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F. Performance, Tracking & Reporting

• Part 3.4 of “3. Managerial process” of the software development plan template presented earlier consists of

• “– 3.4 Monitoring and controlling mechanisms

• State how progress towards reaching project objectives will be measured ... • State how difference, for both resource and schedule, between planned and

actual "expenditure" will be analysed (for example by “earned value analysis”).

• State frequency & content of project status reports (to give visibility on progress).

• State how project reviews will be prepared for and organised…

• ”• We next present some detail on these and related aspects.

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F. Performance, Tracking & Reporting

• - Up to now have covered the project planning (what is to be done, by whom, by when, to what standards, what are the risks, what can be done about them)

• Next, we look at running projects day by day.• First we look at the mechanisms needed to monitor progress• Afterwards look at what can be done to exercise control when

things are not going to plan• In general, a project needs to be managed from the 3

perspectives of time, cost and quality. Very often, management decisions involve a trade-off between these 3 elements.

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F. Performance, Tracking & Reporting: Monitoring Progress - Effort

• The basic means of collecting information on actual effort expended on a project are Timesheets.

• These are normally completed weekly by the staff on a project.

• Be aware that timesheets can be resented if they have not normally been used before in an organisation, there may be HR issues, etc. Some political skills needed by the Project Manager!

• A typical timesheet layout is as follows:

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F. Performance, Tracking & Reporting Monitoring Progress - Effort

• Typical Time-Sheet Layout:

Name: Week Beginning:

Proj.

Code

Activity Code & Title Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su Total To go

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F. Performance, Tracking & Reporting Monitoring Progress - Effort

• The “To go” column is an estimate of the effort needed to finish the task and can be really useful.

• However, it should not be – “[Original estimate] – [Effort spent to date]” as this

may be (probably is) wishful thinking!

• - The Project Manager needs to examine carefully the reason for each activity overrun in order to correct for it and to see if there are implications beyond that activity. For example, other similar activities may also overrun for the same reason.

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F. Performance, Tracking & Reporting Monitoring Progress - Effort

• The full set of information that’s needed for each activity consists of – 1. Its current status – not started, in progress or completed– 2. The original effort estimate– 3. The original cost estimate (effort (2) times daily rate)– 4. The original start date– 5. The original end date– 6. The actual start date– 7. The effort booked to date– 8. The cost booked to date (effort (7) times daily rate)– 9. The effort estimated still to go [“To Go” col of timesheet]– 10. The cost estimated still to go (effort (9) times daily rate)– 11. The current predicted total effort (7 + 9)– 12. The current predicted total cost (effort (11) times daily rate)– 13. The current estimated end date.

• Clearly, some of these data are derived from others, especially cost from effort, but also possibly duration (and hence start/end dates).

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F. Performance, Tracking & Reporting Monitoring Progress - Effort

• Given the individual activity information, the Project Manager can summarise it at work package and at overall project level.

• This is probably best done with a tool like Microsoft Project or with a spreadsheet.

• The facilities provided by Microsoft Project, for tracking project progress, are quite sophisticated and we do not have scope in this module to cover them. However we do have a simple example to illustrate what can be done [See separate Gannt charts, baseline and tracking].

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F. Performance, Tracking & Reporting Monitoring Progress – Other Costs

• The kinds of costs that may arise include– Project-specific training– Specially-arranged (rented) office accomodation– Subsistence costs (where staff are working away from base over

appreciable periods)– Travel costs (e.g. to go to project meetings)– Consumables (stationery, etc)– Insurance (esp. where project-specific insurance is needed)– Contract staff payment

• A general point, in terms of monitoring, about such costs is that there may be a delay between “signing them off” and when they appear in accounts.

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F. Performance, Tracking & Reporting Monitoring Progress –Quality

• Quality is the third of the three elements (time, cost and quality). This is largely covered, in fact, by the Verification and Quality Assurance processes (to be touched on later).

• On the Verification side, typical methods, apart from testing, are peer reviews, walk-throughs and inspections (of analysis documentation, design descriptions, source code etc).

• On the Quality Assurance side, the primary tools are independent audits of both project artifacts, especially delivewrables, and project activities (e.g. observation of how unit testing is being done).

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F. Performance, Tracking & Reporting Monitoring Progress –Milestone slip chart

Actual Time

Scheduled Time

M1M2 M3 M4

Note: M1..M4 are the milestones as originally planned - no slippage in M1

Actual M2

Actual M3

Actual M4

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F. Performance, Tracking & Reporting Monitoring Progress –Milestone slip chart

• Note: Above diagram is not quite drawn exactly right!

• The diagonal line shows where the project should be if it proceeds according to plan.

• Four milestones are indicated where the diagonal cuts the horizontal lines.

• The first milestone is reached as planned and it was predicted then that the others would also be reached on time.

• The second milestone had some slippage (red) and the others were assumed to slip similarly.

• The third milestone slipped and the fourth assumed to be delayed similarly (blue).

• Finally, the fourth milestone had some further slippage.• Overall, this chart illustrates project slippages and what their final

effects will be.

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F. Performance, Tracking & Reporting Monitoring Progress –Earned Value Analysis

• This relies on the following measures of the project’s current status:• The Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP) is the expenditure to date (which may have

been spent on scheduled and unscheduled tasks and overruns)• The Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS) is the amount the plans say should have

been spent at this point on scheduled activities.• The Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP) is an analysis of the work actually done,

scheduled or not, priced on the same basis as the scheduled work.• We then can calculate

– Cost variance = BCWP – ACWP (Any difference is due to the pricing basis)– Schedule variance = BCWP – BCWS (Any difference is due to a difference

between what was actually done and what was planned to be done)

• These two variances provide a good measure of where the project is in terms of meeting its requirements against the planned cost and effort budgets.

• NB: Our presentation of earned value analysis is very limited and simplistic.

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F. Performance, Tracking & Reporting Monitoring Progress –Earned Value Analysis Example (1/2)

PLANNED for first 50 working days:– Task 1: Reqts, start & complete: 25x2 people @ 300euro per person day

– Task 2: Arch., start & complete: 20x1.5 people @ 300 euro per person day

– Note: Did not plan for Project Mgt but daily rate would have been 450 euro for an existing, suitable staff member

ACTUAL for first 50 working days:– Task 1: Reqts, start & complete: 25x2 people @ 400euro per person day -

had to hire 2 contractors due to unavailability of planned staff.

– Task 2: Arch., start & complete: 16x1.5 people @ 300 euro per person day - somewhat limited availability of planned staff.

– Task 3: Proj. 50x0.1 @ 500 euro per day [Had to hire new senior person]

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F. Performance, Tracking & Reporting Monitoring Progress –Earned Value Analysis Example (2/2)

BCWS = (50 + 30) x 300 = 24000 euroACWP = 50 x 400 + 24 x 300 + 5 x 500 = 29700BCWP = 50 x 300 + 24 x 300 + 5 x 450 = 24450……………………………………………………….Cost variance (CV) = BCWP - ACWP = -5250 euroSchedule variance (SV) = BCWP - BCWS = +450 euro ………………………………………………………As SV > 0 project is NOT behind schedule. But CV < 0 so project IS over budget. ………………………………………………………Definition and Interpretation of indices:Schedule performance index: SPI = BCWP/BCWS (=24450/24000 in example)Cost performance index: CPI = BCWP/ACWP (=24450/29700 in example)The more SPI*CPI is less than one, the more unlikely it is that the project can be

brought back to be within cost and schedule. (In the example, SPI*CPI = 0.84)Note: Above calculations are for an amalgamation of the three tasks. If each task is

analysed individually, then interpretation may be easier.

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F. Performance, Tracking & Reporting - Exercising Control

• The previous slides dealt with monitoring progress in a project. However, to be useful, monitoring must lead to exercising control on a project, via corrective actions where needed. The following figure (from Yeates & Cadle) indicates where “exercising control” applies in managing a project:

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F. Performance, Tracking & Reporting - Exercising Control

• First, as a general consideration in exercising control, the nature of the project must be taken into account. The following figure (from Yeates & Cadle) recalls that there must always be trade-offs between time, cost and quality – it depicts three “extreme” project types but it is very unusual not to have to take all three aspects into account to some extent.

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F. Performance, Tracking & Reporting - Exercising Control

• Possible corrective actions, that may be appropriate according to circumstances, include– Do nothing i.e. allow things to continue as they are– Add more staff (+ Cost, -Time (maybe))– Add different skills (+ Cost, -Time, +Quality)– Use overtime (+ Cost , -Time)– Re-assign tasks– Increase/Decrease individual supervision (+/- Cost, +/-Quality, -/+Time)– Find improved methods of working– Streamline procedures– Re-plan the project– Change phasing of deliverables (e.g. iterative life-cycle)– Decrease number of inspections– Encourage team– Introduce incentives– Sub-contract part of work– Negotiate changes in the specification

• Question: What are likely impacts on Cost, Time, Quality of the various actions listed above? (Some suggestions are given for the first few actions)

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F. Performance, Tracking & Reporting - Exercising Control

• Having decided on some control actions, Yeates and Cadle suggest that there are two things a project manager should do, namely– Make sure that everyone knows about the changes being made and how

they will impact on the project as a whole.

– Evaluate, through the normal monitoring procedures, whether the changes have had the desired effect.

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F. Performance, Tracking & Reporting – Reporting (summary)

• Who are the recipients of progress reports? Typically, Project Manager’s own line manager and the customer.

• Format and content of report may vary according to recipient. Typically, would indicate progress on each work package against plans, list planned work before next report, identify any problems arising, indicate status of any identified risks, etc

• Frequency of reports will be project-dependent. For example, weekly for a very short project, monthly for a year long project, longer for a more extended project.

• Above reporting matters should be agreed with the customer prior to project commencement.