Creating an iPhone Application and Project Management

Before you begin designing and creating the next greatest iPhone application, it’s critical to define exactly what you plan your application to do, so says the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines.  A great way to do this is to write a product definition statement.  It is a succinct affirmation of your application’s core purpose and its intended audience.  I believe Apple understands, in order to be successful, you have to have a plan.  Developers of iPhone applications are not necessarily project managers.  Perhaps Apple is giving them better odds of success, by encouraging them to write a project definition statement.  I once worked with a very knowledgeable developer, Kent Lynch, who spoke out during a managers meeting saying, "People don't plan to fail; they just fail to plan".  He could not have been more right. A project mission statement is no different.  No project should be attempted without first capturing a mission statement.  Traditionally, mission statements contain:

• Project Name
• Description
• Purpose
• Primary stakeholders
• Responsibilities towards these stakeholders
• Products and services offered

If you can articulate a mission statement that satisfies these few bullets, you're on you way to understanding what you need to do to have a successful project.

(Image by jaapoost on flickr)

What is missing from a Cost Performance Report

I recall a very positive meeting where we exposed several non project management team members to a Cost Performance Report (CPR) for the first time. A CPR addresses project performance through a defined period of time in relation to contractual requirements.  The CPR details budgeted work scheduled and performed, actual cost work performed, and the variance in both schedule and cost.  All of this is itemized per Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) element for both the current period and the cumulative to date.  The last values you see are the budgeted, estimated, and variance at completion of the contract. There were a lot of questions as to why one WBS element has a positive or negative cost variance and why it may have a positive or negative schedule variance.  Trying to explain this to those without a project management background can be a challenge.

I was having a sidebar conversation with one team member who could not understand how the element that pertained to him could be both ahead of schedule and below budgeted cost. The answer came from across the room in the form of a question.

"Is there any way this report captures quality?" The answer was no.

That my friends is called Triple Constraint.  We know the Scope, Time, and Cost within this report.  What we don't know is Quality, Risk, or Customer Satisfaction.  That's ok.  This is the CPR, not a Total Project Status (TPS) Report.

By not committing the scheduled time and budgeted dollars to complete the task to a level of quality that meets the customer's expectations, the contractor looks good only on paper.

Earned Value Management (EVM)...the basics

Should all projects or programs utilize Earned Value Management? Short answer: No Long answer: The industry standard for project control systems described in American National Standards Institute (ANSI) EIA-748, Earned Value Management Systems, must be implemented on all projects with a total project cost (TPC) greater than $20M for control of project performance during the project execution phase.

Earned Value Management (EVM) is a systematic approach to the integration and measurement of cost, schedule, and technical (scope) accomplishments on a project or task. It provides both the contractee and contractor(s) the ability to objectively examine detailed schedule information, critical program and technical milestones, and cost data.

In layman's terms, it quantifies the estimated value of the work actually accomplished.

Triple Constraint

Triple Constraint

With Project Management, you must understand that EVERY project has constraints.  Unfortunately, project managers tend to ignore this and it will come back to haunt them time and time again.  Constraints include time, scope, cost, quality, risk, or any other factors that will limit what your options are when managing a project or deliverable. "Triple Constraint" is a term that originally included time, scope, and cost.  Newer definitions include customer satisfaction, risk, and quality.  If you're preparing to take the PMP® exam, include both the original and newer definitions.  Sextuple constraint just doesn't quite role off the tongue. I try to stress to stakeholders every time they try to expand scope that it will directly impact the other constraints.  If you expand the scope, you will either have to expand cost or time.  If you don't expand either of these two constraints, you're going to increase risk and lower quality.

You'll first read about constraints in section 1.3 of the PMBOK®.  PMI will only refer to them as constraints at that time.  Y0u'll find them referenced at other locations within the PMBOK as project constraints.  What you will not find in the PMBOK 4th edition is an actual definition in the glossary.

Types of Risk

For the PMP exam, know that risks can be categorized under two main types: Business  Risk of a gain or loss Pure (Insurable) Risk  Only a risk of loss (e.g., fire, flood, theft...)

When identifying and categorizing your project risks, don't forget that risks can also be positive.  Many mistakenly only list the negative.  Regardless, the purpose of risk management is to lower it.  Again, business risk can be beneficial or detrimental.  Pure risk is always detrimental. 

Cost Variance and Project Management Terms

If you're looking to take the PMP exam, there are several definitions you need to know.  You MUST know and understand the definitions listed in the table below. The exam won't come right out and ask you "What does Actual Cost mean?"  The questions are more like:  "What kind of Variance do you have on a deliverable if the Earned Value is $75,000 and the Actual Cost is $77,000?� I won’t tell you the answer. I will, however, tell you how to figure it out. Cost Variance (CV) = Earned Value (EV) - Actual Cost (AC). A negative cost variance means you are over budget. A positive cost variance means you are under budget.

Term	Acronym	Definition
AC	Actual Cost	What is the actual cost realized from the work completed.
BAC	Budget at Completion	How much was budgeted for the total project?
EAC	Estimate at Completion	What is currently the expected TOTAL cost of the project?
ETC	Estimate to Complete	From this point on, how much MORE is it expected to cost to finish the project?
EV	Earned Value	What is the estimated value of the work actually completed?
PV	Planned Value	What is the estimated value of the work planned to be completed?
VAC	Variance at Completion	How much over or under budget is the project expected to be at the end?

Scope Management

Scope Management means:

1. Not letting others randomly expand the scope of the project without a structured change control system

2. Constantly verifying the completion of all authorized work

3. Ensure all changes are within the project charter

4. Defining and controlling what is and is not included in the project

5. Not allowing extra work or gold plating

You can read more about it on Wikipedia.  (Yes, I contribute to this definition)

Gold Plating

I once had a customer became highly incensed when told the deliverables he wanted were not going to be completed on time, due to a lack of resources.  He said he didn't understand why his highest priorities didn't get completed but extra features not asked for were.  When told additional features had recently become priorities he strongly disagreed.  His response was the person requesting or making the changes thought the changes were important but they were NOT.  If the changes were important, they would have been requested directly by the President of the company. (It sounds dramatic but it was true) Though there were certainly issues, at the time, as to who had authority to authorize a change, what happened was an example of gold plating.  Gold plating refers to providing the customer more then they ask for. (e.g expanded scope, functionality, higher quality)  Though this practice is based on what someone thinks the customer would like, it doesn't necessarily add any real value.  Both risk and cost will increase on the project because the requirements must still be met in the allotted time and budget.  As tempting as it might be, it is strongly recommended not to gold plate.  Try to make your customer happy by keeping your project within scope, on time, and on budget.

If your customer (or person authorized to approve a change) does indicate the change will add value, inform them of the impacts to the schedule and budget (and potentially quality and risk) and get their formal agreement to do the work.  Though it's easy to say you should not agree to make the change, the reality is you need to make the customer happy and they will make the final call.  Negotiate with them, to ensure the requested change will have a minimal impact to the current scope being completed.  In a perfect project management world, free of zombies and runaway stakeholders, there would be a separate funding vehicle and it would not impact the baseline.