pmp

1. MIS REPORTING
Management information system is reporting of data’s to the
Senior level management to take decisions and managing and
Controlling of business. MIS reporting
is a periodical presentation to the management of reports
containing appropriate data as required by the management.
It is an abstract form of reporting, which reflects the all of
the report in a very short. There are many tools and
Techniques to develop MIS report, like MIS Reporting tools,
MS Excel (pivot tables and charts), and many more.
S Curve
The S Curve is a well known project management tool and it consists in "a display
of cumulative costs, labour hours or other quantities plotted against time".The
name derives from the S-like shape of the curve, flatter at the beginning and end
and steeper in the middle, because this is the way most of the projects look like.
The S curve can be considered as an indicator and it's used for many applications
related to project management such as: target, baseline, cost, time etc. That's
why there is a variety of S Curves such as:
-Cost versus Time S Curve;(appropriate for projects that contain labour and non-labour
tasks).
-Target S Curve;(This S Curve reflects the ideal progress of the project if all tasks
are completed as currently scheduled)
-Value and Percentage S Curves;(Percentage S Curves are useful for calculating
the project's actual percentage complete)
-Actual S Curve;(This S Curve reflects the actual progress of the project to date)
In order to be able to generate a S Curve, A Baseline and Production Schedule
are necessary because they contain important information for each task: -the
Baseline - contains information about Actual Start date and finish date.
-The Baseline - can also contain information about Man Hours and costs.
-The Production Schedule contains information about the actual percentage
complete.

2. There are some software scheduling packages that generate automatically S
Curves. For example MS Project does not have this possibility so a third party
software application is needed to process the Baseline and Production Schedule
data and generate the needed S Curve.( for example S Curve Generator that
integrates with MS EXcel to generate S Curves).
think 80% of the project work is completed in 40% of the total time while it’s the
remaining 20% that takes 60% of the time. Those of you who ever had to manage a
project will notice that the it starts very slow and then it picks up speed and you see a lot
of progress being made everyday but suddenly towards the end it slows down again and
you feel that your team has lost the zest or they are slacking behind. But is this not
expected ?
if you plot the progress of the project (% of feature completed with time), you will see it
takes up a S-curve as below:
Let me explain why initiation and closing is slow.
During Initiation
Initiation refers to the starting phase of the project when you receive the notification that
the project has started. It needs to be understood that unlike race-course horses,
developers cannot dash out the gate at full throttle towards the finish line. They have just
been allocated and they don’t even know what the project is all about. Here are some
reasons which will slow down the progress during the starting phase:
Team Establishment
This is not about allocation of people. The team goes through a whole stage of Forming-
Storming-Norming-Performing (Bruce Tuckman). This duration of this cycle depends on
both the size of the team as well as diversity of domains/specialization within the project.
Ambiguity in Requirements
From no documentation to hundreds of pages of requirements, but I am yet to see a
requirement document that is understood exactly in the same way by all people. There are
multiple round of discussion between the team members and with the client
during which the progress seems frozen.
Tools and Environment
In certain cases the project is dependent on tools and environment which is hard to
duplicate in our development environment. I once remember a search engine portal
project that we were doing in which our job was to make some enhancements. The current
system extensively based on XPATH queries and we lost 10 days in just setting up the
system on our server. In another project we are doing, the client had four different
versions of the same application and the application called files (PHP includes) from
multiple versions. We had to set up a team of 3 people for 7 days just to clean up the code
and set it up on our servers.
During Closing
Closing is the abyss between when a developer says the job is complete and when you
say that the job is complete. Here is what happens:
Product Integration
Often we have to wait for days (or weeks) for simple things like Payment Gateway info,
SSL Certificate or information from 3rd party vendors on proprietory systems (web
services) that the system must be intergrated with. Sometimes, server does not supports
parts of codes that we have written and upgradation of server or rework of code is
required.
Note: CMMI required all integration requirements and environment to be planned earlier
but still, if your hosting company responds to request within 5 days then what are we
supposed to do?

3. Defects
As more features are added into the system, more bugs are also introduced. As the bug
database takes a life of its own, there is a tendency to increase the mix of bugs to new
client-valued functions being coded. The result is that the overall speed of the team is
maintained but an increasing percentage of the effort is devoted toward fixing bugs or
adding “bells and whistles”
Enhancements
Buy enhancement I am referring to all the things a developer had to do which he did not
knew he will have to do when he started the project. This mostly comes in the form of –
“Of course it was supposed to be there!” and with some luck we will be able to point back
to requirement document and say “nope!”. The problem is that time is spent in these
negotiations and discussions which would rather be spent on stabilizing the current set of
features that the product already has.
At the end, I remember what one client told me – “Project is like painting the wall – it’s
the corners that take most of the time!”
S-curves
As might be expected, the foregoing factors have a considerable impact on total
production especially as represented by the more familiar output or progress S-curves.
A complete determination of the project status and projections to final completion
for management action can perhaps best be tracked by an integrated
cost/schedule system or technique known as "Earned Value and Performance
Measurement" (Kerzner 1989). The earned value, i.e. the Budgeted Cost of Work
Performed (BCWP), is determined at regular intervals during the course of the
project. At the same time, the Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP) is also
determined, and both are compared to the baseline plan which is the Budgeted
Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS). By presenting these results graphically as S-curves,
the variances in cost and schedule can readily be seen, and by analyzing
the results relative to the baseline plan S-curve, estimates can be made of
anticipated variations at completion. The key elements of the technique are
shown
Earned Value
Earned Value is an approach where you monitor the project plan, actual work and
work-completed value to see if a project is on track. Earned Value indicates how
much of the budget and time should have been spent, with regards to the amount
of work done to date.
The user guide for Microsoft Project 2003 defines Earned Value as, "a method for
measuring project performance. It indicates how much of the budget should have
been spent, in view of the amount of work done so far and the baseline cost for
the task, assignment, or resources."
Earned Value is also known as Performance Measurement, Management by
Objectives, Budgeted Cost of Work Performed and Cost Schedule Control
Systems. Current performance is the best indicator of future performance and
therefore using trend data it is possible to forecast cost or schedule overruns at
quite an early stage in a project.

4. Budget Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS) – the spending plan; the dollars (or hours)
planned for the effort. The cumulative planned expenditures would equal the total dollars
budgeted for the effort for the specified time period. With EVM, the spending plan serves
as a performance baseline for making predictions about cost and schedule variance and
estimates of completion.
· Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP) – actual spending; the cumulative
actual expenditures on the effort viewed at regular intervals within the project
duration.
· Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP) – earned value, the measure of
technical accomplishment; the cumulative budgeted value (dollars or hours) of
work actually completed. It may be calculated as the sum of the values budgeted for
the work packages actually completed, or calculated as the percent work complete
multiplied by the planned cost of the project.
Schedule variance
BCWP – BCWS
An indicator of how much a program is ahead of or behind schedule
Cost variance
BCWP - ACWP
SPI (Schedule performance index)
BCWP/ BCWS > 1 is good (ahead of schedule)
CPI (Cost performance index)
BCWP/ACWP > 1, means that the cost of completing the work is less than planned (good or
sometimes bad).
Having a CPI that is very high (in some cases, very high is only 1.2) may mean that the plan
was too conservative, and thus a very high number may in fact not be good, as the CPI is
being measured against a poor baseline. Management or the customer may be upset with the

5. planners as an overly conservative baseline ties up available funds for other purposes, and
the baseline is also used for manpower planning.
Budget at Completion (BAC) – sum total of the time-phased budget. Synonymous with
“Performance Measurement Baseline”.
Estimate to Complete (ETC) – A calculated value, in dollars or hours, that represents the
cost of work required to complete remaining project tasks.
ETC = BAC – BCWP.
Estimate at Complete (EAC) – A calculated value, in dollars or hours, that represents the
projected total final costs of work when completed.
EAC = ACWP + ETC.
Earned value management
It is a project management technique for measuring project progress in an objective manner.
Earned value (EV) management is an integrated system of project management and
control that enables a Contractor and their customer to monitor the progress of a project
in terms of integrated cost, schedule, and technical performance measures
Earned Value
WBS
Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is a hierarchical structure used to organise
tasks for reporting schedules and tracking costs.
In a project or contract, the WBS is developed by starting with the end objective and
successively subdividing it into manageable components in terms of size, duration,
and responsibility (e.g., systems, subsystems, components, tasks, subtasks, and work
packages) which include all steps necessary to achieve the objective.
Work Packages
Work Packages are a small-defined set of tasks or activities that form part of an
overall project scope, usually the lowest level of the Work Breakdown Structure.
PERT
PERT is a method to analyze the involved tasks in completing a given project,
especially the time needed to complete each task, and identifying the minimum time
needed to complete the total project.
· Optimistic time (O): the minimum possible time required to accomplish a
task, assuming everything proceeds better than is normally expected
· Pessimistic time (P): the maximum possible time required to accomplish a
task, assuming everything goes wrong (but excluding major catastrophes).
· Most likely time (M): the best estimate of the time required to accomplish a
task, assuming everything proceeds as normal.
· Expected time (TE): the best estimate of the time required to accomplish a
task, assuming everything proceeds as normal (the implication being that the
expected time is the average time the task would require if the task were
repeated on a number of occasions over an extended period of time).
TE = (O + 4M + P) ÷ 6

6. · Float or Slack is the amount of time that a task in a project network can be
delayed without causing a delay - Subsequent tasks – (free float) or Project
Completion – (total float)
· Critical Path: the longest possible continuous pathway taken from the initial
event to the terminal event. It determines the total calendar time required for
the project; and, therefore, any time delays along the critical path will delay
the reaching of the terminal event by at least the same amount.
· Critical Activity: An activity that has total float equal to zero. Activity with
zero float does not mean it is on the critical path.
· Lead time: the time by which a predecessor event must be completed in order
to allow sufficient time for the activities that must elapse before a specific
PERT event reaches completion.
· Lag time: the earliest time by which a successor event can follow a specific
PERT event.
· Slack: the slack of an event is a measure of the excess time and resources
available in achieving this event. Positive slack would indicate ahead of
schedule; negative slack would indicate behind schedule; and zero slack would
indicate on schedule.

7. · Float or Slack is the amount of time that a task in a project network can be
delayed without causing a delay - Subsequent tasks – (free float) or Project
Completion – (total float)
· Critical Path: the longest possible continuous pathway taken from the initial
event to the terminal event. It determines the total calendar time required for
the project; and, therefore, any time delays along the critical path will delay
the reaching of the terminal event by at least the same amount.
· Critical Activity: An activity that has total float equal to zero. Activity with
zero float does not mean it is on the critical path.
· Lead time: the time by which a predecessor event must be completed in order
to allow sufficient time for the activities that must elapse before a specific
PERT event reaches completion.
· Lag time: the earliest time by which a successor event can follow a specific
PERT event.
· Slack: the slack of an event is a measure of the excess time and resources
available in achieving this event. Positive slack would indicate ahead of
schedule; negative slack would indicate behind schedule; and zero slack would
indicate on schedule.