Project resources allocation plan – for activities and software modules,

20 Project resources allocation plan – for activities and software modules,

for teams, development units, designated time periods, etc.

Project

Project resources utilization – by period or accumulated – as specified above.

Project resources utilization exceptions – by period or accumulated – as specified above.

progres

Updated resources allocation plans generated according to progress reports and correction measures applied.

s contro

Project budget control

Project budget plans – by activity and software module, for teams, devel- opment units, designated time periods, etc.

Project budget utilization reports – by period or accumulated – as speci- fied above.

Project budget utilization deviations – by period or accumulated – as specified above.

Updated budget plans generated according to progress reports and cor- rection measures applied.

Summary

(1) Explain the components of management’s control of project progress.

There are four main components of project progress control. Management is expect- ed to intervene and contribute to arriving at solutions in extreme cases. (a) Control of risk management activities refers to actions taken with respect to software risk items identified in the contract review and project plan documents as well as to risk items identified later, during the project’s progress. In practice, the software development team attempts to reduce risk by applying systematic risk management activities. Management controls these efforts through review of periodic reports and evaluation of progress information. This component of progress control directly contributes to achievement of the project’s functional and technical objectives.

(b) Project schedule control deals with compliance with the project’s approved and contractual timetables. Follow-up is based on milestones in addition to periodic reports, which together enable identification of delays in completion of planned activities. Special emphasis is given to customer-demanded milestones, as noted in the contract. Management tends to focus control on those critical delays that threaten to substantially interfere with project completion dates.

(c) Project resource control focuses on professional human resources; it also deals with software development and testing facilities, typically required by real-time software systems and firmware. Management exercises control on the basis of periodic reports of resources used, which should be viewed in terms of actual project progress.

(d) Project budget control is based on comparison of actual with scheduled costs.

The main budget items to be controlled are: – Human resources

Selected bib

– Development and testing facilities – Purchase of COTS software – Purchase of hardware – Payments to subcontractors.

liogr

Budget control requires input transmitted by milestone as well as periodic reports.

These reports permit early identification of the budget overruns that affect project

aphy

profitability. Ignorance of the other components of progress control is expected to substantially reduce the effectiveness of project progress control. The other com- ponents of process control are expected to identify deviant situations earlier than budget control is capable of doing.

(2) Explain the implementation issues associated with project progress control.

The implementation of project progress control requires: ■

The following to be defined for each project: – Person or management unit responsible for progress control – Frequency of progress reports required from the various project manage-

ment levels – Situations where project leaders are required to report immediately

to management – Situations where lower-level management is required to report immediately

to upper-level management. ■

Management audits of project progress which deal with how well reporting by project leaders and other managers, as well as management project control activities, are functioning.