Vital Signs Thoughtworks

Project Vital Signs

My fellow IT practitioners… IT has lost

trust and credibility with the business

How?

Poor track record Poor visibility

ROI hard to quantify

Restoring trust and credibility begins with the Project

Simply saying “the Project is ‘on track’”

is not good enough

Need to show how and why

Project is on track

The Need

Holistic view into the State of the Project

Project as a Patient

Project as a Patient

In Medicine…

Medical History x Tests x Vital Signs x Experience ê

Diagnosis

ê  Treatment

Vital Signs

Vital Signs

Vital Signs Simple, quantitative, near real-time metrics

conveyed via a chart published to a location

and easily referenced by all

PMBOK Project Levers

PMBOK Project Levers + 1

Objectives with Vital Signs

•  Bring  visibility  into  all  5  project  levers •  Simple,  quan9ta9ve,  near-­‐real  9me  metrics •  Publish  to  charts  in  full  public  display •  Where  possible  include  history  and  trends

Project Vital Signs

1)  Scope Burn Up 2)  Current State of Delivery 3)  Budget Burn Down 4)  Delivery Quality 5)  Team Dynamics

Scope Burn Up

Schedule x Scope =

Expected Delivery Date

Scope Burn Up

Current State of Delivery

Scope x Team =

Real-time state of delivery

Current State of Delivery

Budget Burn Down

Schedule x Budget =

$$$tatus

Budget Burn Down

Delivery Quality

Schedule x Quality =

How good is the end product

Delivery Quality

Alternative to Bugs as a Measure of Quality

Alternative to Bugs as a Measure of Quality

Team Dynamics

Schedule x Team =

State of the team at different stages of delivery

Team Dynamics

Tuckman Model of Group Development

Performing

Norming

Storming

Forming

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Forming-storming-norming-performing

Project Dashboard

Example Scenario

Today is Aug 12

Start of Iteration 5

Production Release Sep 9, 4 weeks

What is the Current State of the Project?

What is the Diagnosis?

What (if any)

Treatment is required?

Vital Signs

Scope Burn Up

Current State of Delivery

Budget Burn Down

Delivery Quality

Team Dynamics

What is the Current State of the Project?

Not going to make it.

What is the Diagnosis?

The team is firing on all cylinders. Quality is good.

Not enough time to deliver the full backlog for the September 9th release.

Not enough money to carry us through the warranty period ending September

23rd.

What is the Treatment?

Release on Aug 26th instead of Sep 9th. Includes 35 stories that are ready for,

currently in or have passed QA. Remaining 20 stories to be included

in a future release, budgeted for at a later time.

Current State of Delivery : Before

Current State of Delivery : After

Current State of Delivery : After

Scope Burn Up : Before Treatment

Scope Burn Up : After Treatment

Budget Burn Down : Before Treatment

Budget Burn Down : After Treatment

Delivery Quality : After Treatment

Team Dynamics : After Treatment

Key Messages

Transparency is key

Shared team responsibility

Project Vital Signs

Agile 2010, ThoughtWorks