Unit VII Assessment

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Copyright 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Chapter 10

Monitoring and Information Systems

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Terms

  • Monitoring - Collecting, recording, and reporting information concerning any and all aspects of project performance
  • Controlling - Uses the data supplied by monitoring to bring actual performance into compliance with the plan
  • Evaluation - Judgments regarding the quality and effectiveness of project performance

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The Planning–Monitoring–Controlling Cycle

  • We mainly want to monitor:

Time (schedule)

Cost (budget)

Scope (project performance)

  • Closed-loop system

Revised plans and schedules following corrective actions

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Project Authorization and Expenditure Control System Information Flow

Figure 10-1

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Designing the Monitoring System

  • Identify key factors to be controlled

Scope

Cost

Time

  • Information to be collected must be identified

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Designing the Monitoring System Continued

  • Do not want to avoid collecting necessary data because it is hard to get
  • Do not want to collect too much data
  • The next step is to design a reporting system that gets the data to the proper people in a timely and understandable manner

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Data Collection

  • Once we know the data we want, we need to decide how to collect it
  • Should the data be collected after some event?
  • Should it be collected on a regular basis?
  • Are there any special forms needed for data collection?

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Much Data Involves

  • Frequency counts
  • Raw numbers
  • Subjective numeric ratings
  • Indicators
  • Verbal measures

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Information Needs and Reporting

  • Everyone should be tied into the reporting system
  • Reports should address each level
  • Not at same depth and frequency for every level

Lower-level needs detailed information

Senior management levels need overview reports

  • Report frequency is typically high at low levels and less frequent at higher levels

Everyone concerned with the project should be appropriately tied into the project reporting system. The monitoring system ought to be constructed so that it addresses every level of management, but reports need not be of the same depth or at the same frequency for each level. Lower-level personnel have a need for detailed information about individual tasks and the factors affecting such tasks. Report frequency is usually high. For the senior management levels, overview reports describe progress in more aggregated terms with less individual task detail unless senior management has a special interest in a specific activity or task. Reports are issued less often. In both cases, the structure of the reports should reflect the work breakdown structure, with each managerial level receiving reports that allow the exercise of control at the relevant level.

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The Reporting Process

  • Reports must contain relevant data
  • Must be issued frequently
  • Should be available in time for control
  • Distribution of project reports depends on interest

For senior management, may be few milestones

For project manager, there may be many critical points

The relationship of project reports to the project action plan or work breakdown structure is the key to the determination of both report content and frequency. Reports must contain data applicable to the control of specific tasks that are being carried out according to a specific schedule. The frequency of reporting should be great enough to allow control to be exerted during or before the period in which the task is scheduled for completion. In addition to the criterion that reports should be available in time to be used for project control, the timing of reports should generally correspond to the timing of project milestones.

The distribution of project reports depends on who is interested. For senior management, there may be only a few milestones, even in large projects. For the project manager there may be many critical points in the project schedule at which major decisions must be made, large changes in the resource base must be initiated, or key technical results achieved. Similar points relevant to lower levels relate to finer detail and occur with higher frequency.

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Benefits of Detailed and Timely Reports

  • Mutual understanding of the goals
  • Awareness of the progress of parallel activities
  • Understanding the relationship of tasks
  • Early warning signals of problems
  • Minimizing the confusion
  • Higher visibility to top management
  • Keeping client up to date

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Report Types

  • Routine - Reports that are issued on a regular basis or each time the project reaches a milestone
  • Exception - Reports that are generated when an usual condition occurs or as an informational vehicle when an unusual decision is made
  • Special Analysis - Reports that result from studies commissioned to look into unexpected problems

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Meetings

  • Reports do not have to be written
  • They can be delivered verbally in meetings
  • Projects have too many meetings
  • The trick is to keep them to as few as possible

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Meeting Rules

  • Use meetings to make group decisions
  • Start and end on time and have an agenda
  • Do your homework before the meeting
  • Take minutes
  • Avoid attributing remarks to individuals in minutes
  • Avoid overly formal rules of procedure
  • Call meeting for serious problems

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Common Reporting Problems

  • Too much detail
  • Poor interface between the data/procedures of the project and the information system of the parent company
  • Poor correspondence between the planning process and the monitoring process

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Earned Value Analysis

  • Have covered monitoring parts

Timing and coordination between individual tasks is important

  • Must also monitor performance of entire project

Crux of matter should not be overlooked

  • One way is by using an aggregate performance measure called earned value

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The Earned Value Chart and Calculations

  • Actual against baseline ignores the amount of work accomplished
  • Earned value incorporates work accomplished
  • Multiply the estimated percent work complete for each task by the planned cost
  • Only need percent complete estimate for tasks currently in progress

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Rules to Aid in Estimating Percent Completion

  • 50-50 rule
  • 0-100 percent rule
  • Critical input use rule
  • Proportionality rule

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The Earned Value Chart

Figure 10-6

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Variances

  • Variances can help analyze a project

A negative variance is bad

Cost and schedule variances are calculated as the earned value minus some other measure

  • Will look at some of the more common ones

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Cost Variance (CV)

  • CV = EV – AC

  • Negative variance indicates a cost overrun

  • Magnitude depends on the costs

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Schedule Variance (SV)

  • SV = EV – PV

  • Negative variance indicates you are behind schedule

  • Measured using costs

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Time Variance (TV)

  • TV = ST – AT

  • Negative variance indicates you are behind schedule

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Indices

  • Cost Performance Index

CPI = EV/AC

  • Schedule Performance Index

SPI = EV/PV

  • Time Performance Index

TPI = ST/AT

  • Cost Schedule Index

CSI = EV2/(AC)(PV)

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“To complete” and “At Completion”

  • Project manager reviewing what is complete and what remains
  • Final cost and final completion date are moving targets
  • The project manager compiles these into a to complete forecast
  • Actual + forecast = final date and cost at completion

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ETC and EAC

ETC = (BAC + EV)/CPI

EAC = ETC + AC

where,

ETC = Estimated cost to complete

BAC = Budget at completion

EV = Earned value

CPI = Cost performance index

EAC = Estimated cost at completion

AC = Amount expended to date (actual cost)

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Milestone Reporting

  • Reports that are created when a project reaches a major milestone
  • They are designed to keep everyone up-to-date on project status
  • For executives and clients, these may be the only reports they receive

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Computerized PMIS (Project Management Information Systems)

  • Real projects are often large

Hundreds of tasks

Thousands of work units

  • Reporting is clearly a job for the computer
  • Project management information systems were one of the earlier applications
  • Initially focus was on scheduling
  • Now it includes, earned values, variances, and more

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PMIS Errors

  • Managing the PMIS
  • Computer paralysis
  • PMIS verification
  • Information overload
  • Project isolation
  • Computer dependence
  • PMIS misdirection

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PMIS Desirable Attributes

  • Friendliness
  • Schedules
  • Calendars
  • Budgets
  • Reports
  • Graphics
  • Charts
  • Migration
  • Consolidation
  • Access