MGMT7020 Chap.8 Execution, Resourcing, Costing and Monitoring
Execution, Resourcing, Costing and Monitoring
Measuring progress honestly
Week 5 covers execution: managing people and resources, managing cost and monitoring progress.
This chapter explains earned value as a comparison of the work planned, the work actually completed and the money spent, using a clinic booking case.
Reports that lead to decisions
It then shows how to write a status report a steering committee can act on, and draws on the readings for securing people, avoiding the padding-and-cutting cycle and reading early warning signs.
What assessors look for
Questions on execution usually test whether you can separate schedule and cost, explain a variance by its cause, and propose an action with an owner.
They also reward awareness that numbers lag reality: experienced managers watch commitment, morale and silence in meetings as closely as the reports, and owners must decide how much to rely on supplier reporting.
Common errors on this topic
The most frequent error is comparing money spent with the plan and calling the project on track. Another is crediting partly finished work as earned, which flatters progress.
A third is reporting variances without a cause or an action, which leaves the steering committee with numbers but no decision.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Planned value, earned value and actual cost
- 02
Schedule position versus cost position
- 03
Writing a status report
- 04
Securing human resources
- 05
Bottom-up budgets and contingency
- 06
Early warnings before the numbers
Worked example · free
Read the position of a training rollout at its status date
- 1Schedule: $33,000 of work done against $30,000 planned, so the rollout is ahead of schedule by $3,000 of work.
- 1Cost: $27,000 spent for $33,000 of completed work, so it is $6,000 under cost for the work done.
- 1Report both positions, check whether quality was traded for speed, and confirm the forecast before releasing contingency.
Key terms
- Planned Value
- The budgeted worth of the work scheduled to be done by a given date.
- Earned Value
- The budgeted worth of the work actually completed by a given date.
- Actual Cost
- The money actually spent on the work completed by a given date.
Execution, Resourcing, Costing and Monitoring FAQ
Why is spending against budget not enough to judge progress?
Spending shows how much money has gone, not how much work is done. A project can spend on plan while completing far less work than planned, which only earned value reveals.
What makes a status report useful to a steering committee?
It states the schedule and cost positions separately, explains the cause of each gap, and proposes an action with a named owner, so the committee has a decision to make rather than just figures.
What did the readings say about resources?
Dvir and Lechler found manpower shortage was a main source of plan changes, and concluded that securing the human resources a plan depends on is one of a project manager's prime responsibilities.
Can a project be behind schedule but under cost?
Yes. If less work has been completed than planned, the project is behind schedule; if that work cost less than its budgeted value, it is also under cost for the work done. The two positions are independent and are reported separately.
Why do estimates grow when managers cut them?
Ward and Chapman describe a padding-and-cutting cycle: when managers cut estimates arbitrarily, estimators learn to pad the next ones, which widens uncertainty instead of reducing it. Recording the basis of each estimate helps break the cycle.
What is contingency and who should hold it?
Contingency is money or time set aside for uncertainty that the estimates cannot remove. Holding it openly, with clear rules for release, avoids the hidden padding that Ward and Chapman criticise. Some allowances belong above the project, because certain uncertainties are beyond the project manager's control.
Exam move
Work through three short status cases until you can state the schedule and cost positions without hesitating, then practise writing a three-sentence report with cause, action and owner. Practise saying which of the two gaps worries you more in each case, and why.
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