Planning factors for consideration in Estimation and planning techniques: -
a. Estimation
i. Complexity:
Intuitively the more complex the longer time it will take to produce a product, usually
software in this case. Various metrics have been produced but they still rely on estimates
themselves. These measures have been found to correlate with the number of source
statements in the product produced. Increasing complexity requires more effort and
higher fault rates.
ii. Skill of team members:
This has a major influence on the effectiveness of effort applied. Studies in this are
indicate a 1: 7 ratio between best and worst programmers. High-achievement
environments also appear to have an effect probably because they attract more high
achievers.
iii. Elapsed time of project:
The longer the project takes to deliver its final results, the more likely it is that the
environment or business conditions will have changed during the lifecycle. This leads to
ever changing objectives, requirements and constraints requiring replanning,
respecification, redesign, redevelopment retesting etc., and disaster. Short projects do not,
in general, suffer these problems. Deliver large projects in suitable chunks if at all possible.
iv. Staff turnover:
Loss of key staff can significantly affect project schedules and costs as experience leaves
a team. Also there is an effect on existing team members. New staff require time to
cover a learning process.
v. New methodologies/technology:
Have to be learnt and experienced by team members which takes time and should be
tested on short projects to gain that experience. Management and utilization of the new
methods and technology is also an important consideration.
vi. Size of team:
Larger teams require better intercommunication skills. Tasks are not necessarily easily
divisible and resources can display great variations in productivity (see ii above).
b. Planning techniques:
i. Work breakdown structures:
Creation of an initial simple list of major activities and their estimated durations. These
major activities can then be broken down to form a more detailed Work Breakdown
Structure (WBS) giving a better understanding of how this level of detail will be
accomplished.
This WBS still does not show when activities will commence and finish and if certain
activities can be carried out in parallel.
ii. Gantt and Milestone Charts:
Gantt charts are a series of horizontal bars drawn to represent activities whose length is
proportional to the activity duration. They are simple and effective and show time along
the horizontal axis with vertical bars that depict tasks or activities and indicate their
estimated start and finish times. Milestone charts are similar but do not show start and
duration but only the planned completion dates of events. Gantt charts do not show the
dependencies of one or more activities on other activities.
iii. Networks:
They allow the portrayal of the dependencies between tasks graphically, utilizing a
network of nodes and lines. There are a variety of notations that can be used such as
activities -on-arrow or activities-on-node. Critical path Analysis uses a network to
establish those activities which are critical to the early delivery of the final product. This
enables project managers an important tool for identification of critical tasks. The use of
project planning software is important to monitor the ever-changing project progress.
Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) was developed using a statistical
duration estimation technique for tasks which was the major contribution of the PERT
approach.
gregorymasila answered the question on February 15, 2018 at 17:06
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(i.) Corrective maintenance;
(ii.) Adaptive maintenance;
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Date posted: February 15, 2018. Answers (1)
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Date posted: February 15, 2018. Answers (1)
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Date posted: February 15, 2018. Answers (1)