effective software project planning and scheduling

Akshaya Centre of Excellence

Creating effective project schedules

http://www.acoe.in

ACE Creating Effective schedules 2

Overview

Organization of the presentation

Project schedules – industry scenarios

Challenges in creating effective project schedules

Characteristics of effective schedules

Guidelines to create effective project schedule

Not every project schedule document is effective irrespective of whether it is a tight or slack schedule.

• Ineffective schedules lie in cold storage and get updated once in a while;– project drives the schedule so to say.

• Effective schedules are live documents that drive the project and are actively used to monitor and control the project.

• What is the difference between the two? This presentation is about understanding the difference and creating effective

schedules.

ACE Creating Effective schedules

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1. Project schedule gets created in the initial stages of the project but gets into cold storage gradually; project execution happens independent of the schedule.

2. Project schedule is created in the initial stages of the project; but as time goes by, rather than project getting driven by the schedule, the schedule gets modified based on independent execution of the project (project drives the schedule)

3. Project schedule is created in the initial stages of the project and is used to drive and track the project continuously. Project schedule is maintained as a live document and is changed only based on re planning, but schedule drives the project rather than vice-versa.

Why do we get into scenario 1 and 2 instead of being in 3?

Effective schedules need a closer look at…

Familiar with these scenarios?


Most of the times, the reason for being in scenario 1 and 2 instead of 3

is that the schedule itself is unusable (ineffective).

What is an Unusable schedule? Is it necessarily a tight schedule?

An unusable schedule is one that is drawn without keeping the vision of end-to-

end project execution as a basis. A very lax schedule can also be unusable.

On the other hand a very tight schedule can be a usable(Effective) schedule if it

is written properly.

A usable schedule is a necessity for managing projects well, and is a

critical necessity for fixed price projects

Usable and unusable schedules


What are unusable schedules? Some insights:

Task break down does not correspond to the actual tasks that will be performed

in the project;

Task breakdown not detailed enough

Overall effort in the schedule ( Sigma of resources multiplied by their duration in

the project) does not match estimated effort.

Resources not optimally loaded

Task sequence does not reflect Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) model

etc.

Why are they unusable?

The tasks needed to be performed to produce deliverables and their sequence

are not reflected properly in the schedule. Hence, project team takes off

executing tasks necessary to produce intermediate deliverables.

Unusable schedules – closer look


Why unusable schedules get created in the first place?

Creating a schedule is similar to writing code; there is a huge difference between

„good‟ code written by a college student and a „professional‟ code written by a

seasoned programmer. Experience counts.

Learning does not happen by default

• Just by working in a professional environment, a novice programmer turns into a

professional programmer. The same cannot be said of schedules as not everybody

gets a chance to go through the rigor of creating effective schedules

• If one gets driven rigorously by customer or senior manager with project schedules

one is more likely to become professional in creating schedules. Otherwise, they

tend to remain novice as far as project schedules are concerned regardless of how

talented they are or how experienced they are.

Not enough time is spent on creating the schedule.

Challenges in creating usable schedules


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If projects are anyway being executed to the satisfaction of customers

without effective / usable schedules, then why worry about it?

Potential for more effort/cost saving and mitigating the risk of schedule over runs

Better control over the project

Project executed with effective schedules v/s those without effective schedules

• Team members have clarity on what they are supposed to accomplish

• Transparency in the team

• Big picture visibility to the team motivates them

• Higher level of accountability

• Easier tracking

Project manager can respond to changes more objectively

Why worry about usability of schedule?


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Characteristics of usable schedules – a schedule is a good one if it

answers yes to questions below:

Does the overall effort in the schedule match the effort estimated earlier?

Does the task breakdowns of schedule and estimation have a match?

Duration of sub tasks correspond to the effort estimated in the estimation?

Does the task sequence match the life cycle model chosen?

Are resources optimally loaded?

Has parallelism of tasks been identified and made use of optimally?

Have all activities from the life cycle covered?

Granularity of tasks sufficient to enable team members to draw up individual

schedules?

Usable schedules


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…Characteristics of usable schedules

Does the schedule enable allocation of work to team members on a weekly basis

with clear scope, activity and deliverable?

Are mile stones properly identified?

Can integration be done properly using the schedule?

Can you track the project easily with percentage completion?

Can a status report be generated easily using the schedule?

Can you respond to following changes properly with the schedule? For instance,

• Project gets additional requirement and additional resource

• Project gets additional requirement, no additional resource, but you are allowed to

de scope some functionality.

…Usable schedules


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How to create usable schedules?


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Typically, project managers who have been subject to pressure from

customers to create and use project schedules tend to realize the

benefit and create usable schedules. This experience is a key to

creating usable schedules.

If one does not have this experience, simulate it through training

Alternative ways of learning

Knowledge of characteristics of usable schedule helps

Using a step-by-step procedure and creating sample schedules helps

Creating usable schedules


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Tips to create usable schedules

Follow a step-by-step iterative procedure

• Break down the project into mile stones with deliverables identified at each mile stone

• Identify sub tasks for each mile stone

• Define a team structure and a ramp up and ramp down plan

• The Task breakdown and mile stones should correspond to the life cycle model chosen

How to create usable schedules?


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• Assign effort for each sub task (corresponding to the estimate)

o Cross verify if the effort for each life cycle phase in the schedule correspond to industry norms.

• Assign resources

o Resource assignment should be based on the actual team structure and ramp-up ramp-down plan

• Identify dependencies – both task dependency and resource dependency

• Level resources (Optimize resource loading)

o Iterate between step 6 to step 8

You can also use the rolling window approach

…How to create usable schedules?

Creates a common view of the project to the project manager, the

team, the customer and any other stake holder.

Enhances team work as everybody knows what other persons are working on.

Facilitates constructive communication.

Facilitates proactive action to bring project under control as

dependencies are known explicitly and slippages can be detected with

early signals.

Integration can be scheduled easily

Changes to the project can be handled effectively.

Facilitates integration with other automation tools that can reduce

project tracking overheads.

Minimises schedule overruns

Advantages of a usable schedule

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Further learning

Copyright @ACE 2012

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Please visit the web page for a course that teaches

the advanced aspects of project scheduling

For sample schedules to work on, please email

[email protected]

For other interesting artifacts and downloads, please

visit the resource center at PM Forum, ACE website

For other interesting articles and discussions, please

visit the ACE blog at 10minsatace.com

http://www.acoe.in/acepmp.php

http://www.acoe.in/pmform.php

http://www.10minsatace.com/

About ACE

We are a consulting and training firm providing software delivery

excellence services

Our mission is to “Transform Results” and not just rest at applying

methodologies. Our logo conveys that insights possessed by our

team produces results to the business units (In the logo, tree

represents business units and fruits represent results for the business

unit)

Unique characteristic of our organization is that all the members of the

team are hands-on people who have been highly successful in their

delivery roles and are now into consulting and training to pass on their

insights. This is what enables us to be confident of transforming

results

ACE service portfolio – categories

• Strategic training programs targeted to

improve specific metrics

• FSPS – for future and new project managers

• ACEPMP for experienced PMs

• Vendor capability assessment for

outsourcing

• Competency assessment for project

managers

• Offshore project health monitoring

• Estimation accuracy improvement

• Requirement clarity and completeness improvement

Consulting services

Assessment services

Customized training

Packaged training

ACE service portfolio – Target audience view

• ACEPMP – a 9 separate-days package of 8 courses for experienced PMs

• FSPS (Framework of Software Project Success) – 2 day course for future and new project managers

• Project manager competency assessment

• Strategic programs targeted to improve

specific metrics

• Offshore project health monitoring

• Vendor capability assessment for outsourcing

IS managers who

outsource

Business unit heads of

IT service firms

Experienced project

managers

Future project

managers

Profiles of ACE team Nagaraja gundappa

LinkedIn profile: in.linkedin.com/in/nagarajagundappa

Chief consultant, ACE, 20+ years of software industry experience

Before ACE

• General Manager in Wipro Technologies (1996 – 2008)

• Project manager in Tata Unisys (Now Tata Infotech) (1993 – 1995)

• Research Fellow in NAL (1990 – 1993)

Awards and Honors

• Chariman‟s award for a project management competency initiative (2007)

• Group president‟s award - 1997

• Best application award – OMG object world west 97

http://in.linkedin.com/in/nagarajagundappa/

Profiles – Nagaraja Gundappa

Project management expertise

Certified Scrum Master

Have delivered significant improvement in delivery results through a project

management competency build up program during 2005 - 2008

• Won the Chairman‟s award for this initiative

• Results delivered - more than 10% reduction in cost overruns and 10 times reduction

in field error rate.

Have taught software project management courses (Applied PMBoK courses)

for over 1200 project managers

Have delivered large, complex, global projects successfully to customers such

as General Motors, Deloitte and Touche, Dun & Bradstreet

Have delivered many presentations at industry forums on estimation, project

scheduling and tracking, and project management training

Thank you