CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 1 Software Project Management Week 10: Project Monitoring & control Ian Blackman

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 2 learning outcome  To be able critically to discuss ways of monitoring and intervening in projects in order to ensure smooth progress towards a result that satisfies the customer by meeting the Triple Constraint.

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 3 Once a project is running… Measure & assess progress Predict impact at end Analyse options Take action And that’s all there is to it! time budget quality With respect to the…… triple constraint More on this: Week 20 – Quality Week 25 – CRM

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 4 Lets try to take this apart a little… Measure & assess progress Predict impact at end Analyse options Take action NB Cadle & Yeates and Hughes & Cotterell do it slightly differently What do we measure? time budget quality How long is it taking? How are we meeting schedule? How much time is being booked on timesheets? How long are the sub-contractors taking? How much progress have we really made? Which milestones have we met? What’s on staff activity logs? How much has been spent? What’s on the financial returns? How much is left in the bank or the job code?

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 5 But you can’t measure everything! JI G B F C E D A C H time Start with measures on the Critical Path… Every now and then, dive deep into the project just to make sure everything is going the way you think it is. And then follow-up high impact risks (Week 19)

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 6 Lets try to take this apart a little… Measure & assess progress Predict impact at end Analyse options Take action NB Cadle & Yeates and Hughes & Cotterell do it slightly differently How do we measure? time budget quality Time sheets Personal records Contracts of employment Lab books On-line internal notes Management accounts Bank statements Analysis of transactions Records of staff time Payroll! Sign-off with customer Internal progress reports Milestone negotiations Demonstrators, etc. The textbooks have some good ideas

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 7 Moving on… Measure & assess progress Predict impact at end Analyse options Take action NB Cadle & Yeates and Hughes & Cotterell do it slightly differently time budget quality EV Earned value analysis enables you to estimate the predicted outturn on budget and schedule!

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 8 … and on… Measure & assess progress Predict impact at end Analyse options Take action time budget quality See how different strategies impact upon the 3 constraints EV

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 9 Back to our example from last week… weeks Task A Task B Task C Task D Task E £30,000 Task A A £20,000 time budget quality After 4 weeks: 1.Planned spend was £40,000 2.Actual spend was £30,000 3.Completed 1 task instead of 2 But what was the prediction?

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 10 Earned Value Analysis told us weeks Task A Task B Task C Task D Task E Task A A To complete the project (& meet the customer’s expectations), Predictions: 1.Planned overspend of an extra 50% (£50,000) 2.Planned delay of an extra 100% (10 extra weeks) time budget quality So what are we going to do?

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 11 Final picture weeks Task A Task B Task C Task D Task E £30,000 Task A A £20,000 Task B Task C Replace 2 low-cost coders with a top class coder who doubles productivity time budget quality

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 12 What’s the comparison? time budget quality time budget quality What we would have guessed First review - prediction Later review - prediction time budget quality First review

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 13 The next steps Measure & assess progress Predict impact at end Analyse options Take action Measurement and prediction can tell us if we have a problem or not… … but what can we do about it? Let’s break this down into three scenarios. Scenario 1: The project is on or ahead in terms of spend and schedule Scenario 2a: The project is slightly behind in terms of either spend or schedule. Scenario 2b: The project is in fairly or very serious trouble. Wks 16 & 17

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 14 Scenario 1 Measure & assess progress Predict impact at end Analyse options Take action Your monitoring and predictions indicate that everything is fine or ahead of schedule Possible strategies and actions Do nothing! Reduce frequency of reviews, or supervision of staff Find out what is going right and try to get more of it! Praise or reward the team (ONLY) if you are confident… See whether the customer will pay for earlier delivery!

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 15 Scenario 2a Measure & assess progress Predict impact at end Analyse options Take action Your monitoring and predictions indicate that you are predicting a minor overrun or overspend FIRST Try to work out what has really happened

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 16 Scenario 2a Measure & assess progress Predict impact at end Analyse options Take action Your monitoring and predictions indicate that you are predicting a minor overrun or overspend Options: Do nothing! (provides a benchmark for everything else and sometimes works). Increase effort – more staff or overtime (speeds progress, costs extra). Modify team roles or skill mix (can be cost neutral and may create a big improvement) Encouragement and/or incentives

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 17 Scenario 2a Measure & assess progress Predict impact at end Analyse options Take action Your monitoring and predictions indicate that you are predicting a minor overrun or overspend Options with the customer: Change phasing of the deliverables Negotiate changes in specification Negotiate for more time or money Other options: Subcontract some of the work

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 18 Scenario 2b Measure & assess progress Predict impact at end Analyse options Take action Your monitoring and predictions indicate that you are in dire straights FIRST: REALLY find out what has gone wrong (THINKSPOT: Why is this difficult) More in week 16, Recovering from Failure 1 & week 17, Recovering from Failure 2

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 19 Scenario 2b Measure & assess progress Predict impact at end Analyse options Take action Your monitoring and predictions indicate that you are dire straights Options are generally radical Re-plan project Re-organise team Bring in specialist help Major negotiations with internal management Major negotiations with customer

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 20 Implementation issues Measure & assess progress Predict impact at end Analyse options Take action Communication & documentation Change control

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 21 Documentation Lab books PDAs (make sure there is back-up) On-line activity logs You can use – if you structure it well WHAT? Factors leading to change Analysis and predictions Reasons for the change Risk associated with it People who objected Poor documentation will ruin your whole career Formal docu- ments later

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 22 Everyone must be clear about why Manager(s) Communication & listening Measure & assess progress Predict impact at end Analyse options Take action Customer? You Team You have to take everyone with you You may need to draw them in earlier, too (weeks 16 & 20)

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 23 Change management Forms: Will fit with the Company’s system Will capture the reasons and the results May record any deviations from the plan Usually require formal authorisation There are software systems: Document control Version control Change authorisation, etc. Thinkspot: why does this matter? Bid documents Meetings, minutes, etc Formal deliverables

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 24 Summary  The basics are simple: measure, predict, analyse, act  We bring each of these to the Triple Constraint  EV helps to link the predicted quality/performance to time and budget  Keep a good set of records

CS3100 Software Project Management: Monitoring & Control 25 Next week  Guest Lecture