Project Management

Maintaining Control During Project Execution 173

activities (if any) are of greatest concern. Second, it does not
provide an integrated approach: it’s not tied to accomplishment.
It tells you how much you’ve spent (cash flow), but it doesn’t
tell you what you’ve gotten for your money (value). This issue
will be discussed in more detail in the next section, “The Earned
Value Concept.”
You can analyze your cost position at the activity level in a
manner quite similar to schedule analysis. The process consists
of examining the past, present, and future in order to determine
your end point (Figure 9-6).
Figure 9-6 illustrates a straightforward method you can use
to construct a cost analysis spreadsheet. For each activity,
information is tracked for baseline (original estimate), current
expenditure, and anticipated future expenditure. Comparing the
forecasted total with the original estimate yields a calculated
variance for each activity.
Determining the actual expenditure to date for each activity
can be quite difficult, however. Inadequate systems support or
labor-charging methods may make accurate cost tracking near-

Task

ID

Baseline

Estimate

Spent to

Date

Cost to

Complete

Revised

Forecast

Under

(Over)

001

002

003

004

005

006

007

008

$20,000

$6,700

$3,900

$14,600

$3,000

$4,200

$13,300

$11,500

$4,250

$1,150

$700

$10,330

$0

$2,100

$13,500

$2,300

$16,100

$5,700

$2,900

$4,050

$3,000

$1,900

$1,300

$8,800

$20,350

$6,850

$3,600

$14,380

$3,000

$4,000

$14,800

$11,100

$(350)

$(150)

$300

$220

$0

$200

$(1,500)

$400

Total $77,200 $34,330 $43,750 $78,080 $(880)

Project Apex Cost Summary

(Actual costs through xx/xx/xx)

Figure 9-6. Analyzing your cost position