Work Performance Information vs Performance Reports (Part 2 of 4)

In Part 1 of this series, we reviewed the concept of Work Performance Information. In this article, we’ll review Work Performance Measurements.

UPDATE (Oct 2018): This post is based on PMBOK Guide, 4th Edition, and is now outdated. A newer version, which aligns with PMBOK Guide, 6th Edition, is available here: Work Performance Data, Work Performance Information and Work Performance Reports

Work Performance Measurements (WPMs)

WPMs are an output of Control Scope, Control Schedule and Control Cost, all of which are Monitoring and Controlling processes. WPMs include planned versus actual performance indicators with respect to scope, schedule and cost. WPMs are documented and communicated to the stakeholders.

WPMs are generated from Work Performance Information (WPI), which is gathered during Direct and Manage Project Execution process (as we saw in Part 1).

Purpose of Work Performance Measurements

WPMs are used to generate project metrics such as:

• Planned vs. Actual Technical Performance and other Scope Performance (e.g. planned system response time was 2.3 secs, but actual response time is 2.6 secs)
• Planned vs. Actual Schedule Performance. (e.g. Schedule Variance (SV), Schedule Performance Indicator (SPI))
• Planned vs. Actual Cost Performance (e.g. Cost Variance (CV), Cost Performance Information (CPI))

WPMs are also used to generate forecasts, such as Estimates To Complete (ETC) and Estimates At Completion (EAC), as the project is being executed.

Work Performance Measurements as Input / Output

As per PMBOK Guide, Fourth Edition, WPMs are an output of:

• Control Scope (M&C Process Group)
• Control Schedule (M&C Process Group)
• Control Costs (M&C Process Group)

and are an input to:

• Perform Quality Control (M&C Process Group)
• Report Performance (M&C Process Group)

Observe that WPMs are generated and consumed in Monitoring and Controlling processes only.

Summary

Together, WPI and WPMs are used to generate Performance Reports, which provide organized and summarized project performance information to various stakeholders. We’ll look at Performance Reports in detail in Part 3 of this series.

• Part 1: Work Performance Information
• Part 2: Work Performance Measurements (you are here)
• Part 3: Performance Reports
• Part 4: Conclusion

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