Percent Complete by Deliverable Templates

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Percent Complete by Deliverable Templates

• PMI-OVOC PM Seminar
• November 28-29, 2005

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Wendi M.R. Smith, MBA, PMP

• Currently working for Finance/TBS.
• Experience with DND, RCMP, various private
  companies (engineering, RD, IT).
• Project Management Specialist
• Planning and scheduling
• Cost control and earned value (EV)
• Risk and issue management and
• EPA, PPA, SOR, PPRA, PMP, RMP, etc.

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Topics in PMBOK

• Project Integration Management Develop
  Preliminary Scope Statement
• Project Scope Management Scope Planning,
  Activity Definition, Scope Verification and Scope
  Control
• Project Time Management Schedule Control
• And, to a lesser degree
• Project Quality Management Perform Quality
  Assurance and Quality Control

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Percent Complete (PC) Templates

• Whats the problem
• PC difficult to standardize across groups
• PC difficult to verify independently
• Tasks progressed based on time passing or by
  feel
• PC shoots up to 90 and then inches to 91, 92,
  etc.
• Completion means different things to different
  people and
• Potential for evil (when building schedule,
  weight minor or easy deliverables swamp
  deliverables EV with LOE tasks).

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Outcome

• Task end dates can be incorrect, affecting
  critical path.
• If EV is used, bad PC leads to bad analysis,
  wrong conclusions.
• If people can misreport PC, the schedule PCO
  are less effective.

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Intermediate steps

• For major deliverables types (like documents,
  code modules, drawings) define intermediate steps
  at which progress can be identified.
• Keep schedule simple deliverable oriented
  (either leave out LOE and unimportant tasks or
  ensure that they are tagged or kept in a separate
  WBS branch).

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Examples

• 0-100
• Is standard across groups.
• Can be verified independently.
• BUT
• Understates actual progress even if everything
  is going perfectly, the project looks worse than
  it is raising false red flags.
• 100 still needs definition.

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Example of Document PC Template

• 5 when document has TOC.
• 10 when TOC approved by supervisor.
• 50 when document has all sections filled and
  goes to peer review meeting.
• 70 when document is approved by peers.
• 80 when distributed to supervisors for comments.
• 90 when document is signed by supervisors.
• 100 when filed.

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During Initiation

• Develop Preliminary Scope Statement
• documents the project and deliverable
  requirements, methods of acceptance, and
  high-level scope control
• Decide on whether to use EV, PC templates.

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During Planning

• Agree on deliverable types
• major documents, which are approved outside the
  organization
• living documents
• major/ detailed drawings
• unit tested code modules
• test reports
• acceptance documents
• All these might have different PC templates.

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During Planning (cont.)

• Agree on process for producing deliverables.
• Easy deliverables, that have been done over and
  over again might just be written by one person,
  then sent around for comments (RMP).
• Strategic, or complex deliverables might benefit
  from early collaboration, and lots of reviews.

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During Planning (cont.)

• Agree on percent completes for verifiable
  milestones.
• Based loosely on effort required (not duration).
• Make sure that people are encouraged to finish
  existing deliverables, rather than start new
  ones.
• Identify control points.
• Write it down.
• Get it approved.
• Subsequent changes are controlled.

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During Planning (cont.)

• Agree on list of deliverables (baseline changes
  are controlled).
• Identify deliverable type for each.
• In Schedule Management Plan and schedule, ensure
  provision is made to track by template.
• Schedule should contain ALL major deliverables,
  and represent the processes as agreed.

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During Planning (cont.)

• Time phase completion of deliverables, and
  baseline.
• Optional Weight deliverables by importance or
  by estimated number of person-days to complete
  (deliverable measurement units).

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During Execution

• Focus on quality of deliverables.
• Ensure that peer review and supervisor reviews
  add value (not just arguments about grammar).
• Look out for pro forma reviews.

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Control

• Progress is identified during schedule updates or
  team meetings.
• Monitor control points (random or every document,
  as required).
• Co-ordinate with document manager, file clerk or
  document repository.

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Simplified Reporting
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If using weighted DMUs
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Advantages

• Focuses attention on the problem areas (exception
  reporting).
• Reporting not skewed by non-critical tasks.
• If you measure it, it will improve.

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Things to look out for

• Too much credit for some milestones (especially
  early ones).
• Disincentives to complete deliverables.
• Too many intermediate steps overcomplicating the
  process.
• Lack of buy in among team, superiors.
• 5 problem.

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When do you use this?

• Large number of similar deliverables across many
  people, departments, or organizations.
• Need for standardization, verification.
• Time sensitive projects.
• If EV is not possible because of problems
  gathering timesheets.
• With EV to define, standardize PC.
• Organization is already mature enough to have
  processes, baseline control.

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Dont bother using this if

• Team is small and homogenous.
• Number of deliverables is small.
• Deliverables are very dissimilar.
• Project/ organization is very immature (ad hoc
  reporting, no processes).

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Has anyone ever used this?

• Hibernia Topsides
• Very large engineering project 600 engineering
  personnel, 150 procurement people, 12 planners.
• Several engineering firms contributed personnel,
  no standard methodology.
• Encouraged standardized reporting across
  stovepipes (with EV).
• CPIC Renewal
• Large IT project, about 150 people
• 5 (later 4) separate companies plus RCMP, PWGSC,
  etc.
• Used DMUs to focus attention on deliverables (EV
  lite).

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Questions?

• Thank you.