Preferred Method For The Measurement Of Project Performance

Project Management / By

In project management the Earned Value management is used for measuring the performance of software and other development projects.

Establish your baseline phase-by-phase, baseline for coding and testing before the design is available. Make sure that every project activity (task) has clearly defined completion criteria that allow you to objectively determine that it is “done.”
From an agile view, while EVM focuses on plans versus actuals, the value delivered to the user. EVM people say that the project is a failure when it fails to deliver all of the specified functionality on time and budget. For agile developers the project is successful when it delivered the 90% of the functionality that the customer deemed most important on time and within budget. The rest of the functionality would be visible in the backlog along with the defects. In contrast, in order to get high EVM scores, many of those using EVM would hide the missing functionality and poor quality, and wait for those in maintenance to find them when updates were made. Which is incorrect, does the agile customer agree that the project is a success when 90% of what they deemed most important is delivered on time and within budget?

The problem with agile “developing” the scope of a project “as we go along” is that’s just an excuse for putting more thought into the requirements up front.  It is better to establish a very generous contingency reserve of both time and budget to be applied to the detailed requirements. Manage the budget properly, and ensure module is completed successfully. It is actually not completed if there are many critical defects raised in the SIT (System Integration Testing).
For example in engineering or construction projects, where you wait for vendor drawings to be submitted and they are not submitted all at once. The time set up for review might be different from actuals, due to difference in circumstances at the time submittals were received. Also, the person or persons doing the review may not be able to devote 100% of their time due to other constraints such as working on multiple projects.

In software development, if you split the task into very small manageable chunks, integration at every small piece of coding and performing integration testing is not a usual practice in waterfall model. However, the software will not satisfy the requirement unless the module is working fine when it is integrated. Typically it happens when all the modules are completed. Hence, measuring performance during the build phase at module level using EVM is not the correct indicator. Unit and integration testing are 2 different activities. The completion of each is a separate activity with its own budget. Projects should be planned based on effort but scheduled based on duration. An x hour effort task only means x hours will be charged. It doesn’t mean it will be finished in x hours it could be a more than that. Resource utilization must be factored in.

There can be several approach for project performance measurement. Requirement of project from client should be discussed and finalized. After scope finalization, the project manager should share the plan for release of each module to client immediately after unit testing and a week or so buffer time to incorporate the minor requirement gap suggested from client. Once all the modules have been released, time required for testing and integration can be considered, after which end to end demo and UAT time can be estimated. Tracking the development according to the plan is a wise approach for measuring project performance and necessary risk mitigation measures should be planned back end to avoid the unusual circumstances.

About Aditi Malhotra

Aditi Malhotra is the Content Marketing Manager at Whizlabs. Having a Master in Journalism and Mass Communication, she helps businesses stop playing around with Content Marketing and start seeing tangible ROI. A writer by day and a reader by night, she is a fine blend of both reality and fantasy. Apart from her professional commitments, she is also endearing to publish a book authored by her very soon.

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