6.3.2 Chapter 10 of PMF by Christianson
6.3.3 Knowledge check (part A) (with solutions)
6.3.4 Chapter 9 of PMF by Christianson
6.3.5 Knowledge check (part B) (with solutions)
Track costs.
Overview
This learning module (Lesson 3 of Unit 6) is part of a course called Project Management Fundamentals and may either be completed individually as a stand-alone topic, or part of a trio of learning modules on cost management, or as part of the course.
Learning outcomes (part A - monitoring).
Earned value analysis is an elegant way to measure adherance to schedule and budget at the same time. It requires some computation, but it is an essential skills of project managers in the execution and monitoring of project progress.
Upon successful completion of this module, you'll be able to:
- Calculate schedule metrics.
- Calculate budget metrics.
- Identify project quadrant and necessary actions.
What is earned value analysis? | 20-30 minute read
Porf. Christianson considers his Project Management Fundamentals textbook a work-in-progress (version 0.5). It is available at OER Commons as PDF download. He also provides a nice companion student workbook also available as a PDF download. For each chapter, the workbook provides a skeletal outline and knowledge checks (with answer keys). In many chapters, there are exercises and examples. It may be provided to students as a whole workbook or subsections may be provided with each chapter.
Download the attached handout.
Read chapter 10 (Earned Value Analysis) of Christianson's Project Management Fundamentals text (PDF resource attached).
FYI: J. Scott Christianson is a professor at the University of Missouri and has an interesting website about technology (from AI to blockchain to crypto and everything in between).
How do I calculate earned value? | 20 minute watch
Watch this overview video of earned value analysis by Szwed (2019).
Practice caluclating earned value | 20-30 minute exercise
There are several texts on project management available as open educational resources (OER):
- Project Management: from Simple to Complex by anonymous (2010) NOTE: This will be unpublished on 31 December 2024.
- Project Management by Adrienne Watt (2014)
- Delivering Value with Project Management by Woods, Marshal, and Schlesiger (2023)
- Project Management: Navigating the Complexity with a Systematic Approach by Abdullah Oguz (2022)
- Project Management Fundamentals by Christianson (2016) with accompanying student workbook
You may like to explore some of theses. I have used several of them and decided the PMF by Christianson suited my needs for this course.
Here is a useful set of exercises to practice calculating earned value created as an open text called "Project Management: from Simple to Complex" published anonymously in 2010.
Test your knowledge (part A - monitoring).
|
2. T/F: Each chunk of work corresponds to a chunk of budget and a chunk of schedule.
- True
- False
3. If schedule variance is less than zero (SV<0) and cost variance is greater than zero (CV>0), you should:
- do nothing.
- scope down.
- de-scope.
- crash activities on critical path
4. T/F: You can monitor cost variance and schedule variance for each activity.
- True
- False
Learning outcomes (part B- controlling).
As you just learned in part A, earned value analysis is a form of monioting a project. Sometimes, when your project is behind schedule, you will need to perform special activities to "catch-up." In order to put what you learned through moniotring (eva) into action, you will need to execute a compensating activity to get your project back on shcedule. Crashing is the most common example.
Upon successful completion of this module, you'll be able to:
- Identify common forms of schedule compression.
- Calculate the cost to benefit of each opportunity.
- Select the most opportune activities to crash.
What is schedule compression? | 20-30 minute read
Porf. Christianson considers his Project Management Fundamentals textbook a work-in-progress (version 0.5). It is available at OER Commons as PDF download. He also provides a nice companion student workbook also available as a PDF download. For each chapter, the workbook provides a skeletal outline and knowledge checks (with answer keys). In many chapters, there are exercises and examples. It may be provided to students as a whole workbook or subsections may be provided with each chapter.
Read chapter 9 (Reducing Project Duration) of Christianson's Project Management Fundamentals text (PDF resource attached).
FYI: J. Scott Christianson is a professor at the University of Missouri and has an interesting website about technology (from AI to blockchain to crypto and everything in between).
What is crashing? | 6 minute watch
How do I crash a project? | 20 minute watch - 2 videos
Test your knowledge (part B - controlling).
- Crashing a task involves:
- showing up unannounced.
- allocating additional resources.
- reducing the scope.
- driving the project team "off-the-road."
- T/F: You should crash the task that has the best cost efficiency regardless of whether or not it is on the critical path.
- True
- False