Software Project Management Lecture 8 Software Project Performance Tracking and Monitoring

Overview Importance of tracking and monitoring Creating a management framework Tracking the performance Monitoring the progress and resource Getting project on the right track Software Project Management

Importance of tracking and monitoring Make sure the project Can be delivered on time and within budget Is of good quality Meets client’s needs In fact, the project manager has to make sure everything goes well in the project. Software Project Management

What can go wrong in product? Inadequate functionality of a product Related to software requirements specification Poor quality of a product Related to quality management Late delivery of the product Overly exceeding the budget SRS: Software Requirements Specification In fact, many things can go wrong. Normally, these are the major things. The ordering does not indicate their relative order of importance. Inadequate functionality is related to SRS. Poor quality is related to quality management. These two are discussed in previous lectures. Our concentration is on the latter two. Software Project Management

Planning, Tracking and Monitoring Know where we want to go Tracking Know where we are Monitoring How to go from where we are to where we want to go Software Project Management

Tracking Finding out what is happening Need a plan and schedule To collect data Ideally, the plan and schedule should be absolutely clear and highly visible to every personnel involved in the project. Software Project Management

Monitoring Comparing the current status with the targets Need a plan, a schedule, collected data To exercise control over the project To ensure the targets are met To devise contingency plans Software Project Management

A suggested framework No project completed? Publish initial plan Monitor the progress Review the project Yes This diagram clearly shows that monitoring should be a regular process. The next slide will discuss in detail the monitoring suggestion. The review project stage, documentation of any conclusion is also included. The documentation process is to ensure that we can learn from past experience whether it is a success or a failure. Software Project Management

A suggestion framework (cont’d) Monitor the progress Publish revised plan Take remedial action No satisfied? gather project info. compare progress vs targets Yes Software Project Management

Tracking the performance Setting check points Collecting data Tracking performance means assessing the progress Need to trust your personnel to give an objective assessment of their work and their estimation on completion of their work Software Project Management

Check Point Based on regular time intervals Can be weekly or monthly or quarterly Depend on what to check and how to Based on a particular event At the end of each activity In the middle of a critical activity Who set the check points? Of course, the project manager. Why set the check points? For tracking and monitoring the progress. How many? No definite answer. How often? Can be regular or non-regular. Can be both. Time interval: duration actually depends on who to check, what to check, the degree of risk of the project; how familiar the new employee is to the process of the organization. critical activity: the number of check points depends on how critical the event is. Software Project Management

Check Point (cont’d) Should be set before the plan was published Make sure everyone knows when and what the check points are Software Project Management

Collecting data Partial completion report Risk report We need to collect data to review the progress of a project. It is crucial to know what to collect and how. As a manager, it is wise to break down activities that can be completed in one or two weeks time. These reports are filled on a weekly basis. Software Project Management

Partial completion report Indicate the work done by the personnel and the time spent on the work Optional items likelihood of failing to complete the task by the scheduled date Estimated time of completion For the optional items, there are advantages and disadvantages. Advantages: Staff involvement Get the latest first hand information from the staff Have a better picture on what is going on Disadvantages: Make the personnel have wrong feelings that the original schedule not so important; and it is OK for the task to be delayed. Background information on time-sheet for accounting system: The time spent is used by the accounting system to charge the project account. A way to keep track of the cost on the project. Software Project Management

Partial completion report – Example Time Sheet Staff: Paul Week ending: 14/05/99 Rechargeable hours Project Act. code Desc. Hours % done Sch. date Est. date P20 A267 Code mod A7 24 90 01/06/99 20/05/99 P35 B397 Testing mod B8 12 30 24/06/99 Total 36 Non-rechargeable hours Code Comments and Authorization L90 hours in Lieu 4 Authorized by Peter Software Project Management

Risk reporting Indicate the likelihood of meeting the scheduled target date Instead of asking the estimated completion date Use the traffic-light method Software Project Management

The traffic-light method For assessing a product Identify the key (first-level) elements Break them into smaller components Assess each component by Green as ‘on target’ Amber as ‘not on target but recoverable’ Red as ‘not on target and recoverable only with difficulty’ There are various traffic-light methods. The one we described is in use in IBM as reported by Down, Coleman and Absolon (1994). The assessment levels is not necessary tied to 3 levels:- G, A, and R. You can use 5 levels or 7 levels as you wish. Software Project Management

The traffic-light method (Cont’d) Assess the key-level element based on the assessments of their components Assess the overall product based on all the assessments (key elements and their components) Critical activity: activity that cannot be delayed. Float: time allowed for an activity to be delay. For more detailed definitions: see notes on Software Project Planning (Lecture 4) Managers should play attention to the following events: Critical activities classified as Amber or Red Non-Critical activities classified as Red, especially when all their float is likely to be consumed. Software Project Management

The traffic-light method – Example Activity Assessment Sheet Staff : Zobel Ref:IoE/P/100 Activity: Code and test module A Week number 13 14 15 16 Activity summary G A R Component Comments Screen handling procedures File updating Compilation Run test data Software Project Management

Monitoring the progress Need to monitor time Need to monitor cost Software Project Management

Monitoring the time Tools for visualizing the progress Presenting the collected data in a way that is easy to understand Help to easily identify the problem activities or areas that need to be taken care of Software Project Management

Visualizing Techniques The Gantt chart A static picture showing the current progress of the project The Timeline A dynamic picture showing the progress of the project and how the project has changed through time Software Project Management

The Gantt Chart An activity bar chart showing the activities, their scheduled dates and duration the reported progress of the activities; ‘today cursor’ Henry Gantt (1861-1919) was an industrial engineer interested in the efficient organization of work. The reported progress is normally shaded. The ‘today cursor’ is used to show which activities are ahead or behind the schedule. Advantage: Simple and easy to use. Disadvantage: Difficult to update manually It is because the chart needs to be redrawn once the schedule has been revised. Software Project Management

The Gantt Chart (cont’d) Today Software Project Management

The Slip Chart Add a slip line on the Gantt chart The slip line indicates those activities that are either ahead or behind the schedule Too much bending indicates a need for rescheduling of the overall plan The more bending is on the slip line, the greater is the variation of the plan. Software Project Management

The Slip Chart (cont’d) Today Software Project Management

The Timeline A plot of the elapsed time against the planned time of the activities indicating the actual progress of the activities; and the rescheduled activities by the end of each week show where and when the targets have changed through the life of a project A perfect straight line down to the diagonal line indicates the activity is on the schedule. Need to be selective. Do not put too many activities in the same Timeline. Otherwise it will be difficult to trace. Recommendation: put only those critical activities on the Timeline. Put those non-critical activities that have a very short float Software Project Management

The Timeline (cont’d) Software Project Management

The Timeline (cont’d) Can show the slippage of the activities through the life of the project The Gantt chart cannot Help to analyze and understand the trends and reason for changes to avoid slippage in future projects Analyzing the timeline and the reason for changes may help to identify failures in estimations. The Timeline cannot show when an activity starts Software Project Management

Monitoring the Cost Earned Value Analysis A cost monitoring technique recommended by DoD of US and Australia Software Project Management

Earned Value Analysis Produce a baseline budget from the project plan Calculate the earned value of each activity Earned value = time for an activity / total time for the project E.g. earned value = number of days for an activity / number of days for the project Software Project Management

Earned Value Analysis (cont’d) Monitor the earned value Once an activity is completed, its elapsed time is recorded and its earned value (EV) is accumulated to the cumulative EV By judging the EVs in baseline budget and the current progress, we can determine whether we are ahead or behind schedule Software Project Management

Earned Value Analysis (cont’d) Task Budgeted week Scheduled completion Cumulative weeks % cumulative earned value Specify overall system 6 20.0% Specify module A 3 9 30.0% Specify module B 2 11 36.7% Check specification 1 12 40.0% Design module A 15 50.0% Design module B 17 56.7% Code and test module A 23 76.7% Code and test module B 4 27 90.0% System Integration 28 93.3% System Testing 30 100.0% Software Project Management

Earned Value Analysis (cont’d) The pink line or “earned value” are the actual values. The figure indicates the progress is slower than planned. Software Project Management

Earned Value Analysis (cont’d) The baseline budget is the planned figures. At this stage, the progress is behind schedule (the earned value line is lower than the budgeted line) and over budget (the actual cost line is over the budgeted line). Software Project Management

Earned Value Analysis (cont’d) Budget variance = Actual cost to date - Baseline budget Indicates how actual cost differs from the planned cost Software Project Management

Earned Value Analysis (cont’d) Schedule variance = Earned Value – Baseline budget Indicates how the actual schedule differs from the planned schedule Schedule performance index = Earned Value / Baseline budget SPI > 1 means “better than planned” SPI < 1 means “slower than planned” Software Project Management

Earned Value Analysis (cont’d) Cost variance = Earned Value – Actual cost to date Indicates how the planned cost differs from actual cost Cost Performance index, CPI = Earned Value / Actual cost to date CPI > 1 means “better than planned” CPI < 1 means “slower than planned” Software Project Management

Prioritizing Monitoring Priority list of activity to monitor Critical activities Non-critical activities with no free float Non-critical activities with less than a specified float High risk activities Activities with critical resources You need to spend your energy wisely. Recall: Free float: the time allowed for an activity to delay without affecting any subsequent activity Total float: the time allowed for an activity to delay without affecting the overall project High risk activities: activities having a high estimated duration variance (PERT) They are most likely to overrun or overspend. Activities with critical resources: activities that require a huge amount of resources require much more attention. The reason is obvious. MONEY. Software Project Management

Bringing the Project Back to Target You are now behind the schedule Possible actions: Reschedule the target date Reschedule other activities with shorter duration Reorder the activities Reschedule the target date: Re-estimate the rest of the project and get a proper target date This means delaying the delivery date This is, in general, a bad choice. It is because this costs money and your company loses the customers (unless your product is too poor to delivery). Reschedule other activities with shorter duration: Non-critical activity has float. Effectively it means shorter time for the critical activity. Reorder the activities Sometimes, it is possible to reorder the activities so that the overall duration for the activities to complete can be shorten. This involves the consideration of the precedence requirements for the activities. Software Project Management

Shorten the Critical Activities Putting pressure on the personnel Increasing the resources Personnel work longer hours Additional analysts to interview users Competent programmer to code modules in the critical activity Pressure: May work for some time People work under high pressure may cost more error Resources: Employing new personnel in the team (?) Arguable because may further delay the project as suggested by `The Mythical Man-Month’ by F.P. Brooks. Shortening a critical path may result in a new critical path. Better to check the newly revised schedule again. Software Project Management

Reorder the activities Relax the constraints on the start of an activity before the completion of the previous one Subdivide the components of an activity so that they can be done in parallel The most important of all is to check that the quality of the product is not sacrificed. It is because the ‘normal’ practice is disturbed by the changes. Relaxing constraints: Example Ideal to start user training after acceptance testing. In order to avoid late delivery, it might be possible to let the two activities have some overlap. For example, you may want to start the training of a particular feature once its system testing is completed. Subdivide activity: Documentation of user manual and training manual Software Project Management

References Hughes, B., and Cotterell, M. (1999) Software Project Management, 2nd ed., McGraw Hill. Down, A., Coleman, M., and Absolon, P. (1994) Risk Management for Software projects, McGraw Hill. Software Project Management