Project performance and completion

Using earned value to monitor project performance.

Earned value management is a tool which enables quantitative measurement of work performance in relation to a schedule and budget plan(A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge(PMBOK Guide), 2013).The actual completion of scheduled work and the associated cost is considered against an integrated schedule and budget plan.This is done by analysis of cost and schedule variance, along with cost and schedule efficiency.Formulas are used to carry out variance analysis and performance indices in order to assess project performance.

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The Project’s Budget at Completion(BAC)

The projected budget is $13.3 million

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Schedule and Cost Performance Indices

Schedule performance index measures schedule efficiency and is calculated as:Earned Value (EV)/Planned Value (PV), where planned value(PV) is the work which had been planned to be achievedCost performance index measures cost efficiency by comparing the actual and planned value of work done, and is calculated as:Earned Value (EV)/Actual Cost (AC), where actual cost (AC) is the amount used to execute the task.Performance indices are used to determine whether the cost is less than, equal to or greater than budgeted, and whether they are ahead, within or behind schedule in the project. The managers can then put in place the necessary interventions.

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Agile and Traditional methods of Project Performance Measurement.

Traditional methods of performance measurement put more focus on observing and measuring the actual performance in the project and fixing any variations which arise (A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge(PMBOK Guide), 2013). The project manager pays attention to factors such as effort, quality and cost. Tracking such factors may be may be time consuming.On the other hand, agile project performance measurement encourages innovation and provides greater opportunities to monitor processes going on in the project.

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Agile and Traditional methods of Project Performance Measurement.

The monitoring technique in agile project performance measurement used is to track the software that has been delivered incrementally. Product increment is show cased at the end of a time box during product demonstrationAgile project monitoring is in various forms including frequent delivery, colocation, daily team meeting and timebox review meeting.These forms enable timely completion of the project, ease communication and enable solution of impediments to allow the project team to move forward in the completion of the project.

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Steps to Closing a Project

Preparation of logistics required before project closureEnables the project team to terminate all contracts with suppliers, manufacturers and clients among others.Project documentationKeeps in writing information concerning the entire project for record keeping, reference and legal purposes.Post-implementation audit, preparation and submission of the final reportPost implementation audit enables derivation of the expenditure of the project and to account for the funds used. It enables assessment of output of the project in relation to the input.

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Steps to Closing a Project

Preparation and submission of the final report ensures that all departments are present to take part in the finalization of the report, and that they all agree with the contents of the report.Obtaining client approvalClient approval is sought in compliance with legislation in order to ensure that the client is aware of project closure and have no opposition to it.Closing operationsThe project is declared closed and the project team is disbanded (A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge(PMBOK Guide), 2013).

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Goals of a Project Retrospective

A project retrospective looks back at the completed project and determines the successes of the project, the areas which needed improvement to perform better, and attempts to come up with actions which can be taken to improve the next project (UC Davis Organizational Excellence. (n.d.).A project retrospective enables continuous improvement in the quality of projects. And to improve team performance on the projects.

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References

Project Management Institute. (2013). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) (5th ed.). Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.UC Davis Organizational Excellence. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://oe.ucdavis.edu/local_resources/docs/pmpkickoff.pdf

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