Project management tip of the month

The estimating accuracy principle:

Estimates don't guarantee accuracy, they only reflect soundness of data

An introduction to resource management and quality

control

Resource typesResources fall into the following main types:

Time Money

ManpowerMaterials and equipmentInformation

Resource management is all about making sure

that the resources needed to carry out a given project task are available when required.

Resource categories For each resource type you also need to consider if it is:

• An exhaustible resource– Time, cannot replenish time !– Commodities (Oil,Gas,coal etc)– Money

• A replenishable resource– Manufactured goods– Building materials– Money

• A re-usable resource– Plant & Machinery– People

With an exhaustible or replenishable resource, such as money, you will generally want to know about the cumulative consumption throughout the project life

Resource requirements

• Money– How much will be needed?– In what form? – How long will it be required for? – What will be the source?– How will it be used, and is this compatible

with the source?

Resource schedulingWeek number 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Specify business benefits

Specify functional specification

Specify technical design

Number of staff and type

Bus cons

Syst analy

Syst design

1

Activity

Gantt Charts

Resource scheduling

• Resource scheduling, or resource levelling, is– A way of determining schedule dates on which activities should

be performed – To smooth demand for resources – Or avoid exceeding given limits or availability

• Depending on the arrangement of activities on the project – You may be able to do this without jeopardizing the end date – More often it means moving the end date – i.e. prolonging the project

Resource scheduling

• Resource levelling aims to – Examine resource requirements during

specific periods of the project – Minimize the variations in resource demand – To improve efficiency – Or reflect reality

• In other words – Modify resource loading for each unit of time,

i.e. day, week or month

Resource scheduling

• Resource scheduling is not that simple – You can only redistribute the same resource

• You cannot substitute a different resource • Unless it has the same skill set

– The project's new end date may exceed the mandated end date

• Requiring more juggling

– Resource levelling may change the route of the critical path

• Requiring a recalculation of the schedule network

Resource scheduling

• Rules of thumb – Doubling a resource may save only 25% of

the time – The last 10% may take 20% of the total effort

or more

Resource scheduling

• If the project is time limited – The total cost may increase

• If the project is cost limited – You may simply have to "find" more resources

when needed – Or even cut back on the project scope

• If the project is resource limited – You may have to negotiate more time, more

money, or both

Resource scheduling

• Where do I look to improve my schedule? – Apply minimum late start time – Apply minimum late finish time – Look for highest resource demand – Redistribute to achieve best resource usage – Look for opportunities for parallel activities

• To provide more float

Latest

Finish

Day 39

Float

26

Latest

Start

36

Activity Description

Hardware design

Earliest

Finish

Day 13

Estimated Duration

3days

Activity ID

E

Activity span

29

Earliest

Start

10

span = latest finish – earliest start

float = latest finish date – earliest start date – duration

Resource scheduling & FloatNetwork Node

Float in project management is the amount of time that a task can be delayed by, without causing a delay to subsequent tasks

Quality managementQuality Management includes: The quality system Quality assurance Quality planning Quality controlThe starting point for a project’s quality

managementis often the customer’s quality expectations.The customer may recommend a “Quality

standard”they would like the project to adhere to.

Defining quality A formal definition of quality is:

“the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.”

(BS 4778,1987)

A more informal definition of quality is that a product or service must be “Fit for purpose”

The cost of quality

The costs of quality:– prevention costs – appraisal costs – remedial work costs – failure costs– re-planning costs– additional resources costs– administration costs

Quality management

• The need for project quality management depends on a number of basic considerations – The complexity and maturity of the technology – The nature of the project production process – The complexity of the product's characteristics – The end use of the facility, system, service or product – And the extent to which failure would

• Have significant economic impact • Result in safety hazards to the public • To operating personnel • Or all three

A quality system

“A quality system has an organisational structure,

procedures and processes to implement quality

management; both the customer and suppliers may have their own quality systems”

“Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE 2TM; OCG”

Quality assurance

“All those planned and systematic actions necessary to provide adequate confidence that a product/service will satisfy the given requirements for quality.

For effectiveness it usually requires a continuing evaluation of factors that affect the adequacy of the design or specification for intended applications as well as verifications and audits.”

(BS477, 1987)

Quality planning

“Quality Planning establishes the objectives and requirements for quality and lays out the activities for the application of the quality system.

In the Project Initiation Document (P.I.D) the quality methods for the whole project are defined in the Project Quality Plan”

“Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE 2TM; OCG”

Quality control

• The goods or services produced are measured against a standard and what is and is not acceptable is decided upon.

• Any necessary corrective action has to be decided upon and taken in order to bring the quality of the product or service up to the standard set.

• Any corrective action taken or problems found are fed back into the project to ensure that the project management learns from the quality process.

I.T. Quality control

Feasibility study

User Requirements

System Design

Program Design

Code

Program testing

System testing

User Acceptance

Corrections

Corrections

Corrections

Corrections Review

Project development phases Project testing phases

I.T. Quality control

• Test Process Management (TPM)– Uses the “V” Model– Quality control points exist for every stage within the

life cycle– Faults found earliest in this process are least costly to

correct, generally under 20% of the cost of correcting the same error post implementation.

– The objective is to ensure every element of the system is validated at the earliest possible stage, to the quality criteria set out by the business managers

– The benefits of this level of control and management over quality assurance are compounded when changes are introduced.

IT quality approaches • Increased visibility: Peer to peer reviews

– Independent experts/consultants

• Procedural structure: Software development methodologies, SSADM, UML, etc– Software systems analysis & design methods– Unified Modelling language

• Checking intermediate stages: Checking the correctness of work throughout its development

“Software Project Management” Bob Hughes & Mike Cotterell

Software quality techniques

Inspection by co-workers:• Effective way of removing superficial errors• Motivates developers to produce better

structured and self explanatory code• Helps spread good programming practice• Enhances team spirit

“Software Project Management” Bob Hughes & Mike Cotterell

The “Fagin Method”The “Fagin Method” is named after the IBM employee who pioneered the technique and is a formalized procedure for checking work led by an independent “Moderator”Inspections are carried out on all major deliverables• All type of defects are noted - not just logic or

functional errors• Inspections carried out by colleagues at different

levels• Inspections are carried out using pre-defined

steps• Inspection meetings do not last longer than 2 hrs

The “Fagin Method”• The inspection is led by a moderator who has

had specific training in the technique• Participants have defined roles• Checklists are used to assist the fault finding

process• Material is inspected at an optional rate of 100

lines per hour• Statistics are maintained so that the

effectiveness of the inspection process can be monitored

“Software Project Management” Bob Hughes & Mike Cotterell

An introduction to resource management and quality

control