“What is the S Curve?”, have you ever asked this one thing? Something that you need to know, s-curve in project management is an essential thing.

What is S Curve in Project Management?

S-curve is one of the most popular calculation methods used in the construction industry. Wrike.com said, S-curve in project management term is a mathematical graph depicting the cumulative data of a project. Such as the cost or duration of work time (man-hours) that have been used, or the percentage (%) of the time-work that was completed.

S Curve in project management functions to track the progress or progress of a project. Where, in a business climate that emphasizes the value of speed, project work must run and be completed according to a predetermined schedule and budget.

In general use, the S Curve is used to measure the progress of project work, evaluate performance, and serve as a consideration for making cash flow estimates. S Curve is widely used because it can display real-time cumulative data from various project elements and compare it with the projected data. If any element in the project appears to be evaluated, that can also be identified through this S Curve.

Why S Curves is “S” shaped?

So why does this curve have to be ‘S’? Although not always a perfect ‘S’ shape, this curve is often an ‘S’ shape because project growth in the early stages is usually slow. The starting line is described as a condition in which the wheels of a new project start to turn, team members are researching the project and they are only involved in the first phase of implementation. This initial stage can take longer before they encounter problems that must be resolved.

Then, as progress is made, growth will accelerate. This is what creates the upward slope that forms the middle of the letter ‘S’. This point is the ‘bending point’, because of many changes in the frequency of teamwork to the project budget spent that would be happening on this phase.

S Curve Feature in Tomps Project

The S Curve feature can be seen in the Deliverables table menu, where deliverables are a list of jobs or activities in the project in tabular form as a stage of project implementation. These deliverables display information that explains the realization period, weight, percentage of progress, progress status, and approval status of a job or activity.

Inside there is an S Curve feature, which can display a mathematical graph that describes the cumulative data of a project. The S-curve here can be viewed based on monthly, weekly, or annual period filters that display graphical information between the percentage of implementation progress as the Y axis and the time period as the X axis. This S-curve also displays high-level information regarding the comparison of the current project implementation realization progress (depicted by the blue line) with the previous planning progress (depicted by the yellow line).

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After this point, a stable point will appear. Where, at this point, usually most of the project work has been completed and begins to enter a period of calm.