Project Monitoring
CS 414 – Software Engineering I
Donald J. Bagert
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology
January 30, 2003
Outline
Attack of the Amorphous Blob!
Milestones
Project Scheduling
Project Tracking
Project Monitoring
Summary
CS 414 Software Engineering I - Project Monitoring - January 30, 2003
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Attack of the Amorphous Blob!
In the Microsoft Word thesaurus, here are some
synonyms for amorphous:
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formless
shapeless
nebulous
vague
unstructured
Monitoring software projects with a poorly-defined
process is like trying to make sense of an amorphous
blob – bad news!
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Cartoon of the Day
Normy's Postulates of the Time/Job Continuum
From the syndicated comic strip “Making It: A Survival Guide for Today” by and © Keith
Robinson - no redistribution for profit allowed. http://www.makingit.com
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Milestones
Occur when some technical phase of the project has
been achieved
Question 1:
What milestones have the project
supervisors required of the teams?
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Milestones
Question 2:
What milestones has your project
manager required of your team?
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Milestones (continued)
Milestones are a good first step, but they are not
sufficient to ensure good project monitoring
You run the risk of just having a bunch of “mini-blobs”!
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Project Scheduling
In any project, development is done through the
execution of dozens (some hundreds) of tasks
These tasks are partially-ordered
Project planning determines tasks, effort, the
assumptions and outcomes, and partial task order
Project scheduling decides
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Who will do the tasks
When they will be done
How they relate to the milestones
…Which may require more planning! (it’s iterative)
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Project Tracking
Now the blob is starting to take shape!
Tracking of the project can now be done through both
the tasks and the milestones
Information is collected through various means
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Artifact status
Weekly reports
Formal presentations
Project management tools
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Project Monitoring
Project Monitoring is
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Tracking the project
Analyzing the information collected
Taking appropriate action, if necessary…
…which may include further planning and scheduling!
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Project Monitoring (continued)
Question 3:
How has (or can) project monitoring
help on your projects?
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Example
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Summary
Monitoring software projects with a poorly-defined
process is like trying to make sense of an amorphous
blob
Milestones occur when some technical phase of the
project has been achieved
Project scheduling decides who will do the tasks,
when they will be done, and how they relate to the
milestones
Project Monitoring is tracking the project, analyzing
the information collected, and taking appropriate
action, if necessary
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