Earned Value Management Using Microsoft Office Project


Book Description

Schedule and cost management are the most essential parts of project lifecycle management and many projects fail as a result of not managing these critical components effectively. The most commonly used tool for project schedule management is Microsoft Office Project, which is designed to assist project managers in developing schedules, assigning resources to tasks, tracking progress, managing budgets and analyzing workloads. The most common technique used for cost management is earned value management (EVM), a project management technique used for measuring project progress in an objective manner that combines measurements of project scope, schedule and cost performance within a single integrated methodology. EVM is becoming the standard across the world for this purpose in both the private and public sector and many organizations are now adopting this technique to manage their projects. In the public sector, EVM is mandated for all government projects in the United States and many other countries are following suit. Earned Value Management Using Microsoft® Office Project is the first reference to effectively combine the most widely used scheduling tool with the most widely accepted cost management technique. It is a practical guide to end-to-end scheduling and cost management using Microsoft Office Project that includes a CD-ROM of a limited version of a unique EVM software tool that will help practitioners more effectively manage their projects, track and report the status and progress of projects, and take necessary action before their projects fail beyond repair. This text is an excellent complement to whatever Microsoft Office Project guide that you may be using and a significant addition to the literature on how to use EVM.




A Practical Guide to Earned Value Project Management


Book Description

The Best Resource on Earned Value Management Just Got Better! This completely revised and updated guide to earned value (EV) project management is the go-to choice for both corporate and government professionals. A Practical Guide to Earned Value Project Management, Second Edition, first offers a general overview of basic project management best practices and then delves into detailed information on EV metrics and criteria, EV reporting mechanisms, and the 32 criteria of earned value management systems (EVMS) promulgated by the American National Standards Institute and the Electronic Industries Alliance and adopted by the Department of Defense. This second edition includes new material on: • EV metrics • Implementing EVMS • Government contracts • Time-based earned schedule metrics • Critical chain methodologies




The Illusion of Control


Book Description

This book comprehensively assesses the growing importance of project data for project scheduling, risk analysis and control. It discusses the relevance of project data for both researchers and professionals, and illustrates why the collection, processing and use of such data is not as straightforward as most people think. The theme of this book is known in the literature as data-driven project management and includes the discussion of using computer algorithms, human intuition, and project data for managing projects under risk. The book reviews the basic components of data-driven project management by summarizing the current state-of-the-art methodologies, including the latest computer and machine learning algorithms and statistical methodologies, for project risk and control. It highlights the importance of artificial project data for academics, and describes the specific requirements such data must meet. In turn, the book discusses a wide variety of statistical methods available to generate these artificial data and shows how they have helped researchers to develop algorithms and tools to improve decision-making in project management. Moreover, it examines the relevance of project data from a professional standpoint and describes how professionals should collect empirical project data for better decision-making. Finally, the book introduces a new approach to data collection, generation, and analysis for creating project databases, making it relevant for academic researchers and professional project managers alike.




Value Management


Book Description

Change programmes in both private and public sectors have a poor record of delivering their intended value. The reasons given most often for their failure include lack of executive support or buy-in from key users, loose requirements definition, weak programme management, and plain wishful thinking. They rarely include technical limitations. Value Management puts forward the view that the true problem lies in failing to understand the causal links between the intended stakeholder outcomes and the actual programme outputs. Repeating the pattern of failure can be avoided by asking two questions: – Before implementation, what capabilities must a change programme deliver, when and in what order so as to cause intended value against a defined purpose with speed and certainty? – During and after implementation, what minor adjustments and/or major shifts are needed to be certain that the programme remains on purpose and on value? and two answers to be given: – Target, time and align change programmes to deliver maximum intended value to stakeholders - the baseline business case – track and respond to changes during and beyond implementation to ensure that the programme actually delivers or exceeds intended value - value realisation. The authors show how, by asking and answering these questions, direction and delivery of any programme can be clarified and greater economic value achieved.





Book Description




Performance-Based Earned Value


Book Description

A complete toolkit for implementation of Earned Value Management Performance-Based Earned Value uniquely shows project managers how to effectively integrate technical, schedule, and cost objectives by improving earned value management (EVM) practices. Providing innovative guidelines, methods, examples, and templates consistent with capability models and standards, this book approaches EVM from a practical level with understandable techniques that are applicable to the management of any project. Clear and unambiguous instructions explain how to incorporate EVM with key systems engineering, software engineering, and project management processes such as establishing the technical or quality baseline, requirements management, using product metrics, and meeting success criteria for technical reviews. Detailed information is included on linking product requirements, project work products, the project plan, and the Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB), as well as correlating technical performance measures (TPM) with EVM. With straightforward instructions on how to use EVM on a simple project, such as building a house, and on complex projects, such as high-risk IT and engineering development projects, it is the only book that includes excerpts from the PMI®'s Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®), CMMI, the EVM System standard, systems engineering standards, federal acquisition regulations, and Department of Defense guides. Performance-Based Earned Value allows both novices and experienced project managers, including project manager of suppliers and customers in the commercial and government sectors; software and systems engineering process improvement leaders; CMMI appraisers; PMI members; and IEEE Computer Society members to: Incorporate product requirements and planned quality into the PMB Conduct an Integrated Baseline Review Analyze performance reports Perform independent assessments and predictive analysis Ensure that key TPMs are selected, monitored, and reported Identify the right success criteria for technical reviews Develop techniques for monitoring and controlling supplier performance Integrate risk management with EVM Comply with government acquisition policies and regulations Written by Paul Solomon and Ralph Young, internationally recognized industry experts, Performance-Based Earned Value is constructed from guidance in standards and capability models for EVM, systems engineering, software engineering, and project management. It is the complete guide to EVM, invaluable in helping students prepare for the PMI®-PMP® exam with practical examples and templates to facilitate understanding, and in guiding project professionals in the private and public sectors to use EVM on complex projects. (PMI, PMBOK, PMP, and Project Management Professional are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.)




Project Management with Dynamic Scheduling


Book Description

The topic of this book is known as dynamic scheduling, and is used to refer to three dimensions of project management and scheduling: the construction of a baseline schedule and the analysis of a project schedule’s risk as preparation of the project control phase during project progress. This dynamic scheduling point of view implicitly assumes that the usability of a project’s baseline schedule is rather limited and only acts as a point of reference in the project life cycle. Consequently, a project schedule should especially be considered as nothing more than a predictive model that can be used for resource efficiency calculations, time and cost risk analyses, project tracking and performance measurement, and so on. In this book, the three dimensions of dynamic scheduling are highlighted in detail and are based on and inspired by a combination of academic research studies at Ghent University (www.ugent.be), in-company trainings at Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School (www.vlerick.com) and consultancy projects at OR-AS (www.or-as.be). First, the construction of a project baseline schedule is a central theme throughout the various chapters of the book, and is discussed from a complexity point of view with and without the presence of project resources. Second, the creation of an awareness of the weak parts in a baseline schedule is discussed at the end of the two baseline scheduling parts as schedule risk analysis techniques that can be applied on top of the baseline schedule. Third, the baseline schedule and its risk analyses can be used as guidelines during the project control step where actual deviations can be corrected within the margins of the project’s time and cost reserves.




Project Management, Planning and Control


Book Description

Project Management, Planning and Control, Managing Engineering, Construction and Manufacturing Projects to PMI, APM and BSI Standards, Seventh Editions an established and widely recommended project management handbook. Building on its clear and detailed coverage of planning, scheduling and control, this seventh edition includes new advice on information management, including big data, communication, dispute resolution, project governance, and BIM. Ideal for those studying for Project Management Professional (PMP) qualifications, the book is aligned with the latest Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) for both the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the Association of Project Management (APM), and includes questions and answers to help users test their understanding. - Includes new sections on data collection and use, including big data - Contains major updates to sections on governance, adjudication, BIM, and agile project management - Focused on the needs and challenges of project managers in engineering, manufacturing and construction, and closely aligned to the content of the APM and PMI 'bodies of knowledge' - Provides project management questions and answers compiled by a former APM exam assessor




Project Management of Large Software-Intensive Systems


Book Description

The book describes how to manage and successfully deliver large, complex, and expensive systems that can be composed of millions of line of software code, being developed by numerous groups throughout the globe, that interface with many hardware items being developed by geographically dispersed companies, where the system also includes people, policies, constraints, regulations, and a myriad of other factors. It focuses on how to seamlessly integrate systems, satisfy the customer’s requirements, and deliver within the budget and on time. The guide is essentially a “shopping list” of all the activities that could be conducted with tailoring guidelines to meet the needs of each project.




Simple Statistical Methods for Software Engineering


Book Description

Although there are countless books on statistics, few are dedicated to the application of statistical methods to software engineering. Simple Statistical Methods for Software Engineering: Data and Patterns fills that void. Instead of delving into overly complex statistics, the book details simpler solutions that are just as effective and connect wi