Simplified, Meaningful, Progress Tracking for Business Projects

Abstract

It is important for executives to understand the status of business projects in their areas of accountability, allowing timely decisions to be taken. But often this does not happen due to lack of, or misleading, reporting. One reason is shortcomings in the widely accepted textbook approach, referred to here as “classical” earned value management (CEVM). While such approaches are often used for construction projects, they do not work well for business projects. The reason is that CEVM works for projects whose scope activities are well understood, possible to estimate upfront, and change relatively little. Business projects seldom meet any of these criteria. This and other factors render CEVM impractical for almost all business projects. Project managers who try to use it for business projects usually find they are unable to obtain meaningful information, and thus blame themselves, whereas the problem is that CEVM is unsuitable for these kinds of projects. Fortunately, alternatives exist that honor the earned value principles and can be used quickly and meaningfully for business projects. One such approach, labeled project progress tracker, is outlined here. It uses a simple spreadsheet and works as well for an agile project as for any other business project.