The IIL Blog

OCTOBER 17, 2023

Benchmarking Identifying a project performance indicator or practice, then assessing it against industry standards or best practices. Bottom-up Estimating A project estimation technique that leverages tactical-level team members/subject matter experts (SMEs) to break down tasks into smaller components to create a more accurate estimate.

Development Team Review 148

Development Team Review Project Life Cycle Underperforming Technical Team Estimate 148

Herding Cats

APRIL 29, 2017

What is an estimate? An estimate as a noun is an approximate calculation or judgment of the value, number, quantity, or extent of something. An estimate as a verb is to roughly calculate or judge the value, number, quantity, or extent of. But those estimates, nouns, and verbs themselves's have other attributes.

Estimate 46

Estimate Risk Management Risk SCRUM 46

Herding Cats

OCTOBER 11, 2016

There is a current rash of suggestions on how to improve the performance of software projects. This is from one of our presentations from a International Cost Estimating and Analysis Association meeting on the same topic. I'd suggest the Principles for project success on non-trivial software efforts are universal.

Performance Measurement 28

Performance Measurement Aerospace 2006 Estimate 28

Herding Cats

AUGUST 27, 2017

There's a recent post titled Four Fallacious Reasons to Estimate. It lists the usual suspects for why those spending the money think they don't have to estimate how much they plan to spend when they'll be done producing the value they've been assigned to produce for that expenditure. Let's look at each one in more detail.

Estimate 46

Estimate Software Review Underperforming Technical Team Technical Review 46

Herding Cats

JULY 9, 2018

The domain I work in is categorized as Software Intensive System of Systems (SISoS). The development of the software and sometimes the development of the hardware is done in an agile manner, using one of several Agile development methods - SAFe, Scrum for example. Cost, Schedule, and these measures are tightly interconnected.

2001 31

2001 Software Estimate Performance Measurement 31

Herding Cats

JULY 9, 2018

The domain I work in is categorized as Software Intensive System of Systems (SISoS). The development of the software and sometimes the development of the hardware is done in an agile manner, using one of several Agile development methods - SAFe, Scrum for example. Cost, Schedule, and these measures are tightly interconnected.

2001 28

2001 Software Estimate Performance Measurement 28

ProProfs Project Management

JANUARY 21, 2020

The amount of money allocated to a specific project is referred to as the project budget. It refers to any prediction or estimation made on a project’s status, including how it will unfold in the future. The shortest time estimated to complete a specific project task or activity is known as optimistic duration. Delphi Technique.

Underperforming Technical Team 111

Underperforming Technical Team Estimate Risk Management Defining 111

Workamajig

JUNE 11, 2019

A robust PM system might tell you how a project is doing at any moment, but it can’t tell you how the organization or its constituent people are performing. Measuring and monitoring project management metrics fills this gap. The tools you’re using to measure the metric must have a low error rate. Measuring Planned Value is easy.

Estimate 93

Estimate Budget Infrastructure Performance Measurement 93

Herding Cats

OCTOBER 12, 2018

The original agile author's quote shows that systems engineering is missing from his development of software using Agile. In most of the software development, this notion is missing - hence the quote that What is divided from How. In Earned Value Management paradigm, progress is always measured as physical percent complete.

Engineering 32

Engineering Performance Measurement Underperforming Technical Team Risk Management 32

MPUG

SEPTEMBER 21, 2020

A product manager, who works for a large aircraft manufacturing organization in the United States, follows a hybrid model of development and, with his team, releases a new version of aircraft handling software every couple of weeks. In EVM terminology, baseline is further defined as the performance measurement baseline (PMB).

Underperforming Technical Team 59

Underperforming Technical Team Agile Performance Measurement PMI 59

Herding Cats

DECEMBER 4, 2017

Measures of Performance - are performance measures that characterize physical or functional attributes relating to the system operation, measured or estimated under specific conditions. Measures of Performance. The Technical Performance Measures.

2005 37

2005 Performance Measurement Closing Controlling 37

Herding Cats

JUNE 19, 2017

The Cone of Uncertainty is a framing assumption used to model the needed reduction in some parameter of interest in domains ranging from software development to hurricane forecasting. The Cone of Uncertainty as a Technical Performance Measure. The Cone of Uncertainty as a Technical Performance Measure.

Technical Review 35

Technical Review Performance Measurement Underperforming Technical Team Estimate 35

Herding Cats

JULY 24, 2017

The paper on the Cone of Uncertainty is used by many in the No Estimates community as an example of why estimates are of little use. In this paper, there is data that does not follow the Cone of Uncertainty, in that the uncertainty of the estimates does not reduce as the project proceeds. Then there is some analysis.

2007 42

2007 2012 2006 2008 42

Herding Cats

JANUARY 19, 2018

Have sufficient Contingent Budget and Management Reserve to cover the cost variances from the naturally occurring cost behaviors, event-based impacts on cost, or cover things that go wrong with the Risk Cost coverage. Have sufficient Technical Performance Measures margin to cover the required performance measure of the Capabilities.

Performance Measurement 31

Performance Measurement Estimate Finance Manufacturing 31

Herding Cats

MARCH 4, 2017

This is an immutable principle that impacts planning, execution, performance measures, decision making, risk, budgeting, and overall business and technical management of the project and the business funding the project no matter the domain, context, technology or any methods. Abstracted from [3].

2010 28

2010 2007 Estimate Aerospace 28

Herding Cats

FEBRUARY 9, 2018

I've seen estimates abused by bad managers, so let's NOT estimate and that will fix the behavior of Bad Managers." While the human behaviors are real and observable, conjecturing that decisions can be made in the presence of uncertainty without estimating the outcome of those decisions, there is no principle to support that conjecture.

Underperforming Technical Team 44

Underperforming Technical Team Estimate 2003 Software Review 44

Herding Cats

JANUARY 22, 2017

Barry Boehm's work in “Software Engineering Economics”. The Cone is a project management framework describing the uncertainty aspects of estimates (cost and schedule) and other project attributes (cost, schedule, and technical performance parameters). There can be cost and schedule performance measures as well.

Technical Review 28

Technical Review 2005 Estimate Software Review 28

Herding Cats

FEBRUARY 4, 2017

Barry Boehm's work in “Software Engineering Economics”. The Cone is a project management framework describing the uncertainty aspects of estimates (cost and schedule) and other project attributes (cost, schedule, and technical performance parameters). Estimates are needed but are subject to large level of uncertainty.

Technical Review 28

Technical Review Estimate 2005 Software Review 28

Wrike

JULY 1, 2020

For instance, if the IT team is developing new software for the company to use, HR may be asked to help build the training plan for user adoption. . The activities under the Project Human Resource Management process include estimating, planning, and acquiring necessary project resources, as well as managing and developing the project team.

Underperforming Technical Team 36

Underperforming Technical Team Software Review Performance Measurement Executing 36

Herding Cats

AUGUST 19, 2016

Rarely the case in software development, where Little's Law is misused often. The OP claimed Goodhart's Law was the source of most of the problems with software development. What this says is again when the measure becomes the target, that target impacts the measure, changing the target. . No measures of effectiveness.

Performance Measurement 28

Performance Measurement Estimate Software Developers Software Development 28

Herding Cats

JANUARY 14, 2017

Barry Boehm's work in “Software Engineering Economics”. The Cone is a project management framework describing the uncertainty aspects of estimates or any other project attribute (in this post, cost, schedule, and technical performance parameters). There can be cost and schedule performance measures as well.

Technical Review 28

Technical Review Software Review Underperforming Technical Team Risk Management 28

Herding Cats

JANUARY 17, 2017

Barry Boehm's work in “Software Engineering Economics”. The Cone is a project management framework describing the uncertainty aspects of estimates (cost and schedule) and other project attributes (cost, schedule, and technical performance parameters). There can be cost and schedule performance measures as well.

Technical Review 28

Technical Review 2005 Estimate Software Review 28

Herding Cats

JUNE 4, 2017

The test of the hypothesis for projects are the Measures of Effectiveness, Measures of Performance, Key Performance Parameters, and techTechnicalformance Measures used to assess progress to plan for the project. Estimating how much is the starting point. Estimating is part of risk management.

Estimate 39

Estimate Risk Management Risk Engineering 39

Herding Cats

JUNE 4, 2016

It is wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it – a costly myth. This is used in support of the fallacy that estimates aren't needed to make decisions in the presence of uncertanty. Technical Performance Measures. Who's Budget is it Anyway? Software Engineering is a Verb.

Software Engineering 28

Software Engineering Performance Measurement Finance Manufacturing 28

Herding Cats

JUNE 9, 2018

There is always lots of complaining about the biases introduced into managing projects and making the estimates needed to make project decisions. With these business principles of software development and projects in general, we can ask and answer five principles of project success. What Resources will be needed to reach Done?

Transportation 39

Transportation Software Engineering Finance 2011 39

Herding Cats

OCTOBER 16, 2018

For approaches that have been implemented on existing systems, obtaining such understanding may require measurement and analysis. For scenarios where the project under consideration does not yet exist, performance prediction using analytical modeling or simulation is necessary. This is the basis of Earned Value Management.

Aerospace 41

Aerospace Engineering 2012 2014 41

Herding Cats

JUNE 9, 2018

There is always lots of complaining about the biases introduced into managing projects and making the estimates needed to make project decisions. With these business principles of software development and projects in general, we can ask and answer five principles of project success. What Resources will be needed to reach Done?

Transportation 28

Transportation Software Engineering Finance 2011 28

ProjectManager.com

DECEMBER 24, 2019

Related: Project Scheduling Software. Estimate & Review the Time it Takes to Complete Each Task. In order to properly calculate your schedule, you’ll need to factor in all dependencies and estimate the time it will take to complete each task, as well as the project as a whole. How to Make a Good Project Schedule.

Software Review 283

Software Review Risk Management Risk Performance Measurement 283

Herding Cats

APRIL 16, 2019

Here's a collection of presentations, briefings, papers, essays, book content used to increase the Probability of Project Success (PoPS) I've written and applied over my career in the software-intensive system of systems and other domains. Project Performance Management (#PPM). Technical Performance Measures (#TPM).

Technical Review 42

Technical Review Performance Measurement Underperforming Technical Team Governance 42

Herding Cats

JULY 17, 2017

I work in a domain where estimates are made every single week. Estimate to Complete (ETC), Estimate at Completion (EAC), Estimated Completion Date (ECD) are the life blood of our software intensive system of systems programs. The PMB is a time phased, budgeted description of the project.

Estimate 34

Estimate Logistics Performance Measurement Governance 34

Workamajig

JANUARY 11, 2021

Actual dates are different from planned or estimated dates. Actual Effort: The actual effort spent to complete the activity, as opposed to the planned or estimated effort. Actual Expenditure: The actual expenditure spent to complete the activity, as opposed to the planned or estimated expenditure.

Underperforming Technical Team 78

Underperforming Technical Team Project Life Cycle Estimate Risk Management 78

Wrike

AUGUST 30, 2021

Without the right software to organize all the project information, projects can go off track — so having a PMIS (or project management information system) comes in handy. A PMIS is a software program or application that organizes and controls the flow of project data and information. What is PMIS? Project initiation phase.

Software Review 36

Software Review Estimate Budget Monitoring 36

Epicflow Blog

OCTOBER 8, 2019

Activity Duration Estimates Review . is a process of detecting risks related to the time allowances for activities in particular or a project in general, with the width of estimates range indicating a respective level of risk. Analogous Estimating . Budget at Completion (BAC) . Bottom-Up Estimating . Budgeting .

Software Review 45

Software Review Project Life Cycle Estimate Technical Review 45

Epicflow Blog

OCTOBER 8, 2019

Activity Duration Estimates Review . is a process of detecting risks related to the time allowances for activities in particular or a project in general, with the width of estimates range indicating a respective level of risk. Analogous Estimating . Budget at Completion (BAC) . Bottom-Up Estimating . Budgeting .

Software Review 40

Software Review Project Life Cycle Estimate Technical Review 40

Herding Cats

MARCH 30, 2019

Agile software development is framed by a manifesto , a set of 12 principles, several methods. These are all focused on developing software, delivering that software to those paying the developers. The customer is accountable for knowing what Done Looks Like (in Unity of measure meaningful to their domain).

Software Developers 39

Software Developers Software Development Agile Software 39

Herding Cats

APRIL 30, 2019

A recent lawsuit by Hertz Rental Car against Accenture has turned into a rallying cry by Agilest and No Estimates advocates. Of course, No Root Cause analysis has been performed by these advocates, but it makes good click bait for their followers. Were there: Measures of Effectiveness. Measures of Performance.

Software Review 41

Software Review Technical Review Engineering 2018 41

Herding Cats

APRIL 4, 2019

Research shows that for projects, especially software projects Aleatory uncertainty is the predominant source of risk. All making things smaller dos is show that you're late, over budget, and what you're building (Technical Performance Measures) doesn't work faster. Software Risk Management , Barry W.

Risk Management 43

Risk Management Risk 2003 2011 43