SE503 Advanced Project Management Dr. Ahmed Sameh, Ph.D. Professor, CS & IS The Speculate Phase (Ch. 6)

Speculative Planning Information is incomplete Future is uncertain Forecasts, predictions Conjecture, “gut feel” Plan should be Flexible Visible to the customer NOT a tool for future punishment

Feature-based planning Customers and project team members understand features Features become deliverables Feature delivery is scheduled based on relative value and risk Duration of iterations Timing of features

Goals of the Speculate Phase A flexible plan for feature delivery Feature timing (value and risk) Anticipation of uncertainty (alternatives) Reinforcement of project goals, business goals, and customer expectations Why are we doing this Who are we doing it for

Feature Breakdown Structure (8) Build on what was done in the envision phase Indented BOM type of organization Product Component Group Feature 1 Feature 2

Lab - Product Development Detailed product design and modeling Specification and procurement of parts and materials Prototype product Router tooling Router (CNC) programming Product name, company name and logo Product web page Product display Quality control plan

Lab - Manufacturing Robot Feeder for material blanks Branding/burning Workspace layout S-10 robot gripper S-10 robot programming S-10 robot integration AGV maintenance AGV modifications

Feature card (9) Feature name and ID Description in customer terms Domain (customer or technology) Estimate of effort Requirements gathering/research Design and specification Material procurement Coding, building, construction, assembly Startup, testing, documentation

Feature Card (cont.) Requirements uncertainty (exploration factor) Erratic, fluctuation, routine, stable Feature dependencies Logical dependencies to other features Space or resource dependencies Acceptance tests Customer criteria for acceptance

Performance Requirements (10) Feature specific Feature description Acceptance testing Global or general Performance requirements card Name and ID Description Difficulty Acceptance criteria

Release, Milestone, and Iteration Plan (11) Iteration (2-6 weeks) Delivery of tested features Milestone (1-3 months) Synchronization and integration Project review and adjustments Release (1 or more per project) Product released to customer

Iteration Zero Balance between planning and action Major project decisions (tradeoffs) Overall architecture design Team building and organization Project initialization No features delivered to the customer

Iteration Schedule Assign features to each iteration Develop a theme for each iteration Cards and storyboarding are tools Group iterations into milestones, releases Business plan Customer involvement Definition or theme

Agile Project Plan Week Item Description or theme 1 Iteration 0 Organization and planning 2-3 Iteration 1 Research/conceptual design 4-5 Iteration 2 Progress on detailed design 6 Milestone 1 Detailed design review 7-8 Iteration 3 Material procurement 9-10 Iteration 4 Construction/programming 11-12 Iteration 5 13 Iteration 6 Testing and debugging 14 Milestone 2 Team demonstrations 15 Release Public demonstration

Iteration Planning Board

Types of Iteration Plans All features assigned to iterations Choose the features for the next iteration, and leave the rest in the pool Identify only those features for the next iteration, as the pool is unknown

Progressive Estimation Approximate estimate for the entire project Firm estimate for the next iteration or milestone period By the end of the next period Develop a firm estimate for the following period Update the overall project estimate

Scope Evolution Traditional projects Agile projects Bare minimum Gold-plated Scope creep Agile projects Develop the minimum required features… But make sure they can adapt and grow

Risk Management APM process is designed to deal with uncertainty Risk is reduced by doing and learning things, not by planning Many project failures are caused by poor discipline or communication Investing a lot in a master plan puts more at risk

Speculate Summary Driven by the Envision phase Detailed project plan Iterative Feature-based Traditional project information may be evolutionary or progressive Scope Budget Schedule