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Predictive Analytics

Predictive analysis uses historical records to predict future trends or outcomes.  That got me thinking; could that be applied to timesheet records?  The most common field for predictive analysis is credit reporting, where lenders hope to predict a buyer’s ability to pay.

Do you have a 900 credit score?  Me neither…

So, back to timesheet data…  What could we possibly learn from predictive analysis of timesheet records?  Here are some possibilities:

  1. Cost and duration of certain projects in your portfolio
  2. Employee contributions to strategic projects
  3. Typical project contribution histogram overlaid on today’s projects

–newshirt

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Project Documents

A project manager has many things to administer…time, scope and cost, to name a few. These items are always considered in the very basics of project planning. It’s second nature.

What about managing all the various documents involved with project planning? Some software will accommodate document management, while many others do not.

It is important to have critical documents available to key resources, or all resources. Standard Time allows you to attach files to tasks. This makes related documents easy to locate and available for viewing when necessary. Many document management companies utilize Standard Time for their time tracking and project management. When considering project planning, make sure you have a solid software system that will help you be more efficient with document management.

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Why is it called ‘Waterfall?’

Warren has been expounding on project management methodologies lately, so I figured I’d throw in with him.  Consider this explanation of the ‘Waterfall project management model.’  It might be useful to some.

Here goes…

Why is the old project management model named ‘Waterfall?”  What, exactly, does that mean?

I believe the term stems from the notion that water falling over a dam is hard to scoop back up to the top.  Virtually impossible, one might argue.  The term ‘herding cats’ comes to mind.

So how does that apply to project management?

In real life, some projects are like that.  Not all, but some.  Consider building a skyscraper, for example.  You absolutely have to get that foundation right the first time, because you cannot go back and work on it after the ironworkers have laid a million tons of infrastructure on top of it.  In other words, reworking the foundation would be as hard as scooping up water that has already fallen over the Hoover Dam.
But are all projects like that?  How about software?

No.

Software is malleable.  You can work on any part at any time, even after the product ships.  So the Waterfall model doesn’t apply as neatly.  Or at all.  But it’s still applicable to certain projects where it’s hard to rework ‘foundational’ stages.

–newshirt

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Projects…Time…Projects…No Time

Talk with many PM’s around the world and, no matter the project or project type, properly allocating time and resources is a never ending critical part of the job. Estimates based on the most solid metrics are subject to change and cost overruns. So goes the life of a project manager.
 
What’s surprising is how many PM’s don’t take advantage of the software tools available to them and deployed in their environment. Sure, most PM’s use the resource assignments, task dependencies and many of the software features available, but many do not put the simplest of task items into the software’s calculations such as the estimated task start and end dates.
 
I have seen tons of project plans that include the basics…task hierarchy, resource assignments, and maybe…the tasks start date. Why not use the tasks due/end date too? It takes a few extra seconds to enter and will help better identify resource overload and task delays. Standard Time has a resource allocation chart (pictured below).
 
 
 
 
Standard Time also displays the inverse, Resource Availability (also shown below).
 
 
 
 
I know a good number of PM’s utilize these tools properly, it’s to their advantage. But, many do not. I have seen it a hundred times. Aside from the obvious project idiosyncrasies, why not take a few seconds and save hundreds of minutes?
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Do you like Project Robots?

You just buried your mom and returned from the funeral. You’re a Project Manager on a high profile project for one of the largest tech companies in the world.  It has only been one day since the funeral and you are still raw with emotion.  Now imagine that you get an email informing you that you are not getting a break from the loss of your mom, but in fact, your workload has been increased.  How about a spouse fighting cancer?  Need a little time?  No!  Instead, how about an increased workload?  Sound crazy? Well, imagine no more…these are true stories.  This brings me to an important point.
In talking with a friend of mine with 26+ years of project management experience about Agile vs. Waterfall methods, he said, “You can have all the methods and processes you want but it all comes down to personal relationships and human intervention”.  This gentleman was responsible for one of the largest SAP installations in US history. I was taken aback by the simple answer when he stated another simple cliché, “Take care of your team and your team will take care of you”, which means that they will take care of the project.
The examples given in the beginning of this blog are not meant to say that we shouldn’t be tough or suck it up.  However, besides being in my opinion morally wrong, it is flat bad for business.  Is the man whom just buried his wife still ready to climb that mountain for the team?  Or, is he waiting for the first chance to jump ship?
All too often we pay lip service to our employees, “Let me know if you need any more resources”, while completely ignoring the realities of life.
I guess the bottom line is we can keep on pushing the machine, but what happens when the machine navigator gets ran over?  Does the machine keep going and if so, who is driving…a robot?
Make sure when you ask someone if they need help that you don’t ignore the reality that is staring you right in the face — unless you like robots.

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My list of project risks

There are at least a hundred reasons projects fail.  Expect anything from vague requirements to budget shortages to waning passions to unreasonable project schedules.  All novice mistakes…  But we can’t all be experts on every topic.  About the best we can do is identify the most common areas for failure, and discuss these with the team.  At least the team will be aware.

Here’s a quick starter list.  You’ll probably have to make it a little more diplomatic before presenting it to your group.  “:)

1. Newbies don’t know how long things actually take.
2. Unfamiliar technologies need extra research time.
3. Virtual development teams don’t communicate the same as in-house.
4. Team members without a passion for the product won’t perform.
5. Vaguely defined projects either go on forever or burn up in debate.
6. Projects without top-level commitment get lost in the minutia.
7. If the company doesn’t need it bad enough, it will fail.
8. Pick only two: Cost, Quality, or Time.  Let the third fall where it may.

–newshirt

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Utilization Reports

In a Professional Services company, how do you know if you are billing enough hours to be profitable?  One way is to check to see if you’re still in business.  If so, you’re billing enough hours!

Okay, that works.  But wouldn’t it be nice to tune your billable hours for maximum efficiency?  That’s what a utilization report does for you.  It checks the number of hours for billable vs. non-billable.  the image below is a snapshot of one employee’s rates.  Not bad, huh?

Utilization Report

There’s an unofficial law at our company: Either find a way to bill 50 hours a week, or look for a job elsewhere.

That’s the hard reality at some companies.  You can bet management is watching the utilization reports.  Of course, if they don’t they’ll probably go out of business themselves.

–newshirt

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7 Things You Need to Know About Development Project Estimations

Whether you are a project manager planning for a smooth implementation of a plan or a project sponsor on whose decisions a project depends, you cannot escape from the fact that project estimation is essential to its success. In the first place, there are three basic requirements that a project must satisfy: schedule, budget, and quality. The need to work within these essential project boundaries poses a huge challenge to everyone in the central management team.

There are various aspects that affect project estimates, such as team skills and experience levels, available technology, use of full-time or part-time resources, project quality management, risks, iteration, development environment, requirements, and most of all, the level of commitment of all project members.

Moreover, project estimations do not need to be too complicated. There are tools, methodologies, and best practices that can help project management teams, from sponsors to project managers, agree on estimates and push development efforts forward. Some of these include the following:

  1. Project estimates must be based on the application’s architecture. Making estimates based on an application’s architecture should give you a clear idea of the length of the entire development project phase. Moreover, an architecture-based estimation provides you a macro-level view of the resources needed to complete the project.
  2. Project estimations should also come from the ground up. All estimates must add up, and estimating the collective efforts of the production teams that work on the application’s modules helps identify the number of in-house and outsourced consultants that you need to hire for the entire project, as well as have a clear idea of the collective man-hours required to code modules or finish all features of the application. Ground-up estimates are provided by project team members and do not necessarily match top-level estimates exactly. In this case, it is best to add a percentage of architecture-based estimates to give room to possible reworks, risks, and other events that may or may not be within the control of the project staff.
  3. Do not forget modular estimates. Once you have a clear idea of the architecture, it becomes easier to identify the modules that make up the entirety of the application. Knowing the nature of these modules should help you identify which can be done in-house or onshore, or by an offshore development team. Moreover, given the location and team composition of each development team that works on a module, it becomes easier to identify the technical and financial resources needed to work on the codes.
  4. Development language matters. Whether the development language is Java, .Net, C++ or any other popular language used by software engineers, team that will be hired for the project must be knowledgeable in it. Some development efforts require higher skills in these languages, while some only need basic functional knowledge, and the levels of specialization in any of these languages have corresponding rates. Most of the time, the chosen development language depends on the chosen platform, and certain platforms run on specialized hardware.
  5. You cannot promise upper management dramatic costs from offshoring. While there are greater savings from having development work done by offshore teams composed of workers whose rates are significantly lower from onshore staff, you must consider communication, knowledge transfer, technical set-up, and software installation costs in your financial estimates. Estimating costs is often more about managing expectations, but as the project matures, it should be clearer whether the money spent on it was money that was spent well.
  6. Project estimation software and tools help identify “what-if” scenarios. Over the years, project managers have devised ways to automate project schedule, framework, cost, and staffing estimates. Some estimation applications also have sample historical data or models based on real-world examples. If your business has a lot in common with the samples in the estimation tool, it can help you identify what-if scenarios and in turn include risks, buffers, and iteration estimates.
  7. Price break-down helps in prioritization. Breaking down the total cost of the project helps management decide which parts of a system should be prioritized, delayed, or even cancel. Estimating costs for a new project may not be easy, but project sponsors and managers must be able to know and agree on the breakdown of costs of development, technical requirements, and overhead.

By ExecutiveBrief -online resource on process management, project management, and process improvement.

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Success Factors in Knowledge Management

Knowledge management professionals must keep in mind that KM’s explicit end-goal is profitability while its implicit purpose is to empower participants through intellectual platforms and processes that promote learning and practical knowledge.

Knowledge, without a doubt, plays an important role in the success of any organization. In fact, in order to maintain a competitive advantage, modern organizations incorporate knowledge creation, knowledge sharing, and knowledge management into their business processes. The mere survival of many organizations hinges on the strength of their capabilities; moreover, companies form decisions based on their relevant knowledge of their business landscapes.

Thanks to developments in information and communication technologies, it is now easier to develop, store, and transfer knowledge. This capability is particularly true among organizations with global workforces. After all, international competition and globalization are the driving forces behind most technological innovations, and companies quickly take advantage of these developments when it comes to managing the creation and flow of information.

“Ultimately, leveraging relevant knowledge assets to improve organizational performance is what knowledge management is all about,” says Murray E. Jennex in his book, Knowledge Management in Modern Organizations (2007). However, in spite of the lightning-speed creation of new knowledge and the improvements in communication technologies, many organizations still find that their knowledge management practices are lacking. Specifically, within client-consultant relationships, knowledge transfer does not always translate into better performance by all project team members, nor does it always translate into the successful delivery of projects.

To be successful, knowledge management programs require more than simply conducting training sessions or transferring knowledge. Practitioners must always remember that KM’s explicit end-goal is profitability – while KM’s implicit purpose is to empower participants by providing them with the intellectual platforms and processes that promote learning and practical knowledge.

Here are a few factors that contribute to successful knowledge management initiatives:

  • Linkage between knowledge and economic performance – Knowledge management exists because it enables the organization to reach its business goals. Otherwise, there is no point in putting together all the best practices, tacit knowledge, and skill sets in a cohesive system that is accessible by all parties – when and where they need it. As business increasingly becomes more global, the competition for greater market share depends on the capabilities of its players to a certain degree. KM practitioners must be able to identify the business value of knowledge management in their organizations – whether it is to manage projects, provide back-office operations services or to give ideas on how processes can be better optimized – among others. In most consulting relationships, knowledge is the currency by which all transactions are made.
  • Setting and communicating clear objectives for specific organizational or project levels – Heather Kreech, the Director of Knowledge Communications of the International Institute for Sustainable Development has some specific ideas on this very subject. In her paper, Success Factors in Knowledge Management (2005), she states that knowledge-sharing works best when knowledge managers “gather and communicate knowledge at the project/activity/field level before [they] begin to aggregate up to corporate systems and general knowledge marketing strategies”. Having a specific organizational level or project group in mind, results in better designed knowledge management systems, training programs, and tools that can meet the specific needs of workers.
  • Having the appropriate systems and infrastructure – Ideally, knowledge is created, processed, stored, and archived. Managing the process of creating knowledge, communicating this knowledge to participants, and making knowledge available to anyone in the organization, means that an organization must have the right communication systems and data storage facilities. However, it is not enough to simply store knowledge as this knowledge must be found whenever it is needed. Thus, the availability of internal search facilities and computer-based training programs is critical.
  • Having the right champions – KM initiatives need project and process champions who can rally the support of everyone – from top management down to individual staff members. Having management support can result in the freeing up of resources – such as financial, expertise, and infrastructure – all of which are critical to the successful implementation of KM projects. Financial backing means that KM managers can implement training programs, hire both internal and external specialists – as well as acquire the required infrastructure to manage training programs. On the other hand, access to experts from either within or outside the organization, means better identification of knowledge gaps and training requirements, and more importantly, engineering training and communication programs that meet the said needs.

By ExecutiveBrief
Technology Management Resource for Business Leaders
http://www.executivebrief.com
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How to Create a Scrum Burn-Down Chart in Standard Time

Scrum burndown charts, or project history charts, as they are called in Standard Time help managers see the time remaining for projects in a line chart.  An example is shown below.  As many know, Standard Time is more than a timesheet.  It contains many project management features like task linking, resource allocation, earned value analysis, utilization percentages and rates.  These can be pretty boring topics unless you need to know where your project is headed.  And then they become pretty valuable tools all of a sudden.  Let’s take a look at the scrum chart.

 

Notice the falling line chart.  We’ll explain that shortly.

 

Scrum Burndown
Scrum Chart in Standard Time

The first step to creating this chart is to turn on project history.  Choose Tools, Projects and click a project to begin.  The project properties will display in the right-hand property panel.  Check the “Save task history” checkbox, as shown below.  This forces Standard Time to save time remaining for each project task when hours are entered into the timesheet.  Hours remaining are the raw ingredients for the scrum burndown chart above.

 


Save Task History in Standard Time
For Burn-down Chart

 

After turning on the “Save task history” option, now you’ll simply create project tasks and log time to them.  The image below shows a sample list of tasks.  Just remember that each task has a “Remaining” number of hours.  Those hours are plotted on a line graph in the scrum chart.  All tasks are combined to give a snapshot status of your project.  As you log daily time, those hours will fall, until they all reach zero.  Then the project is done!  You’ll see this gradual fall in the burndown chart.  Each week, you’ll notice trends developing.  Hopefully, going toward zero and completion.

 


Project Tasks in Standard Time

 

–newshirt