TOPIC: Re:Post Mortem

Hi Cornelius,

This is the kind of question which we are very confused about. Appreciate if you could provide your answer and clarification:

Post-mortem analysis after scheduled finish date of a project shows a CPI of 0.8 and an SPI of 1.25. What is a plausible explanation for that?

a) The project was terminated early. At that time, it was over budget and ahead of schedule.

b) The project has produced additional deliverables which were originally not required.

c) The project has evidently been finished under budget and behind of schedule.

d) The project has evidently been finished over budget and ahead of schedule.

Tarek.

Tarek,

This question is trying to "trick" you by giving you additional and quite confusing information in the answers. All you have to do is focus on the facts.

First:
CPI of 0.8 means: project is over budget (bad!)
SPI of 1.25 means: project is ahead of schedule (good!)

If you compare this to the available answers, you will see that both answers A or D give you these options. But the question clearly says "Post-mortem analysis AFTER scheduled finish date...". To me, this means that the project was NOT terminated early (answer A).

Therefore, based on this analysis, Answer D) is correct.

Also: When posting a question in our forums, please always quote the source of the question and clearly state where this question comes from. Thank you.

Many thanks Cornelius ....! You made my day. So this means "Post-mortem" does not necessarily mean the project is terminated early as I originally thought!!

Could you please tell me if there is anything from the question, in the provided EVM Values or other parameters which will indicate if the project is "Terminated Early". I think the wording only will tell you if the project is terminated early.

Tarek.

Tarek,

Yes, there is no way to tell from mere EVM numbers, if a project was terminated early. The numbers may indicate a very badly performing project, but just from the numbers alone there is no way to tell if it was an early termination or if it's still ongoing.

Hi,

My analysis of this question was -

(a) and (c) are not correct because of simple analysis of the question.

Between (b) and (d) I would have selected (b) as the correct answer.

The reason is -
SPI = EV/PV

EV is the value of the product 'earned' at an point in time
PV is the value of the product 'planned' at that point in time.

At the end of the project, if we complete ONLY the work defined in the WBS, the EV should be equal to the PV. After all, the value of the work we completed is the same as the value of the work we had planned to do.

So at the end of the project, if there is a variance between EV and PV, it would mean that we did either less or more work than was required.

In this case, that would be answer (b).

Please let me know if this makes any sense.

Regards,
Anjali

Anjali,
First of all, congratulations of being a fresh PMP. I'm in the process...

Good twist to EV/PV with respect to 'end of project'.... BUT..the way I see it...

If the project is to paint 12 walls in 12 days, and if you complete the project in 10 days.... and the end of project--
earned value - 12 walls
planned value - 10 walls (after 10 days !!! project over in 10 days, not 12)

so SPI = 12/10 = 1.2

Just in response to your answer about the Post Mortem question. I answered D as it stated it was after the scheduled finish date. However when I check the answers below the question it states that the answer is A. Very confused!

Mr. Fichtner, can you explain again please why answer A was correct and it seems project has been terminated?
Thanks.

I have seen this question in a few different places, worded differently, and the answer seems to be that if SV is less than 1.0 in the end the project was cancelled. I guess it could be possible to end the project with a positive schedule variance if the baseline was not updated and there was some unexpected increases in productivity that put the project ahead of schedule.

However I found a link to a post with a reference saying that a properly managed project should end with a SV of 1.0.

SV discussion

I too, originally thought the answer was D, and not A. I eventually realized that it is indeed A.
Here’s why:

Every project that completes will ALWAYS have an SPI of “1”. That is indicating that the work actually accomplished (EV) and the work originally planned(PV) are the SAME. In other words, all the work has been accomplished, so the project is complete. (Note: this has NOTHING TO DO with the CALENDAR, or whether or not the project finished on the scheduled/contracted date. That’s where we easily get confused.)

DURING a project, you can look at the SPI and make correlations with “running ahead or behind” schedule…. but that SPI number is always on a countdown to becoming exactly “1”. No more, no less. So AFTER a project, your SPI is “1”.

So at post-mortem, if the SPI in your report reads “greater than one”… it means only one of two things:
1) the project was terminated, at a point in time when you just happened to be ahead of schedule, so the SPI in the report shows that fact; –OR--
2) You literally finished the entire project ahead of schedule, closed out the project early, and in your final report listed the SPI that was current on the day you completed work, rather than correctly calculating the SPI as of the CONTRACTED (planned) completion date. If you had indeed waited until the scheduled/planned finish-date to do your final calculations, on THAT particular day, the day your project was contractually completed, your SPI would read exactly “1”.

Since scenario #2 above involves someone erroneously recording the wrong numbers in their final report, that leaves only scenario #1, which in Oliver Lehmann’s practice question, would be option A.

PS: In one of the posts above, Amit Jain gives an example of painting walls and finishing early. That is exactly the case I am describing in Situation #2 above… which is why I originally argued that the answer was choice “D”. Until I thought it through. On the day Amit painted that last wall, his SPI would be greater than one. One the day he was scheduled to be finished painting all the walls, his SPI would be “1”.

PPS: The term “post-mortem analysis” in PMP world means only that it is after the project has closed… it does not mean that the project was killed.

Anjali, That is excellent thinking, except that if you "produced more deliverables than originally planned" as answer B states, then it would have gone through Integrated Change Control, and the scope would have been re-baselined..... so the "extra deliverables" are no longer "extra"-- they are simply the project. So your SPI would still end up equaling "1", as you have pointed out in your argument that it should.

You also made the same initial assumption that I did--- that because the questions states that the post-mortem analysis is taking place after the contracted completion date, that this means the project had been completed. But that is not quote exactly what it says-- it only says they are analyzing it sometime after it "should have" or "could have" or "was supposed to" finish. It never tells us that it ACTUALLY FINISHED... Like you, I at first inferred that it had.

Nope. The correct answer is A. It was way over budget, so they killed it-- even though it was ahead of schedule. Later when they did the post-mortem, that's exactly what the CPI and SPI show.