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How to Create a Performance Measurement Baseline for Your Projects

ProjectManager.com

Ideally, project managers know better than to execute their project plans without a performance measurement baseline. A performance measurement baseline provides a window into the project that allows project managers to see roadblocks and resolve them before the project hits a dead end.

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Webinar Recap: Project Performance Measurement – Part 1: Overview Of Project Performance Measurements

MPUG

Please find below a transcription of the audio portion of Fletcher Hearn’s session, Project Performance Measurement – Part 1: Overview Of Project Performance Measurements, being provided by MPUG for the convenience of our members. Fletcher Hearns: What can be measured?

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Phrases Used for Technical Performance Measures

Herding Cats

All project progress is measured independent of resources expended - Mr. Gary Bliss, Director Performance Assessment and Root Cause Analysis (PARCA), US Department of Defense. Call me when you find a customer who thinks it is cheaper to not plan and forecast the short, medium, and long term expected performance in exchange for a planned cost, delivered at the needed date to fulfill the business mission. Measuring progress must be in units meaningful to the decision maker.

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Webinar Recap: Project Performance Measurement – Part 2: What to Measure and How to Report

MPUG

Please find below a transcription of the audio portion of Fletcher Hearn’s session, Project Performance Measurement – Part 2: What to Measure and How to Report, being provided by MPUG for the convenience of our members. This one covering, What to Measure and How to Report.

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Webinar Recap: Project Performance Measurement – Part 3: Using MS Project to Track and Report on Performance

MPUG

Please find below a transcription of the audio portion of Fletcher Hearn’s session, Project Performance Measurement – Part 3: Using MS Project to Track and Report on Performance, being provided by MPUG for the convenience of our members.

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Project Management, Performance Measures, and Statistical Decision Making

Herding Cats

There is a current rash of suggestions on how to improve the performance of software projects. Figure 1 - Planned Estimates versus Actual Performance from [1]. Each of these, while well meaning, are missing the means to confirm their credibility. They are many times end up being personal anecdotes from observations and local practices that may or may not be applicable outside those anecdotes and more importantly may not be statistically sound in principle, let alone practice.

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A Compendium of Works to Increase the Probability of Project Success

Herding Cats

Integrated Master Plan: The Foundation of Program Success , College of Performance Management, May 21, 2014. The Nine "I's" of Program Success ," College of Performance Management. Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, and Adjourning. Project Performance Management. Connecting the 5 Principles and 5 Practices of Performance-Based Project Management ® To Increase the Probability of Project Success. Building a Credible Performance Measurement Baseline.

2019 54
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5 Ways to Track and Measure Employee Performance

The Digital Project Manager

Monitoring performance is a matter of setting the right performance indicators, based on the type of work they do as well as the responsibilities have and tasks they perform to ensure the company’s continuous and successful operations. Some of the key questions you need to answer as you formulate employee performance measurement tools and practices include whether or not they are meeting personal objectives and whether they understand your major goals and expectations.

2017 126
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Increasing the Probability of Project Success

Herding Cats

These charts are an extract from the book Performance-Based Project Management: Increasing the Probability of Project Success and the abstracted training materials Handbook. Capabilities Earned Value Estimating Governance Management Performance-Based Project Management® Principles Requirements Risk Root Cause Analysis Technical Performance MeasuresIncreasing the Probability of Project Success Simple in Theory, Complex in Practice.

2017 81
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Compendium of Works to Increase Probability of Project Success

Herding Cats

Project Performance Management (#PPM). Technical Performance Measures (#TPM). Cost, Schedule, and Technical Performance Management (#CSTPM). The overarching theme is focused on defining what Done looks like, assessing progress toward Done in units of measure meaningful to the decision makers. Those units always start with Measures of Effectiveness and Measures of Performance. Project Performance Management.

2019 42
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Performance measures and flow

Scrum.org

We do however talk about my passion of Flow, the Professional Scrum with Kanban Guide and how i'm building a conference talk combining my passion of physical endurance with metrics to improve myself as an athlete and how that translates into the business performance of translating ideas into value. The legendary Steve Trapps has been talking to me for months about featuring in an interview.

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Is There an Underlying Theory of Software Project Management?

Herding Cats

Management Performance-Based Project Management® Planning Principles Project Management Requirements Risk Scheduling Technical Performance Measures TheoryHere's a paper that has been under constant development for several years now and is headed to a Journal and part of an upcoming book chapter. The motivation for the paper started when there were claims made the somehow agile software projects were different than other types of projects. In practice there are differences.

2018 48
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Deconstructing the Hertz and Accenture Debacle

Herding Cats

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. Key Performance Parameters. Did this Programmatic Architecture define all the player, what they were accountable for, the units of measure to assess the credibility, validity, quality, and compliance of their products with the PEP? Measures of Physical Percent Complete.

2019 41
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Decision Analysis - Ordinal and Cardinal Measures

Herding Cats

AHP is based on the principle that all measurements are relative. AHP provides a framework to make relative comparisons using a rational decision structure based on scaled pairwise comparisons (Borda Ranking) using a scale that converts stakeholder preferences and priorities into ratio measures. Using this method, the performance, cost, time, and risks of alternatives can be articulated as ratios that can then be compared with one another.

2018 47
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Principles, Processes, and Practices of Project Success

Herding Cats

What does Done look like in units of measure meaningful to the decision makers? What impediments will be encountered along the way to Done and what work must be performed to handle these impediments? What are the units of measures of progress to plan for each deliverable? Performance-Based Project Management® Principles Project Management Requirements Scheduling Systems Theory Technical Performance MeasuresPrinciples are timeless.

2017 53
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Performance-Based Project Management®

Herding Cats

Performance–Based Project Management ® integrates five critical program management process areas with – Cost, Schedule, and Technical Performance Measures. The inclusion of Technical Performance Measures (TPM) separates this approach from conventional methods based solely on managing cost and schedule. Done” is always defined in units of measure meaningful to the decision maker.

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How to Talk About Estimates

Herding Cats

We can't talk about estimates or estimate, without also talking about the precision and accuracy of the estimate (the noun) after we have performed the estimate (the verb). . Every month there is a Month End reports, both showing cumulative cost to date, cumulative schedule performance, and Physical Percent Complete. What is an estimate? An estimate as a noun is an approximate calculation or judgment of the value, number, quantity, or extent of something.

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4 Fallacious Reasons to Estimate and Why Those Are Fallacious

Herding Cats

I need an estimate because… I need to measure productivity. Although I understand measuring productivity could work well for repeatable activities, it's hard to believe it works well for abstract and, ultimately, non-repeatable tasks like software development. Thus, the common approach to "measure productivity" is to compare the estimates against what, in fact, happened. The audit, surveillance, performance reporting, measurement are at the core of all business processes.

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Project Versus Product in Agile Development

Herding Cats

But if the development work is a Project is a fixed period of performance, for a fixed (with margin) budget, and a fixed set of Capabilities, then the question is can agile be used to develop the software? Developers may be working on a Product, but the CFO is recording the work as a Project that has a bounded period of performance, a bounded budget, a bounded set of Capabilities, from which revenue will be generated.

2018 44
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Biases in Project Management and How to Remove Them

Herding Cats

What dos Done look like in units of measure meaningful to the decision makers? What are the measures of physical percent complete needed to inform the decision makers of progress to plan in order to take corrective or preventive actions to stay on plan? Decision Making Economics Estimating Governance Management Mathematics Performance-Based Project Management® Planning Principles Product Management Project Management Scheduling Technical Performance Measures

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Integrated Master Plan - Revisited

Herding Cats

Transparent – Comprehensible display of what needs to be done and how completion is measured. It is essential that the IMP represent the work that must be performed. If the IMP is being prepared as part of a proposal, then the Request for Proposal (RFP) and RFP attachments will be the primary documents to define the work to be performed. The IMP shows the Accomplishments and the measures of Accomplishments that are essential to get through a design review.

2017 42
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Value First, Requires Margin and Contingency

Herding Cats

NoEstimates Agile Decision Making Estimating Governance Planning Principles Scheduling Technical Performance MeasuresThere's a popular notion in Agile that says Focus on Value. The principles of microeconomics of decision making in the presence of uncertainty mandates you make estimates of how to achieve that Value in terms of cost and schedule, those three (and all) variables are random variables, usually driven by a stochastic process.

2018 40
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From Mission Capabilities to Done

Herding Cats

No matter the project domain or the technical development method, project success is dependent on knowing what Done looks like in units of measure meaningful to the decision maker. These measures are: Measures of Effectiveness (MOE) – are the operational measures of success that are closely related to the achievements of the mission or operational objectives evaluated in the operational environment, under a specific set of conditions.

2017 39
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Cone of Uncertainty Bibliography

Herding Cats

I work in a domain where the CoU is baked into the Integrated Program Performance Management (IPPM) processes flowed down from the buyer, in this case, the Federal Government. The CoU paradigm defines the needed reduction in uncertainty is some performance metric. It can be the needed performance of a measure - Effectiveness, Performance, Key Performance Parameter, or a Technical Performance Measures.

2017 35
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Risk Management in Five Easy Pieces, with Apologies to Jack

Herding Cats

Managing Cost, Schedule, & Technical Performance Risk Is The Basis Of Good Project Management. Certain information about key project cost, performance, and schedule attributes are often unknown until the project is underway. What are the “units of measure” for this increasing maturity? Using the Triangle Distribution for the costs and durations, a Monte Carlo simulation of the network of activities and their costs can be performed.

2017 42
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Connecting "What" with "How" - and the Failure to Understand the Principles of Systems Engineering and Systems Management

Herding Cats

Progress and Value are measured with the same in Earned Value Management. In Earned Value Management paradigm, progress is always measured as physical percent complete. This physical percent complete is measured as compliance with the Technical Performance Measures of the outcomes of the work efforts, that consume the budget for that work. The Measures of effectiveness. The Measures of Performance are. Key Performance Parameters.

2018 32
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INVEST, Scrum and Enterprise IT

Herding Cats

Cohesion is the measure of how well module fits together. The component may be performing more than one function. Informational cohesion: performs a number of functions, each with its own entry point, with independent code for each function, all performed on the same data structure. NoEstimates Decision Making Estimating Governance Management Planning Principles Product Management Project Management Requirements Strategy Systems Theory Technical Performance Measures

2018 32
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Increasing the Probability of Program Success

Herding Cats

Top Four Sources of Unfavorable Program Performance. Unrealistic Performance Expectations. Impacts of Risk on Program Performance. Be Clear About What the System is to Do in Units of Measure Meaningful to the Decision Makers. Capabilities Decision Making Estimating Governance Management Planning Principles Project Management Requirements Risk Root Cause Analysis Systems Theory Technical Performance Measures

2017 37
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Misinterpretations of the Cone of Uncertainty

Herding Cats

The Cone of Uncertainty as a Technical Performance Measure. Active reduction requires we have a desired reduction goal, perform the work, and measure progress toward the rduction goal. Management of this reduction work and measurement of the progress is a Close Loop Control System paradigm. Closed Loop Control, has a goal, an action, a measurement, and a corrective action. The Cone of Uncertainty as a Technical Performance Measure.

2017 35
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Fallacy of the Day

Herding Cats

Project Controls are Management Actions, either preplanned to achieve the desired result, or taken as a corrective measure prompted by the monitoring process. Project controls are concerned with the metrics of the project – quantities, time, cost, and other resources and their measurable beneficial outcomes for the project. In the Project Controls paradigm, Value is a measurable attribute of the project controls process - a Closed Loop Control measure.

2017 37
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Five Immutable Principles of Project Success

Herding Cats

Without these measures, Done will usually mean . Without these measures, Done will usually mean we ran out of time and money. . 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. Physical Percent Complete is the only measure of progress to plan. No matter the size of the project.

2017 39
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Cone of Uncertainty - Revisited

Herding Cats

We're writing two chapters in an upcoming Project Management Book, with a working title, The Gower Handbook of Project Performance for Agile, Waterfall and Everything in Between , edited by Mark Phillips. NoEstimates Debunking Estimating Management Mathematics Performance-Based Project Management® Planning Scheduling Technical Performance Measures

2012 29
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Biases in Project Management and How to Remove Them

Herding Cats

What dos Done look like in units of measure meaningful to the decision makers? What are the measures of physical percent complete needed to inform the decision makers of progress to plan in order to take corrective or preventive actions to stay on plan? Decision Making Economics Estimating Governance Management Mathematics Performance-Based Project Management® Planning Principles Product Management Project Management Scheduling Technical Performance Measures

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INVEST, Scrum and Enterprise IT

Herding Cats

Cohesion is the measure of how well module fits together. The component may be performing more than one function. Informational cohesion: performs a number of functions, each with its own entry point, with independent code for each function, all performed on the same data structure. NoEstimates Decision Making Estimating Governance Management Planning Principles Product Management Project Management Requirements Strategy Systems Theory Technical Performance Measures

2018 28
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Performance-Based Project Management®

Herding Cats

Principles and Practices of Performance-Based Project Management® from Glen Alleman. Books Business Capabilities Decision Making Earned Value Economics Estimating Management Performance-Based Project Management® Planning Principles Project Management Root Cause Analysis Scheduling Technical Performance MeasuresSuccessfully managing projects, not matter the domain, the size, the development or engineering method starts with a set of Principles, Practices, and Processes.

2017 34
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Definition of Done

Herding Cats

These Measures have Little meaning to the Decision Makers. Do those capabilities meet the Measures of Effectiveness needed to accomplish the mission of the system in operational units of success closely related to the achievements of the mission or operational objectives evaluated in the operational environment, under a specific set of conditions? These are attributes to assure the system has the capability and capacity to perform.

2017 28
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The Risk of Inaction (ROI)

Green Project Management

Investopedia explains Return on investment (ROI) as a performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency or profitability of an investment or compare the efficiency of a number of different investments.

Risk 407
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Key Components Of Project Portfolio Management

WorkOtter

Performance Measurement Every enterprise, no matter how small, needs to measure its performance. It is key that project portfolio management components can display and react to performance measurements reasonably at any moment.

2023 78
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6 Tools and Techniques for Controlling Risks

Project Risk Coach

Technical performance measurement. The technical performance measurement is a measurement of the technical accomplishments. And they regularly perform the control activities to keep the project healthy. Changes in project risks are inevitable. As a project progresses, the probability and impact of current risks change, new risks emerge, and residual risks may increase or decrease.

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What is the Management Reserve for Project Budgets?

Project Risk Coach

An amount of the project budget or project schedule held outside of the performance measurement baseline for management control purposes, that is reserved for unforeseen work that is within scope of the project. Have you ever run out of money for a project?

Budget 285