Software Project Management

1
Software Project Management

• Joint project planning controlling project
• INFO 638
• Glenn Booker

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

3
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

4
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 doesnt work unless the players are all
  present

5
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

6
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.

7
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!

8
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

9
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.

10
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.

11
JPP Deliverables

• More specific deliverables could include
• WBS
• Activity duration estimates
• Resource requirements
• Project network schedule (Pert)
• Activity schedule (start/end dates)
• Resource assignments

12
Project Proposal

• The JPP might result in a project proposal,
  including
• Background
• Objective
• Approach
• Statement of work
• Time cost summary
• Appendices

13
Monitoring Progress
14
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

15
An Aside

• This is great stuff for control freaks
• You get to define what people will do, when
  theyll do it, and even tell them who is their
  boss
• Now you get to decide if they are doing their job
  right, and what youll do if they arent
• Isnt this a great world?

16
Control and Risk

• Controlling a project is closely linked to risk
  management
• You want to minimize the risk that the project
  wont 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

17
Use Pictures

• Graphics are key to presenting information well
• Most senior managers dont have time to read tons
  of words
• A well thought out graphic will convey critical
  information quickly and with minimal explanation
• If somethings wrong, need to address what
  corrective action will be taken

18
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!

19
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 whats going on, without
  micromanaging the project
• The answer might change during the project

20
Balance Control and Risk

• Too little control will increase project cost,
  because effort will be wasted
• In theory theres 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

21
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

22
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 weeks status
• Cumulative reports report history of project
  from start to the present, or at least a
  significant amount of time
• Good for finding trends

23
Types of Status Reports

• Exception reports are generated only when
  something is amiss
• Summarizes whats wrong, and what action is
  desired to fix it
• Stoplight reports arent 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

24
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

25
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

26
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

27
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)

28
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

29
Variances

• Conversely, negative variances are generally bad
• Behind schedule and/or over planned cost
• Rarely, can mean more work has been done than
  planned

30
Displaying Status

• There are three major ways to display the status
  of a project graphically
• Gantt chart
• Milestone trend chart
• Cost schedule control chart

31
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 complete

32
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

33
Milestone Trend Chart

• Like monitoring a control chart, poor trends
  (especially downward) or odd leaps in the data
  are keys to identifying problems

34
Milestone Trend Chart
35
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)

36
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

37
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)

38
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

39
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 gt1 are good (got more work done than
  planned or budgeted)

40
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 lt one

41
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

42
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

43
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

44
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

45
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

46
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