PMD 913

PMD 913
Project Progress and Cost Control
Module 2: Project Time Control
Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport

Graduate School of Business
Prof. Hesham Bassioni
PhD, ME, MBA, PMP
May 2022
“Time is of the Essence”
“It is important to have a schedule,

but it is more important to use it”
(Hinze 2004)
◼ The module covers the following topics:

➢ Abbreviations
➢ Project Time Management Processes
➢ Monitoring and Information Gathering
➢ Measuring Activity Progress
➢ Schedule Updating
➢ Project Progress Based on Schedule
➢ Visualizing / Reporting Progress
➢ Correcting Schedule Deviations
➢ Monitoring Practices in Scheduling
PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

Dr. Hesham Bassioni 2-3
Abbreviations
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
Work Package (WP)
Early Start (ES)
Early Finish (EF)
Late Start (LS)
Late Finish (LF)
Duration (D)
Total Float (TF)
Remaining Duration (RD)
Data Date (DD)
Original Duration (OD)
Percent Complete (PCT)
Types of Schedules
Over the Project Timeline

Project Time Management
Processes
The basic processes included in the PMBOK Time

Management knowledge area are:
➢ Define Activities
➢ Sequence Activities
➢ Estimate Activity Resources
➢ Estimate Activity Durations
➢ Develop Schedule
➢ Control Schedule

Processes
1. Define Activities:
➢ The project WBS is decomposed to the WP level and further
decomposed to the activity level.
➢ The activity is the building brick of estimating, scheduling,
executing, and monitoring and controlling project work.
➢ The determination of the level of activity detail is an
important concern for managing the project efficiently.
➢ A general rule of thumb is less than 1/3 – 1/2 the
monitoring period.
➢ Comprehensive of the project scope.

Processes
2. Sequence Activities:
➢ Identifying and documenting logical relationships among
schedule activities.
➢ Network diagramming methods.
3. Estimate Activity Resources:

➢ Involves determining what resource and how much is
required for each activity.
➢ Availability of resource to perform project activities.

Processes
4. Estimating Activity Durations:

➢ Durations can be estimated through Expert Judgment,
Analogous estimating, Parametric estimating, Three-Point
estimates, and heuristics.
➢ Reserves can be accommodated in the project to account for
risks of time delays. Contingency reserve, time reserves or
buffers resemble risk remaining after risk response planning.
Management reserve is set aside to cover unforeseen risks.

Processes
5. Develop Schedule:
➢ The necessary calculations are made to obtain the time
estimate.
➢ The schedule is finally expressed in calendar dates.
6. Control Schedule:
➢ Monitoring and information gathering.
➢ The current status of the project schedule (update).
➢ Correcting schedule deviations.
➢ Managing changes – “Integrated Change Control“.

Dr. Hesham Bassioni 2 - 10
Monitoring and Information Gathering
◼ Monitoring can be accomplished through many ways:

➢ In small projects simple techniques can be used such as
direct observation, photography, check-off lists or marked
up bar charts / networks.
➢ In larger, more complex or intangible oriented projects,
more formal techniques are preferred, such as resource time
sheets and activity status reports.
◼ The efficiency of information gathering is affected by:
➢ Coding systems can be used to facilitate reporting and for
reporting consistency.
➢ Adoption of the same reporting formats in large projects can
seriously affect efficiency of monitoring.
➢ Trade-off between activity duration and accuracy of
reporting.
Measuring Work Element Progress
◼ Progress can be measured at the activity level or a

WBS element level in projects.
◼ Measuring work element progress is also termed as
“Earned Value Measurement Techniques” and
“Measurement of Project Work”.
◼ At a certain point in time through the execution of
the project – “The Data Date” any work element can
be:
➢ Unstarted, its percent complete (PCT) = 0.
➢ Completed, PCT = 100%.
➢ Underway, with a particular PCT.

Several techniques exist for measuring work element

progress:
1. Percent Complete
2. Fixed Formula.
3. Weighted Milestone
4. Level of Effort
5. Apportioned Effort

1. Percent Complete:
➢ Simplest and easiest and most straight forward method.
➢ Objective Percent Complete (Units Completed):
• An objective indicator is used to calculate the PCT, such as units
of product completed, e.g. length of wire to be installed in m.
Number of units performed
PCT =
Forecasted total number of units
• Example: 500 m3 of concrete are planned to be poured. At the
data date, 135 m3 were installed.
• PCT = 135/500*100 = 27%
➢ Subjective Percent Complete (Supervisor Opinion):
• Responsible worker, manager or supervisor makes a subjective
estimate of the percentage of work completed.

2. Fixed Formula:
➢ Most suitable for work elements whose PCT is too
complicated or estimating effort is not justifiable.
➢ A fixed amount is given if the work element is underway.
➢ In the 50/50 technique, activity is considered 50%
complete once it starts. 25/75 and 0/100 are also used.
➢ Common in research or software development projects.
Inspection or QC activities are typical examples.
➢ Also termed as the “Start/Finish” method.
➢ Most effective in small, short-duration tasks

3. Weighted Milestone:
➢ Work is divided into segments / subtasks each ending with an
observable milestone. A value is assigned to the achievement
of each milestone / segment / subtask.
➢ More suitable for longer duration work elements having
intermediate tangible outcomes.
➢ Also known as the “Incremental Milestone” method.
➢ A reinforced concrete activity has subtasks / milestones:
- Formwork 0.2
- Steelfixing 0.5
- Concrete 0.3
1.0

4. Level of Effort:
➢ Used in work elements with intangible outcomes that can be
measured objectively in terms of effort exerted (e.g. work
hours, work days, project days, …etc.) or any other common
unit of measure, such as cost (Cost Ratio Method).
PCT = Actual cost or effort to date
Forecasted total cost or effort
➢ A design activity requires 200 workhours of designers. Three
designers exerted 30 workhours this week on the activity.
PCT = 30/200*100 = 15%
➢ An activity requires 50 days for completion and 30 days have
elapsed while the activity is in progress.
PCT = 30/50*100 = 60%

5. Apportioned Effort:
➢ More of an earned value technique than an activity progress
measurement method.
➢ Used when a task has a direct, supportive relationship to
another task whose earned value can be determined.
➢ An inspection activity is apportioned 10% of a certain activity,
whose earned value is 30,000 EGP / month. Therefore, the
earned value for the inspection activity is 3,000 EGP / month.

◼ Guidelines by PMI EVM Standard to Select Work

Element Measurement Method

Baseline Schedule Revision
◼ Schedule baseline revision is needed when:

➢ Actual duration and resources are not the same as planned.
➢ The actual sequencing of activities is not as planned.
◼ Examples of the above two reasons are:
➢ The project scheduler envisioned a sequencing of the project
different than that of the project team who might think of
another approach being better.
➢ New constraints, such as limited resources, are imposed to
the project that require the network logic to be reorganized.
➢ Planned durations significantly differed in practice.
➢ Planned resources changed in an unexpected manner or
estimates were miscalculated.

Schedule Updating
◼ Careful monitoring of a project’s schedule provides

insight to the project team about problems requiring
action.
◼ The schedule has to be “Realistic” – i.e. bears
reasonable resemblance to the actual project – to be
an effective management tool.
◼ When differences are noted between the actual
project and the planned schedule, this is termed as
“Updating the Schedule”.
◼ The schedule update is a “snapshot” of the project at
that point in time.
Schedule Updating
◼ Updating should be performed on a regular periodic basis, such
as weekly, bi-weekly or monthly.
◼ The updating period can be mandated by a contract with the
project sponsor / owner, or by the project manager or the
organization’s top management.
◼ As a general rule, the updating period should be selected such
that updating benefits exceed the cost of updating.
◼ Changes and actual data are made progressively to the
schedule until the updated schedule turns into an “As – Built”
schedule at the end of the project.
◼ A copy of the original schedule and each update should be
retained for comparison and documentation purposes.

Schedule Updating
◼ The scheduler should chose and formally express an activity
representation format for the project.
◼ The representation of the activity using the Precedence

Diagramming method throughout this course is:
Early Start Total Float Early Finish Early Start Total Float Early Finish
Task Name Task Name
Late Start Duration Late Finish Late Start Duration Late Finish
Activity Representation

Schedule Updating
Data Date
Early Start Total Float Early Finish Early Finish
Task Name Actual Start Task Name Actual Start Task Name Actual Finish
Remaining
Late Start Duration Late Finish Duration Late Finish
Planned Activity Underway Activity Completed Activity
Updating Activity Representation
When activity is underway:

RD = OD – OD x PCT = OD (1 – PCT)
EF = DD + RD

Schedule Updating
◼ Calculate the planned and 4 week updated schedule for
the following project. A typical week has 5 working days.
Activity Activity Description Dependency Planned Actual Actual Remaining

Code Duration Start Finish Duration
A Mobilization --- 3 0 3 0
B Surveying A 4 3 7 0
C Excavation B 3 7 12 0
D Formwork C 5 12 17 0
E Pour concrete D 5 17 --- 2
F Excavate trench D 10 15 --- 8
G Strip forms E 2 --- --- 2
H Lay pipes F 15 --- --- 15
I Inspection G, H 1 --- --- 1
J Remove equipment H 2 --- --- 2
K Backfill trench H 6 --- --- 6

Project Progress Based on
Schedule
◼ The project time progress can be measured using

the following formula:
Number of project days to date

Project PCT =
Updated project duration
◼ Other performance measures of project progress

can be used, such as Schedule Performance Index
(SPI) in Earned Value Analysis.

Visualizing / Reporting Progress
◼ Project progress can be visualized or reported in a

number of ways including, variance analysis, and
Gantt progress chart.
◼ In the variance analysis, target schedule dates

(start/finish) are compared to actual / forecasted
dates to detect deviations. Total float variances can
be used to evaluate project time performance.

◼ In the Gantt progress chart, progress is shown on
bars. Target bars can be added for comparison.


Correcting Schedule Deviations
◼ More than often projects are subjected to delays or

unexpected events.
◼ Late projects can pose a number of problems such as
contractual penalties / liquidated damages, lost
opportunities, and increased project costs.
◼ The main strategies to bring back a project on target
are – Schedule Compression:
➢ Fast Tracking - Review / reconsider precedence
requirements and doing critical path activities in parallel.
➢ Crashing – Making cost and schedule tradeoffs to get the
most schedule compression with the least incremental cost.

Monitoring Priorities in Schedules
◼ The project management team might decide to focus

and closely monitor certain activities (priority
activities) to decrease the risk of a delay occurring.
◼ These activities can be:
➢ Critical path activities
➢ Activities with no free float
➢ Activities with less than a specified float – near critical path
➢ High risk or long activities
➢ Activities using expensive or scarce resources


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Project Progress and Cost Control

Module 2: Project Time Control

Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport

“It is important to have a schedule,

◼ The module covers the following topics:

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

The basic processes included in the PMBOK Time

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

3. Estimate Activity Resources:

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

4. Estimating Activity Durations:

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

◼ Monitoring can be accomplished through many ways:

◼ Progress can be measured at the activity level or a

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

Several techniques exist for measuring work element

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

◼ Guidelines by PMI EVM Standard to Select Work

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

◼ Schedule baseline revision is needed when:

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

◼ Careful monitoring of a project’s schedule provides

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

◼ The representation of the activity using the Precedence

Task Name Task Name

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

Early Start Total Float Early Finish Early Finish

Planned Activity Underway Activity Completed Activity

Updating Activity Representation

When activity is underway:

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

Activity Activity Description Dependency Planned Actual Actual Remaining

E Pour concrete D 5 17 --- 2

F Excavate trench D 10 15 --- 8

G Strip forms E 2 --- --- 2

H Lay pipes F 15 --- --- 15

I Inspection G, H 1 --- --- 1

J Remove equipment H 2 --- --- 2

K Backfill trench H 6 --- --- 6

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

◼ The project time progress can be measured using

Number of project days to date

◼ Other performance measures of project progress

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

◼ Project progress can be visualized or reported in a

◼ In the variance analysis, target schedule dates

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

◼ More than often projects are subjected to delays or

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

◼ The project management team might decide to focus

PMD 913 Project Progress & Cost Control

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