Project Scope and Earned Value Management, Essay Example

Abstract

Project management incorporates many tools and techniques to facilitate the opportunity for the success of a project implementation. When developing the scope of a project it must be understood that the basis for all future actions within the project will be based on the decisions and inputs placed on the development of the scope. The amount of time and diligence placed on the creation and development of the scope will be directly correlated to the success of the project. Once the scope is developed it is imperative to monitor and control the progress of accomplishing the deliverables associated to scope. This is accomplished through managing the triple constraints of the project and utilizing tools such as Earned Value Management tool to facilitate the monitoring and controlling process. The EVM tool provides the insight into the utilization of the resources to the progress of the project.

Project Scope 

A project is by definition a temporary endeavor to produce a unique deliverable at the conclusion of the endeavor (PMI 2008). Just as the foundation of a house supports the entire home to stand the test of time the definition of the scope of a project establishes the entire trajectory of the project and determines what resources and schedule will be needed to accomplish all of the requirements that constitute the scope. The planning phase of project management includes developing the project management plan, collecting the requirements, defining the scope, assigning resources in a work breakdown structure and defining the activities. Planning in a project establishes the ground work for the entire project’s lifecycle and will inherently become the foundation for success or failure when the project comes to a close. In order to understand what is to be delivered at the end of a project there must be boundaries and guidelines established to set the parameters or scope of the project. Planning a project revolves around defining what needs to be accomplished and how it will be accomplished. Defining scope is the process of determining a common understanding of what the project will include in or exclude out of the final deliverable (Magal and Word 2011).

Scope management is a key success factor in completing any project. If scope is not managed correctly, the requirements and deliverables may fluctuate so much that the original intent of the project may never be met and could result in a failed project attempt. As any project progresses through the phases, the intricacies and details of the project gain clarity. This is where the art of project management dances with the scientific project management methodology to build and execute a project. The planning phase in project management establishes not only the framework but also how the framework will be followed, funded and communicated. These established baselines create the launching pad formulating the trajectory of the project. While the project manager can make adjustments throughout the project there will always be a tradeoff between the triple constraints including cost, schedule and quality (Cooper, Grey, Raymond & Walker 2005). Proper project planning will promote the rate for success in any project.

The scope of the project has the tendency to changes as the project progresses through the project’s lifecycle. As more information becomes apparent within the development of the project the more opportunity for scope creep to take place. The expansion or change of the scope can derail a project that is on a successful project path and lead to a project that is over budget and behind schedule. One of the roles of the project manager is to manage the relationship of the stakeholders and their expectations of the project. The clear definition of the scope statement and a charter as outlined in the planning phase of the project become essential milestones the project manager can refer to in times of critical decision points in which a trade-off scenario presents itself.

The project manager has multiple tasks when it comes to managing a project. These project management activities involve driving changes, managing schedules, briefing key stakeholders and a multitude of other tasks to manage a project. There are also more tasks that involve more insight and leadership skills that require information that can be used as a tool to make better decisions. Some key decisions on determining resource allocation and prioritization of requirements require the qualitative and quantitative research and analysis of the inputs into the project’s achievements as well as how well those inputs are being utilized. The tools and techniques a project manager uses to decipher data and add value to the interpretation of that data can provide the advantage needed to successfully complete a project.

Constraints

A project manager faces a continual force in project management called the triple constraints. These constraints limit the ability for the project manager to manipulate and change the variables within a project to meet everyone’s needs or expectations. These constraints are cost, schedule and quality. The cost of the project includes the resources needed to manage and implement the project and could range from hired expertise to manage the project or hardware and software requirements for a new information technology system implementation. This also includes hired resources to come in and provide the extra labor efforts required to shorten the length of a project or build up the needed labor base for a product launch. The schedule is the time it takes to complete the tasks within the project plan. The last constraint is quality which reflects on the requirements of the project and to what level they are completed to meet the objectives of the project’s scope.

Within all three of these areas there are decisions that can be made to decrease the cost at the expense of quality or decrease the schedule with an increase of cost (Dobson, 2004). In order to decrease the schedule some activities could be crashed on the critical path by assigning more resources to complete the activities of the milestones on the plan. While this increases the cost of the project it could have been vital to the business to hit a key timeline for implementation and the trade-off was justified by the benefits received by shortening the schedule.

During the course of the project there are certain inputs that go into completing tasks along the project schedule. The project manager can utilize certain tools to understand how much cost and effort is required to accomplish the tasks and also understand if the costs inputted into the project are providing the rate of return needed to meet the schedule. Ultimately the project manager needs to know if the resources allocated to the project are being fully utilized and returning favorable results. The tool that could provide the most insight and clarification on this would be the Earned Value Management, EVM, tool. This tool provides the monitoring and controlling aspects of managing a project or program but also provides a level of accountability for the project and program managers (Fleming & Koffleman 2010). The EVM tool allows the measurement of the three project constraints of scope, schedule and cost while analyzing the performance of the triple constraints against what is being accomplished on the project. In a complex environment such as implementing new software solution across an entire business the utilization of agile methodologies has been decided. With agile there are techniques used to provide EVM awareness and monitoring for such an implementation. The use of trending planned value (PV), or the value of work planned to be completed, versus earned value (EV), value actually accomplished in the project, allows insight into the actual work being performed against the expected results.

The EVM tool will establish a base-line cost and measure the spend according to the value of the work that is being performed. EVM will be used to compare work performed with expected work perform and the associated costs with each deliverable area. The reason EVM will be used is for the simple fact that it has the ability to combine the areas of scope, schedule and cost, all of which the project manager is ultimately responsible (Budd & Budd, 2009). The earned value of the project is a calculation of the planned value versus the earned value and that is well suited for the type of project implementation the project team is looking to utilize.

Successful projects incorporate the best practices framework as well as the tools and resources that are gathered and utilized throughout a project manager’s career. The project scope must align with the expectations of the stakeholders as well as the cost estimates, established budget and the proposed schedule of the project. The project manager garners sign off on the project charter and scope statement at the beginning of the project but once that task is accomplished it becomes the project manager’s responsibility to manage the changes in the scope, the progress achieved through the resource allocation and ultimately the successful accomplishment of the milestones along the path of the project’s lifecycle. This is achieved through monitoring and controlling techniques as well as the utilization of tools such as the EVM tool. These tools and techniques provide the project manager the timely and accurate information to make project management decisions while taking the appropriate project actions to meet the expectations of the stakeholders while delivering the requirements on time, on schedule and on budget.

References

Budd, C. I., & Budd, C. S. (2009). Earned value project management. (2nd ed.). Vienna, VA: ManagementConcepts.

Cooper, D. F., Grey, S., Raymond, G., & Walker, P. (2005). Project risk management guidelines, managing risk in large projects and complex procurements. John Wiley & Sons

Dobson, M. (2004). The triple constraints in project management. Vienna, VA: ManagementConcepts.

Fleming, Q. W., & Koffleman, J. M. (2010). Earned value project management. Project Management Institute.

Magal, S. R., & Word, J. (2011). Integrated business processes with erp systems. RRD/Jefferson City: Wiley.

Project Management Institute, P. M. (2008). A guide to the project management body of knowledge. (4th ed.). Newtown Square: Project Management Inst.