SE-280 Dr. Mark L. Hornick Schedule Planning & Earned Value

SE-280 Dr. Mark L. Hornick 2 So far, you have made project plans, which estimate the task time for project phases. The work breakdown identifies the tasks necessary for successful process completion. Plan Design DLDR Code CR Test PM A total time estimate is distributed across the tasks (each task's effort is estimated)

SE-280 Dr. Mark L. Hornick 3 In addition to a project plan, you also often need a period plan (i.e. a calendar schedule) A period plan links project tasks to specific dates, indicating the sequence of activities and projected milestones. For non-trivial projects, both project and period plans are required, and they must be effectively linked.

SE-280 Dr. Mark L. Hornick 4 To make a period plan, you must know the distribution of available "task hours". Task hours represent the time spent on specific tasks in the project plan. How many task hours should a team expect to have in a hour week? Total work time ProjectNon-project TaskNon-task Boolean Necessary Plannable Worth planning Time logging Team meetings Brief consults Brainstorming Other projects Training Other meetings Lunch

SE-280 Dr. Mark L. Hornick 5 Here is an example of making a period plan or schedule. Task A: 10 hours Task B: 8 hours Task C: 7 hours Task D: 3 hours Week 1: 12 hours Week 2: 5 hours Week 3: 10 hours Week 4: 9 hours Task E: 9 hours 37 Week 5: 11 hours 47 Cumulative task timeCumulative schedule time

SE-280 Dr. Mark L. Hornick 6 Here is an example of making a period plan or schedule. Task A: 10 hours Task B: 8 hours Task C: 7 hours Task D: 3 hours Week 1: 12 hours Week 2: 5 hours Week 3: 10 hours Week 4: 9 hours Task E: 9 hours 37 Week 5: 11 hours 47 Cumulative task timeCumulative schedule time

SE-280 Dr. Mark L. Hornick 7 From the schedule, we can identify task-completion milestones. TaskScheduled task completion (week) #12345 A1X B3X C3X D4X E5X

SE-280 Dr. Mark L. Hornick 8 The Planned Value (PV) of each task is the percentage it represents of the total planned project time. Task Plan hrs.PV% Cum. hrs. Cum. PV% Plan wk. A10 B8 C7 D3 E9 Total 

SE-280 Dr. Mark L. Hornick 9 Earned value (EV) represents the cumulative planned value of completed tasks, even if they are not completed in the planned sequence. WeekTaskPV%EV% Cum. EV 1A D 2B 3-- 4C 5 6E  100.0

SE-280 Dr. Mark L. Hornick 10 This simplified example illustrates some possible planning problems. The task granularity (size) is too large for meaningful planning, and some plan/actual weeks have no completed tasks. Generally, each team member should complete 1-2 tasks per week. This implies that tasks should normally be less than 10 hours, depending on the task hours available.

SE-280 Dr. Mark L. Hornick Process Dashboard supports task and schedule planning for individual engineers and teams

SE-280 Dr. Mark L. Hornick 12 Process Dashboard can generate earned value charts and forecasts.

SE-280 Dr. Mark L. Hornick 13 Experience with TSP teams indicates that engineers love to earn value! Earned value can help motivate team members to: Finish a "close to completion" task. Push through a less desirable task. Avoid distractions (tasks not in the plan).

What is the appropriate time scale for project schedule planning? When the environment and requirements change very slowly, it may be practical to plan for years at a time. (Not very common any more.)

What is the appropriate time scale for project schedule planning? When the environment and requirements change very slowly, it may be practical to plan for years at a time. (Not very common any more.) Due to “learning”, it is difficult to make detailed plans for more than weeks at a time. (High-level, less detailed project plans may still have a place for 12- to 24-month or even longer timeframes.)

What is the appropriate time scale for project schedule planning? When the environment and requirements change very slowly, it may be practical to plan for years at a time. (Not very common any more.) Due to “learning”, it is difficult to make detailed plans for more than weeks at a time. (High-level, less detailed project plans may still have a place for 12- to 24-month or even longer timeframes.) All planning takes some time, so very short (< 4 weeks) intervals may result in excessive planning overhead. (Planning for subsequent cycles can often be done in less time than the initial cycle/project planning.)