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Project Tracking & Variance Analysis
By Dick Billows, PMP
Summary: In status meetings, we need a visual tool to quickly communicate status to decision-makers who may not know project management. The Tracking Gantt in Microsoft Project® displays two bars for each task: blue is the actual and grey is the planned. This shows how the project is doing and the cause of the slippage. It also shows how variances "ripple" through a project schedule.
Task 1 finished on time so #2 could start on time, But #2 took twice as long as planned to complete so it finished late. That slippage rippled through the rest of the project causing the later tasks to start after their planned start dates.
Percentages show the % complete
Watch this video on how to prepare a status report with MS Project® software.
Project Variance Analysis & Status Reporting
Tier 1: Small Projects Done within an organizational unit with your manager or your boss as the sponsor
Tier 2: Medium Projects Cross-functional effort affects multiple departments or done for customers/clients
Tier 3: Strategic Projects Organization-wide projects with long term effects
Team Reporting
Team members report hours of work completed and estimate the hours of work remaining on each in-progress task. No status narrative.
Team members report hours of work completed and estimate the hours of work remaining. Report progress on major deliverables and any changes to those deliverables.
Team members report hours of work completed and estimate the hours of work remaining. Also report on acceptance of deliverables by users or the customer.
Contractors &
Material Cost Reporting
Usually no project budgeting or tracking of costs.
Materials purchased and equipment installed tracked on both quantity and unit price. Contractors managed on an hourly or fixed cost basis.
Materials purchased and equipment installed tracked on both quantity and unit price. Contractors managed on an hourly or fixed cost basis. Regular audits of contractor performance versus contract specs.
Reporting to
Team & Stakeholders
Team members get tracking Gantt comparing the planned to the actual schedule and an updated personal schedule each week. Stakeholders get summary tracking Gantt and status narrative
Team members get tracking Gantt comparing the planned to the actual schedule and an updated personal schedule each week. Stakeholders get a summary tracking Gantt and status narrative. Functional managers lending people to the project get schedule updates for their people.
Team members get tracking Gantt comparing the planned to the actual schedule and an updated personal schedule each week. Stakeholders get summary tracking Gantt and status narrative. Influential stakeholders get weekly reports customized for their interests or concerns.
Reporting to the Sponsor
Status report on all variances with recommendations for corrective action. Change requests analyzed by the PM with quantified impact documented.
Status report on all variances with recommendations for corrective action. Change requests analyzed by the PM with quantified impact documented. Modeling of alternative solutions to correct variances and forecasted overruns.
The Big Picture is not About the "Spilled Milk"
Consistently successful project managers report on a forecast of what is going to happen. Those headed for failure report on the problems that took them by surprise and which can't be fixed. The best practice is to forecast a problem like this:
"Task #102 just started and we underestimated the work involved. If we do nothing, Task #102 will finish 30 days late.If we do nothing, 15 days of that slippage will ripple through and the project finish date will slip 15 days."
Then the successful project manager would propose one or several options for corrective action and ask for executive approval to act and solve the problem. How do we illustrate this?
Show the Forecasted Problem and How It "Ripples" with a Tracking Gantt
The Tracking Gantt in MS Project® is a great tool even if the executive knows nothing about project management.
We'll use a Gantt chart that compares the planned schedule to the current, actual schedule. This tracking Gantt shows two bars for each task. The bottom (gray) bar runs from the planned start to finish and the top (blue) bar runs from the currently scheduled start to finish. Thus, if the two bars for a task are on top of one another, the task is on schedule. If the task has slipped, you see the amount of slippage.
In the screen shot below, the gray task bars are the plan and the blue or red task bars are the current, actual schedule. We see that the 4th task on the WBS started late and is scheduled to finish more than 3 weeks later than planned. We also see how this slippage has "rippled" through the rest of the schedule, delaying other tasks. This form of Gantt chart is a clear way of illustrating schedule status to your sponsor and project team.
BUT! You Need to Build Your Schedule Correctly
To do all this you need to build a schedule with clear assignments, work estimates, resource availability data and predecessors. In other words it is a professional project schedule...not a "to do" list. If you are unclear about how to do this, take one of our project essentials courses to learn the basics.
