Execution and Monitoring
Execution is where plans meet reality; monitoring is how you learn early enough to act.
Executing
- Direct and manage the work, acquire and develop the team, manage quality, distribute information, manage stakeholder engagement, and implement approved changes.
- Work is authorized through work packages; nothing is built outside the WBS without a change request.
Monitoring and control
- Compare actuals against the baseline across scope, schedule, cost, quality, and risk.
- Earned value: PV is planned value, EV the value of completed work, AC the actual cost. SV = EV minus PV; CV = EV minus AC; SPI = EV divided by PV; CPI = EV divided by AC. Forecast EAC = BAC divided by CPI when current cost efficiency continues; VAC = BAC minus EAC.
- Change control: request, log, impact assessment across scope, schedule, cost, quality and risk, change board decision, baseline and document update, communication. Work without that path is scope creep.
- Maintain the issue log and act on the thresholds set in the plan.
Worked example
BAC = 200,000; PV = 80,000; EV = 72,000; AC = 90,000. SV = minus 8,000 (behind schedule), CV = minus 18,000 (over budget), SPI = 0.90, CPI = 0.80, EAC = 200,000 divided by 0.80 = 250,000, VAC = minus 50,000. Reasoning: report both indices, because a project can be ahead of schedule and over budget at the same time, and CPI alone hides schedule slip.
Traps
- Swapping PV and AC inside the formulas.
- Declaring health from a single index.
- Accepting verbal change approvals and skipping the log.
- Applying earned value to scope that was never baselined.