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308 Part IV: Controlling Your Software Project Because the purpose of this book is not to make you a quality management guru or a professor of quality management techniques, but to give you the basic software project management information that can help you become a tremendous software project manager, we don t go into microscopic detail regarding control charts. In fact, loads of publications have been written regarding both of these quality control techniques as well as other quality management tools and techniques. You may benefit from reading more about Walter Shewhart, who is widely credited with being the first to use control charts. As with all other project management processes, tools, and techniques, you should use control charts, Pareto charts, and other quality management tools as part of your lessons learned documentation. These charts (and the associated documentation) improve your chances of making each project more effective and efficient than the last. You will amaze yourself and your friends with your superb competence. Communicating Project Performance Okay, so you ve used lots of fancy-schmancy data analysis and quality control tools and techniques to show you if you are on track, behind schedule, overbudget, underbudget, or within the defined limits of your project scope. Now, what are you going to do with all of that information? Well, chances are you are going to rely on your thorough and brilliant communication management plan so that you can provide the appropriate stakeholders with the information they need. Relying on the communication management plan When you created your communication management plan, you defined how you would communicate, with whom you would communicate, and what information each stakeholder required. In Chapter 4 we discuss that there would probably be more communication at the beginning and at the end of the project, but not as much during the execution phase of the project. This idea makes sense when you consider the amount of time you spend gathering requirements at the start of the project; you have a lot more communication needs at that time. As the project winds down, you have a lot of performance reporting requirements; you must show project status, resource plans, contract closure, and more. And, of course, during the execution phase of the project, especially during milestones, your project will require you to do more communicating than at other points.
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Chapter 15: Tracking Project Performance 307 By defining your acceptable upper and lower limits (your organization may determine these), you plot your data points on the control chart to reveal which data points fall above or below the acceptable limits representing potentially inefficient processes. These processes that display beyond the acceptable limits need to be fine-tuned. Control charts help you determine variation of processes and diagnose problem areas in projects. The benefits of control charts are (nearly) endless: To show whether schedule variances are within acceptable limits. To identify the volume of scope changes. To evaluate the number of days of variance in your schedule (are you 22 days behind where you said you d be?). To give a visual representation of dollars spent outside of budget. To show which problem items were found during individual phases of system testing. After the product is complete, you can use a control chart to show whether the number of configuration issues discovered during unit testing is outside of acceptable limits. You use your organization s or the client s quality standards (or a combination of both) for determining the upper and lower limits. Ask your project sponsor for the organization s quality standards. Look at Figure 15-2 for an example of a control chart. Figure 15-2: This control chart shows a series of data points that remain within the control limits. UpperControl Limit LowerControl Limit Mean Within the lowercontrol limit Within the uppercontrol limit
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306 Part IV: Controlling Your Software Project # of Iss es Figure 15-1: 3 This Pareto chart is a basic bar graph that 2 ranks the most common causes for the most 1 common problems in the post implementa tion phase of 0 a software Technical Training Security project. Types of Issues Pareto charts can also help as you continue to strive to understand how you can accomplish each of your future projects more efficiently and document your lessons learned. Creating control charts Like Pareto charts, control charts perform quality control functions on your software projects. A control chart can assist you in determining whether particular processes fall above or below a specified control area. If a process falls outside of the control area or beyond acceptable limits, it probably is not a reliable or consistent process and may require some tweaking (that s a technical term). The control chart contains three horizontal lines: One line represents the acceptable upper limit. One line represents the acceptable lower limit. One line, in the middle, represents the mean. The data points that you plot outside of the upper and lower limits represent issues that may be the result of special causes. After you identify a special cause, you can attempt to eliminate it so that it doesn t result in future errors.
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Chapter 15: Tracking Project Performance 305 Issue Cause and Explanation Rank Nurse states that patient report is not printing. Technical issue: Report is printing but the printer is configured to print at the incorrect nursing unit. 1 Unit Secretary cannot locate a patient in the system. Security: Unit Secretary doesn t have the appropriate security clearance to see this patient s information. Programmer will make change in security setting. 3 We ve ranked the causes in Table 15-2 from 1 to 3 to show that the number 1 cause of the issues listed in the table is technical issues. Based on this data, you now know that you should focus more of your efforts on fixing these technical problems so as to eliminate the majority of the issues. To set up your own Pareto chart, you should create a table similar to the one in Table 15-2. The table doesn t have to be too elaborate, but it does need to show the issues, causes, and rankings of each cause for each listed problem. When your table is complete, you can put all of the data into a Pareto chart to visually illustrate the issues that are causing most of the problems. The visual nature of a Pareto chart is one of its most useful features. You can show your project team and other stakeholders why the team needs to focus its efforts in particular areas. See Figure 15-1 for an example of a Pareto chart derived from the data gathered in the above table. Having fun by snooping through the issues database Have you ever just randomly reviewed a soft-be able to categorize each cause into just a few ware project issues database or issues spread-main categories. sheet just to look at the trends in the issues and Then you can display these categories into a the causes? Some Saturday night when you re lovely Pareto chart where the problems are really bored and you could be going out to some listed in order by rank. The most frequent issue goofy party with friends, stay at work and is ranked first; the second most frequent is review as many of your project issues as you ranked second, and so on. can in, say, 30 minutes. Make a chart listing each issue and its cause. We bet that you will You can group specific categories based on have lots of issues listed but the cause of each common causes: training, technical issues, and project issue won t be unique. You will probably security, for example.
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304 Part IV: Controlling Your Software Project Say you have 100 project issues in your issues database. Pareto s rule says that 80 of them are the result of 20 of the causes. The Pareto chart enables you to easily see what types of issues are causing most of the problems on your project. Some typical causes of problems in a software project include Inadequate software testing Vendor noncompliance Improper end-user training Lack of defined scope User error Technical issues Technology becoming obsolete Keep in mind that every project is different and the problem causes we list here may not be typical of every project. These are just examples for instructional purposes. Also keep in mind that even though we use the Pareto chart for looking at the causes in system testing, training, and implementation, you can use Pareto charts as a metric in other areas of your software project. Table 15-2 shows a list of issues, causes, and ranks for a software implementation in which physicians and nurses enter their patients medication and laboratory orders into a medical software system. These problems and causes are related to the testing phase of the project, but you can use the Pareto chart to review the causes of problems in other areas of your project. Table 15-2 Data Collection for Creating Pareto Chart Issue Cause and Explanation Rank Nurse could not find Training: End user was not looking 2 chest x-ray order. in the proper place for this order. Lab test report did Technical issue: Printers not set 1 not print. up correctly. Nurse Manager requests Training: This report is already in 2 a patient summary report production. Nurse Manager needs to be written. training on how to find the report in the system. Physician reports that Technical issue: Programmer needs 1 her computer screen to make configuration change. is freezing up while placing orders.
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Chapter 15: Tracking Project Performance 303 and quality. You should at least be tracking your project performance thoroughly enough to know whether your software project is Ahead of or behind schedule Over- or underbudget Within the confines of your scope baseline Meeting the requirements of your quality management plan Read on to discover some ways that you can track your project performance so that when your client stands beside you on the elevator for two minutes, asking how the software project is going, you can provide a quick summary. Using earned value management In Chapter 14 we discuss how you must track and quantitatively measure project performance throughout the life of your software project. You can t just count on your gut feeling or intuition that all is right with the project. Earned value management (EVM) is a means of quantifying your project performance. That means you put a value, like 20 percent, on your progress. That 20 percent can represent the amount of work completed. If you planned to have 40 percent complete, that s not great progress. Earned value management is a handy way of measuring your project performance so that you can determine whether you re where you said you would be at a particular point in time. You can use EVM to track and monitor project performance and then use your communication management plan to distribute this information to your stakeholders. See how all these pieces are coming together now? Check out Chapter 14 for more information. Creating Pareto charts A Pareto chart is a quality control tool that you can use to track items or processes that don t conform as they should. This chart helps you see where your problems are and where you should be focusing the work efforts of your project team. The logic behind this tool is that, usually, a small number of causes (20 percent) create a large number (80 percent) of the issues in a project. Ever hear of the 80/20 rule? Here s a fun little history lesson for you. Vilfredo Pareto was an Italian economist who, in the early 1900s, wrote a mathematical formula to explain that 80 percent of the wealth in his country was owned by 20 percent of the population. Other economists, scientists, engineers, and professors have applied this same principle to many other areas, including project management.
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302 Part IV: Controlling Your Software Project Using a Project Management Information System A Project Management Information System (PMIS) is an automated program that can assist you in some of your software project management activities. PMIS software can definitely make things easier for you, but it will not do your job for you and it will not correct you if you make a mistake. You can use PMIS software to do the following: Create performance reports, resource reports, tracking reports, status reports, and progress reports Schedule resources and view resource constraints Create a project baseline Track project progress Track and report on project issues and risks Organize and schedule tasks List task predecessors and successors Publish and share project information with your project team and other stakeholders View project calendars, charts, and network diagrams Perform other project tasks or calculations, depending on the specific PMIS that you use PMIS software, such as Microsoft Project, usually includes many useful tools and techniques that you and your software project team can use to gather, track, share, and communicate project information. You can discover more information about Microsoft Project by perusing Microsoft Project 2003 For Dummies by Nancy Stevenson (Wiley) and by visiting www.microsoft.com. You should be able to find several good PMISs on the Web that will meet your needs and are free, or you can complete some research and, depending on the needs of your software project, purchase a solid and reliable PMIS. Just don t expect even a top-of-the-line PMIS to do your job for you or make you appear more competent than you really are. Tracking Project Performance You should be proactive in tracking project performance to find problems before the problems find you. At any given time you should be able to provide information on project performance regarding schedule, costs, scope,
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Chapter 15: Tracking Project Performance 301 Stakeholder Project Team Functional Managers Communication Status reports; schedule change reports; issue review meetings; project team meetings Project team performance; milestone reports In all of the examples in Table 15-1, you should consistently strive for accuracy. If you must give a presentation to your company s executives, it s understandable that you may be nervous and even a little scared to provide them with any negative news on your software project. Maybe you think it s better not to tell them that you ve missed a major milestone because they might start to question your project management skills. Don t be tempted to misrepresent the facts; it will catch up with you in due course. Seriously, do you think you could miss a major milestone and no one would notice? It s imperative that you are completely accurate in all of your performance reporting for the following and a host of other reasons: Your client, executives, team, and other stakeholders will appreciate your integrity and come to count on you as someone who tells it like it is. The truth will always catch up with you sooner or later. Wouldn t you prefer to be the one to give the facts instead of telling a tale and being exposed later? Who would trust you then? Your truthfulness demonstrates your leadership ability. If your team members know that you lie, then why should they be honest about their own progress (or lack thereof) when they provide status reports? Your team will follow your example of integrity. The performance reporting you complete will be used to make other project decisions regarding budget, cost, scope, schedule, resources, and so on. It s crucial to the integrity of the project that your performance reporting be completely accurate at all times so that you and others don t make bad decisions based on inaccurate data. Being inaccurate in some of your performance reporting may result in schedule slippage, cost overruns, scope creep, and the immediate need to update your resume. Your mother was right; always tell the truth, even when it hurts. And even if she didn t tell you to be accurate in your performance reporting, do it anyway. Take the time to gather all of the pertinent facts for your specific performance reporting requirements before providing project reports, summaries, or presentations. The information that you omit because you ran out of time could be the information that your client deemed crucial to hear.
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300 Part IV: Controlling Your Software Project If someone requests an activity or deliverable that is not contained within your WBS or project baseline, you should also expect to see a project change request; no doubt, you will need to modify your baseline if the project change request is approved. Only implement changes that have been approved by your change control board or follow the specific change processes defined by your firm; otherwise, you will jeopardize the integrity of your project baseline schedule. When you receive the change request and it is approved by the change control board, you will change your software project scope statement and now have a new project scope baseline. Easy as pie, right? Well, at least easy as a cupcake. Stressing accuracy in reporting A solid communication plan spells out how specific types of information should be spread to particular stakeholders. Your project sponsor and other executives may require a high-level report or summary of the software project status, whereas another project stakeholder the software training manager, for example may only need info about, and screen prints of, items to be included in end-user training. Sometimes, knowing what to communicate (and to whom) is pretty obvious. You would not go into an executive steering committee meeting carrying a handful of screen prints of each item to be included in end-user training. That would be too much detail for an executive steering committee meeting. (In general, when talking to executives, be brief and limit the discussion to a view from 30,000 feet unless you are asked to provide specifics.) In Chapter 4, we discuss performance reporting as a part of your comprehensive communication management plan. Performance reporting is just a term used to indicate what you do when you provide appropriate stakeholders with the information they need regarding the status of your software project. Look at Table 15-1 for examples of types of performance reports typically distributed to selective stakeholders. Table 15-1 Performance Reporting Stakeholder Communication Executives Presentation at steering committee meetings; status summary reports; milestone reports; risk summaries Client Cost reports; budget variance reports; schedule reports; resource reports; budget reports
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Chapter 15: Tracking Project Performance 299 Using project baselines As you start working your software project plan and progress through the scheduled activities, you will undoubtedly encounter differences between the plan and the work that s actually being completed. You can use your project baselines to compare where you are with where you should be. Your cost baseline includes your project costs for all of the software project activities. Your schedule baseline is a particular version of the approved (by the project management team) project schedule with the project start and end dates. Your quality baseline details the quality objectives of your software project. You use your quality baseline to measure your project performance with regards to quality. You use all of your project baselines as metrics to determine whether your project is on track. The project baseline describes what you should be delivering, so it makes the most sense that you use the WBS and the project scope statement as your project baseline. Why reinvent the wheel? If you change the scope, you change your project baseline. Here are just a few of the changes that could potentially occur and affect your baselines: Programmers resign in the middle of the project, creating changes in resource allocation. Vendors don t meet their deadlines, causing you to push back some of your own deadlines. Contractors create unexpected costs that must somehow miraculously be covered by your project budget. Risks that were unknown prior to creating your project plan suddenly materialize. Technology becomes obsolete, necessitating a change in methodology. During the planning process, when you set up your change control plan (which we explain in Chapter 13), you identify changes (by type and by severity) that require change request submissions and must be evaluated by the change control board. If you encounter any of these or other unexpected changes during your software project, you will need to make changes to your project plan and you may need to establish a new software project baseline. Do you recall, starting in Chapter 1 and continuing in almost every other chapter, where we discussed the project scope statement and the work breakdown structure (WBS)? Well, the project scope statement and the WBS are what should be considered as the project scope baseline for your software project; the project scope baseline details the work that you are to complete.
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