1. Project Vital Signs

2. My fellow IT
practitioners… IT has lost
trust and
credibility
with the
business

3. How?
Poor track record
Poor visibility
ROI hard to quantify

4. Restoring trust and credibility
begins with the Project

5. Simply saying
“the Project is ‘on track’”
is not good enough

8. Need to show
how and why
Project is on track

9. The Need
Holistic view into the
State of the Project

10. Project as a Patient

11. Project as a Patient

12. In Medicine…
Medical History x Tests x Vital Signs x Experience
ê
Diagnosis
ê
Treatment

13. Vital Signs

14. Vital Signs

15. Vital Signs
Simple, quantitative, near real-time metrics
conveyed via a chart
published to a location
and easily referenced by all

16. PMBOK Project Levers

17. PMBOK Project Levers + 1

18. 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

19. Project Vital Signs
1) Scope Burn Up
2) Current State of Delivery
3) Budget Burn Down
4) Delivery Quality
5) Team Dynamics

20. Scope Burn Up

21. Scope Burn Up
Schedule x Scope
=
Expected Delivery Date

25. Current State of Delivery

26. Current State of Delivery
Scope x Team
=
Real-time state of delivery

30. Budget
Burn
Down

31. Budget Burn Down
Schedule x Budget
=
$$$tatus

35. Delivery Quality

36. Delivery Quality
Schedule x Quality
=
How good is the end product

40. Alternative to Bugs as a
Measure of Quality

41. Alternative to Bugs as a
Measure of Quality

43. Team Dynamics

44. Team Dynamics
Schedule x Team
=
State of the team at different
stages of delivery

45. Performing
Norming
Tuckman Model of
Group Development
Storming
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Forming-storming-norming-performing
Forming

49. Project Dashboard

53. Example Scenario

54. Today is Aug 12
Start of Iteration 5
Production Release
Sep 9, 4 weeks

55. What is the Current State
of the Project?
What is the Diagnosis?
What (if any)
Treatment
is required?

56. Vital Signs

58. Scope Burn Up

59. Current State of Delivery

60. Budget Burn Down

61. Delivery Quality

62. Team Dynamics

63. What is the Current State
of the Project?
Not going to make it.

64. 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.

65. 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.

66. Current State of Delivery : Before

67. Current State of Delivery : After

68. Current State of Delivery : After

69. Scope Burn Up : Before Treatment

70. Scope Burn Up : After Treatment

71. Budget Burn Down : Before Treatment

72. Budget Burn Down : After Treatment

73. Delivery Quality : After Treatment

74. Team Dynamics : After Treatment

75. Key Messages

76. Transparency
is key

77. Shared team
responsibility

78. Project Vital Signs
Agile 2010, ThoughtWorks