‘Project Management ‘Atkins’ Way’
Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. - A Case Study
Nidhi Srivastava
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 1
Agenda
¾ ‘Lean’ Project Management Architecture @TCS
¾ ‘Low Carbs’ Project Planning
¾ ‘High Protein’ Project Management and Oversight
¾ ‘Diagnostic’ Project Management Metrics
¾ Lessons Learned on ‘Process Fat’
¾ ‘Nutritional Advice’- Project Management Enablers
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 2
“Ultimately, All Differences Between Companies in Cost
and Price Derive From the Hundreds of Activities Required
to Create, Produce, Sell, and Deliver their Products or
Services
…Differentiation Arises from both, the Choice of Activities,
and
How they are Performed.”
Michael Porter
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 3
‘Lean’ Project Management Architecture @ TCS
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 4
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) – An Overview
We are DRIVEN towards this goal ¾ India’s Largest Conglomerate
TCS certified at
To achieve CMMi & PCMM Level
¾ India’s best IT Employer
customer 5 Enterprise-wide
satisfaction ¾ Established in 1968
by 2004
delivering ‘02 iQMS ¾ Over 28,000 Consultants
solutions ‘01
that meet
‘00
PCMM ¾ More than $1.5 Billion in revenues
customer 6σ
needs ‘98 ¾ ISO 9001-2000 certified
‘95 CMM
‘93
‘92 TBEM* ¾ SEI-CMMi and PCMM Level 5 Certified
‘85 *ISO TBEM- Tata Business
‘70 ‘80
QMS Excellence Model
Winner of the 2004 TBEM Award
QC QA IEEE (modeled on MBNQA) ¾
¾ Largest number of CSQA professionals
Process Focus (CMMi)
¾ Global presence
• 91 offices across 55 countries
iQMS ¾ Largest Software R&D Centre in India
(PCMM) (TCM)
¾ Largest Software Exporter from India
People Focus Technology Focus
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 5
Project’s ‘Health Guide Pyramid’
¾ Quality Manual – the Policy document.
¾ Process Handbooks – cover details of
the entire lifecycle for
• Development Project
QUALITY • Maintenance Project
MANUAL • Conversion Project
• Package Implementation Project
PROCESS
• Engineering CAD Processes
HANDBOOKS
¾ Procedure Manuals – cover all
PROCEDURE MANUALS procedures in detail
• Project Procedure Manual details
STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES procedures to be performed during
project planning and tracking
¾ Standards and Guidelines
iQMS
iQMS –– Quality
Quality of
of Quality
Quality
• Project Planning Guidelines guide thru all
project management activities.
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 6
‘Lean’ Project Management Architecture
Quality Management System
Project Management Methodology
Project Procedure Manual Process Handbooks
Guidelines (Estimation, Planning, Tailoring etc.)
Project Plan
(Project/Client Specific)
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 7
‘Low Carbs’ Project Planning
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 8
Project Management Activities
Project Management activities performed within a project :
¾ Review of Agreement
¾ Project Initiation
¾ Project Startup Meeting
¾ Preparing and Revising Estimates
¾ Project Planning and Execution
¾ Team Building
¾ Project Progress Monitoring, Tracking and Reporting
¾ Project Management Review
¾ Risk Management
¾ Quality Management
¾ Configuration Identification & Management
¾ Change Management
¾ Project Wind Up
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 9
‘Health Plan Meeting’ – Project Startup
Project Start-up meeting
¾ All the stakeholders invited
¾ Project Startup Kit contains :
• Mandatory iQMS training
• Review of contract and re-estimation of size and effort
• Creation of project in project database
• Preparation of project plan and other supporting documents
• Identification of QA and QC processes and their measurement procedures
• Check on infrastructural issues.
• Identification of tools and re-usable components
• Project specific training needs identified
• Risk identification and mitigation plan
¾ Potential loop holes identified and acted upon.
Benefits:
Benefits: a)
a) Identification
Identification of
of potential
potential risks
risks and
and planning
planning of
of corrective
corrective action
action
b)
b) Commitment
Commitment from
from all
all stakeholders
stakeholders
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 10
Project ‘Health’ Planning
¾ Project Health Plan Attributes -
• General Overview • Reporting Mechanism • Resource Management
• Delivery Plan • Risk Management • Traceability Strategy
• Assumptions • Quality Management • Technology and tools
• Organization structure • Metrics & Measurement • Induction & Training
• Client involvement • Configuration Management • Operational Process
• Monitoring Mechanism • Process Improvement
¾ Plan prepared by tailoring the project plan template
• Tailoring depends on the type and requirement for the project.
¾ Project plan is reviewed by all stakeholders
¾ Timeline, roles and responsibilities are agreed upon by all the stakeholders.
Benefits:
Benefits: a)
a) Better
Better control
control over
over the
the product
product and
and the
the process
process
b)
b) Predictability
Predictability over
over quality,
quality, schedule,
schedule, cost
cost
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 11
‘High Protein’ Project Management & Oversight
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 12
Project ‘Fitness’ Monitoring
¾ Continuous ‘Fitness’ Monitoring – Progress Reporting
• Project Status Report prepared by Project Manager
• Status reporting by project team members
¾ Project ‘Health Check ‘ – Management Review
• Quarterly Project Management Review
9 Details check on projects health and fitness
9 Review done by higher management
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 13
Project ‘Fitness’ Status Reporting
Monthly Status Reporting by Project Owner to all stakeholders
¾ Delivery against Schedule
¾ Performance against Quality Goals
¾ Report on
• Resource
• Training
¾ Risk Monitoring and Mitigation
¾ Issue Tracking and Escalation
¾ Financial Information
¾ Plan for next month
Benefit:
Benefit: Potential
Potential issues
issues are
are identified
identified and
and mitigated
mitigated
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 14
‘Health Check’ – Management Oversight Activities
Project ‘Health Check’ – Management Review
¾ Review done by senior management.
¾ All the stakeholders invited
¾ Project Owner presents general health – template available
¾ Fitness monitoring on
• Scope, schedule, cost and quality
• Financial aspect, risks and issues
¾ Outcome
• Identification of Action Items
• Preparation of Action Plan
• Action Items tracked to closure
Benefit:
Benefit: Early
Early warning
warning Indicators
Indicators are
are identified
identified and
and tracked
tracked
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 15
Project Management Review – Swim Lane
Quality Review Initiate Process
Coordinator PMR* Summary Change (if needed)
SQA ** Prepare PMR Brief PMR Prepare PMR
Lead Schedule Team Summary
PMR Prepare for Record
Conduct
Team PMR PMR Action Items
SQA Track Update Analyze
Analyst Action Items PMR Records Open Action Items
Project Take corrective
Team Action
* PMR - Project Management Review
** SQA - Software Quality Assurance
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 16
Project Windup
¾ Project Completion Meeting
• Completion Report prepared by Project Owner
• Report added to Process Asset Database
¾ Releases of all resources
¾ Consolidation of Lessons Learned & Best Practices
¾ Reusable components added to Asset Library
Benefit:
Benefit: Reusable
Reusable components,
components, Lessons
Lessons Learned
Learned &
& Best
Best Practices
Practices
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 17
‘Diagnostic’ Project Management Metrics
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 18
Fitness Measures - Metrics
Metrics defined to facilitate the measurement of project parameters
Effort Variation Schedule Variation
Objective : To improve effort estimation Objective : To measure the accuracy of
accuracy. This is done by comparing the the schedule estimation, adherence to the
effort spent in project and the budgeted schedule and quality of the process
effort for the project
Start Timeliness End Timeliness
Objective : The goal of the Start Objective : The goal of the End
Timeliness measure is to measure Timeliness measure is to measure
compliance with dates for project start up compliance with dates for project
windup/completion
Guiding Principle - What is measured is driven by business issues and
objectives and not by what can be measured
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 19
Process Capability Improvement @TCS – A Sample
December 2002 July 2003 December 2003 June 2004
Good
¾Improved Estimation
¾Improved Project Management
¾Client involvement at phase end, checkpoints
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 20
Process Capability Improvement @TCS – A Sample
Good
Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2
’00 ’00 ’01 ’01 ’01 ’01 ’02 ’02 ’02 ’02 ’03 ‘03 ‘03 ‘03 ‘04 ‘04
¾ Improved Estimation accuracy
¾ Re-estimation after every phase
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 21
Lessons Learned on ‘Process Fat’
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 22
Lessons Learned
¾ Challenges
Resistance to change
Reluctance to document and keep document updated for revisions
Perceived increase in paper work
Additional effort required for metrics collection , with no
immediate benefits in sight
Over engineered process- eg. detailed project plans ,complicated
project status reports
¾ Fallout
Inadequate project planning
Lapses in uniform metrics collection
Improper management oversight
Fire fighting / reactive approach
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 23
Project Management Process Automation
Consistency
Consistency of
of Process
Process Use
Use
Enforcement
Enforcement of
of Process
Process
Objective
Objective Project
Project Management
Management
Easier
Easier collection,
collection, analysis
analysis and
and retrieval
retrieval of
of data
data
Quality
Quality
Assurance
Project Assurance Project
Project Project
Planning Monitoring
Planning Monitoring
Management
Metrics & Management
Metrics & Function
IPMS
SPC Function
SPC
Team
Defect Team
Defect Management
Tracking Management
Tracking
Change
Change Risk
ManagementConfiguration Risk
ManagementConfigurationManagement
Management
Management
Management
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 24
‘Nutritional Advice’ - Project Management Enablers
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 25
Project Management Enablers
Enablers
¾ Process Automation
¾ Training on project management
¾ Handholding by Quality Groups
¾ Sharing of best practices
¾ Feedback loop
¾ Tailoring of process
¾ Institutionalization of ISO based Audit mechanism, based on plan –
“ Plan what you do , do what you plan”
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice there is.
- Yogi Bera
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 26
Technology as an Institutionalization driver
‘Four Phase’ Project Management - PDCA Cycle
Plan Do
Planning is done by Project Project Manager executes the
Manager as per QMS using tool project according to the plan and
updates the progress in tool
Act Check
Project Manager takes necessary Tool raises alarms when deviations
action based on plans and alarms from plans/ QMS defined process
and updates the plans accordingly. occur
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 27
Project Management Caliper - IPMS
Integrated Project Management System – Project Management Tool
IPMS Functionality
¾ Prepare Project Plan
¾ Prepare Project Schedules
¾ Assign Tasks to team members
¾ Project Monitoring (Timesheet, Work Product progress)
¾ Risk Management
¾ Prepare Quality Assurance Plan
¾ Change Management
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 28
Project Management with IPMS
¾ Access to new project creation information ,e.g.
Generation of Project Initiation Note
Project Name
Initiating Work Order
¾ Authorization of Project Manager (PM) to manage project
Planning
Monitoring &
Control
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 29
Project Management with IPMS
¾ Define Work Breakdown Structure
Deliverables, Item (Details and Size), Module
Divide project into Phase -> Task -> Sub Task
Initiating ¾
¾ Define Entry Task Verification eXit (ETVX) of each phase
¾ Schedule the Project Phases
¾ Plan Quality Assurance
Planning ¾ Define Project Baselines
¾ Set up the appropriate Cost Drivers
Monitoring &
Control
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 30
Project Management with IPMS
¾ Assignment of tasks and sub-tasks
¾ Record effort spent on tasks and sub-tasks in timesheets
Initiating ¾ Change Management
¾ Problem Management
¾ Configuration Management
Planning ¾ Handover Takeover between old/new Team Members
¾ Manage client supplied products
Monitoring &
Control
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 31
Project Management with IPMS
¾ Verification and Validation
¾ Quality Assurance - Internal and External Review
Initiating ¾ Review and Log Defects
¾ Perform Defect Casual Analysis, Resolution, Closure and
Verification
Planning ¾ Final Inspection
¾ Generate metrics on quality reviews, defects, effort, cost and
schedule
Monitoring &
Control
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 32
Benefits of using Technology as an ‘Enabler’
Outcome
¾ Simplification of processes
¾ Reduction in project management effort
¾ Consistency of process implementation
¾ Enforcement of processes
¾ Easier collection and retrieval of project data
¾ Data consistency
¾ Easier Data analysis
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 33
Acknowledgement
Runa Das, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.
Hareesh Grandhi, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd.
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 34
Question and Answers
Contact Details: n.srivastava@usa-tcs.com
Phone Number: 630 245 8303
www.tcs.com
Asia’s Largest Global Software & Services Company 35
