Using data driven project management, projects should measure (at a minimum):
Benefits include being able to measure:
A data driven “project management dashboard” helps projects to ensure they are on track.
When properly applied, EVM (Earned Value Management) provides an early warning of performance problems. Additionally, EVM promises to improve the definition of project scope, prevent scope creep, communicate objective progress to stakeholders, and keep the project team focused on achieving progress.
EVM can play a crucial role in answering management questions that are critical to the success of every project, such as:
The project manager can use the EVM methodology to help identify:
| Term | Description | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| PV (BCWS) | Planned Value (Budgeted Cost of Work Schedule) | What is the estimated value of the work planned to be done? |
| EV (BCWP) | Earned Value (Budgeted Cost of Work Performed) | What is the estimated value of the work actually accomplished? |
| AC (ACWP) | Actual Cost (Actual Cost of Work Performed) | What is the actual cost incurred? |
| BAC | Budget at Completion | How much did you BUDGET for the TOTAL JOB? |
| EAC | Estimate at Completion | What do we currently expect the TOTAL project to cost? |
| ETC | Estimate to Complete | From this point on, how much MORE do we expect it to cost to finish the job? |
| VAC | Variance at Completion | How much over or under budget do we expect to be? |
| Name | Formula | Interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| Earned Value (EV) | Total Estimated Cost * % Complete | Amount of budget earned so far based on physical work accomplished, without reference to actual costs |
| Cost Variance (CV) | EV – AC | NEGATIVE is over budget POSITIVE is under budget |
| Schedule Variance (SV) | EV – PV | NEGATIVE is behind schedule POSITIVE is ahead of schedule |
| Cost Performance Index (CPI) | EV / AC | I am getting _____ cents out of every $1 |
| Schedule Performance Index (SPI) | EV / PV | I am progressing at ___% of the rate originally planned |
| Estimate At Completion (EAC) Note: There are many ways to calculate EAC | BAC / CPI | As of now how much do we expect the total project to cost $_____. Used if no variances from the BAC have occurred |
| AC + ETC | Actual plus a new estimate for remaining work. Used when original estimate was fundamentally flawed | |
| AC + BAC – EV | Actual to date plus remaining budget. Used when current variances are atypical | |
| AC + (BAC – EV) / CPI | Actual to date plus remaining budget modified by performance. When current variances are typical | |
| Estimate To Complete (ETC) | EAC – AC | How much more will the project cost? |
| Variance At Completion (VAC) | BAC – EAC | How much over budget will we be at the end of the project? |
Never confuse effort with results
This is your first opportunity to work with the entire team in a group setting. The purpose of holding a Kickoff Meeting is to:
| Tip: Throughout the project always send out reports after each meeting. All of these reports along with the project documentation should be put in a centralized location accessible to the stakeholders. |
If you have team members who do not know each other, consider team building exercises. Make sure you prepare and distribute an agenda several days before the meeting. Typically, project kickoff meetings are ½ to 1 working day – this depends on the complexity of your project and your need for team building. Suggestions for your agenda include:
After the end of the meeting, write a kickoff meeting report and send it to all the stakeholders. Do this as soon as possible – best is to send this report the next day or at the latest 48 hours after the meeting.
The role of the project manager has often been described as an ambiguous one – chances are you will not have any clear-cut real authority over the people in your project team. There might even be people on your team who are senior to you or have far more project management experience than you. That being said, managing project teams composed of people from different departments, levels of seniority, and cultures is an achievable goal.
A vast body of literature exists on management and leadership styles. Here are three main types of project leadership styles:
| Tip: A good project leader has the ability to know when to use one or a mix of the above styles. The style that you use should be adapted to the current project situation, people in your project, your organization, the culture/country, and your project’s outcome. |
Building a team involves much more than just putting the right people together. For a project team to gel and work effectively you need to do the following:
During the project’s execution phase, the project manager has to make sure that all tasks are executed as planned in terms of time, resources and budget. Measurements should be taken frequently and corrective actions should be made accordingly.
Throughout the project communicate, communicate and communicate. Good communication is a major key success factor of any project. As a project manager you will surely communicate via phone, emails, meetings, and so on.
As mentioned earlier, to be a good communicator, you must be a good listener first. So listen intently to your project team - your team members will appreciate that you value their opinions and encourage discussion. Listening also is very useful as it provides you feedback on whether your team members understand your messages.
Giving your stakeholders access to information is a vital part of any project communications strategy. Ensure that your project team has access to an information sharing system such as an intranet or a similar collaborative environment. In large projects, a team member may be designated to supervise the project information sharing system.
Drive your project don’t let It drive you
Use the project plan to monitor and control your project. During the controlling process, you may have to update the project plan and other documents such as requirements and functional specifications.
The project should be tracked on regular basis and corrective actions should be taken accordingly to the project’s progress or deviation from the original baseline. Successful Project Management Principles & Controls are summarized as three main methods: 
Additionally, Project Management Principles & Controls include managing the inevitable conflicts and changes that arise during a project – Conflict Management and Change Control.
| Tip: Use weekly and daily reminders, agenda or tasks list for follow up. |
Hold review meetings at regular intervals to control project progress. Follow these tips to ensure that your review meetings are effective:
Write a meeting report and circulate it within 24 hours of the meeting. Depending on the situation, you might want to write a detailed report or just a simple list of decisions that were made, and actions to be taken.
Conflicts are inevitable when people (especially from different backgrounds) work together on a project. Conflicts in projects typically fall into the following categories:
Here is a method known as the “win-win” approach to conflict resolution:
The “win-win” conflict resolution method is generally accepted as being a fair one as it allows the conflicting parties to be heard and involves them in working together to find a solution to the conflict. However, the “win-win” method does not always work. In this case, you should agree with the conflicting parties that the conflict is unresolved. You can now adopt one of the following approaches:
Also, note that if properly managed, certain conflicts can be actually good for your team as they may generate new, more effective ways of accomplishing activities. Careful however, when dealing with a multicultural team as conflicts are not perceived the same way in Germany, France, the UK, the US, India or China. Whenever conflicts arise, always keep the goal of your project in mind and try to resolve them as quickly as possible.
Every project has its share of problems, which can be classified into the following categories:
The causes of many project problems are as follows:
A Cost overrun, also known as a cost increase or budget overrun, is an unexpected cost incurred in excess of a budgeted amount due to an under-estimation of the actual cost during budgeting. Cost overrun should be distinguished from cost escalation, which is used to express an anticipated growth in a budgeted cost due to factors such as inflation.
Schedule delay is different than cost overrun. It refers to the late delivery of the project whether there is a cost overrun or not.
All projects are prone to overrun. An overrun acceptance is directly proportional to an organization’s fault absorption capacity. Accordingly the definition of overrun is framed to demonstrate an overrun project as rightly completed project.
5 myths about Project Overrun could be:
| Tip: Projects overrun because most owner and contractor organizations lack a practical and disciplined approach to Risk Management – as a result, risks are seldom understood or mitigated effectively. |
Seasoned project managers often identify dealing with changes and project creep as one of the most (if not the most) challenging problems that a project manager has to face. The very nature of projects makes change inevitable. Changes often impact the project’s budget and schedule (and sometimes the outcome). To cope with changes use a formal change control procedure as follows:
A project is complete when it starts working for you, rather than you working for it
The closing process signals the end of your project. Project Closure is more than a milestone… it is a process, with deliverables, to successfully conclude your project. To ensure that your project does not languish and has a distinct end, follow this procedure:
| Tip: Store all the documents that you produced during the project in your knowledge base for use in a similar project in the future. |
At the end of the project, write a project evaluation report. Such a report can contain the following sections:
 | CONGRATULATIONS! You and your team have successfully completed your project! |