Termites not Tornadoes

Software projects often slip schedules, have cost overruns and have bad quality due to small events that occur each day rather than by big events. The project slips one hour, one day at a time, and the cost overruns happen one dollar at a time. Often it is human nature for people to jump in and help for big events while ignoring the small events. However, small issues occur more often than the big events and can have a stronger negative effect if not addressed.
Project team members should give importance to the issues that occur repeatedly to avoid repeating mistakes. Earned Value is a tool available to project managers that could help in tracking these overruns early on.