Early warning, not retrospective
Deviations surface before they escalate.
- Plan/actual and earned value update daily.
- The status light trips at the threshold you set.
- Correct course while it still helps.
Project delivery process: how do we deliver reliably and profitably?
Delivery is where a professional services firm earns or burns its margin. teamspace keeps plan, hours and margin current to the day and flags the deviation early, instead of showing it only in the closing report.
Delivery, day to day
Only at project close do you learn whether it paid off?
- The plan lives in MS Project, the hours in a second tool, the margin in a third spreadsheet.
- Whether a project carried its weight only shows at close, when no one can steer any more.
- Resource planning runs on the side in a spreadsheet, unrelated to the plan, and bottlenecks surface once they are already there.
- Escalation comes late, often only through the client's complaint.
A steered delivery process turns that around: plan, hours and margin sit together, and the deviation surfaces early enough to act.
What matters
Three disciplines separate steering from doing
Resources before tasks
Who does what, with which capacity, until when?
- Capacity is planned ahead, not reported afterwards.
- Leave, sickness and contract hours are factored in.
- The system flags conflicts as you assign.
Margin as the leading KPI
Projects are steered by impact, not activity.
- Margin runs automatically from rates, hours and cost.
- Margin per project, per client and per project lead.
- Visible in the Analysis tab, without rework.
Why delivery counts
In the project, margin is earned or burned
In professional services, value is created in the project. Deadlines are met, hours are booked, and money is earned or left on the table. Yet delivery is the weakest-steered process in many firms: the plan lives in one tool, the hours in the next, the margin in a spreadsheet alongside.
teamspace computes the margin continuously from internal rates, booked hours and project cost. You see per project, client or order type what is left, without anyone assembling figures at month end. And clean delivery is the precondition for the [billing process](/processes/billing-process/) to add up and for [business steering](/processes/business-steering/) to get reliable numbers.
How delivery runs, step by step
From the handover out of sales to the plan/actual summary at the end, across four modules, with no data entered twice.
- 1
Sales → Project
Project from the won deal
The won opportunity becomes a project with budget, team and billing model in one click. Order line items become sub-projects or work packages.
CRM/BillingProject setup - 2
Project management
Structure and plan
Main project, sub-projects, work packages, phases and milestones are set, dates and budgets defined. Templates speed up similar projects.
Work breakdownGanttTemplates - 3
Capacity planning
Plan capacity
People are scheduled, accounting for leave, sickness and contract hours. The scheduling assistant flags conflicts before they become a bottleneck.
UtilisationConflict detection - 4
Time tracking → Controlling
Steer to the day
Hours are booked on the work packages and flow without a media break into plan/actual, margin and earned value. Deviations surface early.
Plan/actualEarned value - 5
Threshold method
Correct course on early warning
When the status light trips at the threshold you set, dates, scope or resources are adjusted, with documented reasoning and transparent communication.
Three levelsEscalation - 6
Project → Billing
Close with a plan/actual summary
Remaining work goes into billing as an invoice proposal, learnings feed future templates, and the project is closed with a plan/actual summary.
Post-costingTemplate
The control loop
Correct course to the day, before the margin tips
Plan, log, reconcile, warn: delivery is not a straight line but a loop. When the status light trips, the adjustment flows back into the plan.
Project management 1
Plan
Budget, dates and work packages
240 h plan Time tracking 2
Log
Hours on the work package
176 h actual Project controlling 3
Reconcile
Plan vs actual, margin, earned value
+ 12 % margin Early warning 4
Warn
Threshold hit, status flips
threshold hit
Adjust : change dates, scope or resources, with a documented reason, back into the plan.
Steering means correcting course: the deviation shows before the margin tips, not in hindsight.
Where you stand
We place your delivery process in 30 minutes
In a requirements call we look at where plan and actuals drift apart in your delivery today, and which step pays off most.
A few KPIs make delivery steerable
Each KPI gets its own status light with target values you set in green, amber and red, and a clear meaning.
Project margin
Project revenue minus project cost, per project, client and project lead. You set the green corridor yourself. Shows at once which projects carry the firm.
Realisation rate
Billable hours over total hours. When it drops, hidden project losses appear.
Earned value
The earned value sets delivered progress in money next to planned value and actual cost. From it come schedule and cost variance.
Budget consumption
Consumed budget against progress. If consumption matches progress, you are within range; if it runs ahead, it gets tight.
Schedule variance
Delay against plan in days or percent. When it rises, escalation or replanning is due.
Resource utilisation
Utilisation of the scheduled staff over the project duration. You define the target corridor yourself, depending on the model.
Earned value
One value, two diagnoses: schedule and cost
The earned value is the pivot. Held against the planned value it shows the schedule position; against actual cost the cost position. Both from the same maintained data, once plan, progress and hours are kept up.
Schedule view Plan ↔ value
Planned value
at reporting date
Earned value
delivered
Schedule variance
− 34 k €
Schedule efficiency
0.74
the same value 96 k € Earned value
Cost view Actual ↔ value
Actual cost
incurred
Earned value
delivered
Cost variance
− 8 k €
Cost efficiency
0.92
One value, two diagnoses: the same earned value tells schedule and cost at a single reporting date.
Maturity: from ad hoc project to day-current steering
Which level describes your delivery most honestly today? Six stages, from ad hoc to fully automated.
Level 0: unplanned
Projects run ad hoc. No plan, no baseline, no analysis. Success rides on the individual project lead.
Level 1: manual
Projects planned in spreadsheets or MS Project, hours captured separately in another tool. Analysis is laborious.
Level 2: structured
Phases, milestones and tasks are recorded systematically. The data sources are not yet connected.
Level 3: assisted
Plan, resources and hours sit in one system. First plan/actual analysis appears without manual work.
Level 4: largely automated
Earned value, margin and early warning run automatically. Utilisation and forecast update daily.
Level 5: fully automated
Almost fully automatic, with prompts, automatic escalation and an integrated forecast through to liquidity.
Classic delivery and delivery with teamspace
| Feature | Classic: PM tool and spreadsheets | teamspace |
|---|---|---|
| Data model | Plan in MS Project, hours separate, billing in a third system | Plan, hours, effort and billing in one model |
| Plan/actual | Assembled manually, often weeks old | Up to date and automatic, from the bookings |
| Early warning | Escalation surfaces late, often through the client complaint | Schedule and cost variance plus utilisation, with a status light at thresholds you set |
| Resource planning | On the side in a spreadsheet, unrelated to the project plan | On the task model, with a check against free capacity |
| Handover to billing | Export the time list, push it into billing by hand | Invoice proposal from the project data, review and send |
“We mostly work with the budget column.”
The modules that work together in the process
Delivery spans several modules. Each card leads to its feature page.
Project management
Planning, structure, tasks, milestones and boards. The central steering space.
Learn moreProject controlling
Plan/actual comparison, margin, warning levels and escalation.
Learn moreEarned value analysis
Planned value, earned value and actual cost become variance and efficiency.
Learn moreCapacity planning
Schedule staff across all projects, with utilisation and conflict detection.
Learn moreMulti-project management
Portfolio view across all projects, with status, progress and global milestones.
Learn moreProject time tracking
Hours on project and work package, with direct handover to billing and reporting.
Learn moreWhat maturity means
Maturity means plan, hours and margin in one model
Maturity in delivery is not the tool you run, it is the connection. A project tool without time capture stays stuck at a middle level. But when plan, hours, resources and margin sit in one shared model, the system computes plan/actual, utilisation and forecast on its own.
The difference shows in everyday work. An hour booked on a work package today is part of utilisation tomorrow and part of the invoice proposal the day after. One dataset, several views, with no export and no double entry. Whoever is here steers by impact rather than by activity.
- Are all projects fully managed, not just the ones someone happens to remember?
- Are plan and effort current at any time, rather than weeks old?
- Do early warning and forecast run automatically, or does a person check everything by hand?
Frequently asked questions about delivery
We work with fixed-price projects. Which KPIs help us?
Project margin is decisive. It reveals immediately whether the agreed price covers actual effort. Earned value adds value because it shows schedule and cost deviations before margin erodes.
How useful is earned value on small projects?
Earned value pays off at a size where several work packages or sprints run in parallel and several people contribute. On a one-week ticket it is overengineered; plan/actual and margin are enough there.
What is the difference between project controlling and project management?
Project management plans and runs the project operationally. Project controlling steers it economically, that is margin, effort, budget and early warning. Both work on the same data but ask different questions.
How does the delivery process tie into billing and workforce?
Won opportunities create projects, booked hours flow into the invoice proposal and into utilisation, approved hours feed payroll preparation. One dataset, several views.
Can we run agile and classic projects in parallel?
Yes. A work package can be moved onto a Kanban or Scrum board and worked agile there, while classic projects run via work breakdown, milestones and the Gantt view. Each project picks its method, the data model stays consistent.
Other processes
Delivery is just one of seven core processes. Here are the other six:
Sales process
How do we consistently win the right work?
Billing process
How do we convert work into revenue quickly and in full?
Cost control process
How do we keep costs and liquidity under control?
Customer care process
How do we serve clients fast, competently and by value?
Workforce process
How do we steer capacity, skills and motivation optimally?
Business steering
How do we run the firm on current data?
How mature is your delivery process today?
In a 15 to 30 minute requirements call we score your delivery against the maturity model and outline the next realistic step.