.
- Discipline and intersubjectivity in determining Earned Value for work packages.
I hope this helps! Saving Changes...
James ShieldsIS Director - Portfolio Solutions| City and County of San Francisco, SFPDSan Francisco, Ca, United States
In PMBOK Sixth Edition, it hints at a trend to include Earned Schedule (ES) as part of EVM. Instead of EV - PV, it works with ES - AT … with AT = Actual Time.
Quite honestly, the topic is complex, not fully developed and added to that the acronyms used in this theory are not agreed-upon and can be confusing.
Nonetheless, do a Google search on Earned Schedule. You may find some useful information to assist you in in finding a way to evaluate schedule performance with having to use cost.
I think people are overly complicating EVM a bit by directly equating cost and budget with units of money. Hours of effort involved is the most frequent unit of EV "cost". If you planned out how much effort a task would take, that is your estimated cost for the task. When you put it into the plan as the amount of labor you plan to expend, that is the budget for the task.
Steve Jobs (?) described how he did his best thinking in the shower. Using EVM, he might estimate a particularly hard problem would cost him 3 showers. If he planned one shower a day, he has a schedule and all the information you need to compute EVM metrics.
His budget to solve the problem is 3 showers. The AC is how many showers he has actually taken regardless of how many days have passed. The EV is how much of the problem he has solved * 3 showers.
If he solved the problem in 2 showers over 2 days: EV (how much got done) = 100% complete * 3 showers (BAC) = 3 showers PV (expected amount done) = 67% * 3 showers = 2 showers AC (effort spent) = 2 showers Saving Changes...
Julia BragaPMO Manager| The iQ Group GlobalNorth Curl Curl, Nsw, Australia
Jul 25, 2019 8:48 AM
Replying to Mark Bilyeu
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Julia,
I have a similar situation with my projects. I use hours of work as the numbers to plug into the EVM formula rather than $'s. I don't know if this is the perfect PMBOK answer, but it gives me a quick method to see the general shape of the project schedule and where I need to focus my attention. Is this sort of what you are asking about?
Hi Mark,
Thank you for your reply. Maybe I didn't ask the question correctly. I am just trying to define parameters for the traffic lights (on track, at risk, off track) on our project management software.
It would be something as simple as completed work/planned work and determining what range is acceptable for on track, at risk, off track. We can pick any range we want but I was reaching out to see what other PMs use.
It's a simple concept as we are not taking budget or costs into consideration.
Thank you,
julia
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1 reply by Mark Bilyeu
Jul 26, 2019 9:13 AM
Mark Bilyeu
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I get what your saying now. I don't have a book answer for the way I lay out the traffic light parameters. I based mine off the type of deliverable (is this a new product or a repeat of a similar product), the skills of the people doing the actual build (we have several junior mechanical and controls folks), and resource availability (this is the big driver-often I don't get enough people until close to the end of the project or phase).
I came up with "green" or on track as 5% behind schedule and higher, "yellow" at risk as 5% to 25% behind schedule, and anything greater than 25% behind schedule as "Red". The percentages are based simply on actual hours completed to planned hours for the schedule. It seems kind of simplistic and ad hoc, but it works for me and the projects I'm assigned to at the moment.
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