Project Planning and Management
What this domain tests
Project Planning and Management examines how scope, schedule, cost and risk are integrated: work breakdown, critical path logic, earned value, and change control.
Core rules
- The WBS decomposes scope into work packages small enough to estimate and assign to one owner.
- The critical path is the longest path through the network and carries zero total float; any slippage on it delays completion.
- Total float = LS − ES = LF − EF.
- Earned value: CPI = EV/AC, SPI = EV/PV, and EAC ≈ BAC/CPI when current cost performance is expected to persist.
- No scope change proceeds without an impact assessment on cost, schedule and risk, and a revised baseline.
- Each risk in the register needs a probability, an impact, an owner, a response and a trigger.
Worked example
At month 4: BAC 500k, PV 200k, EV 180k, AC 210k. CPI = 180/210 = 0.857, so the project is over budget. SPI = 180/200 = 0.90, so it is behind schedule in value terms. Forecast EAC = 500/0.857 ≈ 583k, an overrun of about 83k. Note that SPI of 0.90 does not mean the project finishes exactly 10% late - schedule variance in cost terms is not a duration forecast. Check the critical path before assuming recovery is possible.
Traps
Treating float as free time on the critical path; converting SPI directly into a percentage duration overrun; reporting earned value without actual cost; and agreeing a variation verbally without re-baselining.