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Reichel states that the formula to calculate cost variance (CV = EV – AC) is sometimes “expressed as the difference between budgeted cost of work performed and actual cost work performed. If the variance is equal to 0, the project is on budget. If a negative variance is determined, the project is over budget and if the variance is positive the project is under budget” (Reichel, 2006).  Cost variance is a critical factor in earned value management, and Quincy Yarbrough goes into a detailed analysis in the article below.  Follow the link below to read Yarborough’s article, and then return and leave your impressions in the comment section:

Throughout the life of a project, project managers check in on progress and compare it to the project plan—comparing their predictions to reality. If they don’t do this regularly, odds are the budget will suffer and their project will fail entirely. Luckily, these deviances from the plan, such as cost variance, don’t have to sink a project.

In fact, they can actually strengthen it. The key is spotting them and making adjustments to stay on the right path. One of the best ways to avoid cost overrun is by calculating cost variance.

Understanding Project Costs

All projects cost money, regardless of their size, scope or deliverables. We’ve all heard “there’s no such thing as a free lunch”. The same goes for projects – there’s no such thing as a project without costs. These costs come in many different forms, from the cost of materials to simply the cost of doing business (rent, salaries, etc.). It’s the project manager’s job to take all of these costs into account and create a flexible budget.

…Read More »

The post How to Calculate Cost Variance for a Project (Formula Included) appeared first on ProjectManager.com.
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Reichel, C. W. (2006). Earned value management systems (EVMS): “you too can do earned value management” Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2006—North America, Seattle, WA. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

While this post by Megan Keup touts projectmanager.com’s own solution as an alternative to MS Project, my Team evaluated Proofhub as the best choice.  I’ve also used Wrike in the past, and it has proven to be an effective project management tool.

Read the post at the link below, and then return and leave a comment regarding the most effective alternative for MS Project that you’ve discovered:

As projects grow in complexity and workforces expand globally, the need for online project management tools is no luxury. There is no lack of products to choose from, with varying degrees of usefulness. Microsoft has thrown its considerable weight into the ring with Microsoft Project. While MS Project has become an industry-standard in project management, it comes with problems, leaving people to search for the best Microsoft Project alternative.

Why People Seek a Microsoft Project Alternative

Microsoft Project can do much of what you need when managing a project, but it’s not a perfect tool. There are many reasons why people who use it are searching for an MS Project alternative. Thankfully, there are many other software solutions on the market that offer users a great alternative to Microsoft Project. We’ll get to those in a moment, but first, let’s outline the reasons people are dissatisfied with MS Project.

• Steep Learning Curve: Microsoft Project is not for beginners. The software is very technical and not user-friendly. That might be fine if you have an advanced degree in project management, but for the rest of us it’s going to require a lot of work, time and training to get a handle on how to use the tool. If you struggle with project management software, your project struggles too.
• Poor Team Communication: Microsoft Project falls short in this category. You can’t easily message your team in the app, which means you’re going to have to jump onto one of the messaging tools that Microsoft offers, such as Teams, Outlook or Skype. Why do you want an add-on when it’s so much more efficient to have your communication tool embedded in the software?
• Lack of Integration: While MS Project works okay with other Microsoft products, that’s not the case if you want to use a tool outside of the Microsoft family of apps. So, if you’re looking to integrate with Salesforce, Slack or other tools, you’re probably going to find yourself frustrated and looking for an MS Project alternative.
• High Price: If money is your bottom line, then Microsoft Project’s price tag will be a tough pill to swallow. What makes matters worse is that you have to pay for each license. You may have to selectively license MS Project to your team. Some will get to use it, others won’t, which is going to block collaboration and slow down progress on your project.
• Hard to Share Data: It’s almost as if Microsoft Project doesn’t want your team to work together. If anyone on your team works on an Apple product, they’re out of luck. It’s such a problem that a cottage industry of online tools has emerged that offer ways to take MPP files, convert them into friendlier formats to edit and share, then convert them back to MS Project files. That’s not very efficient!

…Read More »

The post Best MS Project Alternatives 2021 for Project Managers appeared first on ProjectManager.com.
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Stenbeck writes that, “among all the stressful facets of project management, none evokes the fear, the sense of foreboding, and the absolute dread that comes from needing to provide estimates for some requirements that are, quite simply, unknown or unknowable” (Stenbeck, 2008).  Indeed, we’ve all heard the mantra, “don’t worry about the things you can’t control”.  But, what happens when you need to put a cost on those things?  Estimating can be a complex process, particularly if confronted with the task of top-down or bottom-up estimating a project with a plethora of unknowns.  Early on in my career, I was fairly successful utilizing historical estimates as a majority of the projects I was working on were, for the most part, monolithic and uniform. Lately, I’ve been faced with a wider variety of projects, and I’ve had to rely on other tools.

Read the following by Quincy Yarbrough regarding Level of Effort (LOE) at the link below, and then return to comment on the topic.

Level of effort (LOE) is a project management term that refers to a specific type of project activity called support activities. Support activities do not yield deliverables, but rather fuel tasks that do. Therefore, the level of effort is how much work these tasks will take to complete.

This work can take many forms, such as updating project documents, maintaining equipment, submitting expenses, etc. The unifying characteristic of this work is that it must be done regularly to support a greater task.

Level of Effort Examples

The best way to understand level of effort is by looking at common support activities that take place in almost any project. We’ve a few level of effort examples below.

Managing Stakeholders

Stakeholder management is the art of creating strong relationships between everyone involved in a project. Good stakeholder management requires constant communication and transparency. Depending on the scope and size of the project, the level of effort for stakeholder management activities will go up and down, and it is important to be aware of how much energy it will take. Stakeholder management includes sending regular updates, scheduling meetings, hosting calls, creating documents, etc.

…Read More »

The post What is Level of Effort (LOE)? Plus, 5 Tips for Effort Estimation appeared first on ProjectManager.com.
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Stenbeck, J. (2008). Five keys to estimating. Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2008—North America, Denver, CO. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

Read Quincy Yarbrough’s post: Projects, no matter the size and scope, are complex. If they weren’t, they might as well just be tasks on a to-do list. Luckily, projects are also a group effort—for every project, there is a project team working together to make deliverables a reality.

How do these teams come together? Not on their own! There are many ways to form project teams and many factors to take into account.

What Is a Project Team?

A project team is composed of individuals that are working together towards a common goal. This can include executives, a project manager, team leaders from different departments and team members. How this team operates depends on how it’s organized, which can take the form of different project organizational structures.

Within a typical project team structure, projects are headed by the project manager, though they also can be led by an executive that the project manager reports to. The key characteristic of this type of team is that everyone reports to the project manager or another individual at the top of the chain of command.

The project manager often manages the project, the team and all the related tasks in a project management software. Ideally, project management software allows for team collaboration as well as planning, so teams can be at there best, like with ProjectManager.

…Read More »

The post How to Assemble a Project Team appeared first on ProjectManager.com.
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Megan Keup writes about the best resource management software of 2021: Resources in project management are the people, places and things you need to get the job done. This includes the project team, the tools they need, materials, facilities and so on. That can mean a lot of headaches for project managers trying to balance their resources with the team’s capacity. And, of course, all this is happening on a tight schedule and budget.

You can see the need for resource management software, which includes planning and proper allocation of those resources to make sure teams have what they need when they need it. It’s through resource management that projects keep to their budgets and stay on schedule.

Before we look at a number of tools that claim to be the best resource management software, let’s define resource management in-depth. Then we’ll get to the best resource management software rankings of 2021.

What Is Resource Management?

Resource management is all about getting the materials, supplies, equipment and people you need to execute a project. It involves how you plan, schedule, allocate and manage those resources to best serve the project.

Making sure your resources are used effectively is the backbone of resource management, whether those resources come internally or externally. That means working with vendors, subcontractors and your own teams, coordinating their work and making sure that resources are always balanced with capacity to keep productivity high.

Clearly, resource management is important for many reasons. Using too many resources can be costly and using too few can slow down production. You’ll either overspend or miss your deadlines. Neither option is advisable. Fortunately, resource management software can help.

…Read More »

The post Best Resource Management Software of 2021 appeared first on ProjectManager.com.
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I’m sure you’ve done it too: pulled out the calendar, circled the project due date, and worked backward from there. Read Quincy Yarbrough’s article about mastering the Workback Schedule, and then work your way back to this post to comment on your workback methodology…

Have you ever gotten stuck trying to schedule a project? If you’re like most of us, the answer is yes. It’s the project management equivalent of writer’s block, and it can majorly slow down your planning.

The good news is, there is no shortage of methods designed for tricky scheduling situations—whether it’s a lack of information, inspiration or anything else. One such solution is the workback schedule.

What Is a Workback Schedule?

A workback schedule is a method of scheduling in which the planner assigns resources to tasks in reverse order, starting from the last task and going to the first. This is best executed with the help of project scheduling software.

…Read More »

The post Mastering the Workback Schedule: 5 Essential Tips appeared first on ProjectManager.com.
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In CIO Insight’s most recent digital publication, author Shelby Hiter considers the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on agile project management.  Specifically, Hiter cites such changes as Virtual Meetings over onsite visits, stronger data management practices, growing involvement in change management, and moving agile practices beyond the software world and into other areas of project management as major impacts (Hiter, 2021).  I can attest to experiencing all of these shifts in routine operation; the result of emergency measures undertaken industry-wide through-out the healthcare space.  The transformation to virtual meetings has been particularly impactful, leading to more meetings scheduled back-to-back as physical conveyance from one meeting room to another has been reduced or eliminated.  In fact, as we begin the shift back to a more in-person approach, we have found the need to adjust our thinking in terms of scheduling meetings to accommodate getting from one area of the hospital to another.

Read Hiter’s article here, and then return and comment on how the pandemic has altered your approach to agile project management.

Hiter, S. (2021, July 2). COVID’s Impact on Agile Project Management. CIO Insight. https://www.cioinsight.com/collaboration/agile-project-management/.

The Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge states, “Plan Communications Management is the process of developing an appropriate approach and plan for project communications activities based on the information needs of each stakeholder or group, available organizational assets, and the needs of the project. The key benefit of this process is a documented approach to effectively and efficiently engage stakeholders by presenting relevant information in a timely manner” (Project Management Institute. 2017).  Communication in a project needs to be efficient and effective, thus requiring proper planning.  See Quincy Yarborough’s post at the link below and comment with your most effective communication strategies and how you have imbedded them in a proper project plan.

Project Management Institute. (2017). A guide to the project management body of knowledge. Project Management Institute, Inc.

All projects require communication between stakeholders. This seems simple enough, but sharing information with everyone clearly and consistently requires a plan. Without one, things become messy and stakeholders can become confused and unhappy.

That’s where communication planning comes into play.

What Is Communication Planning?

Communication planning is the process of laying out how communication will take place between team members and stakeholders, whether it be on a project, in an organization or both. In other words, managers use a communication plan to create a formal process for sharing information.

This includes creating systems of communication and an order of operations to follow. This can sound dry, but it is ultimately a creative process and should be treated as such.

…Read More »

The post Communications Planning: A Quick Guide appeared first on ProjectManager.com.
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The project management team for a grant that I worked on vetted many of the solutions offered in the article linked below.  We settled on ProofHub as our task management solution of choice.  Read the article at the jump below and leave a reply as to which solutions have worked for your Team and why.

Task management is essential to project management, teamwork and simply getting work done. Productivity is lost if a team loses control of their tasks and deadlines. Teams use task management software to execute tasks on time, within budget and with the right resources. But there are a lot of task management software solutions to choose from, and it can be hard to know which is the best.

We took the time to look over the pack, and we picked out those with extraordinary features deserving of your attention. But before we rank the best task management software, let’s make sure we understand task management.

…Read More »

The post Best Task Management Software of 2021 for Teams appeared first on ProjectManager.com.
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Every project is made up of tasks, and the sequence

of those tasks are often of the upmost importance. Certain tasks can’t begin until another one has finished, and vice-versa. In order to ensure that tasks are done in the correct order, project managers employ the use of Gantt charts and Gantt chart software to track the dependencies between their project’s tasks.

In order to talk about Gantt chart dependencies, though, we must first talk about Gantt charts.

What Is a Gantt Chart?

Gantt charts are a well-known project management chart. Gantt charts are visual tools created during the project planning phase and are used to show a wide range of project data as simply as possible with horizontal bars.

This horizontal bar chart is the easiest way to see how projects are scheduled over time. This includes which tasks must be completed, how long those tasks should take, who is responsible for which tasks, etc. Gantt charts also allow you to create and view milestones. …Read More »

The post Gantt Chart Dependencies: Understanding Task Dependency Types appeared first on ProjectManager.com.
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