Project Execution,

Monitoring, and Control

Dr K V R SATYA KUMAR
 Initiate Plan Execute & Close
Monitor

Assess Formalize Collect

Close
Feasibility Goals Outputs

Monitor Goals, Cost and

Develop Release

Schedule
Define Kick Off
Schedule Activities

Define Costs

[Obtain
Approval]

Change Control & Configuration Management

Quality Management

Risk Management

Human Resource Management

Project
Execution
Project Execution
• Project execution is where work is performed
• There are three main management activities:
– Kicking activities off
– Collecting the output of activities
– Collecting information about the project health

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Kicking Activities Off
• Goal:
– Ensure there is a formal start for a significant portion of a
project
– Ensure the team is aligned on the goals and modalities of the
activities being started
• The main mean is a kick-off meeting
• In general, any communication mean can be used (but it
risks being less effective than a kick-off meeting)
• Choose an adequate level of granularity

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Collecting the Output of Activities
• Goal:
– Systematic collection of project outputs (deliverables)
– Occasion to assess the lesson learned

• For software projects the main mean to collect project

outputs is a repository + tagging/versioning
• A meeting to assess the lesson learned can also be used
to “formalize” the collection of outputs

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Collecting Information about the Project Status
• Goal:
– Systematic collection of data to assess the project status
• It can be performed on a regular basis (in which case the
frequency has to be chosen according tot he project size)
• It can be performed on a need basis (for exceptional
events, e.g., risks)
• Quantitative data can be collected based on the
monitoring means
• Qualitative data (e.g., team morale, “feeling” about the status
or difficulty of a given task) must also be collected

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Project
Monitoring
and Control
Introduction
• Goals:
– For the project: assessing project status (scope, time, cost, quality,
...), analyzing deviations, and taking corrective actions, if necessary
– For the organization: collecting data helps building a better and
more accurate plans for future projects
• Process (on a regular basis):
– Collect. Get the data about the current status of your project.
– Measure and Compare. Compare with baseline plan, highlight
any deviation, make a projection based on current data.
– Assess and Re-plan. Decide whether corrective actions are
necessary. If so, plan, document, and take the corrective actions.

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 Monitoring and controlling cycle

deviations &
P1 compare replan P2
Plan

(baseline) (new baseline)

assessment
… and the cycle
repeats ...
A1
Monitoring

(actual plan)

describes captured by
Actual World

work
Approaches
• Focus:
– Here we focus on schedule, costs, and progress

• Non-integrated approach:
– Monitor schedule: understand whether we are late or early
– Monitor costs: understand whether we over or under budget
– Simple, but partial views

• Integrated approach:
– Earned Value Analysis: measure schedule, costs, and progress
together
– More complex, but a more comprehensive view

12
Monitoring Schedule
Basic Concepts
• Baseline (planned values):
– A snapshot of the plan at a given time
(plan at t1, plan at t2, …)
– Many baselines can be taken

• Actual Values
– Actual status of the schedule
– Actual start, actual end, actual
effort/actual progress
planned start planned end

actual start actual end

13
The Process
1. Build the plan
2. Save a baseline
3. On a regular basis, assess the plan:
1. Actual start and end of an activity
2. Actual effort spent on the activity
3. Technical progress (may be difficult to assess)

4. Re-plan:
1. Estimate effort and duration to end
2. Technique 1: efficiency with which actual effort has been expressed
w.r.t. planned effort
3. Technique 2: efficiency with which technical progress is expressed w.r.t.
planned progress
4. Share the new plan, and GOTO 2

14
Collecting Effort Data
• Depending on the level of formality... people may be
required to provide data about effort spent on activities
• Usually best on a weekly basis
• Need to reference activities of the plan
• It will contain “noise”
John Doe W1 W2 W3 W4
Requirements M1 30 6
Requirements M2 30 6
Meeting 2 2 6 2
Research 4 4 4 4
Indirect activities 2

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Monitoring Costs
Cost control, the simple approach
• The budget table defines your baseline
• Actual costs define your current status
• It can be split over years (or reporting periods)
CBS Item Budgeted Actual Status New Budget
Hardware €10,000.00 €5,000.00 €5,000.00 €5,000.00
Software €4,000.00 €2,000.00 €2,000.00 €2,000.00
Travel €5,000.00 €6,000.00 -€1,000.00 €1,000.00
Project Bfr €3,000.00 €3,000.00 €1,000.00
Total €22,000.00 €13,000.00 €9,000.00 €9,000.00

Overruns drawn from other funds (e.g. project buffer, a

different CES item) or from other projects

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Remarks
• Advantages:
– Relatively simple (however, delays between commitment of
expenditures and cash flow)
– For various CES items probably the best way of monitoring
(e.g. hardware, software, ...)

• Disadvantages:
– Not sufficient to have an idea on the overall status of the
project (will we make it with the remaining money?)

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Earned Value
Analysis
Earned Value Analysis
• Earned Value Analysis provides an integrated view
of the project by measuring planned effort (costs),
actual progress (earned value), and effort
(actual costs) in terms of monetary values
• Measuring plan, work, and progress with the same unit
makes them comparable
• Useful because:
– Progress becomes comparable with effort
– Budget and actual costs are put in context (being under
budget is not necessarily good, if the technical progress is
even lower)

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Assumptions and Definitions
• Assumptions:
– Manpower = Cost: plotting effort or cost is equivalent
– Corollary: Actual manpower = Actual Cost
– Progress = Money
• Definitions:
– Planned Value: the cumulative costs planned for the project.
Also called: Budgeted Costs of Work Scheduled
– Actual Costs: the cumulative costs actually incurred into.
Also called: Actual Costs of Work Performed
– Earned Value: the actual progress, expressed as the quantity of
planned value which has generated results

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Planned Cost Computation
Planned
Name Time
Cost

A 1000 A
B 2000 B
C 400 C

A 1000 500 500

B 2000 1000 1000
C 400 100 100 100 100

Total 500 1500 1100 100 100 100

500 2000 3100 3200 3300 3400

Cumulative

4000 3400
3200 3300
3100
3000
2000
2000

1000
500
M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6
0

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Earned Value Computation
• Rule 1.
– Earned value should be determined by examining products

• Rule 2.
– 50/50 Rule (50% of Planned Value at start and 50% at end)
– 20/80 Rule (20% at start and 80% at end)
– 0/100 Rule (0% at start and 100% at end)

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Earned Value Analysis
Money
BAC = project budget
AC
(Actual Costs)

PV
(Planned Value)

Cost
Variance
Schedule
Variance
EV
(Earned Value)

Time

monitoring planned end

date
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Some Interesting Points and Metrics
• BAC = Budget at Completion
• SV: Schedule Variance (BCWP-BCWS)
– A comparison of amount of work performed during a given
period of time to what was scheduled to be performed.
– A negative variance means the project is behind schedule

• CV: Cost Variance (BCWP-ACWP)

– A comparison of the budgeted cost of work performed with
actual cost.
– A negative variance means the project is over budget.

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Cost Performance Index (CPI)
EVt
CPIt =
\mbox{\em CPI}_t =
\frac{\mbox{\em EV}_t}{\mbox{\em

AC t
AC}_t}

• CPI (Cost Performance Index) compare s work

performed to actual costs
• How much are we getting for each euro we
spend?

CPI > 1 Project is efficient

CPI < 1 Project is inefficient

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management

Schedule Performance Index (SPI)
EVt
SPI t
= PV t
• SPI (Schedule Performance Index) compares work
performed to work planned
• How fast does the project progress w.r.t. how fast we
expected it to be?

SPI > 1 Project is ahead of schedule

SPI < 1 Project is behind schedule

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management

Cost Schedule Index (CSI)

C S It = C P I t * SPI t
EVt t
t
A
ECVt PV t
CSI = ⇤
• CSI: Cost Schedule Index (CSI=CPI x SPI)

• The further CSI is from 1.0, the less likely project

recovery becomes

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management

Measuring SPI and CPI

SPI

early, but early and

early

over budget under budget

exactly like scheduled

and budgeted
late and late, but
late

over budget under budget

CPI
over budget under budget
1

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Earned Value
Analysis: Example
Example

• Remarks:
– Lower part = baseline; upper part: actual & progress

• Questions:
– Are we late?
– Are we over budget?

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Example

• Activity 1: as scheduled (time)

• Activity 2: started late; ahead of schedule
• Activity 3: started earlier; progress same as time elapsed
• Activity 4: not started yet

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Example: BCWS (Planned Value)

Paint Wall 800 800 800 800

Paint Ceiling 800 800 800 800

Refurnish 400 400

Clean 400

Budgeted Cost of Work 800 1600 2400 4000 4800 5600 6800 7200 7600
Scheduled
(BCWS)
€
8,000

€
BCWS 6,000
€
4,000
€
2,000
€
0 w1 w3 w5 w7 Untitled 1

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Example: BCWP (Earned Value)

Paint Wall 1600 1600

Paint Ceiling 0 1600

Refurnish 400

Clean

Budgeted Cost of Work 1600 1600 1600 3200 5200

Scheduled
(BCWS)
€
8,000

€
BCWS 6,000
€
BCWP 4,000
€
2,000
€
0 w1 w3 w5 w7 Untitled 1

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Comments
• Ahead of schedule on week 1 because of the noise of the
50%-50% rule (analogously the delay on w2 and w3)
• w4: we are behind schedule (activity 2 did not start as
expected)
• w5: we are again ahead of schedule, because of activity 3.
• Since the 50%-50% rule only counts start and end of
activities, the fact that progress in activity 2 is better than
expected is not taken into account in the EVA graph

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Example: ACWP (Actual Costs)

Paint Wall 900 900 900 900

Paint Ceiling 0 2000

Refurnish 400

Clean

Actual Cost of Work 900 1800 2700 3600 6000

Performed
(ACWP)
€
8,000

€
BCWS 6,000
€
BCWP 4,000
ACWP €
2,000
€
0 w1 w2 w3 w4 w5 w6 w7 w8

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Recap
Paint Wall €800.00 €800.00 €800.00 €800.00

Paint Ceiling €800.00 €800.00

Refurnish

Clean

Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS) €800 €1,600 €2,400 €4,000 €4,800

Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP) €1,600 €1,600 €1,600 €3,200 €5,200

Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWS) €900 €1,800 €2,700 €3,600 €6,000

CPI (BCWP/ACWP) 178% 89% 59% 89% 87%

SPI (BCWP/BCWS) 200% 100% 67% 80% 108%

Cost Variance €700 -€200 -€1,100 -€400 -€800

Schedule Variance €800 €0 -€800 -€800 €400

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Comments
• Various noise due to the 50%-50% rule (e.g. w1)
• Data shows that we are now a bit over budget, but
early in schedule (last column).
• However:
– Actual costs efficiency is due to the 50%-50% rule on activity 2
(we accrued 1600) ... the data will get more accurate when we
finish activity 2 (expenditure will likely be 4000 euros and BCWS
3200)

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