Transcript Chapter 1: The Nature of Information Technology Projects

Project Communication,
Tracking, and Reporting
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Importance of Good
Communications
• The greatest threat to many projects is a
failure to communicate
• Our culture does not portray IT professionals
as being good communicators
• Research shows that IT professionals must
be able to communicate effectively to
succeed in their positions
• Strong verbal skills are a key factor in career
advancement for IT professionals
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PMBOK – Project Communications
Management Processes
• Communications Planning — attempts to
answer:
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How will information be stored?
How will knowledge be stored?
What information goes to whom, when, and how?
Who can access what information?
Who will update the information and knowledge?
What media of communication is best?
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PMBOK – Project Communications
Management – Continued
• Information Distribution—getting the right
information to the right people in the right
format
• Performance Reporting—collection and
dissemination of project information to the
various project stakeholders.
• Administrative Closure—verifying and
documenting the project’s progress.
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Project Communications Plan
• can be formal or informal, depending on the
needs of the project stakeholders and the
size of the project
• communications plan should determine:
– Who has specific information needs?
– What are those information needs?
– How will a particular stakeholder’s information
needs be met?
– When can a stakeholder expect to receive this
information?
– How will this information be received?
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Project Communications Plan
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Project Communications Plan
Stakeholders
Customer
Management
Doc. Name
Doc. Format
Monthly Stat.
Report
Hard copy
Customer
Monthly Stat.
Business Staff Report
Hard copy
Customer
Tech. Staff
Monthly Stat.
Report
E-mail
Internal
Management
Monthly Stat.
Report
Internal Busi.
& Tech. Staff
Contact Person
Due
1st month
Hard copy
Gail Feldman,
Tony Silva
Julie Grant,
Jeff Martin
Evan Dodge,
Nancy Michaels
Bob Thomson
Monthly Stat.
Report
Intranet
Angie Liu
1st month
Training
Subcontractor
Training Plan
Hard copy
Jonathan Kraus
11/1/1999
Software
Subcontractor
Software Imp.
Plan
E-mail
Barbara Gates
6/162000
1st month
1st month
1st month
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Media Choice Table
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Project Metrics
• Project Metric - qualitative measurement of
some attribute of the project.
• Project metrics should focus on the following
key areas:
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Scope
Schedule
Budget
Resources
Quality
Risk
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Project Metrics
Metric
Description
Scope Change Requests
The number of scope changes requested by the client or
sponsor.
Scope Change Approvals
The number of scope changes that were approved.
Overdue tasks
The number of tasks that were started but not finished by
the expected date or time.
Tasks that should have The number of task that should have started but have been
started
delayed.
Over budgeted tasks
The number of tasks (and dollar amount) of tasks that have
cost more to complete than expected
Earned Value
Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP)
Over allocated Resources
The number of resources assigned to more than one task.
Turnover
The number of project team members who quit or
terminated.
Training Hours
The number of training hours per project team member.
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A good project metric should be:
Edberg, 1997
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Understandable
Quantifiable
Cost Effective
Proven
High Impact
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Project Measurement Principles
Meyer, 1994
• A measurement system should allow the team
to gauge its progress.
• The team should design its own measurement
system.
• Adopt only a handful of measures.
• Measures should track results and progress.
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Dashboard Metric
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Monitor And Control Progress
• Purpose of Control
– To track progress
– To detect variance from plan
– To take corrective action
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Monitor And Control Progress
• Tracking Techniques
– Conducting periodic project status meetings in which
each team member reports progress and problems
– Evaluating the results of all reviews conducted
throughout the software engineering process
– Determining whether formal project milestones have
been accomplished by the scheduled date.
– Comparing actual start date to planned start date for
each project task listed in the project table
– Meeting informally with practitioners to obtain their
subjective assessment of progress to date and
problems.
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Monitor And Control Progress
• Graphical Reporting Tools
– Gantt Charts
– Milestone Charts
• Metrics
– Cost Schedule Control (Earned Value)
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Gantt Chart Project Status Report
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Earned Value
• Suppose you just signed a contract with a
consulting firm called Dewey, Cheatem, and
Howe for developing an IS.
• Project Budget, Schedule, Tasks
– $40,000
– 4 months
– 20 Tasks (evenly divided over 4 months)
• $2,000 per task
• 5 tasks per month
– Therefore , you plan to pay $10,000/month. This is
called budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS).
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Planned Budget-Budgeted Cost of
Work Scheduled (BCWS)
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Invoice
End of Month 1
Dewey, Cheatem, & Howe
Amount Due: $8,000
Payment due immediately!
Actual Cost of
Work
Performances
(ACWP)
page 1 of 2
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BCWS Versus ACWP
Is your project
ahead of budget
$2,000 ?
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Invoice
Dewey, Cheatem, & Howe
Work Completed for
Month 1
Complete only 3
from 5 tasks
Task A - $2,000
Task B - $3,000
Task C - $3,000
page 2 of 2
Spent $8,000 to
achieve only
$6,000 of actual
work
6,000 is Earned Value
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Comparison of BCWS, ACWP, and
Budgeted Cost of Work Performed
(BCWP)
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Definitions
• Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS)
– Planned expenditure cash flows based on the
completion of tasks in accordance with the project’s
budget and schedule
• Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP)
– Actual Project Expense based on completed tasks
• Earned Value or Budgeted Cost of Work
Performed (BCWP)
– The amount of the budget that we should have spent
for a given amount of work completed
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Cost/Performance Indicators
BCWS
1 month
$1000
Scheduled/Budgeted
to do $1000 work over
5 tasks in a month
window
BCWS = $1000
BCWP
ACWP
1 month
$6000
1 month
$4000
Schedule slippage
permits only
3 tasks/$6000
work to be
performed
BCWP = $6000
Schedule variance = $4000
$8000
$2000
Actual cost of
work performed = $8000
ACWP = $8000
Actual cost
variance = $2000
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Cost Metrics
• Cost Variance (CV)-The difference between a
task’s estimated cost and its actual cost:
– CV = BCWP - ACWP
– Negative Value = over budget and/or behind
schedule
– Positive Value = under budget and/or ahead of
schedule
• Cost Performance Index (CPI)-percentage of
work completed per dollar spent
– CPI = BCWP  ACWP
– ratio > 1 = ahead of schedule and/or under budget
– ratio < 1 = behind schedule and/or over budget
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Cost Variance
Progress
Baseline
Cos t V ar iance
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tua
c
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Update Date
Tim e
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Schedule Metrics
• Schedule Variance (SV) – the difference in
terms of cost between the current progress
and our originally scheduled progress
– SV = BCWP – BCWS
• Schedule Performance Index (SPI) – a ratio
of the work performed to the work scheduled.
– SPI = BCWP  BCWS
– ratio > 1 = ahead of schedule and/or under
budget
– ratio < 1 = behind schedule and/or over budget
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Schedule Variance
Progress
Baseline
Sche dule V ar iance
Cos t V ar iance
l
tua
c
A
Update Date
Tim e
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Earned Value Metrics
• Minimum Funds Needed if things do not get
worse
– Minimum funds = Original total budget  CPI
• Funds Needed if things continue to get worse
at the same level of slippage
– Funds Needed = Original total budget  (CPI x SPI)
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Reporting Performance and Progress
Reporting Categories
• Reviews
– Formal & informal meetings with stakeholders
– May focus on specific deliverables or
milestones
– Used to get acceptance, surface problems or
issues, or make key decisions
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Reporting Performance and Progress
Reporting Categories
• Status Reporting
– Describes present state of the project
– Compares actual progress to baseline
plan
• Scope, schedule, and budget
– Like a snap shot of the project at a specific
time
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A run up or down of four or more
successive data points
Ear ly
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on
Sche dule
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3
Late
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4
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PROJECTM ONTH
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A Change of More Than Three
Standard Deviation
Ear ly
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Sche dule
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Late
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5
PROJECTM ONTH
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Reporting Performance and Progress
Reporting Categories
• Progress Reporting
– What activities or tasks has the team
accomplished?
– Actual versus planned
• Forecast Reporting
– Predicting the project’s future status or
progress
– Example: trend analysis
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Information Distribution
• Face-to-Face Meetings (F2F)
• Telephone, email, other wireless technology
• Collaboration technology
– NetMeeting, Groove, Notes, Exchange
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Running Effective Meetings
• Determine if a meeting can be avoided
• Define the purpose and intended outcome of the
meeting
• Determine who should attend the meeting
• Provide an agenda to participants before the meeting
• Prepare handouts, visual aids, and make logistical
arrangements ahead of time
• Run the meeting professionally
• Build relationships
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Using E-Mail Effectively
• Make sure that e-mail is an appropriate medium for
what you want to communicate
• Be sure to send the e-mail to the right people
• Use meaningful subjects
• Limit the content to one main subject, and be as clear
and concise as possible
• Limit the number and size of attachments
• Delete e-mail you don’t need, and don’t open it if you
question the source
• Make sure your virus software is up to date
• Respond to and file e-mails quickly
• Learn how to use important features
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Using Templates for Project
Communications
• Many technical people are afraid to ask for help
• Providing examples and templates for project
communications saves time and money
• Organizations can develop their own templates, use
some provided by outside organizations, or use
samples from textbooks
• Recall that research shows that companies that excel
in project management make effective use of
templates
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Sample Template for a Monthly Progress
Report
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Sample Template for a Letter of
Agreement for a Class Project
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Outline for a Final Project Report
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Communication and
Collaboration Matrix
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The BITTC KMS Extranet
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BITTC Project Team’s Learning Cycle
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