APPLICATION TO SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

   

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How do you know what's going on? On a large software project there may be scores or even hundreds of people beavering away on components of the system. These components may run into many thousands, all of which have to fit together in an intricate and perfect way. How do you know how well the system is coming together; how complete is it and how much remains to be spent to complete?

As well as all the qualitative things outlined above, there are a couple of very quantitative ways you can track progress on your project. The most obvious one is, assuming that you have your plan on a computer-based project planning tool, that you can now track progress by marking off jobs done, adding in new jobs and changing existing ones. The advantage of the tool is that it is unforgiving. If there is a slip it shows you, in a depressingly clinical way. Correspondingly though, it illuminates the critical path “ the way of recovering from slips “ if recovery is possible.

The whole plan can be laid out for you in as much or as little detail as is relevant to your particular interest and the analysis you want to do. As I've said earlier, anyone who runs any kind of a project, no matter how small, without the use of one of these tools is nuts. An even more sophisticated way of tracking progress, particularly on large projects, is through the use of the earned value concept. You will find a good discussion of this in Software Engineering Economics (Boehm, 1981). In addition, the particular project planning tool you are using will explain how it has implemented the concept, and what earned-value-based reports and analyses are available.

Basically, earned value allows you to determine whether the costs incurred on a project up to the present time are in proportion to its current level of completion. In other words, it tells you if you are spending more than you planned to spend given the work that has been completed up to this time. It also enables you to predict what the project (or any job within it) will cost at completion if the current trend continues. Remember, however, that earned value is not a panacea. Get many of the other things right and earned value is useful, effective and gives you a very fine finger on the pulse of your project. But if the basic, simple stuff that we have been describing in the rest of this book isn't carried out, all the earned values or fancy financial reporting systems in the world won't save you.

   


How To Run Successful Projects III. The Silver Bullet
How to Run Successful Projects III: The Silver Bullet (3rd Edition)
ISBN: 0201748061
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2001
Pages: 176

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