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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. Iteration Planning Board

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

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