Easily confused terms: Discrete effort, Apportioned effort and Level of effort
Last updated: March 04, 2024 Read in fullscreen view
Recommended for you
- 01 Aug 2024
The Standish Group report 83.9% of IT projects partially or completely fail 1336 - 02 Nov 2021 What is Terms of Reference (ToR)? 1284
- 03 Apr 2022 Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) 1033
- 18 Oct 2021 Key Elements to Ramping Up a Large Team 991
- 13 Apr 2024 Lessons on Teamwork and Leadership from Chinese story book "Journey to the West" 740
- 20 Jul 2022 Software Myths and Realities 666
- 02 May 2022 What Is RAID in Project Management? (With Pros and Cons) 615
- 14 Jun 2022 Example and Excel template of a RACI chart in Software Development 581
- 18 Dec 2023 The Cone of Uncertainty in Scrum & Requirement Definition 556
- 13 Jan 2020 Quiz: Test your understanding project cost management 533
- 02 Jan 2024 What is User Provisioning & Deprovisioning? 403
- 27 Jan 2020 Should a project manager push developers to work more hours due to mistakes of manager schedule setting? 401
- 07 Jul 2022 Managing Project Execution Terms 336
- 03 Jan 2023 Organizing your agile teams? Think about M.A.T (Mastery, Autonomy, Purpose) 330
- 12 Aug 2022 What is End-to-end project management? 329
- 17 Oct 2021 Does Fast Tracking increase project cost? 311
- 26 Sep 2024 Successful Project Management Techniques You Need to Look Out For 304
- 10 Apr 2024 The Parking Lot Method: Unlocking a Simple Secret to Supercharge Your Productivity 303
- 09 May 2022 Build one to throw away vs Second-system effect: What are differences? 280
- 06 Jun 2022 Change Management at the Project Level 275
- 22 May 2022 What are common mistakes that new or inexperienced managers make? 236
- 01 Aug 2022 Is planning "set it and forget it" or "set it and check it"? 236
- 15 May 2022 20 Common Mistakes Made by New or Inexperienced Project Managers 230
- 02 Nov 2022 Difference between Change Management and Project Management 196
- 02 Dec 2021 3 Ways to Avoid Scope Creep in IT Consulting 185
- 02 Jun 2024 Reviving Ancient Wisdom: The Spiritual Side of Project Management 184
- 24 Nov 2023 The project management paradox: Achieving MORE by doing LESS 174
- 10 May 2022 Levels of Teamwork 166
- 30 Nov 2023 Project Managers, Focus on Outcomes — Not Deliverables 139
- 07 Dec 2023 12 project management myths to avoid 139
- 23 Jun 2024 Best Practices for Managing Project Escalations 124
- 21 Jun 2024 Dead Horses and the Escalation of Commitment 121
- 01 Mar 2024 10 Project Management Myths 107
- 05 Jun 2023 Fractional, Part-Time (virtual) or Interim CTO: Who Will Cover Your Business Needs? 94
Discrete Effort, Apportioned Effort and Level of Effort (LOE) are the 3 types of activities used in Earned Value Management (EVM) to measure work performance.
Discrete Effort
Discrete effort is an activity that can be linked to a specific WBS output, so discrete effort can be planned and regulated and that yields a specific output (product, module, deliverable...).
Characteristics:
- Physical, tangle end product or deliverable.
- Preferred category of work because objective.
Some examples of discrete effort include building a specific piece of software, creating a product guideline, analyzing/visualizing data etc.
Apportioned Effort
Apportioned Effort is work that cannot be directly associated to a WBS component or a project deliverable. The term 'apportion' means to divide or share (e.g. measure as a factor, e.g., 10% of discrete tasks). Apportioned Effort has a direct and supportive relationship to the Discrete Effort.
Characteristics:
- Intangible
- Dependent on discrete tasks and other work.
- Measure as a factor, e.g., 10% of discrete tasks.
The existence of apportioned effort relies specifically and directly on the performance of other efforts. Examples of Apportioned Effort include Quality Assurance (QA), Quality Control (QC) and inspection activities. That quality assurance division is specifically and wholly reliant on the performance of the development team as a whole.
Level Of Effort (LOE)
Level of Effort is a support-type project activity that does not produce tangible outcomes that can be measured objectively.
Characteristics:
- No more than 20% of the budget as LOE.
- Has no specific product or deliverable.
- Measure by passage of the time.
Examples of LOE include planning, project management, partner management, coordination, tool/artifact creation, seller or customer liaison, project cost accounting, maintenance of equipment and administrative work (incl. paperwork) to support projects.
Explore more on these topics
Guest Blogging: The Definitive Guide
Top Trending Topics
Share This
Recently Updated News
