Project Performance Metrics: Moving-Window Measurements, Challenges, And Solutions Essay.

Identify four project performance metrics that use moving-window measurements, and describe the challenges that project teams typically encounter in the use of these metrics. Also, identify ways to overcome these challenges. Metrics that use rolling-wave or moving-window measurements are metrics where the starting and finishing measurement dates can change as the project progresses (Kerzner, 2013, p. 89). 

Cost Performing Index (CPI)

The aim of this report is to show the importance of project performance metrics that are needed to solve the process of project management (Kerzner, 2017). There are several metrics among which only four metrics of project management are described in this paper. The challenges that are faced by those processes are detailed and also the ways to overcome the challenges are elaborated. The processes that are included are Cost Performing Index (CPI), Cost Estimate, Schedule Performing Index (SPI) and the Resource Utilization which are explained in detailed.

The Cost Performing Index is the estimated time that has been used or to be needed to complete an approved schedule project (Kerzner, 2017). The Cost Performing Index of a scheduled project is the ratio of the budget that is planned to the amount that is actually spent to achieve the project. The mathematical formula of Cost Performing Index is

Cost Performing Index= Earned value/ Actual cost

Challenges that are faced by Cost Performing Index: The challenges that are faced by Cost Performing Index is that it the full process of the project is not evaluated. The Cost Performing Index do not represents the necessary functions that are needed for project evaluation accurately. The quality of the project is not estimated in the Cost Performing Index which contributes a major drawback of Cost Performing Index. If proper guidance and proper vision is not estimated, a project cannot stand good. The second challenge that is faced by Cost Performing Index is the playing game process. The users who are using the Cost Performing Index replans the actual cost for the process that is underway and the actual cost and the earned value also changes which creates a gap among the project owners and the members of the team. It distracts the trust of the customer on the project management that is handled by the project team. The third challenge that is faced by the Cost Performing Index is that it ensures their customers that the progression of the project is almost 90 percent done in a hope to complete the work that is being promised. But they fail to do that.

Ways to overcome the challenges: The challenge of game playing that is faced by Cost Performing Index can be solved by gaining a trust among the customers. The assurance that is given to the customers for completion of the project should be given on time with the estimated cost. If that is not done, the trust is hampered. The trust can be earned and kept intact by dividing the project into small segments so that the details of the project is worked on and input is gained before the implementation of the project. The drawback of the syndrome of completing 90 percent project is overcome by some organization by implementing a percentage figure activity progress. The activity of the project is progressed in three segments: figure 0, figure 50 and figure 100. Figure 0 indicated that the task is not being started. Figure 50 indicates that task is in progress and 100 indicate that the task is fully completed. This figure representation do not shows the exact percentage of task that is being completed which does not create a misunderstanding among the clients.

Challenges and Solutions for Cost Performing Index (CPI)

The iterative process that is used for developing the resources that are related to money needed to complete the activities of the project is termed as cost estimate of the project (Yun et al., 2016). The cist estimation is totally and approximation process. The team members of the project team must give an estimation al all the resources that has been used and will be further used in completing the project.

Challenges that are faced by Cost Estimation:  One of the challenges that are faced by Cost Estimation is the percentage of completion. The percentage of completion of process is one of the unique disadvantages that are faced by cost control. The method of percentage of completion helps to estimate the cost of the project under the cost control method. There is a mathematical formula which is used to estimate the percentage of project that the team can complete within a year or quarter of year. The feature on which the percentage of completion depends is upon estimation. There may be a difference in the goals of the project and the actual achievement that is achieved during the completion of the project. This difference gives misleading figures in the analysis of cost control. Another challenge that is faced by cost Estimation is the interlocking of systems. The interlocking system of Cost estimation creates a budget of cost control and the actual total that is needed for different areas of production and business. This mainly arises in bookkeeping system of the cost estimation. If the same cost is estimated in two different areas of the company with different budget of cost control, then the expenditure remains twice in the record which leads to a disadvantage of the Cost Estimation.

Ways to overcome the challenges: To overcome the challenge of cost estimation, a misture of the following estimation process must be used so that the actual overall estimation is given to the clients about the cost of the project and its resources. The types of estimation process are as follows:

Bottom-Up Estimating: Large tasks are broken into smaller parts to estimate the bottom-Up method. This helps to get the estimation correctly related to the cost of the project.

Top-Down Estimating: In this approach of estimating, the cost of similar projects is studied and an approximate budget is set in completing the project. Comparing the bottom up approach and the top down approach of the same projects gives an accurate estimate of the cost that is need in completion of the project.

The Schedule Performing Index helps to get a track of the schedule that is being estimated for a project. It helps to track weather the work is ahead or behind the estimated schedule (El Asmar, Hanna & Loh, 2013). If the value of Schedule Performing Index is 1, then it is at right time. If the Schedule Performing Index is less than 1, then the time is lagging behind and if it is greater than 1, the schedule time is ahead of the estimated time. The mathematical formula of Schedule Performing Index is

Cost Estimate

Schedule Performing Index= Earned Value/ Planned value

Challenges that are faced by Schedule Performing Index: The challenges that are faced by Schedule Performing Index are almost same as the Cost Performing Index. As both the Cost Performing Index and Schedule Performing Index depend on the earned Value, so their drawbacks are almost the same. Game playing process is the first challenge that is being faced by Schedule Performing Index. The users who are using the Schedule Performing Index revise the planned value for the process that is underway and the actual cost and the earned value also changes which creates a gap among the project owners and the members of the team. It distracts the trust of the customer on the project management that is handled by the project team. The second challenge that is faced is the syndrome of 90 percent complete. When the clients asks for their project progress, the team members make an estimate and says that the work is 90 percent complete and they struggle to get to that completion percentage, but fails.

Ways to overcome the challenges: The challenge of the syndrome of completing 90 percent project of Schedule Performing Index is overcome by some organization by implementing a percentage figure activity progress. The activity of the project is progressed in three segments: figure 0, figure 50 and figure 100. Figure 0 indicated that the task is not being started. Figure 50 indicates that task is in progress and 100 indicate that the task is fully completed. This figure representation do not shows the exact percentage of task that is being completed which does not create a misunderstanding among the clients. The challenge that comes from game playing that is faced by Schedule Performing Index can be solved by gaining a trust among the customers. As the Schedule Performing Index depends on the Earned value, the assurance that is given to the customers for completion of the project should be given on time with the estimated cost. If that is not done, the trust is hampered. The trust can be earned and kept intact by dividing the project into small segments so that the details of the project is worked on and input is gained before the implementation of the project.

The Resource Utilization of performance metrics gives a glance on the work of the team. Resource Utilization gives a measurement of the total time that is used by the members of the team in progression of a project (Hall, 2013). Resource utilization gives an estimate the time the team members are working on the activities that are billable compared to all the tasks that are not in the bill.

Challenges that are faced by Resource Utilization: The challenges that are face d by Resource Utilization are as follows. The resource risks are made non accessible. The risks that are related to technology, unforeseen events and process are assesses by many organization. But there are very less number of organizations that works on the resource risks. To estimate the risk that comes from the resource should be monitored by a project manager of the team. The risk and the risks that may arise in allocating the resource are to be accessed first. Another challenge that the resource estimation faces is not using resources that are appropriately skilled. The company possessing resource may have enough skilled and learned team members that are capable of handling those resources. To allocate resource without having skill set is totally a waste of time. The optimizations of resources are not done correctly. The optimization of resource is done when the resource works on the projects that have low priority instead of having the organizational goals.  The resources that are involved are not given challenging tasks they are capable of doing. Schedules and resources that are involved are unrealistic. The deadlines of the project should be made realistic so that the team will be able to complete the project in the estimated time and also do the work perfectly. The resource constraints that involve professional and personal resource are essential in management of project.

Ways to overcome the challenges: Experts are capable to handle the utilization of resources correctly. Expert in the required skill must be employed by the company to handle all the resources correctly. They also keep a look on the fact that every resource is utilized properly in project completion method. Analogue estimating is another way to overcome that challenges that are faced by Resource Utilization. This is a process in which similar projects are looked after so that the estimation and utilization of the resources can be estimated from the similar projects that had been done before. This techniques works only of the project and the resources are same. The challenge of Resource Utilization can also be mitigated by reserve analysis. This is an extra time that is taken from the client if in case some resources are missing and they finds it difficult implement the resources. This is also known as the buffer time process. This buffer time is taken to avoid risk in the future.

Conclusion

The project management is a process of handling the project and leads to completion of the project. There are many metrics that are needed in successful completion of the project. The project management metrics that are detailed in this report is the Cost Performing Index (CPI), Resource Utilization, Schedule Performing Index (SPI) and the Cost Estimate. All the challenges that are faced by these metrics are explained and their relative mitigating process are also detailed.

References

El Asmar, M., Hanna, A. S., & Loh, W. Y. (2013). Quantifying performance for the integrated project delivery system as compared to established delivery systems. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, 139(11), 04013012.

Hall, Z. G. (2013). C-17A Sustainment Performance Metrics Assessment: Repair Source Impact on Sustainment for Future Business Case Analysis Development (No. AFIT-ENS-GRP-13-J-17). AIR FORCE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB OH GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT.

Kerzner, H. (2017). Project management metrics, KPIs, and dashboards: a guide to measuring and monitoring project performance. John Wiley & Sons.

Yun, S., Choi, J., de Oliveira, D. P., & Mulva, S. P. (2016). Development of performance metrics for phase-based capital project benchmarking. International Journal of Project Management, 34(3), 389-402.