Assignment No.

1
Q1. Explain in details timeline charts.

Ans. Project-task scheduling is a significant project planning activity. It

comprises deciding which functions would be taken up when. To schedule the
project plan, a software project manager wants to do the following:

1. Identify all the functions required to complete the project.

2. Break down large functions into small activities.
3. Determine the dependency among various activities.
4. Establish the most likely size for the time duration required to complete
the activities.
5. Allocate resources to activities.
6. Plan the beginning and ending dates for different activities.
7. Determine the critical path. A critical way is the group of activities that
decide the duration of the project.

The first method in scheduling a software plan involves identifying all the
functions required to complete the project. A good judgment of the intricacies
of the project and the development process helps the supervisor to identify
the critical role of the project effectively. Next, the large functions are broken
down into a valid set of small activities which would be assigned to various
engineers. The work breakdown structure formalism supports the manager to
breakdown the function systematically after the project manager has broken
down the purpose and constructs the work breakdown structure; he has to
find the dependency among the activities. Dependency among the various
activities determines the order in which the various events would be carried
out. If an activity A necessary the results of another activity B, then activity A
must be scheduled after activity B. In general, the function dependencies
describe a partial ordering among functions, i.e., each service may precede a
subset of other functions, but some functions might not have any precedence
ordering describe between them (called concurrent function). The dependency
among the activities is defined in the pattern of an activity network

A timeline chart is an effective way to visualize a process using chronological

order. Since details are displayed graphically, important points in time can be
easy seen and understood.
Often used for managing a project’s schedule, timeline charts function as a sort
of calendar of events within a specific period of time.

A timeline is a representation of a list of events in sequential order. It is

typically a visual design presenting a long bar named with dates paralleling it,
and normally contemporaneous events; a Gantt chart is a form of timeline
adopted in project management.
In contrast, a Gantt chart is a graphic/visual representation of your project
timeline that gives project tasks related to time. Specific tasks are represented
as horizontal bars, and the length of the bar designates how long that task is
assumed to take.
Once the activity network representation has been processed out, resources
are allocated to every activity. Resource allocation is usually done using a
Gantt chart. After resource allocation is completed, a PERT chart
representation is developed. The PERT chart representation is useful for
program monitoring and control. For task scheduling, the project plan needs to
decompose the project functions into a set of activities. The time frame when
every activity is to be performed is to be determined. The end of every action
is called a milestone. The project manager tracks the function of a project by
audit the timely completion of the milestones. If he examines that the
milestones start getting delayed, then he has to handle the activities carefully
so that the complete deadline can still be met.

timeline and its benefits

Each project is consists of many tasks, events, and milestones. A timeline graph
is a fantastic tool to show all these elements over time and how they are
related to each other in a simple graph.

The timeline or a Gantt Chart shows graphically the start and the end time
each task in a horizontal bar which is shown over a span of time like days,
weeks, or months.

This graphical view clearly shows the relative position of each task, event, or
milestones relative to other tasks and events in the project.

Complexity

The graph clearly shows the complexity of the project. This is valuable
information for all project stakeholders.

As projects get bigger, they tend to become more complex and harder to plan
and manage. For this reason, the majority of large projects end up finishing
late.

Helps with Planning

Project planning for large projects is very time-consuming. A timeline helps to

view the plan and find mistakes or issues.
Everything that needs to be done in the project is viewable in one simple
graph.

For example, consider resource planning. The project needs to be planned in

such a way that not to strain the resources in the project.

Dependency Rules

The timeline graph makes it easy to visualize dependencies in the project.

If you are not familiar with dependency, it simply means in order to start
working on a task, there might be other tasks that need to be finished before
we can start working on this task.

As an example of the dependency rule, assume you are building a house.

Before you can start installing doors and windows, you need to finish the wall
first. No wall, there is nothing to place doors and windows.

Better Scheduling

Timeline is a huge help in scheduling a project. It lets you prepare all

items/requirements needed for a task before it starts.

Shortcoming of Timeline

Like anything good in life, there are sometimes shortcomings too. The
following is a list of issues with the timeline graph.

Inaccurate or dated Data

The biggest issue with the timeline is that what you see on the graph is only as
accurate as the data entered into the system by people who work on the
project.
This is a big problem because the data needs to be imported into the system
manually. So there is a delay as of when the data is gathered and entered as to
when the system is updated and available to everyone.

In the old days, the gap between the real status of the project and what was
shown in the timeline graph made the graph totally wrong.

Nowadays, with the advance of the new online project

management applications, everybody can input his/her data to the system in
real-time, this error gap is shrinking.

But even with online PM tools, the timeline needs constantly to be updated to
be viable.

Does not show work

Another issue with Timeline is the fact that the bar in the graph only shows
when a task should start and end. It does not show the amount of work
needed to finish that task.

To understand this problem, consider this. Is it 24 man-hours of work that

needs to be finished in 8 hours? or 4 man-hours of work which has 8 calendar
hours to finish?

DO you see the issue? The bar in the graph only shows how long a task is
scheduled to take but does not show how much work it takes to start and
finish the project.

Information overload

For large and complex projects, it is impossible to show all the project’s activity
on one page. It requires the user to zoom in and out constantly. As the project
grows bigger, the timeline gets more complex and harder to read and digest.
Q2. Briefly describe: Tracking progress of an object-oriented project.

Ans. For a object oriented project, tracking becomes really difficult and
establishing some meaningful milestones is also a difficult task as there are
many things that are happening at once. For tracking an object oriented
project, following milestones are considered to be completed when the below
mentioned criteria are met:

Milestone for Object Oriented Analysis is considered completed when the

following conditions are satisfied :
- Every class is defined and reviewed.
- Every class hierarchy are defined and reviewed.
- Class attributes are defined and reviewed.
- Class operations are defined and reviewed.
- Classes that are reused are noted.
- The relationships among classes are defined and reviewed.
- Behavioral model is created and reviewed.

Milestone for Object Oriented Design is considered completed when the

following conditions are satisfied :
- Subsystems are defined and reviewed.
- Classes are allocated to sub systems.
- Classes allocated are reviewed.
- Tasks are allocated.
- Task allocated are reviewed.
- Design classes are created.
- These design classes are reviewed.
- Responsibilities are identified.
- Collaborations are identified.

Milestone for Object Oriented Programming is considered completed when the

following conditions are satisfied :
- Classes from design model are implemented in code.
- Extracted classes are implemented.
- A prototype is built.

Milestone for Object Oriented Testing is considered completed when the

following conditions are satisfied :
Debugging and testing occur in concert with one another. The status of
debugging is often assessed by considering the type and number of bugs.
- The correctness of object oriented analysis and design model is reviewed.
- The completeness of object oriented analysis and design model is reviewed.
- Collaboration between class and responsibility is developed and reviewed.
- Test cases designed are conducted for each class.
- Class level tests are conducted for each class.
- Cluster testing is completed and classes are integrated.
- Tests related to system testing are established and completed.

Each of the milestone is revisited as object oriented process model is iterative

in nature.

Q3. Explain - Earned Value (EV) Analysis.

Ans. Earned Value Analysis (EVA) is one of the key tools and techniques used
in Project Management, to have an understanding of how the project is
progressing. EVA implies gauging the progress based on earnings or money.
Both, schedule and cost are calculated on the basis of EVA.
Features of EVA

• Earned Value Analysis is an objective method to measure project

performance in terms of scope, time and cost.
• EVA metrics are used to measure project health and project performance.
• Earned Value Analysis is a quantitative technique for assessing progress
as the software project team moves through the work tasks, allocated to
the Project Schedule.
• EVA provides a common value scale for every project task.
• Total hours to complete the project are estimated and every task is given
an Earned Value, based on its estimated (%) of the total.
• Earned Value is a measure of ‘Progress’ to assess ‘Percentage of
Completeness’

Need for EVA

• EVA provides different measures of progress for different types of tasks.

It is the single way for measuring everything in a project.
• Provides an ‘Early Warning’ signal for prompt corrective action. The
types of signals can be the following:
a) Bad news does not age well – Holding on to the bad news does not help.
The project manager needs to take an immediate action.

b) Still time to recover – In case, the project is not going as per schedule and
may get delayed, the situation is needed to be taken care of by finding out the
reasons that are causing delay and taking the required corrective action.

c) Timely request for additional funds – While there is time to recover, the
need for additional resources or funds can be escalated with an early warning.

• It allows ‘rolling up’ the progress of many tasks into an overall project
status.
• It provides with a uniform unit of measure (dollars or work-hours) for
the progress.

Key Elements of EVA

• Planned Value (PV) – The approved cost baseline for the work package. It
was earlier known as Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS).
• Earned Value (EV) – The budgeted value of the completed work packages.
It used to be known as Budgeted Cost of Work Performance at a specified
point (BCWP).
• Actual Cost (AC) – The actual cost incurred during the execution of work
packages up to a specified point in time. It was previously called Actual
Cost of Work Performed (ACWP).

a) Analysis of what happened / is happening

The metrics here to focus on are:

• Schedule Variance SV = EV – PV
• Cost Variance CV = EV – AC
• Schedule Performance Index SPI = EV/PV
• Cost Performance Index CPI = EV/AC
b) Forecasting future performance based on past performance
In this case you’ll often need values from a) to complete an Earned Value
forecast,

Metrics here to focus on are:

• Estimate at Completion
o note that there are 3–4 variations of the formulas for
EAC, each having a different take on optimism to
provide an accurate estimate
o EAC = BAC/CPI - the existing variance is likely to
continue forward
o EAC = AC + (BAC – EV) - I expect to correct the
variance and return to planned values
o EAC = AC + [(BAC – EV)/(SPI x CPI)] - more pessimistic
that future variances will increase
o EAC = AC + ETC - rebaseline, as the original
assumptions were wrong