Schedule variance indicates how much ahead or behind schedule the project is. It is used by the project manager to determine how best to utilize the remaining resources. Schedule variance can be calculated by using the formula: Earned Value (EV)-Planned Value (PV). The formula gives variance in terms if the cost which indicates how much cost of the work is yet to be completed as per schedule or how much cost of work must be completed and above the scheduled cost. Positive schedule variance indicates that the project is ahead of the schedule whereas negative schedule variance indicates that the project is behind the schedule. Reasons could be the equipment, or the material may not be available at the previously negotiated price or need to hire it from the other suppliers on an urgent basis at a higher price. So it is important the equipment is available at the same price and should be negotiated in advance. Changes in the design of the device which has increased the price and caused the delay. Absentees of the team members this is one of the important causes of the delay, so it is necessary project manager knows about it and plans the project accordingly. Weather disruption can affect the delay as the material is not reached on time, so the project should be started under a investment climate.
Scheduled variance equals earned value minus planned value. If the planned value increase making the solution negative then the project is behind in schedule. There is anything that can delay the project whether being testing problems, weather problems, employ problems, vendor problems, etc. In order to resolve, I believe the first decision should be holding a meeting where all departments/vendors must be aware of the problems. There should be insight from everyone where the project manger must consult with the customer before proceeding. A new schedule, more employ recruit to where is needed and etc. must be formed in order to fix the scheduled variance and return the project on track.
The schedule variance will be negative, which means the project will be falling behind the schedule, due to a variety of reasons as already mentioned above. One of the major reasons that could affect the schedule variance negatively would be poor planned value as the schedule variance is depended on it. This is because if each phase of a project is not well planned taking into consideration the employers' availability on a particular project or lack of communication among the members of the project group or not keeping sufficient time frame for instances such as bad weather etc., the delays involved in delivery of the required material, unexpected failures in any particular phase of the project which may result due to uncontrollable circumstances.
The scheduled variance could be ahead of the schedule if the planning of the project is very safe in terms of the number of days allocated for a particular stage is more than actually required.
Also sometimes people work overtime so that helps in finishing the tasks earlier than expected as the plan is made considering people work within the working hours and overtime is never considered.
The scheduled variance could be behind schedule due to various factors as the employee is on sick, climate is not suitable, the vendor has not dispatched the part required, the part send is damaged, etc.
I think the project manager has to know the complexity of the project he is working on and study which stages will take time and which would not and plan the project accordingly.
Schedule variance is keeping track of the project progress by comparing the current money worth of it to the planned worth it should have. If at month 6 the earned value is closer to the planned value than you predicted than that should mean that you've made considerable progress in the project and are ahead of schedule. Some things that could affect the schedule variance are problems with the vendors, another project requires more attention if say a CAPA was initiated and you're down in man power, some team members left the company and need to be replaced meanwhile other team members now have to take the extra load, or a piece of equipment needed for testing is broken, etc. In one case, the company I intern at was doing a sealing validation but it was discovered that the thermocouple of the sealer wasn't properly working so it delayed the execution by a couple of days while the company delivered new thermocouples. This didn't severely change the schedule variance but it's an example of things that could happen and happen more often than not that could delay the project even by a couple of days.
Schedule variance helps to determine if you are behind or ahead of schedule, and cost variance helps to determine if you are under budget or over budget.
These variance give you essential about the project's progress.
Schedule variance is defined as the difference between earned value and planned value. Some of the factors that can affect schedule variance are mostly contingencies such as: a worker can become ill or severely injured from the project, a vendor that you are relying on has made a delayed shipment, issues with management. If a worker is injured or has become severely ill, this can reduce your schedule variance in value because you are now required to find a worker to replace him/her and that could take some time. Thus, your entire project could be delayed because you have to spend time to look for a suitable replacement, and you need all of your workers to proceed. Your earned value will decrease due to lost time;therefore, your schedule variance could become negative, which means behind schedule. A vendor may have delivered a ship of materials late, which means that your workers were not able to continue working since they don't have the raw materials. This will affect your earned value simply because your planned value is expected to be higher for that day, but your workers weren't able to meet the expectations. Management can make a mistake in managing funds for the project or may have issues with sharing project team members with other leaders.
Due to the PMI website definition, schedule variance (SV) is the difference between the earned value (EV) and the planned value (PV). [SV = EV-PV].
There are several factors that could affect the schedule variance negatively in any project. It mainly depends on the ability of the project manager and the team to estimate the achievement level and the overall performance accurately. Examples could include a sudden urgent leave of the project manager for a period of time, and this incident would certainly have a big impact on the process flow and on the overall plan. Another factor could be the change in the market demand during the project period which leads to the need of making big changes on the project goals, specifications and metrics to meet the user need at the end.
As you have mentioned, Schedule variance specifies project whether how much ahead or behind the schedule. Some factors that can affect the project schedule variance are unexpected changes to the design of the project. These changes bring the new request on the project which causes the timeline of the project to change most likely increases extra days. Some of those changes that affect the schedule variance are changing in the delivery schedule of parts, work is not progressing based on the planned schedule, and any sudden requirement changes. In order to avoid these changes, have regular communication with the vendors, and team members. That way, real solution can be taken care of in quick time.
It is imperative to keep the project on a schedule not only to finish it on time but also to enable unnecessary cost overruns to slippage of schedule because the costs start rising exponentially. Schedule variance is a vital analytical tool for project management. This tool can give all the information needed to determine if we are ahead of schedule or behind schedule concerning budgets/dollars. According to the schedule variance formula (SV = EV – PV), it could show that we are ahead of schedule because the variance is positive, or we are behind schedule if the variance is negative and we are on schedule if the variance is zero. Some factors that could affect the schedule variance are higher labor or material costs. It depends on the manager if the manager decides that the cost variance is caused by factors that will affect the remaining activities such as higher labor and material costs, and then the estimate to complete needs to be adjusted by dividing it by the cost performance index. If the costs of the activities up to the present vary from the original estimates, it will affect the total estimate for the project cost. The new estimate of the project cost is the estimate at completion.
There are many factors that can affect schedule variance (SV) such change requests, issues with suppliers of materials/ components to mention a couple. These factors can impact in the timeline of a project and increase project spending. For all problems there are solutions, as such pre-investing in early phases of the development and ensuring the a well thought out project plan is in place can save time and money in the long run. For example, better evaluating the design during the design phase and having multiple suppliers of materials/components qualified.
One main solution to staying on or ahead of schedule (positive schedule variance) is adequate and thorough planning during the initiating and planning phases. During weekly design review meetings, the group will discuss and agree on factors like estimated expenditure, amount of materials needed, timeline/deadline, and spec. If the values are carefully chosen, the product will not require huge adjustments later on. Members can also talk about their progress in the meetings to make sure no one is falling behind schedule.
However, even with careful planning, change requests made still need to be filed. This could be due to potential clients/stakeholders changing their original needs, or validation and verification test failures. Companies may also fail FDA audits by not keeping a record of work logs and appropriate documents for each phase. This can make the schedule variance value negative, since additional time will be required to revisit prior steps.
As many stated, weather, missing member due to sickness, vacation, or personal problems, resource problems, and budget problems can cause affect schedule variance. All these issues can cause work delay. These can be unpredictable but the risk management should help assist in the problem. The project manager should be prepared for all issues and the should be able to adjust the schedule so the issue is fixed. The risk management should serve to build a backup plan if there is any schedule delays due to the ones I named in the beginning. They could main solution would be calling for recuitment to improve and fix the work delay.
The goal of schedule variance is to determine whether a team is behind or ahead of schedule, while cost variance ensures whether or not the team is under budget or over budget. These variances provide essential data about the project’s progress and feasibility.Some factors affecting the schedule variance are: poor baseline schedule, subcontractor or vendor cannot deliver when needed, more or less effort than planned, insufficient resources, labor disputes or work stoppage, unavaibility of resource and requirement changes. A solution should thus be proposed of the two variance fall out of the project's budget and time reach.
