SE 477 Software and Systems Project Management

SE 477 Software and Systems Project Management Dennis Mumaugh, Instructor dmumaugh@cdm.depaul.edu Office: CDM, Room 429 Office Hours: Monday, 4:00 – 5:30 SE 477: Lecture 8

Administrivia • Comments and feedback • Lectures? • Work Load? • Reading? • Progress • Project • Journal SE 477: Lecture 8

Project Project status – you should have much of the work done, starting rough drafts, finishing estimation and scheduling. • Budget and resources: $200,000 is before overhead. • You may assume salary amounts as $40,000, $60,000 and $80,000. • How many people need to be on it? • Is this a complex project? • If it is not, you may be able to use less senior people, but I would keep at least one senior on the project. • You may decide the numbers given as supplemental information do not apply (e.g. 100 requirements or a 100 page user manual including help data) • How do you handle data population and content authoring? SE 477: Lecture 8

The MS-Project Process • Move WBS into a Project outline (in Task Sheet) • Add resources (team members or roles) • Add costs for resources • Assign resources to tasks • Establish dependencies • Refine and optimize • Create baseline • Track progress (enter actuals, etc.) SE 477: Lecture 8

SE 477 – Class 8 Topic: Post-Planning Project Management aka Execution, Monitoring and Control, Closure • Project executing processes* • Focusing on the project management process • Project Monitoring, Tracking and Control* • Day-to-day tracking and management • Measuring software progress • Cost Schedule Control (aka Earned Value Analysis) • Milestones and status reporting • Project closure Reading: • PMP Study Guide: Chapters 9-11 • See also reading list *Excludes Project Cost Management and Project Procurement Management Processes SE 477: Lecture 8

Thought for the day SE 477: Lecture 8

Last time • Risk Management: • Risk analysis • Risk response planning • Risk avoidance • Risk mitigation • Risk monitoring • Risk register SE 477: Lecture 8

Software Project The phases of the software project: • Define – Scope the project • Plan – Develop the project plan • Execute – Launch the plan [today] • Monitor – Monitor/control project progress [today] • Close – Close out the project [today] SE 477: Lecture 8

Executing Processes SE 477: Lecture 8

Executing processes overview • Executing processes are performed to complete the work deﬁned in the project management plan • The goal is to satisfy the project speciﬁcations • Key purposes include: • Coordinating people and resources • Managing stakeholder expectations • Integrating and performing the activities of the project Adapted from Figure 2-10 PMBOK Guide, 5th Edition SE 477: Lecture 8

Executing Processes Focusing on the project management process • Putting theory into practice • Look for Early warning signs • Building team commitment and managing communication • Day-to-day tracking and management • Measuring progress with milestones and status reports • Cost schedule control Characterizing the software development process (things the PM needs to know and manage) • Pressures to expect at each stage • The major stages and how they relate • Key events in each stage • Providing the critical deliverables • Defect detection and prevention SE 477: Lecture 8

Executing Processes • Direct and manage project execution • Acquire project team • Develop project team • Perform quality assurance • Information distribution SE 477: Lecture 8

Direct and Manage Project Work • This is the project management integration process that ties together all the diverse activities of actually carrying out a project • Some representative actions: • Provide, train, and manage project team members • Obtain, manage, and use resources • Create project deliverables • Direct and manage efforts to achieve project objectives • Perform work and spend project funds • Implement planned methods and standards • Perform quality assurance • Establish and manage project communication channels • Generate work performance data such as cost, schedule, progress, and status SE 477: Lecture 8

Direct and Manage Project Work • Some representative actions: • Issue change requests and implement approved changes into the project scope, plans, and environment • Manage risks and implement risk responses, if needed • Choose and manage vendors and contracts • Incorporate approved changes into the project scope and various plans • Collect and document lessons learned and implement process improvement activities SE 477: Lecture 8

Acquire project team Human resource management knowledge area process concerned with obtaining human resources needed for execution and completion of project • Project management team may or may not have a role in team selection • Project team members may come to the project in a number of ways: • Pre-assignment. Assignment could be the result of bid contract or need for particular expertise • Negotiation. Organizational attitude toward project management and respect of PM team influence the effectiveness and outcome of negotiation • Acquisition. Hiring, consulting, subcontracting, etc. • Virtual teams. Detailed on next slide SE 477: Lecture 8

Sidebar: Virtual teams • Avirtual teamis a group of people who work together for a common goal but who spend little or no time in face-to-face meetings • Advantages • Able to utilize people from widespread geographic locations • Provides support for telecommuters • Supports those with mobility challenges • Reduces travel expenses • Challenges • Communications methods and schedules • Decision-making • Conflict resolution SE 477: Lecture 8

Develop project team Human resource management area process of improving team members in order to improve project performance • Has two dimensions: • Personal. Improve skills and enhance ability to complete the project activities • Team. Improve team trust and cohesiveness to increase productivity • Examples: Training, mentoring, sharing information and resources, providing assistance during ‘crunch’ times • Most effective when done early in project, but should be on-going process • We’ll discuss team building (and other HR issues) more in ‘People’ lecture SE 477: Lecture 8

Perform quality assurance This quality process is concerned with ensuring that the project will satisfy the needs of the customer • Quality assurance is a planned, systematic activity: it is done throughout the execution of the project • Continuous process improvementis an iterative approach to analyzing and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of all project-related processes • Tools include: • Quality audits. Independent reviews that identify ineffective or inefficient project processes and confirm that project procedures are being followed (e.g. change requests) • Process analysis. Tool of continuous process improvement SE 477: Lecture 8

Information distribution Communication management area process concerned with providing stakeholders with timely project information • Tools include: • Communication skills • Use of various media (electronic and hard-copy) • Information distribution through in-person and virtual meetings, hard-copy and electronic documents, electronic project management tools (e.g. Web- and intranet-based) • Lessons learned process, which examines project successes and failures, and includes recommendations for improvement • Most important of these is the lessons learnedprocess SE 477: Lecture 8

Monitoring, Tracking and Control SE 477: Lecture 8

Monitoring and controlling processes overview • Monitoring and controlling processes: • Track, review, and orchestrate the progress and performance of the project • Identify any areas in which changes to the plan are required • Initiate the required changes to the plan Adapted from Figure 2-10 PMBOK Guide, 5th Edition SE 477: Lecture 8

Monitor and control project work Represents a project management integration knowledge area process concerned with keeping the project attributes on their planned trajectories • Project attributes include schedule, scope, cost, quality, resources, and risks • Monitoring is performed throughout the project and consists of collecting, assessing, and distributing information about project performance • Monitoring health of project allows the PM team to respond to problems with appropriate control actions • Controlling consists of corrective or preventative actions taken to maintain or improve project performance SE 477: Lecture 8

Monitor and control project work • Monitor and control activities include: • Compare actual project performance to project management plan • Assessing performance and deciding if corrective or preventative actions are needed • Identifying new risks, Monitor project risks and execute risk response plans when needed • Maintaining an up-to-date information base of the project’s products • Track project schedule and update schedule if needed • Monitor implementation of approved changes SE 477: Lecture 8

Project Control Ongoing effort to keep your project on track • 4 primary activities: • Planning performance • A SDP, schedule, and a control process • Measuring status of work performed • Actuals • Comparing to baseline • Variances • Taking corrective action as needed • Response • Prerequisite to good control is a good plan SE 477: Lecture 8

Project Control • “Control” • Power, authority, domination. No. • Guiding a course of action to meet an objective. Yes. • Principles • Work is controlled, not workers • Control helps workers be more effective & efficient • Control based on work completed • Use concrete deliverables • Balance • Appropriate level between too much and too little • Includes: • Micro-managing vs. neglect • Too much tracking detail vs. too little SE 477: Lecture 8

Integrated change control Represents another process within project management integration knowledge area • Recognizes that projects will often require changes to the established project plan • All changes must be carefully controlled to maintain the integrity and consistency of the project plan • Integrated change control encompasses all aspects of change to the project: • Reviewing and approving requested changes • Managing the changes when they actually occur • Controlling elements of the project management plan (scope, cost, budget, schedule, and quality) in response to changes • More in next lecture SE 477: Lecture 8

Scope verification Scope verification is a process in the project scope management knowledge area • Concerned with getting stakeholders’ formal acceptance of completed project scope and deliverables associated with scope • In practical terms, this means performing product deliverable reviews with stakeholders • Quality control — ensuring that project deliverables meet appropriate standards — is usually done before or in parallel with scope verification • Scope verification is concerned with the boundaries of the deliverable while quality control is concerned with what is inside those boundaries SE 477: Lecture 8

Scope control Scope control is a process in the project scope management knowledge area • Concerned with control of factors that create project scope changes and the control of the impact of those changes • Scope control works hand-in-hand with integrated change control. Scope control is part of the integrated change control process • Scope control also oversees the implementation of approved scope changes • Scope creep occurs when scope is expanded without integrating changes and/or without approval SE 477: Lecture 8

Schedule control Schedule control is a process in the project time management knowledge area • Concerned with: • Monitoring the current status of the project schedule • Controlling the factors that lead to schedule changes • Determining when the schedule has changed, based on performance report input • Monitoring and controlling the actual project changes when they occur • Schedule control is part of the integrated change control process SE 477: Lecture 8

Progress Monitoring • The 3 key Progress Monitoring Questions • What is the actual status? • If there’s a variance, what is cause? • What to do about it? • Possible responses • Ignore • Take corrective action • Review the plan SE 477: Lecture 8

Progress Monitoring • Monitoring rates • Daily, weekly, monthly • If problems occur – then adjust • You may have to monitor problem areas more closely • For some period of time • Almost always there’s one or more areas under closer scrutiny • Status Reporting • Part of the communications management plan • Which is usually just a section of SDP SE 477: Lecture 8

Variances • Variances are deviations from plan. • A variance is the difference between what was planned and what actually occurred. • There are two types of variances: • Positive Variances: These are deviations from plan that indicate that an ahead-of-schedule situation has occurred or that an actual cost was less than a planned cost. • Negative Variances: Negative variances are deviations from plan that indicate that a behind-schedule situation has occurred or that an actual cost was greater than a planned cost. SE 477: Lecture 8

Measuring Duration and Cost Variances • There are five reasons why we want to measure duration and cost variances [see following slides]: • Catch deviations from the curve early. • Dampen oscillation. • Allow early corrective action. • Determine weekly schedule variance. • Determine weekly effort (person hours/day) variance. SE 477: Lecture 8

Measuring Duration and Cost Variances • Catch deviations from the curve early. The cumulative actual cost or actual duration can be plotted against the planned cumulative cost or cumulative duration. • Dampen oscillation. Planned versus actual performance should display a similar pattern over time. Wild fluctuations between the two may imply a project that is not under control. • Allow early corrective action. The project manager can be alerted to a schedule or cost overrun early. • Determine weekly schedule variance. Reporting progress on activities open for work should be reported on a weekly basis. This allows the project manager to discover overrun and take corrective action before the situation escalates to a point where it will be difficult to avoid schedule slippages. • Determine weekly effort (person hours/day) variance. The differences between the planned effort and actual effort has a direct impact on both planned cumulative cost and schedule. If effort is less than planned, it may suggest a potential schedule slippage. SE 477: Lecture 8

Milestone Trend Charts • Milestones are zero-duration activities and merely represent that a certain condition exists in the project. • For example, a milestone event might be that the approval of several different component designs has been given. • This event consumes no time in the project schedule. It simply reflects the fact that those approvals have all been granted. • The completion of this milestone event may be the predecessor of several build-type activities in the project plan. • Measure milestones and plot the difference between the planned and estimated date of a project report period. The following are examples of certain patterns that signal out-of-control situations [See next slides]: • Successive slippages (or ahead of schedule). • Radical change. • Successive runs. • Schedule shifts. SE 477: Lecture 8

Milestone Trend Charts • Successive slippages (or ahead of schedule). Each report shows additional slippage since the last report period. And require special corrective action from the project manager. • Radical change. While the chart may show the milestone to be ahead of schedule, it reports a radical change between report periods. Activity duration may have been grossly over-estimated. There may be a date error. In any case, the situation requires further investigation. SE 477: Lecture 8

Milestone Trend Charts • Successive runs. A project that may have encountered a permanent schedule shift. In the example, the milestone date seems to be permanently varying around one month ahead of schedule. Barring any radical shifts and the availability of resources over the next two months, the milestone will probably come in one month early. • Schedule shifts. The chart may depict a major shift in the milestone schedule. The cause must be isolated and the appropriate corrective measures taken. One possibility is the discovery that a downstream activity will not be required. Perhaps the project manager can buy a deliverable rather than build it and remove the associated build activities from the project plan. SE 477: Lecture 8

Cost Schedule Control • Cost schedule control is used to measure project performance and uses the dollar value of work as the metric. Or the resource person hours / day can be used when the project manager does not directly manage the project budget. • Actual work performed is compared against planned and budgeted work expressed in these equivalents. • These metrics are used to determine schedule and cost variances for both the current period and cumulative to date. • One drawback that these metrics have is that they report history. SE 477: Lecture 8

Earned Value Analysis (EVA) • One method of cost schedule control is Earned Value Analysis (EVA) • a.k.a. Earned Value Management (EVM) • a.k.a. Variance Analysis • Metric of project tracking • “What you got for what you paid” • Physical progress • Pre-EVA ‘traditional’ approach • Planned time and costs • Actual time and costs • Progress: compare planned vs. actual • EVA adds third dimension: value • Planned, actual, earned SE 477: Lecture 8

Cost Schedule Control The following figure shows an S curve, which represents the baseline progress curve for the original project plan. It can be used as a reference point. You can compare your actual progress to date against the curve and determine how well the project is doing; progress can be expressed as either dollars or person hours / day. 2/3 Time – ¾ Progress Progress 1/3 Time – ¼ Progress Time SE 477: Lecture 8

Cost Schedule Control • As shown in Figure A [next slide], by adding the actual progress curve to the baseline curve, you can now see the current status versus the planned status which shows the actual progress curve to be below the planned curve. • If this represented dollars, we may falsely conclude that the project is running under budget; Projects rarely run significantly under budget. • A more common reason for the actual curve to be below the baseline is that the activities that should have been done and thus the dollars or person hours / day that were planned to be expended have not been. • The schedule variance is depicted in Figure B below. SE 477: Lecture 8

Cost Schedule Control Baseline Progress Cost Variance Actual Update Date Time Figure A SE 477: Lecture 8

Cost Schedule Control Baseline Progress Cost Variance Actual Update Date Time Schedule Variance Figure B SE 477: Lecture 8

Cost Schedule Control • To determine whether there has really been a progress schedule variance, you need some additional information. • Cost schedule control (CSC) comprises three basic measurements: • budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS), • budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP), • and actual cost of work performed (ACWP) • These measurements result in two variance values, schedule variance and cost variance. • The following Figure is a graphical representation of the three measurements • The figure shows a single activity that has a five-day duration and a budget of $500. The budget is prorated over the five days at an average daily value of $100. SE 477: Lecture 8

Cost Schedule Control ACWP BCWP BCWS 5 days 5 days 5 days $400 $300 $200 $500 $200 Scheduled/ Budgeted to do work over 5 days in a 5-day window BCWS=$500 Schedule slippage permits only 3 days/$300 work to be performed BCWP=$300 Schedule variance=($200) Actual cost of work performed-$400 ACWP=$400 Actual cost variance=($100) SE 477: Lecture 8

Cost Schedule Control The left panel of the above Figure shows an initial (baseline) schedule with the activity starting on the first day of the week (Monday) and finishing at the end of the week (Friday). The budgeted $500 value of the work is planned to be accomplished all within that week. This is the budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS). The center panel shows the actual work that was done. Work did not begin until the third day of the week. Using an average daily budget of $100 we see that we were able to complete only $300 of the scheduled work. This is the budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP). The rightmost panel shows the actual schedule as in the center panel, but now we see the actual dollars that were spent to accomplish the three days work is $400. This $400 is the actual cost of work performed (ACWP). SE 477: Lecture 8

Cost Schedule Control • The BCWS, BCWP, and ACWP are used to compute and track two variances. • The first is schedule variance (SV). SV is the difference between what was done and was planned to be done, expressed in dollars or person hours / day equivalents. • The second is cost variance (CV). CV is the difference between the BCWP and the ACWP, which is $100 in this example. That is, we overspent by $100 (ACWP-BCWP) the cost of the work completed. SE 477: Lecture 8

Cost Schedule Control • Generally, it will be misleading just when we find the actual cost is below the baseline to conclude that the project is on a healthy track. • The more reliable conclusion will be inferred by comparing both budget variance and schedule variance, as shown in the following Figure. • In the following figure, by Comparing the BCWP curve with the BCWS curve you see that you have under spent because all of the work that was scheduled has not been completed. • And Comparing the BCWP curve to the ACWP curve also indicates that you overspent for the work that was done. • Clearly, management would have been misled by the previous Figure A. SE 477: Lecture 8

Cost Schedule Control Progress Schedule Variance BCWS Cost Variance ACWP BCWP Time SE 477: Lecture 8

Cost Schedule Control • The CSC (EVA) can also be used to predict the future status of a project. • From the previous figure, By cutting the BCWS curve at the height from the horizontal axis, which has been achieved by the BCWP, and then pasting this curve on to the end of the BCWP curve, you can extrapolate the completion of the project. Note that this is based on using the original estimates for the remaining work to be completed. And doing the same for the ACWP. SE 477: Lecture 8

SE 477 Software and Systems Project Management