Chapter 7 - Project Scheduling and Tracking

Overview

The chapter describes the process of building and monitoring schedules for software development projects. To build complex software systems, many engineering tasks need to occur in parallel with one another to complete the project on time. The output from one task often determines when another may begin. It is difficult to ensure that a team is working on the most appropriate tasks without building a detailed schedule and sticking to it.

Software Project Scheduling Principles

Compartmentalization - the product and process must be decomposed into a manageable number of activities and tasks
Interdependency - tasks that can be completed in parallel must be separated from those that must completed serially
Time allocation - every task has start and completion dates that take the task interdependencies into account
Effort validation - project manager must ensure that on any given day there are enough staff members assigned to completed the tasks within the time estimated in the project plan
Defined Responsibilities - every scheduled task needs to be assigned to a specific team member
Defined outcomes - every task in the schedule needs to have a defined outcome (usually a work product or deliverable)
Defined milestones - a milestone is accomplished when one or more work products from an engineering task have passed quality review

Relationship Between People and Effort

Adding people to a project after it is behind schedule often causes the schedule to slip further
The relationship between the number of people on a project and overall productivity is not linear (e.g. 3 people do not produce 3 times the work of 1 person, if the people have to work in cooperation with one another)
The main reasons for using more than 1 person on a project are to get the job done more rapidly and to improve software quality.

Project Effort Distribution

Generally accepted guidelines are:

Software Project Types

Concept development - initiated to explore new business concept or new application of technology
New application development - new product requested by customer
Application enhancement - major modifications to function, performance, or interfaces (observable to user)
Application maintenance - correcting, adapting, or extending existing software (not immediately obvious to user)
Reengineering - rebuilding all (or part) of a legacy system

Software Process Degree of Rigor

Casual - all framework activities applied, only minimum task set required (umbrella activities minimized and documentation reduced)
Structured - all framework and umbrella activities applied (SQA, SCM, documentation, and measurement tasks are streamlined)
Strict - full process and umbrella activities applied (high quality products and robust documentation produced)
Quick reaction - emergency situation, process framework used, but only tasks essential to good quality are applied (back filling used to develop documentation and conduct additional reviews after product is delivered)

Rigor Adaptation Criteria

Task Set Selector Value

Computed by scoring rigor adaptation criteria and adjusting the scores using differential weighting based on project characteristics.
Once computed the task selector value can be used to select the appropriate task set (casual, structured, strict) for the project.
It is OK to choose a less formal degree of rigor when the task selector value falls in the overlap area between two levels of rigor, unless project risk is high.

Concept Development Tasks

Concept scoping - determine overall project scope
Preliminary concept planning - establishes development team's ability to undertake the proposed work
Technology risk assessment - evaluates the risk associated with the technology implied by the software scope
Proof of concept - demonstrates the feasibility of the technology in the software context
Concept implementation - concept represented in a form that can be used to sell it to the customer
Customer reaction to concept - solicits feedback on new technology from customer

Scheduling

Scheduling tools should be used to schedule any non-trivial project.
PERT (program evaluation and review technique) and CPM (critical path method) are quantitative techniques that allow software planners to identify the chain of dependent tasks in the project work breakdown structure that determine the project duration time.
Timeline (Gantt) charts enable software planners to determine what tasks will be need to be conducted at a given point in time (based on estimates for effort, start time, and duration for each task).
The best indicator of progress is the completion and successful review of a defined software work product.
Time-boxing is the practice of deciding a priori the fixed amount of time that can be spent on each task. When the task's time limit is exceeded, development moves on to the next task (with the hope that a majority of the critical work was completed before time ran out).

Earned Value Analysis

Earned value is a quantitative measure of percent of project completed so far.
The total hours to complete the entire project are estimated and each task is given an earned value based on its estimated percentage contribution to the total.

Error Tracking

Allows comparison of current work to past projects and provides a quantitative indication of the quality of the work being conducted.
The more quantitative the approach to project tracking and control, the more likely problems can be anticipated and dealt with in a proactive manner.