Execution, Monitoring, and Control
What this domain tests
Execution, monitoring, and control: directing work, managing people and communications, controlling changes, and using earned value to forecast performance.
Core rules
- Direct and manage project work produces deliverables and work performance data. Monitor and control compares actuals with the plan and recommends corrective or preventive action.
- Integrated change control evaluates every change for impact on scope, schedule, cost, quality, risk, and benefits. Approved changes update baselines; rejected changes do not.
- Earned value: PV = planned value, EV = earned value, AC = actual cost. CV = EV - AC; SV = EV - PV; CPI = EV/AC; SPI = EV/PV. Negative CV or SV means behind plan on cost or schedule.
- Crashing adds resources to shorten duration and usually raises cost. Fast tracking overlaps activities and usually raises risk. Both require trade-off analysis.
- Team development moves through forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning; conflict should be addressed early and directly.
Worked example
PV = $100,000, EV = $80,000, AC = $90,000. CV = 80,000 - 90,000 = -$10,000; SV = 80,000 - 100,000 = -$20,000; CPI = 0.89; SPI = 0.80. The project has earned less than planned and spent more than earned, so it is over budget and behind schedule. A forecast estimate at completion using CPI is BAC/CPI; if BAC is $200,000, EAC is about $225,000. Reasoning: EVM converts progress into comparable value, not just percent complete.
Traps
- Reporting percent complete instead of earned value.
- Approving changes informally and then updating baselines later.
- Assuming crashing is free or fast tracking is risk-free.
- Using SPI alone on a project with a shifting critical path.