1. Project Communication, Tracking, and Reporting

2. Importance of Good Communications
The greatest threat to many projects is a failure to communicate
Our culture does not portray IT professionals as being good communicators
Research shows that IT professionals must be able to communicate effectively to succeed in their positions
Strong verbal skills are a key factor in career advancement for IT professionals

3. PMBOK – Project Communications Management Processes
Communications Planning — attempts to answer:
How will information be stored?
How will knowledge be stored?
What information goes to whom, when, and how?
Who can access what information?
Who will update the information and knowledge?
What media of communication is best?

4. PMBOK – Project Communications Management – Continued
Information Distribution—getting the right information to the right people in the right format
Performance Reporting—collection and dissemination of project information to the various project stakeholders.
Administrative Closure—verifying and documenting the project’s progress.

5. Project Communications Plan
can be formal or informal, depending on the needs of the project stakeholders and the size of the project
communications plan should determine:
Who has specific information needs?
What are those information needs?
How will a particular stakeholder’s information needs be met?
When can a stakeholder expect to receive this information?
How will this information be received?

6. Project Communications Plan

7. Project Communications Plan
Stakeholders
Doc. Name
Doc. Format
Contact Person
Due
Customer Management
Monthly Stat. Report
Hard copy
Gail Feldman,
Tony Silva
1st month
Customer Business Staff
Julie Grant,
Jeff Martin
Customer Tech. Staff
Evan Dodge,
Nancy Michaels
Internal Management
Bob Thomson
Internal Busi. & Tech. Staff
Intranet
Angie Liu
Training Subcontractor
Training Plan
Jonathan Kraus
11/1/1999
Software Subcontractor
Software Imp. Plan
Barbara Gates
6/162000

8. Media Choice Table

9. Project Metrics
Project Metric - qualitative measurement of some attribute of the project.
Project metrics should focus on the following key areas:
Scope
Schedule
Budget
Resources
Quality
Risk

10. Project Metrics Metric Description Scope Change Requests
The number of scope changes requested by the client or sponsor.
Scope Change Approvals
The number of scope changes that were approved.
Overdue tasks
The number of tasks that were started but not finished by the expected date or time.
Tasks that should have started
The number of task that should have started but have been delayed.
Over budgeted tasks
The number of tasks (and dollar amount) of tasks that have cost more to complete than expected
Earned Value
Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP)
Over allocated Resources
The number of resources assigned to more than one task.
Turnover
The number of project team members who quit or terminated.
Training Hours
The number of training hours per project team member.

11. A good project metric should be: Edberg, 1997
Understandable
Quantifiable
Cost Effective
Proven
High Impact

12. Project Measurement Principles Meyer, 1994
A measurement system should allow the team to gauge its progress.
The team should design its own measurement system.
Adopt only a handful of measures.
Measures should track results and progress.

13. Dashboard Metric

14. Monitor And Control Progress
Purpose of Control
To track progress
To detect variance from plan
To take corrective action

15. Monitor And Control Progress
Tracking Techniques
Conducting periodic project status meetings in which each team member reports progress and problems
Evaluating the results of all reviews conducted throughout the software engineering process
Determining whether formal project milestones have been accomplished by the scheduled date.
Comparing actual start date to planned start date for each project task listed in the project table
Meeting informally with practitioners to obtain their subjective assessment of progress to date and problems.

16. Monitor And Control Progress
Graphical Reporting Tools
Gantt Charts
Milestone Charts
Metrics
Cost Schedule Control (Earned Value)

17. Gantt Chart Project Status Report

18. Earned Value
Suppose you just signed a contract with a consulting firm called Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe for developing an IS.
Project Budget, Schedule, Tasks
$40,000
4 months
20 Tasks (evenly divided over 4 months)
$2,000 per task
5 tasks per month
Therefore , you plan to pay $10,000/month. This is called budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS).

19. Planned Budget-Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS)

20. Payment due immediately!
Invoice
End of Month 1
Dewey, Cheatem, & Howe
Amount Due: $8,000
Payment due immediately!
page 1 of 2
Actual Cost of Work Performances (ACWP)

21. BCWS Versus ACWP
Is your project ahead of budget $2,000 ?

22. Invoice Complete only 3 from 5 tasks
Dewey, Cheatem, & Howe
Work Completed for Month 1
Task A - $2,000
Task B - $3,000
Task C - $3,000
page 2 of 2
Complete only 3 from 5 tasks
Spent $8,000 to achieve only $6,000 of actual work
6,000 is Earned Value

23. Comparison of BCWS, ACWP, and Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP)

24. Definitions Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS)
Planned expenditure cash flows based on the completion of tasks in accordance with the project’s budget and schedule
Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP)
Actual Project Expense based on completed tasks
Earned Value or Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP)
The amount of the budget that we should have spent for a given amount of work completed

25. Cost/Performance Indicators

26. Cost Metrics
Cost Variance (CV)-The difference between a task’s estimated cost and its actual cost:
CV = BCWP - ACWP
Negative Value = over budget and/or behind schedule
Positive Value = under budget and/or ahead of schedule
Cost Performance Index (CPI)-percentage of work completed per dollar spent
CPI = BCWP  ACWP
ratio > 1 = ahead of schedule and/or under budget
ratio < 1 = behind schedule and/or over budget

27. Cost Variance

28. Schedule Metrics
Schedule Variance (SV) – the difference in terms of cost between the current progress and our originally scheduled progress
SV = BCWP – BCWS
Schedule Performance Index (SPI) – a ratio of the work performed to the work scheduled.
SPI = BCWP  BCWS
ratio > 1 = ahead of schedule and/or under budget
ratio < 1 = behind schedule and/or over budget

29. Schedule Variance

30. Earned Value Metrics Minimum Funds Needed if things do not get worse
Minimum funds = Original total budget  CPI
Funds Needed if things continue to get worse at the same level of slippage
Funds Needed = Original total budget  (CPI x SPI)

31. Reporting Performance and Progress Reporting Categories
Reviews
Formal & informal meetings with stakeholders
May focus on specific deliverables or milestones
Used to get acceptance, surface problems or issues, or make key decisions

32. Reporting Performance and Progress Reporting Categories
Status Reporting
Describes present state of the project
Compares actual progress to baseline plan
Scope, schedule, and budget
Like a snap shot of the project at a specific time

33. A run up or down of four or more successive data points

34. A Change of More Than Three Standard Deviation

35. Reporting Performance and Progress Reporting Categories
What activities or tasks has the team accomplished?
Actual versus planned
Forecast Reporting
Predicting the project’s future status or progress
Example: trend analysis

36. Information Distribution
Face-to-Face Meetings (F2F)
Telephone, , other wireless technology
Collaboration technology
NetMeeting, Groove, Notes, Exchange

37. Running Effective Meetings
Determine if a meeting can be avoided
Define the purpose and intended outcome of the meeting
Determine who should attend the meeting
Provide an agenda to participants before the meeting
Prepare handouts, visual aids, and make logistical arrangements ahead of time
Run the meeting professionally
Build relationships

38. Using E-Mail Effectively
Make sure that is an appropriate medium for what you want to communicate
Be sure to send the to the right people
Use meaningful subjects
Limit the content to one main subject, and be as clear and concise as possible
Limit the number and size of attachments
Delete you don’t need, and don’t open it if you question the source
Make sure your virus software is up to date
Respond to and file s quickly
Learn how to use important features

39. Using Templates for Project Communications
Many technical people are afraid to ask for help
Providing examples and templates for project communications saves time and money
Organizations can develop their own templates, use some provided by outside organizations, or use samples from textbooks
Recall that research shows that companies that excel in project management make effective use of templates

40. Sample Template for a Monthly Progress Report

41. Sample Template for a Letter of Agreement for a Class Project

42. Outline for a Final Project Report

43. Communication and Collaboration Matrix

44. The BITTC KMS Extranet

45. BITTC Project Team’s Learning Cycle