A project in execution reports to a program manager and the project manager chairs its steering committee. A steering meeting in two weeks will present how schedule performance to date will be measured. What should the project manager prepare?

The project manager should prepare to explain the use of schedule performance metrics like the Schedule Performance Index (SPI) and Schedule Variance (SV). These are standard Earned Value Management (EVM) metrics used to assess schedule efficiency and deviation from the baseline. The steering committee, which the project manager chairs, will want to understand how schedule performance is being measured. Demonstrating cost-benefit ratio, business value, and ROI are important for project justification and overall financial health but are not direct schedule performance metrics. Updating CPI and SPI is part of the work, but the question asks what the project manager should prepare to present regarding how schedule performance will be measured, implying an explanation of the metrics themselves. Claiming schedule performance metrics are not applicable in an agile approach is incorrect; agile projects still track progress and delivery against iterations or releases, often using metrics like velocity or burn-down/burn-up charts, which serve a similar purpose to traditional schedule metrics.