Work Performance Information vs Performance Reports - Conclusion (Part 4 of 4)

thanks for clarifying the subject :-) there's a small typo in topic 2/4 : it is CPI and not WPI Cheers

Hello Anonymous, Thanks for your feedback. I'm glad to know that at least 1 person read these posts :-) Thanks for catching the typo too. I've fixed it. All the best !

Oh yes be glad ; FYI I read all your posts, because I'm preparing (at my own pace) for the PMP Exam. P.S. : your post and questionnaire about TPA made me scary; that's the reason why I didn't reply on it ;-) Greetings from Brussels

Hi Anonymous from Brussels :) WOW ! you read all my posts .. that's a great compliment ! Even I haven't read all of them yet :-) No need to get scared. Even I'm learning new things each day. And to tell you a secret, I'm also not sure about my answers. I want folks to post their answers so that we can tally our notes. So go ahead and post your response to that quiz. All the best for your exam.

Excellent article. Very concise and to the point.

Really good article.

Nicely written. Please can you differentiate with examples for status report, progress report, performance report, variance report. its confusing when wordings of questions are twisted

@ Anonymous: That's an excellent question and deserves a separate post of its own. I'll surely cover it as a separate article in near future. I think there's no hard and fast definition for these reports. Generally speaking, Status Reports communicate the past (till date) status and considered to be more static compared to the Progress Reports, which are more dynamic. Progress reports talk more about present and future (forecasts). Both Status Reports and Progress Reports can include Performance information. Similarly, Performance Reports include variance information. Variance Reports give actual vs baseline info. I hope this gives you a high level overview. If you have further question, feel free to post them. Thanks.

Hi, Thank you very much for explaining concept and key difference among them. After reading your post, I can visualise relationship and Why they are used in specific process. Thank you very much

thank you very much for the valuable information as it gives deep information in a simple and summarized way

Thanks all, for your comments. I spent a lot of time in researching these topics and it's encouraging to know that many (or at least some) people found these articles useful. I'll try to post similar articles on other topics related to PMP certification. Let me know if there are specific topics that you are interested in. Thanks.

Someone post a topic regarding the difference between these three. Although I answered as usual but made me curious and start surfing and I landed on this fabulous and fantastic article. Can I post a link of it on that forum. If we sum up: WPI: is the nitty gritty of the activities for the PM and the team. WPM: is a short big picture of the activities progress to planned to the PM and the team. RP: is combination of WPI and WPM making a big picture of project performance for the management and stakeholder's in the form of status reports etc. Regards,

Hello Amir, Thanks for your feedback. Feel free to post links to any of the articles on this site. Generally, you don't need permission to post links to any websites which are available in the public domain. What we can't do without permission is to copy the content itself. Best Regards.

such a great blog....Harwinder, you're truly giving back to the profession by this means...amazing work...all the posts are short, readable and above all entertainingly explained...

Hi Harwinder, I religiously follow your posts, but here I got confused. What is the differnce between Report Performance & Distribute Information process ?

Hi Harwinder, I religiously follow your posts, but here I got confused. What is the differnce between Report Performance & Distribute Information process ?

Hi Shekhar, That's a good question. The answer lies in Figure 10.10 of the PMBOK Guide, Fourth Edition. Report Performance is about creating the reports and not really disseminating them, even though the PMBOK Guide says this in Section 10.5: "Report Performance is the process of collecting and distributing performance information" The distribution happens in the Distribute Information process. Hope that answers your question. BR.

Very well explained

Hi Harwinder, Can you please help me clarify the difference between Work Performance Measurements (WPM) and Quality Control Measurements (QCM) ? I know WPMs are SP, CP, SPI and CPI etc plus budget forecasts like EAC and ETC and are calculated using Work Performance Information (WPI). But I dont understand what is QCM. Is is the Quality metrics (planned from at Quality Planning Level) updated with WPI date to get filled / populated Quality Metrics ? Thanks in advance... Best Regards

Hello Syed, That's an excellent question and I think it would take a separate blog post to explain it properly. In short, WPM are about "scope, schedule and cost", whereas Quality Control Measurements (QCM) are about "quality" (of the project and the product of the project). QCM are the results of all the Quality Control activities. For example, you may conduct inspections of the product to find defects, root cause analysis to uncover problems, capture metrics and check whether standards are being met. The outcome (data) of all these activities would be your QCM. QCM are documented in the format specified in your project plan during Quality Planning. Examples of Quality Metrics are on-time performance, budget control, defect frequency, failure rate, availability, reliability, and test coverage (source: PMBOK Guide, 4th ed.). But the actual data, for example, +15% over budget, 5 defects for every ten thousand parts, 99.8% availability of online system, 5% rework index, etc. are examples of QCMs. Hope it helps.

thanks a million Harwinder..this clears my doubts completely :-)

Hi Harwinder, I just had another query. Can you please tell me the difference between Distribute Information and Report Performance Process ? Is it like the Report Performance Process calculates reports like Status, Progress, EVM, Forecasting and Trends reports and distributes them to stakeholders whereas Distribute Information Process helps distributes all kinds of information and documents (like reports, project files) not only to the stakeholders but also adding them to organization process assets. Appreciate your help in advance... Best Regards

Harwinder, You are a true guru. I have visited many blogs and websites since last one month. I never satisfied. At last by chance I visited http://deepfriedbrainproject.com . Wow... Mind blowing all the post are very professional in nature. I am attending exam on 15th Oct. I have requested can you post some info on EEFs and Organizational Process Assets. I have some clarity but following point confused me. "Hiring and firing guidelines, employee performance reviews and training records" I thought it should be part of Organizational Process assets but in PMBOK 4th edition it is stated as EEFs. Thanks Ramaraju

Hello Ram, Thanks for those big compliments and sorry for the late response. It's an excellent question and certainly deserves a separate blog post. I'm not a great fan of the PMBOK Guide. So, I'm not going to defend it here. The purview of EEFs and OPAs have been a gray area even for me. I can just offer you a tip. Anything that has to do with company's facilities, systems, culture, personnel management are EEFs. Anything related to "processes and procedures" that "affect a project", and the knowledge bases (project files, lessons learned etc.) are OPAs. These are just some of the thoughts from the top of my head. I would have to do a detailed post if you need a better explanation. Thanks.

BTW, Ram - your comment/question doesn't belong to this topic. I encourage everyone to keep the comments relevant to the post. If you can't find a relevant post, you can post the comments under the "Study Notes" page (link is in the top menu bar).

Thanks Harwinder. I will try to post the comments appropriatly

Hi Hardwiner, I have another question. Why do you think variance analysis is a tool for Control Processes (Scope Control, Schedule Control, Cost Control and ALSO for Performance Reporting? WPMs should be calculated either in the Control Processes (Scope, Schedule, Cost) or the Report Performance Process, but not in both places. Seems to me like a redundance. Thanks in advance

Brilliant analysis thanks man for sharing

Excellent article. Its like you read the mind of many PMP aspirants like me , who is having a tough time to get some of the concepts (like difference between WPM and Report perfo). Thanks for explaining this confusing area. Keep up the good work.

That is really very very useful explanation, well done, Thanks for sharing.. Best Regards, Mohammad Yousef

Thanks... really good explaination just at the right time in my preparation for the exams. Ashok F

Hello, Thanks for the precise and very concise explanation of these topics. I am preparing for my PMP and regulaly get confused between these concepts. Thanks for sharing. PMP aspirant in Germany

Thank you so much for the very in-depth analysis, It is very helpful!