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Things that can go wrong, will go wrong ...

In real life nothing ever works exactly according to the plan. Therefore it is mandatory to recognize deviations from the plan as early as possible to avoid long term damage to the project. This is done by comparing the actual values for times, cost and progress to the base values like schedules, budgeted cost or progress. To do so the current data is continuously fed into the project database. Obviously this is the point at which computers come in very handy.

While usually a project is controlled by the ratio of planned costs (budgeted cost) and to-date costs (actual cost that has occurred so far) this may often not be enough, because is doesn't say anything about the progress versus cost or time schedule versus cost. The most common way to make flaws in the dependencies of the different values visible is the earned-value analysis.

... but to avoid to get stuck somewhere in the middle do your progress planning right.

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Copyright © 1998 Bodo Hasubek and ECE, with suggestions from Dr. Smith.
Last modified: August 14, 1998