sw project management project communication and qa

INFO 420 Chapters 9 & 10 1

SW Project ManagementProject Communication and QA

INFO 420Dr. Jennifer Booker

Chapters 9 & 10 2INFO 420

Need for communication

As we’ve seen, IT projects tend to be volatile, so good lines of communication are needed to keep everyone updatedElse you implement unneeded functionality,

work to outdated specs or designs, etc.How well is the plan being followed?How do we make good adjustments?


Need for communication

Lack of communication is a major cause of IT project failure28% of a CompTIA survey said poor

communication was the #1 reason for failure18% cited insufficient resource planning13% unrealistic deadlinesCould communication affect the latter two?


Communication includes

Communication planningHow 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?


Communication includes

Information distributionGet 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


Communication needs

A project communication plan can include what information goes to each stakeholder and how that information is deliveredFormal methods – reports, reviews, meetings Informal methods – email, conversations

What does each stakeholder want and need to know about the project?


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 surprisesCan reflect poorly on management if

unprepared (FEMA, New Orleans)


Monitor and control project

Events during a project could result in sudden changes in productivity, focusNeed 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



Key management choices often includeReassign resourcesAdjust the plan – scope, schedule,

budget, quality So need an early warning system to

identify problems as soon as possibleHence obsessive comparison ‘plan vs actuals’



Part of this process is measuring performance, which also helps hold people accountableSide benefit to see if resources are being

utilized effectively Controls can be within project, or external

(e.g. government or industry standards)


Communications plan

The project communications plan can be informal or formal, depending on the size and nature of the projectKey is to keep stakeholders informedEven (especially?) those who oppose or

don’t support the project! Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer!


Communications plan contents

A communications plan can be fairly simple, depending on project complexity

Identify all the stakeholders; for eachWhat 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



Consider whether some kinds of reports can be made general enough to meet the needs of several stakeholdersOr is it better to customize content for each?

Information might include the usual suspectsScope, budget, schedule, quality, risk



Consider also who should get specific deliverables from the projectPhase 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.



Timing of information varies in importanceSome stakeholders are key decision makers,

others might have only casual or passing interest in project status (vendors, end users)


Project metrics

What you measure focuses people’s attentionHow would you respond differently if the

course grade was 90% participation? Here we want to measure the basics

Scope, schedule, budget, resources, quality, risk


Project metrics

A good metric should beUnderstandableQuantifiableCost effective to collectProven effectiveHigh impact - meaningful


Project metrics

Guidelines for a measurement systemMeasurement system should allow project

team to measure progressTeam should design their own

measurement systemAdopt only a few measures (avoid overload)Measures should track results and progress


Earned Value

Earned Value balances cost, schedule, and the amount of work accomplished (the “earned value”) during a projectEach task’s planned cost is called the

planned value (PV) of that taskThis assumes you’ve planned out all the

project tasks from the start!


Earned Value

The planned completion of the project is the budget at completion (BAC), both time and moneySo 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


Earned Value

This lets us separate how much has been spent from what really got accomplished

DefineCost variance (CV, $) = EV – AC Schedule variance (SV, $) = EV – PV Cost performance index (CPI) = EV/ACSchedule performance index (SPI) = EV/PV


Earned Value

For historic noteAC 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


Earned Value

The best trick is that we can predict when the project will finish, the Estimate At Completion (EAC)EAC(cost) = BAC(cost) / CPIEAC(schedule) = BAC(schedule) / SPI

These assume we’re using a long term trend for CPI and SPI


Earned Value

There are many other EV metrics

https://www.goldpractices.com/practices/tev/index.php


Earned Value

The value assigned to each task can be handled in many ways

Common ways areGive 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!


Reporting performance

Project reporting tends to fall into categoriesReviews, 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


Reporting performance

Progress reportingReview accomplishments, compare to plans

Forecast reportingPredict future status of project (cost,

schedule)Might use trend analysis


Information distribution

Again, consider how information will be distributedFace to face meetingsTelephone, email, other electronic devicesCollaboration technology (NetMeeting,

Blackboard, wikis, etc.)

INFO 420 Chapters 9 & 10 29

IT Project Quality Management


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?


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?


Quality management processes

Project quality management (PQM) processes (per the usual PMBOK) includeQuality planning

What standards need to be met, and how?Quality assurance – compare project

performance against those standardsQuality control – ensure product quality

Support defect prevention & process improvement


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?)


Quality costs

Good quality often pays for itself in the long runAvoids defects, rework, bad publicity, etc.DIA/DEN airport baggage system quality

issues cost $1M per day in lost revenue


Quality tools and approaches

The scientific management approach was developed by Frederic TaylorStudied 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


Control charts

Walter Shewhart gave us control chartsProvide a more scientific and objective basis

for understanding variabilityPlots the mean, upper and lower control limits

(+/- 3 from the mean)Normal random variation is due to common

causes, want to eliminate assignable causesThe basis for statistical process control


Total Quality Movement

W Edwards Deming is legendary in quality management circlesEmpowered workers to contribute to qualityWorked with ShewhartFirst taught Japanese managers, later the US

caught onFamous for 14 points of quality


Quality planning, improvement

Joseph Juran gave us the ‘fitness for use’ definition of qualityQuality is not an accident, it must be plannedRecognize internal and external customersThe quality trilogy – quality planning, control,

and improvement – make a Quality Planning Road Map


Quality diagrams & graphs

Kaoru Ishikawa, a Deming pupil, gave us ways to present quality dataGave 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


Quality standards

ISO 9000CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration)Six Sigma

AwardsMalcolm Baldrige National Quality AwardDeming Prize


Quality systems

ISO 9000 is the best known quality management systemAlso includes ISO 9001 and 9004 stdsFacility-basedOriginally for manufacturing, now very broadCertification checks about every six months


Quality systems

CMMI is based on the CMM developed in the 1980’s by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon UniversityOriginal goal was to fix the software

development crisisLed to similar structures for systems

engineering, software acquisition, personnel management, and other areas


CMMI

Led to hard time choosing the ‘right’ CMM for a given projectSo now instead, CMMI has “simplified” the

problem to three sets of modelsCMM/CMMI has five levels of process

maturity Initial, Repeatable, Defined, Managed, Optimizing


CMMI

Within each level (after level 1) there are Key Process Areas – to meet goalsLevel 2 includes CM, QA, project tracking &

oversight, project planning, and req’ts mgmtLevel 4 adds statistical process control for

key processesLevel 5 adds defect prevention and

continuous process improvement


Quality systems

Six Sigma was created by MotorolaBased on fanatical process controlAims for under 3.4 defects per million

opportunitiesKnown for green and black beltsSource of DMAIC improvement framework

Define goals, measure, analyze, improve, control


Quality planning

All of these standards agree thatFocus on customer satisfaction is essentialQuality is by prevention, not inspection Improve the process to improve the productQuality is everyone’s jobFact-based management is critical (which

points to measurement)


Quality planning

So how does all this apply to a project?Need to choose an approach for PQMWhich standard(s) are best to follow, if any?

Again, we’re driven by the project MOV That defines the project scope and req’tsSo we need project and quality standards that

will ensure we meet those requirements


Metrics

We looked at ways to present quality data How choose what to measure?

Map to project goals, e.g. using GQ(I)MDefine product, process, resource, and/or tool

metrics that are appropriate for your MOV


V&V

Verification and Validation (V&V) are key aspects, often associated with testingVerification 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, and tests


Change control

Change control becomes necessary when the team has two or more people in itPrevents two+ people editing the same thingAllows you to roll back to a previous version

of the system if the new one bitesSupports good backup strategiesDefines the final version of the system


Configuration Management

Change control is one part of an overall Configuration Management (CM) strategy

CM includesConfiguration identification

What items are under CM control?

Configuration control Includes change control processes and tools


Configuration Management

Configuration Audits Do you really have what you think you have?

Configuration Status Reports Ability to produce reports from the change control

system, e.g. the current system configuration, change history for a particular item, etc.

Change history might cover various versions (Win XP to Vista), revisions (minor updates), or variations (different sites)


Quality control

A key general job of QM is to monitor the project’s compliance with its claimed standardsShould be ongoing throughout the projectAssess processes as well as work productsProduce reports on each assessmentCollect metrics on project status


Keep learning

QM processes support the overall learning environment of the project and its parent organizationSo as usual, document lessons learned from

QM activities, and share them with other projects

Continual improvements and experiments with novel processes can be invaluable

sw project management project communication and qa

Documents

right info

communication needsnot

poor communication

forms of communication

project schedule

project failure28

good lines of communication

plan scope