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Control Accounts and Work Packages

In an EVMS environment, control points refer to points at which a piece of work is defined, scheduled, budgeted, and tracked. These control points are referred to as control accounts and, at a lower level, work packages throughout Cobra.

A control account is the intersection of the project WBS and OBS, and defines the work that is to be performed and who will perform it. This terminology is not mandatory, but we will use these terms here for the sake of convenience.

Control Accounts

How you choose to identify your control accounts in Cobra is, in many respects, the key to developing a successful reporting system. Each control account in a project must be assigned a unique ID or “key” that can consist of up to three different fields. Any field can be associated with a code file, in which case Cobra validates the field at the time that the cost account is created. Typically, control accounts are created by combining a WBS code and an OBS code, and possibly a unique charge number.

Basing the control account on one or more code files allows for reporting flexibility by rolling up information to a level in the code file. The use of a WBS as control account field allows you to summarize project information to any level of your WBS. If you want to be able to report in multiple dimensions (for example, according to both work content and organizational responsibilities), you must make sure that multiple control account fields.

Associating code files with control account fields allows Cobra to validate entries against existing code files.

Using a third control account field, such as the charge number, has the advantage of creating of multiple control accounts at any WBS/OBS intersection.

Work Packages

Although a control account can serve as a suitable control point for the purpose of reporting to clients, it is too broad to be used effectively as a means of measuring performance. For this we need access to a lower level of detail — the work package. There are no limits to the number of work packages that can be assigned to a single control account.

Although you can plan and budget work at both the control account and work package levels (budgeted control accounts are usually referred to as “planning accounts”), Cobra calculates earned value at the level of the work package only.

A work package is defined as a brief, discrete amount of work. In practice, the duration of the work package should depend on the level of detail you plan to maintain in Cobra. In planning the duration of a work package, it is important to maintain a balance between two extremes:
  • If the work package is too short, the value gained from the extra detail does not outweigh the time it takes to maintain the data. For example, you would not want to enter a work package that is shorter in duration than the time it takes you to enter, status, and report on the work package.
  • If the work package is very long and needs to be statused over multiple periods, errors can be introduced in the calculation of earned value.

You may find that an appropriate duration is four to six weeks.

Guidelines for defining work packages include:
  • The work package has a scheduled start and completion date.
  • Performance can be objectively measured.
  • The duration of the work package is relatively short, or it can be subdivided into a series of milestones that can be objectively measured.
  • The work package can be assigned to a single control account.
  • A work packages is typically linked to one or more activities in a schedule.

Control Account and Work Package Dates

Both control accounts and work packages have a period of performance, for example, a start and finish date. These types of dates can be tracked for both work packages and control accounts:
  • Baseline: The start and finish date for which budget classes are spread.
  • Actual: The date the control account or work package actually started or finished.
  • Forecast: The start and finish date for which the forecast class is spread.
  • Early: If a forecast class is identified to use early dates, the start and finish for that forecast class.
  • Late: If a forecast class is identified to use late dates, the start and finish for that forecast class.
  • Pending: If a budget class is identified to use Pending dates, the start and finish for that budget class.

Collecting Actual Costs

Cobra allows you to enter actual costs at either the control account or the work package level. However, most project managers prefer to enter actual costs at the control account level. This reduces the number of charge numbers in the accounting system, making it easier to ensure that the correct charge number is used. The goal of a Cobra implementation is to create an environment that is easy to maintain while still providing the information required to properly manage projects.

In a typical implementation, control accounts may have durations that vary from about six months to a year; the work packages within these control accounts may have durations of about four to six weeks. Storing costs at the cost account level makes it easy to perform the detailed budget planning that is need to calculate earned value accurately while minimizing the number of required charge numbers.

This does not mean that you cannot report to the customer at a higher level. The flexibility built into Cobra allows you to report costs at any level you choose.