Behaviour of "Cumulative Work"


This graph is obtained from a macro created by the team that provides the corporate PM toolset for all of us. Nevertheless the values I mention are extracted from MS-Project data, so you can also do it.

Returning to the weird issue, the cumulative work at point #1 is suddenly increased, being separate with respect BCWS, that stated below.

Other interesting item is the fact that 1 month after point #2, both curves remain again parallel. This behaviour was understood when we reviewed the milestones view:

You can see that there is a period of 3 weeks where there are a lot of deliverables marked by the milestones.

Due to the current delay the project has, and the confluence of milestones in a given period, all work that has not been done is accumulated just before the milestones were reach. That’s way the cumulative work is increased by MS-Project, she is telling us: “… ups, you need to increase your effort to reach the milestones!!”

The forecast of the rest of the project is calculated taking into account that you are going to reach the milestone events properly.

Are my conclusions right? If I’m wrong, please let me know! Thanks

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