296 Part IV: Controlling Your Software Project Planning
296 Part IV: Controlling Your Software Project Planning Project Metrics Setting up metrics is Step 3 of a fool-proof, four-step plan: 1. Set your project goals. 2. Use your leadership capabilities, project management skills, influence, and problem-solving skills to meet those project goals. 3. Create project metrics to tell you whether you ve reached those project goals. 4. Use your communication management plan to disseminate that information to your project stakeholders. But what are metrics? Here s a quick-and-dirty definition: Your project metrics are the processes, tools, and techniques that you use to measure the progress of your software project. The reason measuring your project progress is so important is because metrics enable you to proactively recognize whether You re on track with your software project You re ahead of or behind schedule You re under- or overbudget You re performing to the quality standards defined by your organization Your project team members are performing to their maximum ability The potential risks you ve identified have materialized and could potentially adversely affect the project You need to intervene to bring the project back on track As you plan your software project metrics, keep in mind that you should be proactive; find problems before they find you. That s the point. Establishing project goals Before you establish the project goals for your software project, you should become familiar with the goals of the organization. A good software project plan supports and aligns with the strategic goals of the organization. After you define the project goals, all of the other project management processes should support those goals. For example, the quality management plan should support the quality goals of the software project and the product. Have you ever heard the expression, If you don t know where you want to go, then how will you know when you arrive? The same concept applies to setting project goals.
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