THE S-CURVE
...esenting a gradual project start taking into account the learning curve of the project organization, followed by a steeper accomplishment progress midway into the project, then a tapering down of accomplishments towards the end as the project goes into a mopping up operation. The other line represents the actual project accomplishments. The variance between the two curves is a measure of the performance of the project. Since the graphical time bars are now represented as actual numerical values in the spreadsheet, it facilitates the computation of the composite project accomplishment by adding up the weighted sum of the contributions of each Work Item activity to the total project accomplishment. At the same time, the drawing of the S-curve chart can be easily generated by the charting routine of the spreadsheet program. The S-curve method relies on the To-do List for which the sequencing of the project activities are assumed already predetermined by a project specialist. The method does not have the facility to validate that analysis except to translate it into periodic values which in turn can be added up to show cumulative values as of that period. The method can generate Time & Cost Curves which can be “read” for the vital signs of the project, such as: (1) Is the project on time, ahead of schedule or delayed? (2) If it is delayed, is the delay being recovered or is it aggravating? (3) Which items are causing the delay? (4) Is the project cost budget at risk? (5) If it is, which items are the cause of the cost overruns? (6) Are there opportunities for cost recovery or revenue enhancement from other sources? (7) What are the forecasted time and cost to complete the project and how does this compare with the original time and cost plans? The project time and cost information can be derived from data coming from various levels of the work breakdown – Work Category, Work Item, Labor/Equipment/Materials and other ancillary components. The Time and Cost Curves for the project can be replicated down to the micro level starting with a breakdown into Work Categories. In turn, each Work Category can be further broken down into Work Items. Then each Work Item can be broken down into its component resources like Labor, Equipment and Materials. That is the top-down replication process from the whole Project down to the micro level of Labor/Equipment/Materials. The process can be replicated further to represent any lower micro level breakdown we wish to examine further. For example Labor can be classified into the different work skills of the people. Equipment may also be broken down into the various types and models each of which has different billing structure and rate levels. Materials can be categorized, broken down, enumerated, catalogued and accounted for. On the other hand in the bottom-up aggregation process, the Project itself can just be one ...