Measuring Project Performance Measuring Project Performance • When a successful company invests time, money, and other resources in a project, its primary concern is always what it is getting in return for its investment. Measuring Project Performance • . Performance measurement provides the project manager with visibility to make sure he is operating within the approved time and cost constraints and that the project is performing according to plan. Measuring Project Performance • It also alerts management if a project begins to run over budget or behind schedule so actions can quickly be taken to get the project back on track. Performance Reporting in the Project Management • What is performance reporting? • It’s an important activity in project communication management. • It involves collecting and disseminating project information, communicating project progress, utilization of resources, and forecasting future progress and status to various stakeholders, as decided in the communication management plan. reports may include • Analysis of past performance. • Summary of changes approved in the reporting period. • Current status of risks and issues. • Results of variance analysis. • Work completed during the reporting period. • Work to be completed during the next reporting period. • Forecasted project completion. • Other relevant information to be reviewed and asked by stakeholders. Performance Report Types • Fundamentally, performance reports are comparisons of project performance to the project performance baseline, and can include: Performance Report Types • Status Reports • Progress Report • Forecasting Report • Trend Report • Variance Report • Earned Value report Status Reports • This gives the current state of a project at any given time. This kind of report describes where the project stands at that moment with regards to the performance measurement baseline. Progress Report • This type of report describes what has been accomplished since the last time/last report. Forecasting Report • This report states what is expected to happen on a project, predicting future performance and expected status of the project in various parameters. This helps in tracking and allocation of resources for better utilization. Variance Report • This report shows a comparison between the planned progress and actual progress made • Earned Value report • This report integrates project performance on scope, schedule, and cost measures using earned value management techniques. The components of this report are often merged into status reports. Trend Report • This report shows a comparison between the current performance of the project and the last performance of the project during the same time duration. For example, performance could be compared monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually. This type of report examines project performance over time to see if it is improving or degrading. Performance Reporting? Project Management Plan • The Project Management Plan provides information on project baselines. The project deviations, which are reported in performance reports, are compared against the project performance baseline Work Performance Information (WPI) • This is the information that is obtained from project activities, which is then collected on performance results such as – • Deliverables status • Schedule progress • Cost incurred Work Performance Measurement • Work Performance Information is used to generate project activity metrics to evaluate actual progress compared to planned progress in Project Management. These metrics include – • Planned versus actual schedule performance • Planned versus actual cost performance • Planned versus actual technical performance Budget Performance Reports • Budget Forecasts provide information about the funds that are required to complete the remaining project work, as well as total fund estimates for the completion of project work. Organizational Process Assets • The Organizational Process Assets that are used during the reporting of project performance includes, but is not limited to – • Report Templates • Policies and procedures that define the measurement indicators to be used • Organizationally defined variance limits Why use project management metrics? • Relevant project management metrics will enable us to improve our understanding by removing uncertainty so that we can make well informed decisions.
