PROJECT COST & SCHEDULE

CONTROL

MEASURING AND FORECASTING COMPLETION BASICS

2002
 INDEX

SUBJECT Page

Introduction 3
Characteristic of a Project Control System 5
Work Breakdown Structure 7
Organization Breakdown Structure 8
Variances 10
BCWS, BCWP, ACWP 10
Cost Variance 11
Schedule Variance 12
At completion Variance 13
Performance Ratios 14
Measuring and Forecasting Completion 15
Engineering Measurement 15
Procurement Measurement 19
Construction Progress Measurement 22
References 25

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Introduction
Controls are systems for guiding work processes toward some objectives.

There are four basic activities in the systems:

 Planning performance

 Measuring performance

 Comparing actual and planned performance

 Adjusting plans as required

Cost control implies good project management, which must include:

 Cost estimating and Cost accounting

 Cash flow analysis

 Direct labor costing and Overhead rate costing

 Planning and scheduling and a Progress measuring system

 Value engineering analysis

 Quality assurance and quality compliance planning

 Project risk analysis

 Project change orders management

 Contracting administration

 Contractual claims management

 Accounting and Auditing

If it has to be said in two words what this chapter is all about they would be cost control.

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The contrast between a project running with a cost control system and one without it may
be illustrated by considering two different ways of building a warehouse.

One approach is to hire masons, mechanics, electricians, plumbers, laborers and the like
and put them to work. They will make decisions and order supplies as the needs arise. The
owner will check periodically to see if all goes right. As problems surface, rework has to
be done if spotted on time, otherwise the owner has to live with the mistake.

The final result: cost and time overruns, labor disputes, and frustration for all project
participants.

The other approach is utilizing modern project management techniques. It will not prevent
all problems but it will minimize them. All resources available will be organized and
controlled and most situations anticipated. Benefits may be summarized as:

 Coordination and communications between the project participants

 Anticipated determination of type, amount and timing of necessary resources.

 Recognition of risk elements and assessment of uncertainties

 Suggestions of alternate courses of action

 Realization of effect of resource level changes on schedule and output

performance

 Measuring and reporting of genuine progress

 Basis for problem solving, decision making, and corrective action available at
all times

 Assurance of interface between planning and cost control

 Less cash flow complications

 More time to spend in quality assurance, quality compliance and value

analysis

 Accumulation of information to guide future projects

CHARACTERISTICS OF A PROJECT CONTROL SYSTEM

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When designing a project control system, it is important to consider the following
characteristics:

1.- Objective.

Emphasis must be put on company's (owner's):

 Priorities

 Relevant aspects to control

 Critical process points

 Plans

2.- Flexibility.-

Project control systems must be flexible enough to adapt to different project sizes and
different users.

3.- Simplicity.

Control system simplicity is required to avoid users directing their attention to the
mechanics of the system rather than to working and getting results.

The control system must be the one requiring the smallest effort and producing the
required results.

Standing control systems should be examined periodically and carefully to see if each piece
of information is really necessary.

4.- Response.

Control data must result in immediate action to be effective. The right data must go to the
right people. To get good response from a project control system it is necessary to know
who is responsible for action, what are the control requirements, what controls are needed
to meet this requirements, and how control data may be best presented

5.- Timelyness.

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Information may not be effective if it does not come at the right time. Making project data
available on time requires avoiding delays between data collection and its presentation and
time-framing reports frequency to the individuals. For instance, the time frame for cost
reports for a cost engineer may be a week while that of a project manager might be two to
four weeks.

6.- Human factor.

A control system will be utilized by people so it must be designed for people. It must be:

 User friendly

 Simple

 Flexible

 Fool proof

 Clear and uncomplicated

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WORK BREAKDOWN STRUCTURE
The essential tool for building a control system is breaking the work down to
comprehensive activities.

The work breakdown is the division of work into a number of more manageable
pieces.

A project may be broken down into smaller pieces called Job orders; Job orders can then
be divided into smaller work efforts called phases, then phases may be separated into work
packages, and work packages parted into work items or activities.

Some benefits of a work breakdown are:

 Reduction of complexity

 Allowance for planning and scheduling short intervals

 Simplification of cost estimating and cost collection

 Allowance for cost/scheduling interface and better control

 Allowance for summarization of reports on a need-to-know basis.

The work breakdown structure (WBS) of a project is almost like a bill of materials. It
divides the project into tasks of manageable size which makes estimating a relatively easy
process. The figure below gives an idea of how to start breaking down a project.

HOUSE CONSTRUCTION

CIVIL ENG. ELECTRICAL ENG. MECHANICAL ENG. LANDSCAPING

WATER WINDOWS STRUCTURES

The subdivision of project tasks is often a continuing process and as the project develops,
the more general tasks at higher level are divided up into more specific tasks at lower
levels.

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Paralleling the WBS there is an organization breakdown structure or OBS. The
organization breakdown structure may incorporate contractors and subcontractors and
shows how these units fit into the hierarchical organization structure. The figure shows an
example of an incipient Organization Breakdown Structure.

BALAMAND ENG. Co.

DESIGN PROCUREMENT CONSTRUCTION QUALITY CONTROL

CIVIL ELECT. MECH. INSTRUMENT.

The WBS is a product oriented breakdown of the project plans, whereas the OBS is a
functional reporting breakdown and shows the hierarchy of the organizational units
responsible for performing the work on the project. As with the WBS, the OBS can be
broken down into various hierarchical levels.

The WBS and the OBS are independent of each other, but at the lower levels they
intersect and form a matrix or grid of valid cost collection points called COST
ACCOUNTS. A department can work on multiple tasks, and a task can be worked on by
multiple departments.

The figure below shows how COST ACCOUNTS are generated.

COST ACCOUNT
Budget No.: 300

Work Packages

Planning
Packages

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Once the detail level tasks have been created, departments should be allocated to each
one. Each detail task must have at least one department responsible for performing the
work. Each time a department is assigned to a task, a cost account is created.

These cost accounts can then be divided into work packages which represent the detail
work involved. A cost account may contain multiple work packages spanning different
periods of time.

A work package is accomplished by the utilization of various resources. The resources

needed to perform a work package are defined by COST ITEMS, and can be expressed as
either general types such as labor, material and equipment or as individual skills such as
mechanics, welders or concrete workers.

General types of control items are usually referred to as elements of cost, they are like the
resource requirements of an activity in a critical path network.

The cost control system utilizes the project breakdown structure to collect information,
develop reports, generate variances and produce plan revisions.

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VARIANCES
Variances are used by management to verify cost and scheduling plans. Cost and
scheduling variances must be established together because:

1.-Cost variances alone only provide a deviation measurement from the budget without
considering work accomplished and its planned sequence. A project cost reported
performing exactly as planned only indicates that work for that amount has been
performed regardless of schedule sequential performance, which in time it may mean that
the project is getting late.

2.-Scheduling variances alone provide only a comparison between the work planned and
the one performed.

A project apparently on schedule may only indicate that additional costs have been
incurred to be on time.

VARIANCE DEFINITIONS
Some new concepts have to be introduced before the cost and schedule variances may be
defined. (see figure next page)

BCWS.- Budget cost of work schedule.

BCWP.- Budget cost of work performed.(earned value)
ACWP.- Actual cost of work performed

BCWS

The BCWS, also called the baseline, is the budgeted cost of the project and the curve in
the graphic next page shows how it is expected to be spent during the duration of the
project.

BCWP

The BCWP, also called the earned value, may be defined as the cost value resulting from
the difference between the original budget for any given cost account and the current
required budget to finished the cost account work.

ACWP

The ACWP, also called actual cost, is the accountability of all expenditures payed to date,
regardless what they are being applied to different accounts and schedule implications.

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 % COST % COST
REPORT DATE

(BAC)
BUDGETED COST AT COMPLETION FORECAST OVERRUN

BCWS
(BASELINE)
ACWP
(ACTUAL COST)

TIME
OVERRUN
BCWP
(EARNED VALUE)

TIME

COST VARIANCE
Cost variance (CV) is defined by,

CV = BCWP - ACWP

A negative CV indicates a cost-overrun condition. Analysis of cost variance will identify

areas of concern on:

 Inaccuracies in the original estimates

 Lower productivity than expected
 Unexpected increases in material, labor or equipment costs.

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 % COST % COST
REPORT DATE
EAC

BCWS BAC

ACWP AV
CV

SV

Legend:
AV = Account Variance
BCWP SV = Schedule Variance
CV = Cost Variance

TIME

SCHEDULE VARIANCE
Schedule variance (SV) is defined by,

SV = BCWP - BCWS

A negative SV indicates a behind-schedule condition. Analysis of SV provides valuable

information on the progress of the project in terms of the schedule, but its value has to be
checked against network-base scheduling systems to adequately establish the completion
status of the project.

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AT-COMPLETION VARIANCE
At-Completion variance (ACV) is defined by: ACV = BAC - EAC

Or, the difference between the budgeted cost at completion (BAC) and the estimated cost
at completion (EAC). Analysis of ACV will identify problems on,

 Excessive change orders

 Inaccurate EAC or BAC
 Low productivity
 Engineering design changes.

Careful analysis of all variances should provide project management the tools to determine
problem areas, identify culprits, and take corrective action in a timely manner, as long as
the control systems and documentation is kept updated periodically and professionally.

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PERFORMANCE RATIOS
Cost performance ratio.-

The cost performance ratio (CPR) measures the cost efficiency of the work accomplished.
CPR is defined as the ratio of the cumulative, budgeted cost of work performed over the
cumulative actual cost of work performed.

CPR = BCWP/ ACWP

For instance, a CPR of 0.90 (90%) means that 90 contract-dollars worth of planned
work has been completed for every 100 dollars spent.

Schedule-performance ratio.-

The schedule performance ratio (SPR) indicates the schedule efficiency of the work
completed to date. SPR is the ratio of the cumulative budgeted cost of work performed
over the cumulative budgeted cost of work scheduled.

SPR = BCWP / BCWS

For instance a SPR of 0.80 (80%) means that only $80 worth of work has been
accomplished to date for each $100 worth of work scheduled.

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MEASURING AND FORECASTING COMPLETION

One of the most important functions of project controls is to accurately evaluate the
physical progress of engineering, procurement and construction activities.

Physical progress is the primary factor in:

 Determining progress payments due to the contractor.

 Evaluating the impact of changes, interferences and delays.

 Measuring the contractor's performance to his plan.

 Projecting final costs and facility turnover dates.

The following guidelines offer an objective method of determining physical progress for
each phase of a project from start of design to project completion.

Engineering Measurement (Design)

Physical progress for the engineering phase of a project consists of three levels of
indenture as follows:

 Progress by drawing
 Progress by discipline
 Total engineering progress

Estimate

Prior to implementing a system for progress evaluation an estimate must be developed for
both manhours and quantities of drawings for each engineering discipline. For these
guidelines we will assume the estimate shown in Table 1 next page.

Progress Evaluation

Actual physical progress is measured against the drawings only. The progress
measurement for each engineering discipline and for the total engineering effort is a
function of the progress against each individual drawing.

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 DISCIPLINE ESTIMATED BUDGETED DISCIPLINE
DRAWINGS MANHOURS WEIGHTED
VALUE (%)

CIVIL 20 1250 8.3

ARCHITECTURAL 35 2500 16.7
STRUTURAL 20 1250 8.3
MECHANICAL 20 1500 10.0
PIPING 50 4000 26.7
ELECTRICAL 40 3000 20.0
INSTRUMENTATION 15 1500 10.0
TOTAL ENG. 200 15000 100
TABLE 1

To objectively determine the physical progress against each drawing a series of milestones
are established to give credit for incremental work accomplished. The following is an
example of typical drawing milestones and their related values to the completed drawing:

Drawing Milestones
Start draft (20%) Layout and design completed and actual line work visible. Rough draft
of specification is completed ready for draft typing.

Draft complete (65%) Drawing has been completed by drafting, checked by chief
draftsman, and issued to engineering for checking. Specification is ready for checking.

Office check (80%) Engineering has reviewed the drawing and pertinent corrections has
been incorporated by draftsmen and engineers.

Owner review (85%) Drawing and specification have been reviewed by the owner and
returned with comments.

Final draft (90%) All engineering and owner comments have been incorporated and
drawing and specification have been issued to owner for approval.

Approval with holds (95%) Drawing and specification have been approved by owner
and are ready to be issued for construction with the exception that some portion(s) of the
drawing has "holds", waiting for final resolution.

Final owner Approval (100%) Drawing and specification have been approved by the
owner and they are ready to be issued as approved for construction with no "holds".

In order to control the drawing process and effectively monitor the accomplishment of the
above-mentioned milestones, a drawing control log should be maintained to record the
accomplishment of each milestone and identify the location of each in-process drawing.

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Progress by Discipline
Now that the estimated number of drawings for each engineering discipline has been
established and the drawing milestones have been defined and assigned a weighted value,
the physical progress for each discipline can be evaluated.

For example, assume the work status shown in Table 2 for the 50 piping drawings
referenced in Table 1.

MILESTONE DRAWINGS TOTAL MILESTONE DISCIPLINE

IN PIPE VALUE PERCENT
MILESTONE DRAW. COMPLETE

START DRAFT 10 50 20 4.0

DRAFT COMPLETE 5 50 65 6.5
OFFICE CHECK 5 50 80 8.0
OWNER REVIEW 5 50 85 8.5
FINAL DRAFT 5 50 90 9.0
APPROVAL 5 50 95 9.5
WITH HOLDS
FINAL APPROVAL 10 50 100 20.0
TOTAL PIPING 65.5
TABLE 2

The progress for each of the other engineering disciplines could be calculated in the same
manner.

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Total Engineering Progress
As each drawing milestone represents a portion of the total drawing, so does each
engineering discipline represent a portion of the total engineering effort.

Because certain disciplines may require more manhours per drawing than others,
depending on the nature and complexity of the project, the weighted value of each
discipline is determined by the engineering manhours budgeted to the project

To calculate total engineering physical progress, the percentage of drawing completion for
each discipline, would be multiplied by that discipline's weighted value. The product of this
calculation would be the discipline's contribution to total engineering progress.

For example:

The piping discipline, was calculated to be 65.5% completed. Let us assume the
percentages of completion for the remaining disciplines and the total engineering physical
progress would be calculated as shown on Table 3.

DISCIPLINE PERCENT WEIGHTED PROJECT

COMPLETE VALUE CONTRIBUTION

CIVIL 90 8.3 7.5

ARCHITECTURAL 70 16.7 11.7
STRUCTURAL 80 8.3 6.6
MECHANICAL 75 10.0 7.5
PIPING 65.5 26.7 17.4
ELECTRICAL 60 20.0 12.0
INSTRUMENTS 50 10.0 5.0
TOTAL ENGINEERING 67.7
PROGRESS
TABLE 3

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PROCUREMENT MEASUREMENT
Normally for a major project, the procurement of long lead technical equipment and
materials is a function of the engineering effort and it is included in the Engineering budget
as a separated item.

The procurement effort consist of three major functions as follows:

 Material take-offs
 Purchase requisitions
 Purchase orders

To measure physical progress of the procurement effort, each of the three functions should
be weighted as a percentage of the total procurement effort. This weight factor should be
based on the budgeted manhours for each function relative to the budgeted manhours for
the total procurement effort. (see Table 4)

FUNCTIONS ESTIMATED ESTIMATED FUNCTION

QUANTITIES MANHOURS PERCENT
WEIGHTED
VALUE

MATERIAL TAKE-OFF 150 400 26.6

PURCHASE 200 700 46.7
REQUISITIONS
PURCHASE ORDERS 100 400 26.7

TOTAL 100
PROCUREMENT
VALUE
TABLE 4

Material Take-offs
Physical progress measurement for material takeoffs is based on the estimated number of
drawings requiring material takeoffs versus the number of drawings for which takeoffs
have been completed.

For example:

The estimated drawings requiring takeoffs = 150

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Drawings with takeoffs complete = 75

Physical progress would be: (75/150)(100) = 50%

Purchase Requisitions
Physical progress measurement for purchase requisitions is based on the estimated total
number of purchase requisitions versus the number of requisitions approved for purchase.

For example:

The total estimate of Purchase Requisitions = 200

Purchase Requisition approved for purchase = 50

Physical progress would be: (50/200)(100) = 25%

Purchase Orders
Progress should be based on both the quantity of purchase orders placed and the
cumulative dollar value of materials shipped from the manufacturer's plant (explanted).
The quantity of purchase orders placed will contribute 50 percent progress and the dollar
amount of total material value explanted will contribute the remaining 50 percent.

For instance, the purchase order quantity is 100 with 28 purchase orders placed. The total
cost of purchase materials is estimated at 100 million dollars and from this amount
approximately 1 million dollars of materials has been explanted. Progress would be
calculated as follows:

28 PO's placed out of 100 = 0.28( 0.5 )100 = 14%

$ 1 MM of materials explanted out of $100MM = 1 x (100) / 100 = 1%

Progress to date for purchase orders: 14 + 1 = 15 %

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Total Procurement Progress

By evaluating the physical progress of each major procurement function, the total
procurement progress can be determined (see Table 5).

FUNCTIONS PERCENT WEIGHTED PROCUREMENT

COMPLETE VALUE CONTRIBUTION

MATERIAL TAKE- 50 26.6 13.3

OFFS
PURCHASE 25 46.7 11.7
REQUISITIONS
PURCHASE ORDERS 15 26.7 4.0

TOTAL 29.0
PROCUREMENT
PROGRESS
TABLE 5

Design and Engineering Overall progress

To evaluate the Design/Engineering overall progress, the value of the engineering effort
must be combined with the value of the procurement one. (see Table 6)

BUDGETED WEIGHT PERCENT PROJECT

MANHOURS VALUE COMPLETE CONTRIBUTION

ENGINEERING 15000 90.9 67.7 60.6

PROCUREMENT 1500 9.1 29.0 2.6

TOTAL 16500 100 63.2

PROGRESS

TABLE 6

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CONSTRUCTION PROGRESS MEASUREMENT
There are two basic methods of determining physical progress for the construction phase
of a project, they are:

 Intermediate Milestone

 Percentage Complete

The approach to performing the construction phase of a project can vary considerably
from one project to another and from one contractor to another. Because of this fact, it is

very important that the activities and/or milestones selected as progress measurement
criteria reflect the contractor's approved work plan and schedule.

It is equally important that the estimated manhours to perform these activities be as

accurate as possible.

Intermediate Milestone Method

The intermediate milestone method gives credit for progress only when a milestone has
been completed. This method would apply to small, short term projects (from 3 to 6
months) where cash flow to the contractor would not present a problem. The method is
effective to the project team because it requires less surveillance and documentation is
totally objective and requires little interpretation.

To calculate progress using the intermediate milestone method, several progress

milestones should be identified starting with "mobilization" and ending with
"commissioning". Each milestone would be weighted based on the estimated construction
manhours required to complete the milestone versus the total construction manhours
required to complete the project.

This means that even if the contractor has already started piping and electrical
construction, he receives no credit for physical progress until the corresponding milestones
are completed.

Percentage Complete Method

The percentage complete method is probably the most commonly used form of progress
measurement. In this method the activities on the project schedule are weighted by the
estimated construction manhours required for each activity versus the total construction
manhours required to complete the project.

In the percentage complete method, credit is allowed for incremental work accomplished
against each activity based on the activity's estimated percentage of completion. The

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estimated percentage of completion for an activity can be determined by two methods, as
follows:

Credit by units installed: Using this method of credit, the percentage of completion
for each activity is based on the units of work installed (e.g.: cubic yards, tons, linear feet)
for the activity versus the total estimated units required for completion.

The number of units actually installed is normally determined or verified by a quantity

surveyor, who physically quantifies the units installed, however, cognizant personnel such
as the scheduling engineer, project engineer or construction manager could perform this
task.

Credit by earned manhours: This method is applied to activities for which a specific
unit of measure, other than manhours earned, would be misleading or difficult to identify.
This method also compensates for varying degrees of difficulty in installing similar units,
ie.: a squared foundation requiring 25 cubic yards of concrete would require much less
effort than a 5 cubic-yard specially shaped foundation yet, by the "units installed" method,
the one squared foundation would receive the same credit as the 5 shaped foundations.

Credit by earned manhours is essentially an estimate of the manhours remaining to

complete an activity versus the original activity manhours estimate. This estimate
determines "earned manhours".

For instance:

An activity is estimated to require 2000 manhours. To date, 1500 manhours have been
expended performing the activity.Project personnel estimate that it will require 1000
manhours to complete the remainder of the activity.

Therefore, the percentage of completion for this activity would be:

2000 M/H original estimate MINUS

1000 M/H estimated remaining

EQUAL : 1000 M/H earned

1000 M/H earned/ 2000 M/H original = 50% complete.

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The actual manhours expended are not considered in the calculation of earned manhours.
Table7 next page, represents a condensed example of a list of weighted activities.

MILESTONE ESTIMATED WEIGHTED

MANHOURS PERCENTAGE

MOBILIZATION & GRADE 2000 5

FOUNDATION COMPLETE 4800 12
STRUCTURAL STEEL COMPLETE 3600 9
EQUIPMENT ERECTION 5600 14
COMPLETE
PIPING COMPLETE 10000 25
ELECTRICAL COMPLETE 6800 17
MECHANICAL COMPLETION 5200 13
COMMISSIONING 2000 5

TOTAL PROJECT VALUE 40000 100

TABLE 7

Table 8 represents a sample of the percentage complete progress measurement method

based on the weighted activities listed in Table 7.

MILESTONE WEIGHTED PERCENT PROJECT

PERCENT COMPLETE CONTRIBUTION

MOBILIZATION & 5 100 5

GRADING
FOUNDATIONS 12 80 9.6
STRUCTURAL STEEL 9 30 2.7
EQUIPMENT 14 10 1.4
ERECTION

TOTAL PHYSICAL 18.7

PROGRESS
TABLE 8

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REFERENCES

Harold Kerzner, “PROJECT MANAGEMENT FOR EXECUTIVES”, Van Nostrand

Reinhold Co., 1991

Hodges, H.G.,"PROCUREMENT HANDBOOK", Harper & Brothers publications,

1990

Duran, J.M.,"QUALITY CONTROL HANDBOOK", McGraw Hill Book company,

1994

Dobler, D.W.,"PURCHASING AND MATERIALS MANAGEMENT", 1987

Ignacio Manzanera, “PLANNING AND SCHEDULING REFERENCES”, Aramco Saudi

Arabia, 1991

Lasser's, J.K.,"BUSINESS MANAGEMENT HANDBOOK", McGraw Hill Book

Company, 1998

Joseph J. Moder, Cecil R. Phillips, Edward W. Davis, “PROJECT MANAGEMENT

WITH CPM, PERT AND PRECEDENCE DIAGRAMMING”, Van Nostrand Reinhold
Company, 1995

American Association of Cost Engineers, “SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE OF COST

ENGINEERING”, 1996

Project Management Institute, “A GUIDE TO PROJECT MANAGEMENT BODY OF

KNOWLEDGE”, 1998

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