SW Project Management Project Communication and QA

1. SW Project ManagementProject Communication and QA INFO 420 Glenn Booker Chapters 9 & 10

2. Need for communication • As we’ve seen, IT projects tend to be volatile, so good lines of communication are needed to keep everyone updated • Else you implement unneeded functionality, work to outdated specs or designs, etc. • How well is the plan being followed? • How do we make good adjustments? Chapters 9 & 10

3. Need for communication • Lack of communication is a major cause of IT project failure • 28% of a CompTIA survey said poor communication was the #1 reason for failure • 18% cited insufficient resource planning • 13% unrealistic deadlines • Could communication affect the latter two? Chapters 9 & 10

4. Communication includes • Communication planning • How will information and knowledge be stored? • Who gets what information when? • Who can access what information? • Who updates information? • What forms of communication are used? Chapters 9 & 10

5. Communication includes • Information distribution • Get the right info to the right people at the right time in the right format • Performance reporting • Includes communication with stakeholders • Managing stakeholders • Keep info needs and issues met Chapters 9 & 10

6. Communication needs • A project communication plan can include what information goes to each stakeholder and how that information is delivered • Formal methods – reports, reviews, meetings • Informal methods – email, conversations • What does each stakeholder want and need to know about the project? Chapters 9 & 10

7. Communication needs • Not everyone should see detailed financial data, technical choices and decisions, etc. • Many more might want a broad overview of progress to date, projected project completion (budget, schedule) • No one likes surprises • Can reflect poorly on management if unprepared (FEMA, New Orleans) Chapters 9 & 10

8. Monitor and control project • Events during a project could result in sudden changes in productivity, focus • Need a process for making changes to project schedule, scope, budget to accommodate the unexpected • Don’t pretend to be on track if you’re not! • Honesty up front is often the best approach Chapters 9 & 10

9. Monitor and control project • Key management choices often include • Reassign resources • Adjust the plan – scope, schedule, budget, quality • So need an early warning system to identify problems as soon as possible • Hence obsessive comparison ‘plan vs actuals’ Chapters 9 & 10

10. Monitor and control project • Part of this process is measuring performance, which also helps hold people accountable • Side benefit to see if resources are being utilized effectively • Controls can be within project, or external (e.g. government or industry standards) Chapters 9 & 10

11. Communications plan • The project communications plan can be informal or formal, depending on the size and nature of the project • Key is to keep stakeholders informed • Even (especially?) those who oppose or don’t support the project! • Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer! Chapters 9 & 10

12. Communications plan contents • A communications plan can be fairly simple, depending on project complexity • Identify all the stakeholders; for each • What kinds of information do they need? • Consider technical and project information, and what level of detail is appropriate • How often? Daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly? • Discuss the reasons or rationale Chapters 9 & 10

13. Communications plan contents • Consider whether some kinds of reports can be made general enough to meet the needs of several stakeholders • Or is it better to customize content for each? • Information might include the usual suspects • Scope, budget, schedule, quality, risk Chapters 9 & 10

14. Communications plan contents • Consider also who should get specific deliverables from the project • Phase reports, design reviews, release descriptions, test reports, etc. – who gets them? Why? • What medium or format will communication take? • Tweets, PDF, email, meetings, telecons, etc. Chapters 9 & 10

15. Communications plan contents • Timing of information varies in importance • Some stakeholders are key decision makers, others might have only casual or passing interest in project status (vendors, end users) Chapters 9 & 10

16. Project metrics • What you measure focuses people’s attention • How would you respond differently if the course grade was 90% participation? • Here we want to measure the basics • Scope, schedule, budget, resources, quality, risk Chapters 9 & 10

17. Project metrics • A good metric should be • Understandable • Quantifiable • Cost effective to collect • Proven effective • High impact - meaningful Chapters 9 & 10

18. Project metrics • Guidelines for a measurement system • Measurement system should allow project team to measure progress • Team should design their own measurement system • Adopt only a few measures (avoid overload) • Measures should track results and progress Chapters 9 & 10

19. Earned Value • Earned Value balances cost, schedule, and the amount of work accomplished (the “earned value”) during a project • Each task’s planned cost is called the planned value (PV) of that task • This assumes you’ve planned out all the project tasks from the start! Chapters 9 & 10

20. Earned Value • The planned completion of the project is the budget at completion (BAC), both time and money • So the BAC is the end of the PV curve • The actual expenditures at any point in time is the actual cost (AC) • The earned value (EV) is the planned value of tasks you’ve actually finished Chapters 9 & 10

21. Earned Value • This lets us separate how much has been spent from what really got accomplished • Define • Cost variance (CV, $) = EV – AC • Schedule variance (SV, $) = EV – PV • Cost performance index (CPI) = EV/AC • Schedule performance index (SPI) = EV/PV Chapters 9 & 10

22. Earned Value • For historic note • AC was called ACWP (actual cost of work performed) • PV was called BCWS (budgeted cost of work scheduled) • EV was called BCWP (budgeted cost of work performed) • Many sources will use this terminology Chapters 9 & 10

23. Earned Value • The best trick is that we can predict when the project will finish, the Estimate At Completion (EAC) • EAC(cost) = BAC(cost) / CPI • EAC(schedule) = BAC(schedule) / SPI • These assume we’re using a long term trend for CPI and SPI Chapters 9 & 10

24. Earned Value • There are many other EV metrics https://www.goldpractices.com/practices/tev/index.php Chapters 9 & 10

25. Earned Value • The value assigned to each task can be handled in many ways • Common ways are • Give ½ of EV at start of task, the other ½ when completed (50/50), or give full EV only when task is completed (0/100) • Assign some ‘percent complete’ to task • Watch for subjective assessments! Chapters 9 & 10

26. Reporting performance • Project reporting tends to fall into categories • Reviews, focusing on specific deliverables, milestones, or project phases • Review work accomplished, address issues, get approval to move on • Status reporting • Compare actuals to plan, reasons for variances Chapters 9 & 10

27. Reporting performance • Progress reporting • Review accomplishments, compare to plans • Forecast reporting • Predict future status of project (cost, schedule) • Might use trend analysis Chapters 9 & 10

28. Information distribution • Again, consider how information will be distributed • Face to face meetings • Telephone, email, other electronic devices • Collaboration technology (NetMeeting, Blackboard, wikis, etc.) Chapters 9 & 10

29. IT Project Quality Management Chapters 9 & 10

30. Quality? • What is quality? • If something has quality, how can you tell? • Are features and quality connected? • Who defines what quality is for a product? Chapters 9 & 10

31. Quality • Often in a business context, ‘fitness for use’ or ‘conformance to requirements’ are key elements of a quality product • In short, it does what it’s supposed to do • Is that enough? Chapters 9 & 10

32. Quality management processes • Project quality management (PQM) processes (per the usual PMBOK) include • Quality planning • What standards need to be met, and how? • Quality assurance – compare project performance against those standards • Quality control – ensure product quality • Support defect prevention & process improvement Chapters 9 & 10

33. Quality scope • Hence quality management includes both looking out for product quality (the system being created or maintained) as well as process quality (are you following good practices?) Chapters 9 & 10

34. Quality costs • Good quality often pays for itself in the long run • Avoids defects, rework, bad publicity, etc. • DIA/DEN airport baggage system quality issues cost $1M per day in lost revenue Chapters 9 & 10

35. Quality tools and approaches • The scientific management approach was developed by Frederic Taylor • Studied the relationship between people and tasks, to improve the efficiency of each task and subtask by reducing variability in how they were performed, just do essential actions • Also did time-motion studies Chapters 9 & 10

36. Control charts • Walter Shewhart gave us control charts • Provide a more scientific and objective basis for understanding variability • Plots the mean, upper and lower control limits (+/- 3s from the mean) • Normal random variation is due to common causes, want to eliminate assignable causes • The basis for statistical process control Chapters 9 & 10

37. Total Quality Movement • W Edwards Deming is legendary in quality management circles • Empowered workers to contribute to quality • Worked with Shewhart • First taught Japanese managers, later the US caught on • Famous for 14 points of quality Chapters 9 & 10

38. Quality planning, improvement • Joseph Juran gave us the ‘fitness for use’ definition of quality • Quality is not an accident, it must be planned • Recognize internal and external customers • The quality trilogy – quality planning, control, and improvement – make a Quality Planning Road Map Chapters 9 & 10

39. Quality diagrams & graphs • Kaoru Ishikawa, a Deming pupil, gave us ways to present quality data • Gave us the fishbone diagram, one of Ishikawa’s seven basic quality tools • Alfred Pareto gave us his diagram • And process flow charts are also helpful Chapters 9 & 10

40. Quality standards • ISO 9000 • CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) • Six Sigma • Awards • Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award • Deming Prize Chapters 9 & 10

41. Quality systems • ISO 9000 is the best known quality management system • Also includes ISO 9001 and 9004 stds • Facility-based • Originally for manufacturing, now very broad • Certification checks about every six months Chapters 9 & 10

42. Quality systems • CMMI is based on the CMM developed in the 1980’s by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University • Original goal was to fix the software development crisis • Led to similar structures for systems engineering, software acquisition, personnel management, and other areas Chapters 9 & 10

43. CMMI • Led to hard time choosing the ‘right’ CMM for a given project • So now instead, CMMI has “simplified” the problem to three sets of models • CMM/CMMI has five levels of process maturity • Initial, Repeatable, Defined, Managed, Optimizing Chapters 9 & 10

44. CMMI • Within each level (after level 1) there are Key Process Areas – to meet goals • Level 2 includes CM, QA, project tracking & oversight, project planning, and req’ts mgmt • Level 4 adds statistical process control for key processes • Level 5 adds defect prevention and continuous process improvement Chapters 9 & 10

45. Quality systems • Six Sigma was created by Motorola • Based on fanatical process control • Aims for under 3.4 defects per million opportunities • Known for green and black belts • Source of DMAIC improvement framework • Define goals, measure, analyze, improve, control Chapters 9 & 10

46. Quality planning • All of these standards agree that • Focus on customer satisfaction is essential • Quality is by prevention, not inspection • Improve the process to improve the product • Quality is everyone’s job • Fact-based management is critical (which points to measurement) Chapters 9 & 10

47. Quality planning • So how does all this apply to a project? • Need to choose an approach for PQM • Which standard(s) are best to follow, if any? • Again, we’re driven by the project MOV • That defines the project scope and req’ts • So we need project and quality standards that will ensure we meet those requirements Chapters 9 & 10

48. Metrics • We looked at ways to present quality data • How choose what to measure? • Map to project goals, e.g. using GQ(I)M • Define product, process, resource, and/or tool metrics that are appropriate for your MOV Chapters 9 & 10

49. V&V • Verification and Validation (V&V) are key aspects, often associated with testing • Verification makes sure the product meets its requirements • Often done via reviews, walk-throughs, inspections • Validation makes sure the product meets the expectations and needs of the customer • Customer testing, a and b tests Chapters 9 & 10

50. Change control • Change control becomes necessary when the team has two or more people in it • Prevents two+ people editing the same thing • Allows you to roll back to a previous version of the system if the new one bites • Supports good backup strategies • Defines the final version of the system Chapters 9 & 10