Implementing Project Portfolio Management: From Organization Structure to Recognized Revenue · Module 10 · Budgeting, Forecasting and Progress
Variance analysis
Lesson 108 of 198 · 12 min
Open a project's plan-versus-actual comparison. Show cost variance by resource and effort variance, drill from a variance to the transactions causing it, compare forecast against baseline and explain the difference from actual-versus-baseline, then show the portfolio-level view. THREE COMPARISONS, THREE QUESTIONS. Actual versus baseline asks WHAT HAPPENED. Forecast versus baseline asks WHERE WE WILL END UP. Forecast versus actual asks WHAT IS LEFT. Programme directors care most about the second — and most reports show the first while most decisions need the second. The drill to transactions is the analysis skill. Make it a habit.
The full lesson is part of the course
The video, the complete written lesson and the module quiz are included in Implementing Project Portfolio Management: From Organization Structure to Recognized Revenue, with a certificate on completion and a fourteen-day refund window.