Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) - Project Task Measurement

Develop Your Project Plan - Once a project begins, you must develop a list of tasks, estimate the tasks (in work hours), assign each task to a team member, and level the resources (so that each person is not overloaded with work).  How do you do this? 

First, you must detail each of the requirements and develop a list of tasks for the delivery of each requirement (if you need help developing requirements, click here).  With a good set of requirements, the project manager can work with the project team (programmers, testers, etc) to develop a list of tasks that must be completed for each requirement, along with the estimated effort of each task.  Once this is done, record your list of tasks, assign them to team members, and track their progress.  As tasks are completed, record the number of actual hours it took to complete each task, as to allow you to determine the correctness your estimation process.  You can use this information on future projects, to create a buffer for improving the estimation process.

Basic Approach - If you do not have a software development lifecycle tool, a low-cost and simple approach to this is to create a spreadsheet that contains a list of your tasks and assignment information.   As your team members work on items, each day you should make note of actual hours and costs thus far, and percentage complete.  As items are finished, update the spreadsheet with Actual Hours, Actual Costs, and Completion Date.  
Example: ProjectTasks.xls

Advanced Approach - A better approach is to utilize an SDLC tool that allows tracking of project tasks, assignment of the tasks to team members, tracking of hours and costs, and allows the team members to update their percentage complete.  For ease of update, the software should be web based, so that it can be accessed from any location.  To do this, you can use Software Planner, Microsoft Project or some other project management tool.  The disadvantage of using windows-based tools (like Microsoft Project) is that they are not web based, so individual team members can not easily update their hours, costs and percentage complete; the project manager is forced to update that information.  Software Planner (and other web based tools), empower the people doing the work to update this information, and has email alerts that alert the Project Manager as items are updated.
Example: Software Planner Task Management    Importing into Software Planner from Microsoft Project
 

Identify Slipping Items - The key to delivering on-time and on-budget is keeping a keen eye on each project task.  If one task is not completed on time, it could affect the entire project plan, forcing the plan to be over budget forcing a late delivery.  How do you do prevent this?

You must review your project tasks every day, track the number of hours worked on each task, determine the number of hours remaining to complete each item (or percentage complete), and you must take action if specific tasks are slipping.  This may mean adding resources, having team members work additional hours, or allowing other team members to pitch in to aid the slipping task.

Basic Approach - If you do not have an SDLC tool, update the project plan spreadsheet each day.  Speak with each team member daily to obtain the number of hours they have worked on each task and to obtain their percentage complete.  Have them assure you that they will be done on the stated due date, or alert you that their tasks are slipping.

Advanced Approach - A better approach is to utilize an SDLC tool that automatically alerts you of items that are slipping, and allows team members to update their hours and percentage complete as they work on items.  To be proactive, you should be able to receive an automatic email nightly that identifies all the items that are coming due and the ones that are current overdue (and who they are assigned to).  Also, when managing your project tasks, it is great if the overdue tasks turn Red, so that you can easily spot the ones that are overdue.  Below are some example reports that come bundled with Software Planner, but any good SDLC tool should provide these types of reports.

Examples:
A) Overdue Items Report (via Email nightly)
B) See overdue items in RED
C) Project Tasks by Assignee Report
D) Project Task Trending Report
E) Project Task Durations Report (Actual Hours logged)
 

Post Mortem - As tasks are completed, it is important to determine what tasks were completed on time and what tasks were not.  By recording this information, you can begin improving your estimating process.  This also allows you to identify team members that continuously over promise and under deliver, so that you can take corrective action.  How do you do this?

The key to this is to have each person record their actual hours worked on each task daily (while it is still fresh in their mind).  Also, as tasks are completed, record the date each task was completed, so that you can compare that to the date it was due.  By using this information, you can roll this information up for all team members on the project to determine how far off your estimates were.  You may find that overall, your estimates were 10% overstated, or 20% understated.  This information can be used on subsequent projects to build in buffer that would allow you to come closer to completing projects on-time and on-budget, and to identify how individual team members performed.

Basic Approach - If you do not have an SDLC tool, update the project plan spreadsheet each day.  Speak with each team member daily to obtain the number of hours they have worked on each task and to obtain their percentage complete. 
Example: ProjectTasks_Final.xls

Advanced Approach - A better approach is to utilize an SDLC tool that empower each individual to enter their hours, costs, and percentage complete each day.  It is also helpful to have a report that automatically calculates variances to target.  Below are variance reports that comes bundled with Software Planner, but any good SDLC tool should provide this type of report. 

Examples:
A) Project Tasks Variances by Project - Shows variances by project
B) Project Tasks Variances by Assignee - Shows variances by team member
C) Project Tasks Variances by Owner - Shows variances by project manager (owner)