1) Define the project.  All the activities and related costs to complete the project must be estimated.  The development of the Work Breakdown Structure is very important at this stage and is required by EVMS critierion 1 for good reason.

Each level of the WBS can be broken down into lower level tasks until the plan is adequately detailed for efficient management.  At this point the project budget should be authorised.  This is a requirement of criterion 9.

Defining and detailing the scope and cost of the project is the first and absolute necessary principle of EVMS.

2)  Work Assignment

Work scope must be detailed to a level that can be assigned to a person, an organisation area or an outside party. The assigned party is responsible for timely and accurate progress reporting.  It is at this detailed level of the WBS that control accounts should be established.

3) Performance Measurement Baseline

This is a scheduling phase.  At this stage the WBS duration and relationships must be determined in a project network. Once the project network is created, ensure that indicators or milestones are included so that progress can be measured accurately.  EVMS criterion 7 requires these indicators.  Once the baseline has been established, any changes should be incorporated only if they are authorised.

4) Calculate the EV Metrics

EVMS Criteria 16 & 19 requires the recording of direct and indirect costs in a formal system.  Recording the project’s actual costs is necessary in order to compare them with the planned costs (PV) and calculate the EV.

5) Use the information

The information generated from the first four principles can be used by management to decide whether the project should continue without changes or whether more resources should be added.  Also, it will improve project planning and performance.

This article will address elements that experience has indicated are key to providing a good plan and schedule to the project team, thus enabling timely decisions to be made and steers the Project to it’s successful completion.

Before issuing the Project Plan to the project team and Client, the project plan should be reviewed to ensure it considers the following key points.

Scope Review

When commencing on a detail review of the project plan, one of the first items to address is if the project plan activities accurately reflect the Project’s Scope of work.  Additionally, as the project plan evolves and changes over time, the project plan must be revised to reflect the additional work Scope.

Meets the Contractual Milestones

A review of the project plan should be made to determine compliance with the Contract. If the project plan produced fails to meet the Contract requirements or Milestone Completions, it should be analysed as to why the failure is occurring and be remedied, if possible.  Additionally, the project plan should be reviewed to determine if the activities meets the requirements of the Contract.

Indicative of How the Project Will Be Built in the Field

The project plan must be indicative of how the work will be executed in the field. This is, in essence, a “no-brainer.” A project plan that is not aligned with the execution plan has little or no value to the team that is relying on the tool to plan upcoming work, indicate project status, identify problem areas and project completion. In fact, a project plan not representative of how the work will be executed in the field most likely will not be used by the Project team.

Time Estimation are Reasonable

There are a number of factors that must be considered in determining if the activity durations are reasonable. Activity durations must be predicated on the quantity of work to be accomplished and the resources available to be applied to that work.This typically includes labour, material and equipment. Additionally, the physical conditions that will be in play when the work is planned for execution must be considered in determining if the durations are reasonable.

A project plan that contains unreasonable activity durations loses its effectiveness as both a project plan and as a project management tool.

Activity Relationships Are All Defined

Simply stated activity relationships have to be complete. A logic review of the project plan must take place to ensure that all relationships have been included and are valid and redundancies eliminated.  This includes review of the logical sequence to validate that the project approach is reflected in the project plan logic and that the logic sequence is not flawed. Failure to employ all of the necessary activity relationships within the project plan logic results in an inaccurate project plan and management ineffectiveness due to the inaccurate nature of the project plan. Logic “open ends” should be limited to the first and last activity in the schedule network.

The Critical Path Makes Sense

When reviewing the project plan, one of the first activities to undertake is to review the Critical Path to make sure it is reasonable and makes sense.The question that must be answered when performing this review is should the activities on the Critical Path be critical and thus determine the minimum project duration?

Additionally the Critical Path should reflect and be consistent with the project plan. Sometimes projects have multiple critical paths. When this occurs, it requires the Project Team to focus its attention on both parallel critical paths. This must be recognized and acted upon timely if the Project is to be completed on time.

It Considers Procurement and Material and Equipment Deliveries

It is important that the project plan incorporate current material and equipment deliveries in order that the project plan may be adjusted to fit the delivery time projected or that the material or equipment delivery be expedited to support the project plan.  The process of what drives that decision is dictated by the Project Team.

It Is Resource Loaded

Typically, the Project Team benefits greatly from a resource loaded project plan. Manpower requirements can be planned in advance of its need. Also, manpower problems can be anticipated and mitigated.

Resource loaded project plan also provide benefit when analysing concurrent work activities and helps in determining if there may be a manpower density problem or issues due to the scheduling of concurrent work tasks in the same location. Resulting from these findings the Project Team can make prudent adjustments to the project plan to keep the Project on track.

Conclusion

The above discussion identified and discussed the key elements of a good schedule. Implementation of these elements on a continuous basis throughout project execution while not a guarantee that the Project will complete on time, will give the Project Team every chance to deliver an on time performance.

(source: Warner Construction)