INFO 638 Lecture #5 1
Software Project Management
Joint project planning & controlling project
INFO 638Glenn Booker
INFO 638 Lecture #5 2
Joint Project Planning
Joint Project Planning (JPP) uses a goldfish-bowl approach to conducting early analysis of a project
Its scope is typically to define the POS and/or PDS For software, this might include
defining the system scope and key requirements, and/or developing high level system design
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JPP vs. JAD
JPP is similar to Joint Application Design (or Joint Application Development) (JAD)
JPP is more general than JAD JPP could be used for planning any
kind of project JAD is software-specific
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Planning JPP JPP needs to create an environment in
which key decisions can be made about the project Planning JPP is crucial to its success
It is critical that key people be required to attend a JPP session Notice “required,” not “invited” JPP doesn’t work unless the players
are all present
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JPP Attendees
All significant stakeholders in a project need to attend JPP The tough part is identifying what
‘significant’ means Attendees typically include:
Facilitator – an outsider whose role it to lead the JPP session Typically have training in JPP, and are
excellent negotiators
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JPP Attendees Project manager – whoever will lead the
project is an obvious choice to attend Technographer – a scribe who will record
the results of the session Might be proficient in tools for recording
brainstorming sessions, prototyping a system, or other appropriate skills
Other key project people – such as a system architect, managers who will report to the project manager, etc.
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JPP Attendees Customer rep is often included Resource managers, such as IT staff, HR,
or other relevant support personnel Project champion (aka sponsor) –
whoever has been pushing to make the project happen, other than the manager
Process experts – to help make sure the project will follow sound processes
Anyone else you deem necessary!
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JPP Logistics & Facilities
JPP needs to take place in an isolated environment, to help everyone focus on the same thing Generally held offsite, such as a hotel or
conference center Typically allow a few days for the JPP,
depending on the scope of the project and the goals of the session
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JPP Equipment
JPP might use various tools to capture the results MS Visio for process flowcharts Axon or Mind Mapper for capture of
brainstorming These are in addition to the usual
conference equipment – computer & projector, sticky notes, etc.
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JPP Agenda
JPP needs to have a specific agenda defined before the session starts
The agenda must define what is expected to come out of the session A completed POS, and/or A completed PDS, and/or A project plan, etc.
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JPP Deliverables
More specific deliverables could include WBS Activity duration estimates Resource requirements Project network schedule (Pert) Activity schedule (start/end dates) Resource assignments
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Project Proposal
The JPP might result in a project proposal, including Background Objective Approach Statement of work Time & cost summary Appendices
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Monitoring Progress
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Monitoring Progress
By now you have been able to create a detailed project plan, including task definitions, estimates of duration, & assignment and leveling of resources
Then the project actually starts Now you need to monitor what really
happens, and control the future of the project
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An Aside
This is great stuff for control freaks You get to define what people will do,
when they’ll do it, and even tell them who is their boss
Now you get to decide if they are doing their job right, and what you’ll do if they aren’t
Isn’t this a great world?
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Control and Risk
Controlling a project is closely linked to risk management
You want to minimize the risk that the project won’t finish successfully Successfully generally means “
on time and within budget” To do so, you need measurements to
help decide if the project is on track
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Use Pictures
Graphics are key to presenting information well Most senior managers don’t have time to
read tons of words A well thought out graphic will convey
critical information quickly and with minimal explanation
If something’s wrong, need to address what corrective action will be taken
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Controls
Without good controls, a project will wander like a 6-year-old on summer vacation
Controls allow us to Track progress – what has been
accomplished? Detect variance – have we departed from
the plan? Take corrective action – fix it!
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Balance Control and Risk
More controls on a project Costs more for planning and tracking Reduces risks and creativity
So a critical question for every project is “how many controls do I need?” Need enough to know what’s going on,
without micromanaging the project The answer might change during
the project
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Balance Control and Risk
Too little control will increase project cost, because effort will be wasted
In theory there’s an ideal balance possible between control and risk Also need to consider that the product
quality will also be affected by the amount of control over its development process
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Progress Reporting System
Some form of progress reporting system needs to be established Want timely, complete, clear, and
accurate status reported Avoid adding too much to overhead to
create the status reports Results are readily available Warns of problems with time to fix them
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Types of Status Reports
Typically there are five kinds of status reports Current period reports – report status
during the current reporting period, e.g. this week’s status
Cumulative reports – report history of project from start to the present, or at least a significant amount of time Good for finding trends
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Types of Status Reports Exception reports – are generated only
when something is amiss Summarizes what’s wrong, and what action
is desired to fix it Stoplight reports – aren’t really a
separate kind of report They add a simple red/yellow/green
indicator of status – green is all happy, yellow is a problem that needs fixing, and red means project is out of control
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Types of Status Reports Variance reports – tell how far the project
is ahead of, or behind the plan Variances generally pertain to the schedule
and/or costs, showing planned and actual values, and the difference between them
Present results from the current reporting period, and maybe one previous period
May be tabular data, or graphic
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How & When Collect Data?
Status reports are critical to understanding a project, yet can also be a waste of time and/or interfere with getting the project done
Need to decide how often reporting is done Academia tends to be monthly, most of
industry is weekly or biweekly
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How & When Collect Data?
Need to determine reporting period (what day is the start of the week?) This often feeds a repeating process, e.g.
Reports are due Friday to your manager, They report to their boss by Monday noon, A collected report is issued on Tuesdays
Reports contain actual status to date, start and finish dates for tasks
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How & When Collect Data?
Reports might also include Projections of work remaining, Percent completion of tasks, and The amount of resources spent on each
task (e.g. 12 hours on WBS task 1.3.2)
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Variances
Variances are the difference between actual events and the project plan
Positive variances are often good They mean you are ahead of schedule or
under budget But could mean the schedule has
slipped, and little has been accomplished
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Variances
Conversely, negative variances are generally bad Behind schedule and/or over
planned cost Rarely, can mean more work has
been done than planned
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Displaying Status
There are three major ways to display the status of a project graphically Gantt chart Milestone trend chart Cost schedule control chart
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Gantt chart
We covered the Gantt chart in week 3 It is probably the most commonly
used tool to plan and track projects To show progress, dark thinner bars
are used to show how much work has been accomplished
This example is 30% completeID Task Name Duration Start Finish
3 Solve World's Problems 30 days Mon 8/18/03 Fri 9/26/038/17 8/24 8/31 9/7 9/14 9/21 9/28 10/5 10/12 10/19 10/26 11/2 11/9 11/16 11/23 11/30 12/7 12/14 12/21 12/28 1/4 1/11
August September October November December January
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Milestone Trend Chart
The Milestone trend chart is a plot of how well specific events and decisions (milestones) were accomplished The horizontal lines represent 1-3
standard deviations above and below the expected completion date of each milestone
Presumably you have historic data to determine the standard deviations
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Milestone Trend Chart
Like monitoring a control chart, poor trends (especially downward) or odd leaps in the data are keys to identifying problems
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Milestone Trend Chart
1 2 3 4 5 6Project month
3
1
2
On Schedule
-1
-2
-3
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Cost Schedule Control
Cost schedule control refers to the system used by the many agencies called earned value or C/SCSC
We have already defined a project plan with tasks and resources
Each task therefore has some defined dollar value (its resources times their hourly rate)
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Cost Schedule Control To use Cost Schedule Control, we
need to define when we get ‘credit’ for accomplishing each task Only when the task is done Half at the task start, and half at finish Etc.
The total planned value of work done on the project typically forms a long S curve over time
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Cost Schedule Control
The planned amount of work, in terms of its value, over time form a curve called Planned Value (PV) (formerly BCWS)
As the project happens, we record the actual costs incurred (AC) and how much work we really got done (EV) (formerly ACWP and BCWP)
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Cost Schedule Control
We can find variances in terms of cost (related to whether we finish within budget) and schedule (will we finish on time)
At any time during the project: Cost variance = AC - PV Schedule variance = EV – PV Recall that negative variances are bad
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Cost Schedule Control
We can also define indices to tell us if we have a good trend in getting work done Schedule performance index
SPI = EV/PV Cost performance index CPI = EV/AC
Indices >1 are good (got more work done than planned or budgeted)
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Cost Schedule Control
So monitoring a project with cost schedule control generally means using A plot of PV, AC, and EV versus time Plots of cost and schedule variances Cost and schedule performance indices
Based on these, look for negative variances and/or indices < one
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Status Detail
The amount of detail in status reporting depends on the management level of its audience First line managers generally want lots
of detail Project managers generally want to focus
on problems they must resolve Senior managers need a very brief
synopsis of status
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Status Meetings
Some form of meeting is often desired to Share the current status of each part of
the project Look for collaboration opportunities Make decisions about problems
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Meeting Minutes
Record the actions and decisions in a meeting with minutes Identify who was there Identify what happened
Review previous action requests Review old issues Review new issues
Identify what new actions need to be followed up on, by whom, and when
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Change Control
A change control process is needed to manage changes to the scope of a project See this example from the FAA The example cited was used for
managing problems reported with an air traffic control system, but the basic principles are universal
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Change Control It describes the activities needed to
analyze a problem, estimate how much work it is to resolve, determine its priority, fix it, and incorporate it into a system change with other problem fixes
The names of the organizations which perform each of the steps may vary wildly, but some sort of review board or change control board is typically used
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Escalation
Escalation here means how a problem can be resolved Little problems might be resolved by the
project manager Bigger problems might be resolved by
getting additional resources from your organization
Huge problems might need cooperation from your customer to resolve