Pinnacle Insights

Southlake, TX – January 7^th, 2020 – Pinnacle Management Systems, Inc., a leader in program and project management consulting and training services, announced today that Michael Breuker has been promoted to the role of President, effective immediately.

The Control Account Manager or CAM plays a critical role in an Earned Value Management System. He/She is responsible for the planning, coordination and achievement of all work within a Control Account and provides a single authority for all scope, technical and cost issues for the CA – not an easy task. 

The Project Manager’s role is not an easy one. With so many moving parts and multiple people invested in project success, it is critical that Project Managers stay one step ahead of the game. The ability to keep scope, people and schedules on track can make or break a project. 

Often these two terms are used interchangeably, but they mean very different things to those of us who have been implementing project management and project controls systems.  As you can imagine, explaining the difference is difficult, but it is the ultimate compliment when a client acknowledges the distinction and the contributions of our Implementation Consultants.  It just so happens that it was a recent client's praise that inspires this blog article and I hope it will generate discussion on the topic.

In Part 2 of this series, Schedule Analysis, Part 2: Why Should I Do It?, it was stated that schedule analysis increases confidence in the schedule and its results. It provides information as to where the schedule needs to be improved and how it needs to be improved. 

In Part 1 of this series, Schedule Analysis, Part 1: What Is It?, provided a brief introduction to schedule analysis. This article discusses why should a schedule analysis be performed. But first, a point of clarification. Schedule analysis and Schedule Risk Analysis (SRA) are two different things. 

At the most recent NDIA Integrated Program Management (IPM) Division Meeting, John McGregor, Director of Earned Value Management for OSD Performance Assessment & Root Cause Analysis (PARCA) took the stage to discuss the latest updates related to EVM threshold requirements for DoD contracts. During the presentation, John clarified that DoD Instruction 5000.02 is finalized, signed and in full affect, even though the document looks like it may be in draft form.

A schedule is a time-model of how you as the supplier or manager plan on executing your project. It represents the project scope, resources, assumptions and constraints of the project. Like a cost model, the time model or schedule should respond to changes.