Project Control - This industry is slow to bite.

Anonymous

I have the pleasure of introducing project controls to a s/w development company.
The product development (s/w coders & testers) do not have any mandate to charge time. I do have a schedule in place and we status that. We also do not force the teams to resource load the schedules, so EV is out the window.
Is there any advantage to collecting time charges against a schedule that is not resource loaded? What benefit will I get for collecting actual cost against a schedule that is not resource loaded?

Our financial reports are generated from the CFO office, so there are accounting practices in place, but not EV.
Thank you.

Posted: Mar 9, 2001 9:04 AM

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Frank Patrick Boonton, Nj, United States

Good. Stay away from charging time if there is no contractural reason (like the absurdity of cost-plus) to do so. Every environment that I've ever seen that required people to keep time cards filled resulted in just that and only that, along with projects that took longer than necessary.

What is the goal? If it is to get more projects done quickly with quality, and on time, what does cost tracking do to support it?

Rather than push for cost control, I would spend time and effort pushing for project control through resource leveled schedules so that there is at least some chance of making something like a rational promise to your clients.
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Posted: Mar 9, 2001 1:30 PM

Tom Welch PMP Mesa, Az, United States

In addition to Frank's comments, I would
add that EV is designed for large scale
projects, 50 million dollars and above,
so in most cases using EV is probably
inappropriate and punative when applied
to smaller projects. In your case, I
subscribe to the KISS theory, Keep It
Simple Stupid!

Posted: Mar 11, 2001 9:57 AM

Anonymous

I started life in Construction PM… Now I facilitate PM, PM Training, and Support PM Applications for an IT Department... I am struggling with these issues as you are… Remember, Project Management is Generic, Basic Rules apply the same to all disciplines, only the Techniques vary… Basic Rule Number One of Project Management is you manage, the Deliverable, the Delivery Schedule, and the Cost of the Deliverable… If money is not important to your company, if resources are abundant, and above all you personally don’t own stock, then by all means don’t manage project cost… However, I do agree with Mr. Welch’s comment about KISS… But simplicity doesn’t mean to compromise integrity, don’t just ignore cost management, because that dog will come back and bite you… “Money is the root of all Projects”… Money keeps companies in business… Money is really why we do this stuff…

Posted: Mar 21, 2001 8:52 AM

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Project Control - This industry is slow to bite.

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