Description:

In this presentation we will discuss methods and tools of project planning and performance analysis. Some of these methods are widely used and we will touch them very briefly, others are known and applied by advanced teams in complex projects.

There are also very efficient methods used in Russia and Eastern Europe but not known in the West. We will discuss project control methodologies evolution and advanced methods and tools of project control using simple sample project. There are four main methods of performance analysis: Variance Analysis, Earned Value Analysis, Trend Analysis and Success Probability Trend Analysis.

VA и EVA analyze project status comparing current data with the baseline or some other project version.

TA and SPTA analyze not only statuses but also tendencies.

VA, EVA and TA were developed and are used for analyzing deterministic schedules. SPTA is used with probabilistic analysis.

EVA is widely used but shall be applied very carefully and together with other methods because it may provide wrong motivation of project teams and does not consider activity network dependencies.

Trends shall be used for timely management decisions because they show problems ASAP.

SPTA is the best performance analysis method integrating scope, cost, schedule and risk information.