Project Execution,

Monitoring, and
Control
Goals of the Unit
• Plans have little value if not executed and, during
execution, monitored and updated to reflect the current
situation
• This unit introduces:
– The activities to put a plan into practice
– The techniques for monitoring and controlling your plans
(progress and costs against schedule and budget)
– Earned Value Analysis, a technique which allows the project
manager to monitor a project in an integrated way

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 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.

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management 10

 Monitoring and controlling cycle

deviations &
Plan

P1 compare replan P2
assessment
(baseline) (new baseline)

… and the cycle

repeats ...
Monitoring

A1
(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

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

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management 14

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

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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

Cumulative 500 2000 3100 3200 3300 3400

4000 3400
3100 3200 3300
3000
2000
2000

1000 500

0
M1 M2 M3 M4 M5 M6

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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)

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

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
spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management 25
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}

ACt
• CPI (Cost Performance Index) compares 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
SPIt =
PVt
• 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)

CSIt = CPIt SPIt

EVt EVt
CSIt = ⇤
ACt P Vt

• 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

1
exactly like scheduled
and budgeted
late and late, but
late

over budget under budget

CPI
over budget under budget
1

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management 30

Earned Value Analysis:
Example
Example

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

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

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management 32

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

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management 33

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

€ 6,000

BCWS € 4,000

€ 2,000

€0
w1 w3 w5 w7 Untitled 1

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management 34

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

€ 6,000

BCWS € 4,000
BCWP
€ 2,000

€0
w1 w3 w5 w7 Untitled 1

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management 35

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

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management 36

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

€ 6,000

BCWS € 4,000
BCWP
ACWP € 2,000

€0
w1 w2 w3 w4 w5 w6 w7 w8

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management 37

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

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management 38

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)

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management 39