1. Software Project Management
Lecture 8
Software Project Performance Tracking and Monitoring

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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.
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5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. A suggestion framework (cont’d)
Monitor the progress
Publish revised plan
Take remedial action No
satisfied?
gather project info.
compare progress vs targets
Yes
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10. 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

11. 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

12. Check Point (cont’d) Should be set before the plan was published
Make sure everyone knows when and what the check points are
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13. 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

14. 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

15. 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
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16. Risk reporting
Indicate the likelihood of meeting the scheduled target date
Instead of asking the estimated completion date
Use the traffic-light method
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17. 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

18. 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

19. 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

20. Monitoring the progress
Need to monitor time
Need to monitor cost
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21. 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

22. 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
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23. 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 ( ) 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

24. The Gantt Chart (cont’d)
Today
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25. 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

26. The Slip Chart (cont’d)
Today
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27. 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

28. The Timeline (cont’d)
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29. 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

30. Monitoring the Cost Earned Value Analysis
A cost monitoring technique recommended by DoD of US and Australia
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31. 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

32. 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

33. 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%
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34. 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

35. 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

36. 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

37. 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

38. 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

39. 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

40. 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

41. 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

42. 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

43. 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