Project Environment Tools & Techniques (5) Flashcards
What is Data Handling 3 step process?
1) Data Gathering / Collection 2) Data Analysis 3) Data Presentation
What are steps to effective Data Gathering / Collection?
1) identify issues or opportunities to collect data
2) select issues and/or opportunities and set goals, prepare a plan, approach and methods to collect the data and finally collect data
What are the Data Gathering techniques?
- Benchmarking; Brain storming, focus groups
- Interviews
- Questionnaires and surveys
- Check lists
- Check sheets
- Brain writing (6-3-5)
- Statistical sampling
- Decision Making; multi-criteria decision making
DG: Benchmarking
Comparing busines processes and performance metrics to industry bests and best practices from other companies
A lot of techniques are available for benchmarking..
A couple of them are: Brainstorming and Focus Groups
DG: BM: Brainstorming
Where a group of people meet to generate new ideas and solutions around a specific domain of interest.
Ideas of all kinds are gathered without prejudice and then evaluated.
DG: BM: Focus Groups
Gathering of selected but diverse people that participate in a planned discussion/research in guided or open discussion in area of interest
DG: Interviews
usually face to face and in person
DG: Questionnaires and surveys
Basically it is a list of survey questions asked to respondents and designed to extract specific information
DG: Brain writing (generating ideas)
it is called 6-3-5 technique.
It consists of 6 participants supervised by a moderator who are required to write down 3 ideas on a specific worksheet within 5 minutes.
The result/outcome after 6 rounds, during which participants swap their worksheets passing them on to the team members sitting at their right, is 108 ideas generated in 30 minutes.
DG: Check sheets
“Tally sheet” worksheet
DG: Check list
“To-do” list
DG: Multicriteria decision making (MCDM)
Considered a complex decision-making (DM) tool involving both quantitative and qualitative factors.
(Conflicting criteria are typical in evaluating options i.e.. cost v quality)
DG: Voting/group decision making
- Unanimity: everyone agrees
- Majority: More than 50% agree
- Plurality: largest block in a group agrees
- Dictatorship: one person makes the decision
DG: Statistical Sampling
a predetermined number of observations are taken from a larger population.
In statistics quality assurance, and survey methodology, sampling is the selection of a subset of individuals in a population to estimate characteristics of the entire population
DA: Data Analysis Techniques
- Alternative Analysis
- Assumptions and constraints Analysis
- Cost and quality
- Quality Cost
- Cost benefit Analysis
- Decision Tree Analysis
- Document Analysis
- Earned Value Analysis
- performance review Analysis
- influence diagrams
- Iteration Burn Down Chart
- Iteration Burn Up Chart
- Make or Buy Analysis
- process Analysis
- Root Cause Analysis
- Reserve Analysis
DA: Alternative analysis
Evaluation of different choices available to achieve a PM objective.
Analytical comparison of factors like (cost, risks, effectiveness, shortfalls, etc.)
DA: Assumptions and constraints analysis
Assumptions are planning statements or hypothesis, scenarios.
Identifies risk from inaccuracy, instability, inconsistency, or incompleteness of assumptions.
Constraints are restrictions and they are numbers
DA: Cost benefit analysis
Used to compare the expected costs of the project with its expected benefits using common metrics
DA: Cost of Quality
All costs incurred over the life of the product by investment in preventing nonconformance to requirements and failing to meet requirements
DA: Quality Cost
All costs incurred to maintain the same level of quality
DA: Decision Tree Analysis
These clearly lay out the problem so that all options can be challenged
DA: influence diagram analysis
Closely related to decision trees and often used in conjunction with them.
It contains a summary of information contained in the decision tree.
How are decision trees different from influence diagrams?
Influence diagrams show the dependencies among variable.
Decision trees offer much more detail about each possible decision.
DA: Earned Value Analysis/Earned Value Management (EVM)
An effective tool for project performance measurement on Schedule, Cost and Scope baselines
DA: EVM: Planned Value (PV)
According to the schedule, it’s the total amount of money planned to spend for the work
DA: EVM: Actual Cost (AC)
The actual cost of completed tasks
DA: EVM: Budget at Completion (BAC)
Original budget for the entire project
DA: EVM: Earned Value (EV)
EV = BAC x %complete
“The worth of the work done”
DA: EVM: Schedule Variance (SV)
How are we doing time-wise?
SV = EV - PV
>= 0 (ahead of schedule)
< 0 behind schedule
DA: EVM: Schedule Performance Index (SPI)
SPI = EV/PV
>=1 ahead of schedule
< 1 behind schedule
DA: EVM: Cost Variance (CV)
CV = EV - AC
>= 0 under budget
< 0 over budget
DA: EVM: Cost Performance Index (CPI)
CPI = EV / AC
>= 1 under budget
< 1 over budget
DA: EVM: Variance at Completion (VAC)
VAC = BAC - EAC
DA: EVM: Estimate At Completion (EAC)
EAC = AC / %completed
If the CPI is expected to be the same then… BAC/CPI
DA: EVM: Estimate to Complete (ETC)
ETC = EAC - AC
DA: EVM: To Complete Performance Index (TCPI)
TCPI = (BAC-EV) / (BAC-AC)
This is the projection of resource efficiency that must be achieved on the remaining work to meet the specified goal.
DA: EVM: “S” Curve analysis
A time series cumulative representation (line chart) of all PVs (comprised to = BAC) and tracking of cumulative expenses against planned values.
Expense to remain on or below to indicate below budget
DA: Performance Review Analysis
A technique that’s used to measure, compare, and analyze actual performance of working progress on the project against the baseline.
This uses EVM.
It integrates scope, cost and schedule measures to help the PM assess and measure project performance and progress
DA: Make or buy analysis
Should it be done internal or purchased external? I.e.. rent vs buy analysis
DA: Process Analysis
Identifies opportunities for process improvements.
It also examines problems, constraints, and non-value added activities that occurs during a process.
DA: Reserve analysis / contingency
Contingency refers to a future event or condition that is possible but cannot be predicted with certainty
Reserve analysis is used to determine the amount of contingency and management reserve needed for the project
2 types of contingency: Cost & Schedule
DA: Document Analysis
Qualitative research in which reports from various outputs of project control processes such as quality reports, test reports, performance report are interpreted by the researcher to give voice and meaning around an assessment.
Primary Source: first-hand account of event
Secondary Source: interpretation of events using research
DA: Iteration Burn Down Chart (agile methodology)
Tracking mechanism tool
Graphical representation of outstanding work. Work LEFT to do vs time
Useful to predict when all the work will be completed
Used to measure the teams progress in completing the project work
*It DOES NOT show the impact of scope creep from the project teams progress
DA: Iteration Burn Up Chart (agile methodology)
Tracking mechanism tool
Representation of work that HAS been completed
*The advantage of a burn up chart is the inclusion of the scope line
DA: Root Cause Analysis
Root Cause Analysis is a systematic process for identifying the root cause of problems.
The “5-whys” analysis.. Beginning with Why? And What cause the problem?
Then prompting many more “Why’s?”
Data Representation Techniques
- Affinity Diagram
- Cause and Effect diagrams
- Control Charts
- Flow Charts
- Histograms
- Logical Data Model
- Matrix Diagrams
- Mind Mapping
- Scatter Diagrams
- SIPOC Charts
- Run Charts
- Pareto Charts
- Tree Diagrams
- Interrelationship Diagrams
DR: Affinity Diagrams
Commonly used within PM.
Allows large numbers of ideas from brainstorming to be sorted into groups, based on their natural relationships, for review and analysis
DR: Cause and Effect Diagrams
aka. Fishbone diagram and Ishikawa diagrams
Stimulates thinking
Used to figure out what caused a defect
DR: Control Chart
Aka. Shewhart chart or process behavior charts
Specification limits are provided by the customer and the control limits are usually set by the team
If point within UCL and LCL then process is IN control
Rule of 7 - when 7 consecutive points fall within the CLs but on the same side of the mean, they must be addressed
Assignable Cause - a point that requires investigation (i.e.. rule of 7 applies)
DR: Flow Charts
Graphical rep of a process, showing how various elements of a system interrelate
DR: Histogram
graphical rep of a distribution of data (over relative frequencies)
DR: Hierarchical charts
Simply a way of organizing things that go from high to low 3 primary forms to consider in PM:
Work Break Down Structure (WBS)
Resource Break Down Structure (RBS)
Organizational Break Down Structure (OBS)
DR: SIPOC Charts
SIPOC = Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customers
Helps the owners agree on the boundaries for what will be worked on
Used in replacing software solution
DR: Logical Data Model
Logical schema Is a data model of a specific problem domain (think DB architecture schema and table relationships)
These represent the abstract structure of a domain of information
DR: Matrix Diagrams
Show the strengths of relationships between factors, causes and objectives that exist between the rows and columns that form the matrix
DR: Stakeholder Engagement Assessment Matrix
- Table View Format:*
1) Classify Each Stakeholder
2) Current Level of Engagement
3) Desired Level of Engagement
Example of assessing: Unaware, resistant, neutral, supportive, leading
DR: Probability and Impact Matrix
Conditionally formatted to indicate where risk is greatest.
It provides scores in areas for easy handling of these risks
DR: RACI / Responsibility Assignment Matrix
Responsible, Accountable, Consult, Inform
Roles and responsibilities chart
In a given row there can be an number of R, C, I’s but there should only be 1 A
Not associated with time
DR: Activity network diagram
Widely used in PM
Shows project progress
Advantages are: helps justify time estimate for project; shows interdependencies; helps in planning, organizing and controlling; shows workflow; identifies opportunities to compress the schedule
DR: TREE Diagram
Probability trees are useful for calculating combined probabilities.
DR: Scatter Diagram
Shows pattern of relationships (correlation)
Identify possible relationships between dependent and independent variables
DR: RUN Chart
Shows the history and pattern of variation
Tells you about trends in te Project by showing you what your data looks like on a line Chart
DR: Pareto Chart
Also called 80-20 rule
80% of defects are often cause by 20% of the causes
Histogram ordered by frequency of occurrences that show how many defects were generated by type or category of identified cause
DR: Interrelationship Diagrams
Drawn to show all the different relationships between factors, areas, or processes
Estimates Techniques - what 6 project constraints is the PM often challenged to align?
Scope, Time, Cost, Quality, Resources, Risk
What are some of the various estimate techniques?
- Expert Judgement
- Delphi Technique
- Analogous Estimation also called Top Down
- Bottom up Estimation
- Parametric Estimation
- 3 Point Estimate also called PERT Estimation
- Agile Estimating Technique (Story Point Count)
a. T-shirt sizes
b. Planning Poker
c. Affinity mapping / sizing
ET: Expert Judgement
SMEs (industry knowledge)
Advantage is no need to spend money
Useful when you do not have enough time to conduct detailed analysis
ET: Delphi Technique
SMEs but they would like to be anonymous
ET: Top-Down / Analogous
Using actual cost of previous, similar activities as the basis for estimating the cost of a future activity
ET: Bottom-up Estimating
Used when the project work is well defined. It uses WBS and activity list
ET: Parametric Estimating
Using Mathematical model as basis to estimate
ET: 3 point / PERT estimating
Using Pessimistic (P) Optimistic (O) and Most Likely (M) numbers
Easy and accurate approach
PERT = (P + 4M + O) / 6
Most Agile estimation techniques use relative units. Instead of estimate dollars or days directly they use “points”. What is a “Story Point”?
In simple terms, it is a number that tells the team about the difficulty level of the story
ET: Agile Estimating Techniques
- T-Size Estimation (XS, S, M, L, XL)
- Planning Poker (Fibonacci sequence)
- Affinity Estimate (Grouping similar items)
ET: Agile: T-Size
Items are categorized into t-shirt sizes.
If needed, the sizes can be given numerical values once complete.
The decision about the size is based on an open and mutual collaborative discussion.
ET: Agile: Planning Poker
All participants use Fibonacci sequence.
Voting is done anonymous and discussion is raised when there are large differences.
Voting is repeated until the whole team reaches consensus about the accurate estimation
ET: Agile: Affinity Estimate
Items are grouped by similarity where similarity is some dimension that needs to be estimated.
This is usually very physical activity and requires a small number of items (20-50 is good range).
The groupings are then associated with numerical estimates if desired
What is work performance data?
Raw data of The projects status
Current status of various Project parameters
This info is a prerequisie to creating work Perofomance information
What is work performance information?
Analyzed in context and integrated based on relationships across areas.
Examples- CV, SV, CPI, SPI, etc.
What is Work performance report(s)?
Representation of work performance information intended to generate decisions or raise issues, actions/awareness.
Examples:
status reports
recommendations
electronic dashboards
updates
Performance Reports: Status Report
What the project team has accomplished in relation to schedule and budget
Performance Reports: Variance Report
Compares actual project results with planned or expected results.
Widely used to analyze cost and schedule variances.
Performance Reports: Trend Analysis Report
Inspects project results over a period of time, to predict future variances
Performance Reports: Progress Report
Contains how much the project team has accomplished
Performance Reports: Forecast Report
Predicts future project status and progress
Performance Reports: Earned Value Analysis Report
Integrates scope, cost (or resources), and schedule measures to help the project team assess project performance
