PART A – IT PROJECT MANAGEMENT

INTRODUCTION
Once project tasks are scheduled, the focus should be on monitoring and controlling
of the project progress. By efficient implementation of monitoring and controlling methods,
software project managers can assess the risks involved with tasks and able to make changes
to the project planning to avoid major risks. So that software project can finish in scheduled
time and within the budget. Some software projects are monitored and controlled using
previous projects data and expert opinions. But this can applicable for same nature of
projects. In the most of the cases software projects are unique in nature, innovative and
because of tremendous changes in technology day by day, it is very difficult to apply
historical project data for the current projects.(Briand, 2002)
MEASURING PROJECT STATUS
There are some project monitoring techniques for project manager to measure the project
progress:
• Milestones
• Inspections
• Progress Review Meetings
• Design Reviews
• Periodic Reports
• Informal discussions
Reviewing the project progress at all the milestones, regular inspections, regular review
meetings with team members and design reviews etc. are the general techniques used by
project managers to control and monitor the project progress.
Elements of Project Control Disturbances
Detect Disturbances (Unforeseen problems)
Desired ...............................................................
Status

Supervision Actions
Project Proje
The
Manag ct
Project
er Team

Measuri
ng
Status Measurements Devices
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 The above loop represents the various elements in the monitoring and control of
project. It is slightly different from traditional engineering project control. From the left is the
project plan. This contains details of desired status, the project schedule and resource
allocation that have been planned for the project. The project manager allocates the work to
the project team according to the plan and supervises the project team to ensure that they are
carrying out the plan. The project team carry out the tasks (Action) according to the plan.
These individual tasks form the project. This will be software product or package. Then these
products and packages send for testing and evaluation by its user or client or testing
representatives. According to the requirements the product is test for performance and
functionalities. If the product does not meet requirements then the project manager is
informed of its errors. After analysing the error or failure report by manager, project manager
provides new instructions to the project team who will modify the package. Iteration will take
place round this loop until the product is found to be acceptable. As the project progress
unforeseen difficulties will arise like staff resigning to move on to other jobs and any other
serious problems. Whatever the problem arise, that disturbs the operation of the whole project
plan. Project manager has to detect these disturbances and need to correct the plan according
to the resources. Some of the projects planning methods are
PERT, CPM and GANTT CHART
PERT, CPM and Gantt charts are the basic project planning and scheduling tools.
Using these tools, project tasks are scheduled according to the time (Project duration). These
techniques are useful for the project scheduling and review milestones but there are wide
ranges of project monitoring and controlling tools or methods to monitor and control of
project progress.
Planning, Estimation, Monitoring and Controlling are interrelated and proper use of these
techniques can improve the software project success. (Galorath & Galorath, 2006)
Unfortunately the failures in software projects are huge but with proper project planning and
realistic estimation and proper information to track and control for the project manager the
software project to a success and produce high level customer satisfaction. (Galorath &
Galorath, 2006)
To measure the development work of software projects, there are Use Case Point and
Functional Point metrics widely using by software industry. These metrics are implemented
using estimating techniques like COCOMO. It is very important to find out project
performance using monitoring and controlling methods to ensure project quality, duration and
within budget according to the client requirements.(Garcia & Hirata, 2008)
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Monitoring and Control – Metrics Role
Once software project planed, proper base is created for a project to apply metrics,
EVM (Earned Value Method), or any other method. Without proper project plan, these
methods are not useful. The important elements of the project are software requirements,
staff, schedule, risk and budget. These elements greatly effect the project planning. So it is
crucial to control these elements. Metrics are useful for the manager to find out the real time
measures of the project progress and these values are very useful to make decisions. By
theses metric methods, managers can assess the risks much earlier. Here two important factor
that greatly effect the effective use metrics are, staff need to convert the metric data into
valuable information and management should support (funding) to implement metrics
methods and proper use of metric methods in decision making.(Galorath & Galorath, 2006).

Example: Monitoring Project Cost

Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS) – The budgeted cost of performing each activity
should be calculated during the estimation process. The scheduled start and end times for
each activity are also known. Therefore the time when the expenditure is to take place is also
known.

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Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP) – from the BCWS is budget at the time when the
work was originally scheduled, but at time now we know what work done actually taken
place? This shows the budgeted cost against the work that has been completed.
Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP) - the actual expenses over the period of the project
to date. The difference between Actual Cost of Work Performed and Budgeted Cost of Work
Performed gives the Cost Variance (CV).(Boehm, 2003)
CV = ACWP - BCWP
Scheduled Variance (SV) is the difference between BCWP and BCWS
SV = BCWP – BCWS
Assuming the work still to be done will be performed to the budgeted cost and to the original
estimate
Estimated Cost At Completion (ECAC) = PB + CV
Where PB is the original Project Budget
But, more realistically, the project will suffer the same cost inflation factors that have raised
the costs so far
Estimated Cost At Completion (ECAC) = (ACWP / BCWP) * PB
The ratio ACWP / BCWP is known as the Performance Index (PI).
It is also possible to provide to management the cost of completing the project after 'time
now'
Cost To Completion (CTC) = ECAC – ACWP.
Using the metrics project cost can be controlled any stage of the project life cycle.
Earned Value management Is the traditional and popular project control method successfully
implemented for managing software projects since1960 (Plaza & Turetken, 2009).
Limitations
• This method is good for monitoring the project progress according to the original plan
but it is very difficult to change the project’s plan quickly.
• Metrics or Earned value methods work successfully, if the project schedules and
planning done properly. This method depends on project planning.
• Metrics used to measure cost effectiveness of the project, even the project runs within
the budget, the major problems are with performance of the software product or
packages from the user acceptance.

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Project Management Information System (PMIS) – Monitoring and Controlling tool for
project managers to lead project success. The basic PMIS system as follows

PROJECT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

DECISIONS
(Planning, Project
(evaluating,
Organizing Decision System
reporting)
Controlling (Project Manager)
Environmental/ Monitoring) Project Customer
Information
Organizational PROJECT MANAGEMENT Information
INFORMATION SYSTEM
Data

Phas Phas Phas

Project Data
PROJECT LIFE CYCLE (OBJECT
SYSTEM)

PMIS is represents the project life cycle and a very useful tool for project manager for
planning, controlling, organising, reporting and decision making tasks and it provides
essential project cost – time performance parameters. The high level information, good use of
system and effect of individual impact on project manager leads to the project success. PMIS
is quite flexible to use, if project objectives are significant then the PMIS impact more on
project budget, schedules and requirements of the project at sufficient level of quality. If the
project managers determine the actual impacts of IT information systems on project managers
and project performance and design the PMIS according to their requirements. From the
researchers PMIS greatly help to increase the efficiency and productivity and it helps to get
better project planning, monitoring and control of the project. (Raymond & Bergeron, 2008)

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Impact of Monitoring on Project Success
Monitoring is milestone reviews, observing and checking the progress continuously
throughout the project life cycle. The main objectives of the monitoring process are project
progress within agreed budget, schedule and expected quality. To make decisions to change
or approve the movement of the project at different levels. It helps to get regular feedback to
the team member that motivates to get better results. From several researchers it is confirmed
that impact of monitoring greatly reduce the project failures by decreasing over
commitments. From more studies effective way of monitoring saves the organization money.
(Mahaney & Lederer, 2010)
Activity Based Costing (ABC) Vs Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO)
ABC – it is time and cost estimate approach based on the activities cost. ABC provides
acceptable estimation when we compare with actual cost and effort reported. This analysis
helpful for management in decision making, ABC cost analysis is different from traditional
costing models as the resources are traced to activities and calculate the activity costs and
assign to product or services. In the traditional cost models the resources directly assign to the
products or services.(Ooi & Soh, 2003)
COCOMO II- this approach allows more flexibility for the managers to allocate the other
resources such as staff capabilities, new tools, communication support that helps to get
success with the project. This approach is very useful when there is no possibility of
historical data or support of expert opinions. Beside the project deadlines and number of staff,
it allows the management adjustments and increases the probability of project success.
(Jiamthubthugsin & Sutivong, 2006)
Conclusion
In this article author discussed various monitoring and controlling techniques used by
project managers to increase the probability of success like setting milestones, periodic
review meetings, progress review, design reviews and discussions with team members. This
article also discusses the importance of metric methods to monitor and controlling of the
project progress. Monitoring project cost using metrics is very helpful for project managers to
monitor the budget at any point of time during project progress. Article also discusses about
PMIS, importance of project management information system, ABC, COCOMO cost analysis
methods. All these monitoring and controlling methods have significant strengths, so that
project managers can take right decisions at right time. At the same time all the methods have
some assumptions and limitations. So project runs successfully if these methods are

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implemented within the limitations. Monitoring and controlling is the process need to be
carried out after scheduling the tasks. The base is project planning, if the project planning has
some flaws then these monitoring and control methods does not work. Because of intangible
nature of software projects, monitoring and controlling is very significant in IT projects.

REFERENCES