Project planning and tracking

Alfonso Fuggetta
Politecnico di Milano and UCI

Alfonso Fuggetta - 1999

 The need for planning
• Software development is a complex
process
• Needs to be carefully managed
– Anticipate the course of action
– Check progress
– Take corrective action is needed

Alfonso Fuggetta - 1999

 Planning and tracking

Planning

Project plan Actual data

Tracking
(control)
Corrective
actions

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 Project planning techinques
• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• Gantt charts
• PERT diagrams
• Product Breakdown Structure (PBS)

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 WBS
• Hierarchical decomposition of project tasks.

Details
ID Task Name
1 Initial ISO 9000 Process Work
2 Seek ISO 9000 Documents Work
3 Order Documents Work
4 Determine which standard is applicable Work
5 Hold Management Meeting - Gain Management Support Work
6 Project Leader Work
7 Define Project Leader's Role Work
8 Appoint Project Leader Work

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 Gantt charts
• Visual aid to represent the distribution of
project tasks over time.
ec '97 04 Jan '98 11 Jan '98
ID W T F S S M T W T F S S M T W T F S
1

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 PERT diagrams
• Diagram that
Order documents illustrates the
dependencies among
tasks.
Determine which document
is available

Determine Project
Leader’s Role

Appoint Project Leader

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Critical path

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Marking completed activities

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 PBS
Product

Subsystem 1 Subsystem 2 Subsystem 3

Module 11 Module 12 Module 21 Module 22

• Hierarchical decomposition of a product.

• Similar to structured charts.
Alfonso Fuggetta - 1999
 Cost estimation
• Estimation of the cost and duration of the
project.
• It should be done as early as possible.
• Problem: lack of precision.

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Precision of estimation

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 Methods and techniques
for cost estimation
• Experts’ evaluation
• Delphi
• Bottom-up approaches
• Empirical models
– COCOMO
– Function Points
• Combining methods
Alfonso Fuggetta - 1999
 Underlying principle: analogy
• I can estimate the future if I have some
understanding of the past.
• All the approached try to reuse (in different
ways) past experiences in similar situations.
– What does it mean “similar”?

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 Experts’ evaluation
• The system to be developed is presented to
experts who provide their evaluation based
on past experiences.

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 Delphi
• Structure meeting to facilitate group
decision making.
– Anonymous formulation of answers to the
problem to be solved
– Synthesis by the team leader
– (Possible) reiteration

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 Bottom-up approaches
• Exploit WBS and PBS to evaluate the cost
of project/product.
• “It is easier to estimate the cost of a little
thing than of a big one”.
• Dual approaches: they should converge.

Alfonso Fuggetta - 1999

 Function points
• Technique to compute the “size” of the
software to be developed.
• UFP (Unudjusted Function Points):
UFP = c1 × Input + c2 × Output + c3 × Inquiry
+ c4 × MasterFiles + c5 × Interfaces
• ci are constants taken from a table.

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Function points table

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 The complete formula
• The number of Function Point is computed
by applying the following formula:
FP = UFP × TCF
– Where TCF is computed as
TCF = 0.65 × 0.01 × DI
• DI (degree of influence) is computer by
assigning a score ranging between 0 and 5
to 14 technical factors.

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Technical factors in FPs

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FP and different languages

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 Evolution of FP
• Updated counting procedures for new kind
of software (e.g., GUI).
• Feature point for process-intense software.
• Standard counting procedure promoted by
International Function Point User Group.

Alfonso Fuggetta - 1999

 Critical issue with FP
• Computing the number of Function Point
can become just guessing.
• In this case, there is no added value in using
FP.

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 Estimating costs with FP
• The number of FP is divided by the
productivity of the company.
• These gives the total effort required to
complete the project.
• Require the collection of historical data.

Alfonso Fuggetta - 1999

 The COCOMO Model
• COnstructive COst MOdel.
• Based on the analysis of a large number of
processes.
• Three models: basic, intermediate,
advanced.
• The most used is the intermediate.

Alfonso Fuggetta - 1999

 The intermediate model
• Nominal effort (NE):

NE = c1 × KDSI c2

• c1 and c2 depend on the kind of software.

• NE is then multiplied by 15 technical
factors.

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Effort multiplies in intermediate
COCOMO

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An example: telecom sw

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 COCOMO 2
• Three different models of the software to be
developed:
– Application composition model (object points)
– Early design model (function points)
– Post-architectural model (FP and LOC)

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 Combining methods
• In most cases a combination of the different
methods are used.
• For example:
– WBS + Delphi.

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 Tracking projects:
earned value
• Technique to represent and consolidate the
information on the project status.
• No magic! It does not tell you if you are
late. It helps you represent the data you
must generate.

Alfonso Fuggetta - 1999

 Earned value diagram

• Note: this is
%Budget just an
Mil. $
example:
40 100%
Actual
cost Planned – The project is
cost
30
late and more
20 50% expensive
Earned
value
than planned.
10

Today Time
Delay
Overcost

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 Earned value in MS Project

ISO9000

Project Start Date: Fri 02/01/98

Project Finish Date: Thu 30/04/98
Earned Value

I
Name BCWS BCWP ACWP SV CV EAC BAC VAC
D

1 Initial ISO 9000 Process $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00

2 Seek ISO 9000 Documents $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00

3 Order Documents $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00

4 Determine which standard is applicable $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00

5 Hold Management Meeting - Gain Management Support $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00 $0,00

Alfonso Fuggetta - 1999

 BCWS
• Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled.
• The BCWS (budgeted cost of work
scheduled) field contains the cumulative
timephased baseline costs up to the status
date or today’s date. This timephased field
shows cumulative BCWS as distributed
over time, up to the status date or today’s
date.
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 BCWP
• Budgested Cost of Work Performed è Earned
Value).
• The BCWP (budgeted cost of work performed)
field contains the cumulative value of the
assignment’s timephased percentage of work
complete multiplied by the assignment’s
timephased baseline cost. BCWP is calculated up
to the status date or today’s date.

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 ACWP
• Actual Cost of Work Performed.
• The ACWP (actual cost of work performed)
field shows costs incurred for work already
performed by all resources assigned to a
task, up to the project status date or today’s
date.

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 SV = BCWP – BCWS
• The SV (earned value schedule variance)
field shows the difference in cost terms
between the current progress and the
baseline plan for the assignment up to the
status date or today’s date. You can use SV
to check costs to determine whether
assignments are on schedule.

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 CV = BCWP – ACWP
• The CV (earned value cost variance) field
shows the difference between how much it
should have cost to achieve the current level
of completion on the assignment, and how
much it has actually cost to achieve the
current level of completion up to the status
date or today’s date.

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 EAC

• The Cost field shows the scheduled timephased cost for a resource
assignment, based on costs already incurred for work performed by the
resource on the task, in addition to the costs planned for the remaining
work for the assignment. This can also be referred to as estimate at
completion (EAC). This timephased field shows the cost for the
assignment as distributed over time.
• When an assignment is first made, cost is the same as remaining cost,
which is the remaining work value multiplied by the resource cost. As
actual work is reported on the assignment, Microsoft Project calculates
the cost by adding the actual cost to the remaining cost. This figure is
distributed across the scheduled duration of the assignment.
– Cost = Actual Cost + Remaining Cost

Alfonso Fuggetta - 1999

 BAC
• The Baseline Cost field shows the total planned cost for work
to be performed by a resource on a task. Baseline cost is also
referred to as budget at completion (BAC).
• The baseline cost is calculated as the sum of the planned costs
of the assignment, including scheduled work, scheduled
overtime, and per-use costs for the assignment. This is the same
as the contents of the Cost field when the baseline is saved.
– Baseline Cost = (Work * Standard Rate) + (Overtime Work * Overtime
Rate) + Per Use Cost

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 VAC

• The Cost Variance field shows the difference

between the baseline cost and total cost for a
resource assignment on a task. This is also
referred to as variance at completion (VAC).
• Microsoft Project calculates the cost variance as
follows:
– Cost Variance = Cost – Baseline Cost
Or, in earned value terms:
Variance At Completion = Estimated At Completion –
Budgeted At Completion

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 Conclusions
• There are techniques that can be fruitfully
used to support project management.
• They cannot compensate a lack of
professional skills.

Alfonso Fuggetta - 1999

 BCWS

%Budget
Mil. $

40 100%
Actual
cost Planned
cost
30

20 50%
Earned
10 value

Today Time

Alfonso Fuggetta - 1999

 BCWP

%Budget
Mil. $

40 100%
Actual
cost Planned
cost
30

20 50%
Earned
10 value

Today Time

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 ACWP

%Budget
Mil. $

40 100%
Actual
cost Planned
cost
30

20 50%
Earned
10 value

Today Time

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 SV = BCWP - BCWS

%Budget
Mil. $

40 100%
Actual
cost Planned
cost
30

20 50%
Earned
10 value

Today Time

Alfonso Fuggetta - 1999

 CV = BCWP - ACWP

%Budget
Mil. $

40 100%
Actual
cost Planned
cost
30

20 50%
Earned
10 value

Today Time

Alfonso Fuggetta - 1999