Software Project Management Session 9: Project Control Q7503, Fall 2002

Today Session 8 Review Project Control Status Reporting Earned Value Analysis MS Project Q7503, Fall 2002

Session 8 Review Project roles and team structure CMM Requirements Q7503, Fall 2002

Project Control Ongoing effort to keep your project on track 4 primary activities: 1. Planning performance A SDP, schedule, and a control process 2. Measuring status of work performed Actuals 3. Comparing to baseline Variances 4. Taking corrective action as needed Response Prerequisite to good control is a good plan Q7503, Fall 2002

Project Control “Control” Principles Power, authority, domination. No. Guiding a course of action to meet an objective. Yes. Principles Work is controlled, not workers Control helps workers be more effective & efficient Control based on work completed Use concrete deliverables Balance Appropriate level between too much and too little Includes: Micro-managing vs. neglect Too much tracking detail vs. too little Q7503, Fall 2002

Progress Monitoring The 3 key Progress Monitoring Questions What is the actual status? If there’s a variance, what is cause? What to do about it? Possible responses 1. Ignore 2. Take corrective action 3. Review the plan Q7503, Fall 2002

Progress Monitoring Monitoring rates Daily, weekly, monthly If problems occur – then adjust You may have to monitor problem areas more closely For some period of time Almost always there’s one or more areas under closer scrutiny Status Reporting Part of the communications management plan Which is usually just a section of SDP Q7503, Fall 2002

Status Reports From team to PM, from PM to stakeholders Typical format for latter Summary Accomplishments for this period (done) Tasks, milestones, metrics Plans for next period (to-do) Risk analysis and review Issues & Actions Shoot for weekly updates Email notes, then hold brief meeting More frequently during crises Q7503, Fall 2002

Programming Status Reporting A programmer reports that he’s 90% done. What does this mean? A programmer reports completing 4,000 LOC on estimated 5,000 LOC effort. Is this 80% complete? Quality? Ratio, estimated to completed? Your estimates could have been wrong If you can’t measure scope or quality you don’t know “reality” You really only know cost (hours spent) How can you improve this? Q7503, Fall 2002

Binary Reporting Work packages (tasks) can only be in one of 2 states: complete or incomplete No partial credit Preferred to anything subjective! “90% Complete Syndrome” Software is 90% complete 90% of the time Use lower-level task decomposition Tangible exit criteria Plan for 4-80 staff hours of effort per task Q7503, Fall 2002

Earned Value Analysis (EVA) a.k.a. Earned Value Management (EVM) a.k.a. Variance Analysis Metric of project tracking “What you got for what you paid” Physical progress Pre-EVA ‘traditional’ approach 1. Planned time and costs 2. Actual time and costs Progress: compare planned vs. actual EVA adds third dimension: value Planned, actual, earned Q7503, Fall 2002

Earned Value Analysis Forecasting Measured in dollars or hours Old models include cost & expenditure EVA adds schedule estimation Measured in dollars or hours Often time used in software projects Performance Measurement Baseline (PMB) Time-phased budget plan against which contract performance is measured Cost & schedule variances go against this Best via a bottom-up plan Q7503, Fall 2002

Earned Value Analysis Different methods are available Binary Reporting Others include Based on % complete Weights applied to milestones EVA can signal errors as early as 15% into project Alphabet Soup Q7503, Fall 2002

Earned Value Analysis 3 major components BCWS: Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled Now called “Planned Value” (PV) “Yearned” How much work should be done? BCWP: Budgeted Cost of Work Performed Now called “earned value” (EV) “Earned” How much work is done? BCWS * % complete ACWP: Actual Cost of Work Performed Now called “Actual Cost” (AC) “Burned” How much did the work done cost? Q7503, Fall 2002

Derived EVA Variances SV: Schedule Variance CV: Cost Variance BCWP – BCWS Planned work vs. work completed CV: Cost Variance BCWP – ACWP Budgeted costs vs. actual costs Negatives are termed ‘unfavorable’ Can be plotted on ‘spending curves’ Cumulative cost (Y axis) vs. Time (X axis) Typically in an ‘S’ shape “What is the project status”? You can use variances to answer this Q7503, Fall 2002

Earned Value Analysis Q7503, Fall 2002

Derived EVA Ratios SPI: Schedule Performance Index BCWP / BCWS CPI: Cost Performance Index BCWP / ACWP Problems in project if either of these less than 1 (or 100%) Q7503, Fall 2002

Earned Value Analysis Other Derived Values BAC: Budget At Completion Sum of all budges (BCWS). Your original budget. EAC: Estimate At Completion Forecast total cost at completion EAC = ((BAC – BCWP)/CPI) + ACWP Unfinished work divided by CPI added to sunk cost If CPI < 1, EAC will be > BAC CR: Critical Ratio SPI x CPI 1: everything on track > .9 and < 1.2 ok Can be charted Q7503, Fall 2002

EVA Example As of 1-July where are we? BCWS BCWP ACWP Q7503, Fall 2002

EVA Example CV SV CPI SPI CR Q7503, Fall 2002

Earned Value Analysis BCWS Remember it’s an aggregate figure Use ‘loaded labor’ rates if possible Direct pay + overhead Remember it’s an aggregate figure May hide where the problem lies Beware of counterbalancing issues Over in one area vs. under in another Q7503, Fall 2002

Earned Value Analysis Benefits Success factors Consistent unit of measure for total progress Consistent methodology Across cost and completed activity Apples and apples comparisons Ability to forecast cost & schedule Can provide warnings early Success factors A full WBS is required (all scope) Beware of GIGO: Garbage-in, garbage-out Q7503, Fall 2002

The MS-Project Process Move WBS into a Project outline (in Task Sheet) Add resources (team members or roles) Add costs for resources Assign resources to tasks Establish dependencies Refine and optimize Create baseline Track progress (enter actuals, etc.) Q7503, Fall 2002

Project Overview This is a ‘quickie’ overview We will return to all of these steps individually over the next few weeks Sample project from McConnell Q7503, Fall 2002

Project UI Views Default is Gant Chart View View Bar on far left 2 panes Task Sheet on left (a table) Gantt Chart on right View Bar on far left Q7503, Fall 2002

Project UI Q7503, Fall 2002

Create Your Project File/New Setup start date Setup calendar Menu: Project/Project Information Often left with default settings Hours, holidays Q7503, Fall 2002

Enter WBS Outlining Sub-tasks and summary tasks Do not enter start/end dates for each Just start with Task Name and Duration for each Use Indent/Outdent buttons to define summary tasks and subtasks You can enter specific Start/End dates but don’t most of the time Q7503, Fall 2002

Establish Durations Know the abbreviations Can use partial h/d/w/m D is default Can use partial .5d is a half-day task Elapsed durations Estimated durations Put a ‘?’ after duration Q7503, Fall 2002

Add Resources Work Resources Material Resources People Things Can be used to track costs Ex: amount of equipment purshased Not used as often in typical software project Q7503, Fall 2002

Resource Sheet Can add new resources here Setup costs Or directly in the task entry sheet Beware of mis-spellings (Project will create near-duplicates) Setup costs Such as annual salary (put ‘yr’ after ‘Std. Rate’) Q7503, Fall 2002

Effort-Driven Scheduling MS-Project default Duration * Units = Work Duration = Work / Units (D = W/U) Work = Duration * Units (W = D*U) Units = Work / Duration (U = W/D) Adding more resources to a task shortens duration Can be changed on a per-task basis In the advanced tab of Task Information dialog box Task Type setting Beware the Mythical Man-month Good for laying bricks, not always so for software development Q7503, Fall 2002

Link Tasks On toolbar: Link & Unlink buttons Or via Gantt chart Good for many at once Or via Gantt chart Drag from one task to another Q7503, Fall 2002

Milestones Zero duration tasks Insert task ‘normally’ but put 0 in duration Q7503, Fall 2002

Make Assignments Approach 1. Using Task Sheet Using Resource Names column You can create new ones by just typing-in here 2. Using Assign Resources dialog box Good for multiple resources Highlight task, Tools/Resources or toolbar button 3. Using Task Information dialog Resources tab 4. Task Entry view View/More Views/Task Entry Or Task Entry view on Resource Mgmt. toolbar Q7503, Fall 2002

Save Baseline Saves all current information about your project Dates, resource assignments, durations, costs Q7503, Fall 2002

Fine Tune Then is used later as basis for comparing against “actuals” Menu: Tools/Tracking/Save Baseline Q7503, Fall 2002

Project 2002 3 Editions: Standard, Professional, Server MS Project Server 2002 Upgrade of old “Project Central” Includes “Project Web Access”, web-based UI (partial) Workgroup and resource notification features Requires SQL-Server and IIS “Portfolio Analyzer” Drill-down into projects via pivot tables & charts “Portfolio Modeler” Create models and “what-if” scenarios SharePoint Team Services integration Q7503, Fall 2002

Project 2002 MS-Project Professional “Project Guide” feature “Build Team” feature Skills-based resource matching Resource Pools: with skill set tracking Resource Substitution Wizard “Project Guide” feature Customizable “process component” Q7503, Fall 2002

MS-Project Q&A Your WBS in Project How did it go? Any questions? Q7503, Fall 2002

Homework Schwalbe: 7 “Project Quality Management” URLs Project plan: “Introduction to Software Testing” http://www.iplbath.com/pdf/p0820.pdf “Introduction to Software Testing Principles” http://www.qestest.com/principl.htm Project plan: Develop and submit an initial copy of the project plan (limited to tasks & milestones) for your individual project Q7503, Fall 2002

Questions? Q7503, Fall 2002