You will have often asked or been asked this question. The answer is frequently correct but not much use:
- “We’re at 72%”.
- “So far, so good”.
- “We’ve used half the budget”.
- “I don’t think we’ll finish on schedule”.
All these answers respond to the question but do not truly address the underlying issues:
- Will we finish according to plan?
- Are we on schedule or are we falling behind?
Only an experienced project manager can predict whether the project will fall behind, why it will do so and how to deal with the problems. However, not even the best project manager in the world can make these predictions without support from rigorous information.
ITM Platform can offer information based on data gathered in a distributed manner and tabulate it in a centralized manner based on a recognized method.
In order for this information to be reliable, it is advisable for task managers, team members and all others involved to diligently report on hours worked, task progress and the achievement of milestones. Using this, ITM Platform can generate highly valuable information for the project manager:
Let us begin with the second question:
Are we on schedule or are we falling behind?
In order to answer this, the Earned Value technique will analyze the current relationship between the cost and real progress and the cost and planned progress. This crosscheck provides valuable information for correctly answering the question and can be found in the project oversight section, where you can find such data as CRTR and the earned value curve.
Based on these data, your experience and your knowledge of the real situation in which the project is being developed, the answer to the question should be relatively precise.
Now let us look at the first question:
Will we finish according to plan?
This is more difficult to answer because it not only depends on what has already happened but on what will happen from now on into the future.
To help you, ITM Platform offers an interesting tool:
The scenarios
What will happen if things continue as they are?
The "continuity" scenario assumes that there will be no variations in performance and performs a cost and deadline estimate based on the current situation.
What would happen if, as from now, we fix things and meet the planned schedule?
The "as per budget from now on" scenario considers the performance required in order to fulfil the planned performance from this point onwards.
What would be the impact on costs if we increase performance to meet the scheduled deadline?
The "absolute correction" scenario takes into consideration the performance required to fulfill the planned values, correcting where necessary the deviation which has occurred to date.
In short, with ITM Platform, you will find the mechanisms and information needed to support your own experience and knowledge for answering the questions that arise in project management.