Managing projects effectively means
knowing how to write functional schedules. Being able to complete jobs on time
and within a predetermined budget can be difficult, which is why it pays to
know how to discover any performance issues that may be present.
Effective
project management is the key ingredient to success for all businesses. If you
don’t know how to organize tasks and deadlines or how to stay within an
allocated budget, the results can be disastrous. Failing to meet time
requirements and spending excess money that cannot be wasted are problems many
companies face, and this is primarily due to poor management skills. In
particular, failing to notice and subsequently correct scheduling data performance
problems can quickly put you behind and off-track.
In this sense,
it might be helpful to think of the film industry. Every big budget movie has a
substantial number of people on set. There is also only so much money
available, and it has to accommodate all the needs of the set. From photography
to video and sound editing to casting and post production, it doesn’t take much
to realize just how complex this industry is. Producers often find themselves
stretching their budgets to the max due to not fully taking into account the
demands of the project. This is exactly what thousands of business executives
face every day, and oftentimes the root of the problem lies in inferior
scheduling practices.
Why a Quality Project Schedule Matters
A good schedule
copy is one that will allow you to thoroughly track and analyze the project
step-by-step. You won’t be left in the dark with respect to the where the
budget lies (i.e. if you are under or over), which is perhaps the most
important reason for taking the time to write an error-free schedule from the
beginning. Given that perfection is something that is always sought after,
there are many tools you can implement to assess the performance of the
schedule you’re working with. By performing a real-time analysis, you will be
able to see which areas need addressing.
Ways to Track Schedule Performance
There are a
number of tools that project managers use to assess schedule performance.
Earned Value Management is one which has been used time and again to track
project budgets. Essentially, it includes implementation of Planned Value and
Earned Value factors. The SPI metric (schedule performance index) is a formula
which calculates and measures the project’s work accomplishment efficiency. It
basically allows users to see if the project is behind or ahead of the initial
deadline.
With respect to
expenses, the CPI metric (cost performance index) is the formula that assesses
where the project stands regarding the allocated budget. It is crucial for
determining the efficiency of expenses, because after all, these are what all
project managers want to keep to a minimum. These formulas are not the only
ways to track schedule performance, however. You should also keep an eye out
for delinquent tasks, or those which failed to start or be completed.
The key to
schedule performance success is making sure everything is moving along as it
should. This means speaking with staff members who are responsible for specific
project duties and figuring out where the problems are. By running SPI and CPI
metrics, you can get a quick overview of the project’s status.
Author Bio
Jon is a
freelance contributor for a project management solutions company who
specializes in a viewer for MicrosoftProject. His goal is to provide helpful information to those
interested in project management by providing news, tool reviews, and
discussing various methodologies.
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