Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
the very outset, you have complete information for your project including bud-
get, schedule, and resource requirement. From this information you create baseline
information for your project. From the baseline information you create an ideal
progress path for the project. As the project progresses, you track your project by
comparing actual values for cost and schedule to the baseline values.
To adopt the EVM methodology for software projects, certain modifications in
the way software projects are tracked need to be made. One such requirement is that
a gate should be introduced in the project before completion of any phase. The project
will not progress to the next phase unless the quality standards are met for that phase.
To track projects at the portfolio or program level, a standard framework for stages
and gates that will apply to all projects should also be implemented. The determina-
tion of the relative cost for completing a stage based on industry standards or past
project performance should be made available. The definition of the work breakdown
structure, outlining the work products/deliverables to be produced at each stage/phase
of the project, should also be made available. The projects should have the capability
to calculate total effort associated with producing each work product. The standard
rate per hour for each project should be defined to avoid disclosing the salaries/costs
associated with the team members. The number of resources assigned to each work
product, which together with the estimated effort and standard cost determines the
total cost for each work product, should be defined. A procedure to capture actual
effort and costs associated with each work product should be defined in order to
report deviations from the scheduled earned value determined by the model.
If these changes can be introduced in software project processes, then EVM can
be implemented successfully.
7.1. 3
Audit Trail
Nowadays government regulations compliance has become an important part of
most activities performed by any business house. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (Public
Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002) provides pro-
vision for information to be made available to government agencies. To comply
with this act, software applications now include audit trail functionality so that any
financial or accounting transactions can be tracked to know if any modifications
were made in that transaction in the past.
For complying with the audit trail, EVM becomes a useful tool because in EVM
the baseline and actual project information is kept and can be shared at any time.
..2 Defect Tracking and Life Cycle
Once test cases start getting executed, the test team starts finding defects in the
system. They have to report these defects in the proper manner so that the defects
can be tracked, fixed, and closed after verification.
