ent ways to calculate Estimate To Complete (ETC) without EVM | LinkedIn Answers | LinkedIn 6/5/12

Account Type: Basic | Upgrade Ghaleb Sanjakdar Add Connections Advanced

Home

Profile

Contacts

Groups

Jobs Inbox 24 Search

Companies

News

More

Answ ers

Search...

Answers Home

Advanced Answers Search

My Q&A

Ask a Question

Answer Questions

Go back to Home Page

Ramaraya Kamath PMP

Client Engagement Manager
see all my questions

Different ways to calculate Estimate To Complete (ETC) without EVM

Traditionally, Estimate At Completion(EAC) = Actual Cost(AC) + Estimate To Complete(ETC). this comes from vanilla Earned Value Management. For projects that do not implement EVM, are there mechanisms to measure 1. What is the 'New' estimate to complete the project? 2. How much more it is going to cost, this point forward? (ETC). Pls share your best practices and thoughts. Thanks in advance, Ram
posted July 26, 2009 in Change Management, Project Management | Closed | Report question as...

Share This

Share This Question

Email del.icio.us

Perm alink: To link to this question from your blog or site, copy and paste the URL below . http://w w w .linkedin.com/answ ers/management/change-management/MGM_CMG/518166-8388718

Answers (6)
Kevin Alexeff Technical Manager / Director
see all my answ ers Best Answ ers in: Engineering (4)... see more

Whether you "implement" EVM, or not, you still ESTIMATE the cost to complete a projects the same way: break the project down into bits as small as practical (i.e. Work Breakdown Structure) and estimate the cost of each bit using previous project actual data (benchmarks), educated guesses (experience), or expert opinion. This process can be as rough or as detailed as the circumstances (size of project, company culture, project manager's experience, etc.) warrant. It can be as informal or as formal as the circumstances warrant. Most projects have this process -- whether someone calls it EVM, or not. Don't be intimidated by the terminology.
posted July 26, 2009 | Report answ er as...

Ravi Raj Kishore , PMP Principal Consultant at Keane

see all my answ ers Best Answ ers in: Planning (2)... see more

There will be multiple ways to do it but I will suggest two ways I have used: a) It all boils down to how the project was initially planned ? Did you use top down / bottom down approach ? Either way you will have planned (estimated) hours and $$$s for the project tasks. Now you can calculate your remaining work using normal calculator or MS Excel. b) This method assumes you know actual cost and weeks that have passed since project started. Both of them will give you the actual burn rate of the project. If you know the project budget, you can divide it by actual burn rate to find out, at current burn rate, what will be the total time needed to complete the project ? Similarly we can use the time left to our desired implementation date and budget left, to determine what should be the burn rate to achieve the desired implementation date? I hope this helps.
posted July 26, 2009 | Report answ er as...

Kiron Bondale, PMP, PMI-RMP Project Portfolio & Change Management Practitioner
see all my answ ers Best Answ ers in: Project Management (31)... see more

Hello Ramaraya Putting aside actual work completed to date, ETC from a purely financial perspective can be looked at projecting future spend based on one of the following assumptions: 1) Financial performance will not change - based on this, you can compare actual spend to date with expected spend to date, and pro-rate this out over the remaining time period. 2) Financial performance will return to normal - based on this, you can add actual spend to date with (total budget - expected spend to date)

www.linkedin.com/answers/management/change-management/MGM_CMG/518166-8388718

1/3

ent ways to calculate Estimate To Complete (ETC) without EVM | LinkedIn Answers | LinkedIn 6/5/12
This type of forecasting completely ignores the amount of work completed on a project, so it is not ideal, but on projects where burn rate is an accurate estimate of progress & productivity, it could be used. Ciao! Kiron
posted July 26, 2009 | Report answ er as...

Andy Kaufman, PMP Speaker, Author, Coach. Helping companies improve their ability to deliver projects & lead teams (www.ileadonline.com)
see all my answ ers Best Answ ers in: Project Management (60)... see more

Hi Ramaraya, When a friend or family member tells me they have lost a lot of weight, I often ask them, "What's the secret?" As you might guess, there's no real secret beyond eating less and exercising more. Both, by the way, are challenges for me! :) Beyond the formulas and theories, there's no secret for your question either. Your tools for determining Estimate to Complete also come down to two fundamentals: 1) how well you know what remaining work is required and 2) your ability to apply estimates for that work. I typically address the first part of that through the use of a work breakdown structure. Even a high-level WBS will help you and your team better understand the remaining work. A more detailed WBS will likely give you an even better basis for an estimate. Estimating techniques for time and cost can vary depending on preference, experience, and the amount of data you have available to you. There's almost always some level of expert judgment involved. Other techniques such as PERT, parametric, analogous, Delphi, etc. can be employed according to your comfort level with them. I wish there was an easier way to lose weight! And it would be nice if there was a secret formula for magically (and accurately) calculating ETC. But there's no secret: ETC is not really a formula issue, whether one is using EVM or not. It's an issue of how well you know your project and how well you can estimate the time or cost of what's remaining. To your success, Andy Kaufman Host of The People and Projects Podcast (http://bit.ly/ppcast)
posted July 26, 2009 | Report answ er as...

Bill Duncan Top trainer and consultant; primary author of the 1996 PMBoK Guide
see all my answ ers Best Answ ers in: Project Management (4)... see more

While the formula that you present uses EV terminology, the formula itself is independent of the EVM approach. The formula is common sense: the cost of the project at completion will be equal to the cost of the resources you have used so far, plus the cost of any additional resources needed to complete the work. Cost can be measured in monetary units (dollars, euros, rubles, yen, yuan, whatever) or staff hours. In fact, if your activities are small enough and you have enough of them, you may even be able to use the number of activities as your cost measure. Developing an ETC is also independent of EVM. There are three basic approaches: -- Assume that future results will be similar to past performance and forecast accordingly. -- Assume that future results will be nothing like what was originally estimated and reestimate all of the remaining work. -- Assume that future results will be as originally estimated and add those numbers to whatever you have spent already. EVM provides three different formulas for addressing the first approach. EVM does not accommodate either of the other two options. Now, back to your original question ... anything you do to develop an ETC will be logically founded on Earned Value concepts: -- How much did you spend? -- How much did you plan to spend? -- How much work did you complete? You don't need to be compliant with some of the bells and whistles of a USDoD compliant EVMS to capture that information. In the old days, I used to collect 3x5 index cards from my team every week. With today's technology, a shared spreadsheet will work just fine. Duncan
posted July 28, 2009 | Report answ er as...

Browse Categories
Management
Business Analytics Change Management Planning

View All

www.linkedin.com/answers/management/change-management/MGM_CMG/518166-8388718

2/3

ent ways to calculate Estimate To Complete (ETC) without EVM | LinkedIn Answers | LinkedIn 6/5/12
Corporate Governance Labor Relations Organizational Development Administration Business Operations Business Travel Career and Education Conferences and Event Planning Finance and Accounting Financial Markets Government and Nonprofit Health Hiring and Human Resources International Law and Legal Management Marketing and Sales Nonprofit Personal Finance Product Management Professional Development Startups and Small Businesses Sustainability Technology Using LinkedIn Answers Home

Help Center

About

Blog

Careers

Advertising

Recruiting Solutions
Copyright Policy

Tools

Mobile

Developers

Publishers

Language

Upgrade Your Account

LinkedIn Corporation 2012

User Agreement

Privacy Policy

Send Feedback

www.linkedin.com/answers/management/change-management/MGM_CMG/518166-8388718

3/3