Measurement

Concepts
Project tracking
 What is measurement
Definition: Represent information used to establish a common understanding of status,
condition, and position of something
Measurement is the process of systematically assigning numbers to objects and their
properties, to facilitate the use of mathematics in studying and describing objects and their
relationships. Some types of measurement are fairly concrete: for instance, measuring a
persons weight in pounds or kilograms, or their height in feet and inches or in meters. Note
that the particular system of measurement used is not as important as a consistent set of rules:
we can easily convert measurement in kilograms to pounds, for instance. Although any system
of units may seem arbitrary (try defending feet and inches to someone who grew up with the
metric system!), as long as the system has a consistent relationship with the property being
measured, we can use the results in calculations.
Why do we measure?

We measure primarily to gain control of a project, and therefore to be able to manage it.
We measure to evaluate how close or far we are from the objectives we had set in our plan
in terms of completion, quality, compliance to requirements, etc.
We measure also to be able to better estimate for new projects effort, cost and quality,
based on past experience. Finally, we measure to evaluate how we improve on some key
aspects of performance of the process over time, to see what are the effects of changes.
Measuring some key aspects of a project adds a non-negligible cost. So we do not measure
just anything because we can. We must set very precise goals for this effort, and only
collect metrics that will allow us to satisfy these goals.
metric

Definition: Metric provides measuring units to depict values, thresholds, constraints,

scope, duration, maximums, averages, etc.
Targets: the agreed upon metric value the organization desires to achieve
Project Needs for Metrics
A project must be delivered typically:
with required functional and non-functional capabilities;
under certain constraints;
to a budget and in a certain time;
delivering a product with certain transition (to the customer), operational and maintenance
characteristics.
 How metrics are used

Estimation
The project manager in particular is faced with having to plan assign resources to activities with budgets and
schedules. Either effort and schedule are estimated from a judgment of what is to be produced, or the inverse there
are fixed resources and schedule and an estimate of what can be produced is needed. Estimation typically has to do
with the calculation of resource needs based on other factors typically size and productivity for planning
purposes.
Prediction
Prediction is only slightly different from estimation, and is usually about the calculation of the future value of some
factor based on todays value of that factor, and other influencing factors. For example, given a sample of
performance data, it is useful to know (predict) from it how the system will perform under full load, or in a resource
constrained or degraded configuration. Reliability prediction models use defect rate data to predict when the system
will reach certain reliability levels. Having planned an activity, the project manager will need data on which to
predict completion dates and effort at completion
Project needs for measurement

A project must be delivered typically:

with required functional and non-functional capabilities;
under certain constraints;
to a budget and in a certain time;
delivering a product with certain transition (to the customer), operational and maintenance
characteristics.
The Project Manager must be able to see if s/he is tracking towards such goals, expanded
in the following table to give some idea of things to consider when thinking about project
measurements

Project Effort and Budget

How is project tracking on effort and cost against plan?
Project Schedule
Is the project meeting its milestones?
Transition/Installation
Are the predicted effort, cost and skills requirements acceptable?
Operation
Are the predicted effort and skills requirements supportable by the customer?
Maintenance/Supportability
Are the predicted effort and skills requirements acceptable to the customer?
continuation

Functional Requirements
Are the requirements valid, complete?
Are the requirements allocated to an iteration?
Are the requirements being realized according to plan?
Non-Functional Requirements
Performance
Is the system meeting requirements for responsiveness, throughput, and recovery time?
Capacity
Can the system handle the required number of simultaneous users? Can the web site handle the required number of
hits per second? Is there sufficient storage for the required number of customer records?
Reliability: how often are system failures allowed, and what constitutes a system failure?
Usability: is the system easy and pleasant to use? How long does it take to learn how to use it and what skills are
required?
Concepts of Measurement

Before you can use statistics to analyze a problem, you must convert the basic materials of the
problem to data. That is, you must establish or adopt a system of assigning values, most often
numbers, to the objects or concepts that are central to the problem under study. This is not an
esoteric process, but something you do every day. For instance, when you buy something at
the store, the price you pay is a measurement: it assigns a number to the amount of currency
that you have exchanged for the goods received. Similarly, when you step on the bathroom
scale in the morning, the number you see is a measurement of your body weight. Depending
on where you live, this number may be expressed in either pounds or kilograms, but the
principle of assigning a number to a physical quantity (weight) holds true in either case.
Measurement scales

Nominal Data
With nominal data, as the name implies, the numbers function as a name or label and do not
have numeric meaning. For instance, you might create a variable for gender, which takes the
value 1 if the person is male and 0 if the person is female. The 0 and 1 have no numeric meaning
but function simply as labels in the same way that you might record the values as M or F.
There are two main reasons to choose numeric rather than text values to code nominal data: data
is more easily processed by some computer systems as numbers, and using numbers bypasses
some issues in data entry such as the conflict between upper- and lowercase letters (to a
computer, M is a different value than m, but a person doing data entry may treat the two
characters as equivalent). Nominal data is not limited to two categories: for instance, if you were
studying the relationship between years of experience and salary in baseball players, you might
classify the players according to their primary position by using the traditional system whereby
1 is assigned to pitchers, 2 to catchers, 3 to first basemen, and so on.
Measurement scales

Ordinal Data
Ordinal data refers to data that has some meaningful order, so that higher values represent
more of some characteristic than lower values. For instance, in medical practice burns are
commonly described by their degree, which describes the amount of tissue damage caused by
the burn. A first-degree burn is characterized by redness of the skin, minor pain, and damage to
the epidermis only, while a second-degree burn includes blistering and involves the dermis,
and a third-degree burn is characterized by charring of the skin and possibly destroyed nerve
endings. These categories may be ranked in a logical order: first-degree burns are the least
serious in terms of tissue damage, third-degree burns the most serious. However, there is no
metric analogous to a ruler or scale to quantify how great the distance between categories is,
nor is it possible to determine if the difference between first- and second-degree burns is the
same as the difference between second- and third-degree burns.
Measurement scales

Interval Data
Interval data has a meaningful order and also has the quality that equal intervals between
measurements represent equal changes in the quantity of whatever is being measured. The most
common example of interval data is the Fahrenheit temperature scale. If we describe temperature
using the Fahrenheit scale, the difference between 10 degrees and 25 degrees (a difference of 15
degrees) represents the same amount of temperature change as the difference between 60 and 75
degrees. Addition and subtraction are appropriate with interval scales: a difference of 10 degrees
represents the same amount over the entire scale of temperature. However, the Fahrenheit scale, like
all interval scales, has no natural zero point, because 0 on the Fahrenheit scale does not represent an
absence of temperature but simply a location relative to other temperatures. Multiplication and
division are not appropriate with interval data: there is no mathematical sense in the statement that 80
degrees is twice as hot as 40 degrees. Interval scales are a rarity: in fact its difficult to think of
another common example. For this reason, the term interval data is sometimes used to describe both
interval and ratio data (discussed in the next section).
Measurement scales

Ratio the measurement is based on a scale that allows them to be measured exactly using
generally accepted units of measurement, and that includes a non-arbitrary zero-point.
Ratio data has all the qualities of interval data (natural order, equal intervals) plus a natural
zero point. Many physical measurements are ratio data: for instance, height, weight, and
age all qualify. So does income: you can certainly earn 0 dollars in a year, or have 0 dollars
in your bank account. With ratio-level data, it is appropriate to multiply and divide as well
as add and subtract: it makes sense to say that someone with $100 has twice as much
money as someone with $50, or that a person who is 30 years old is 3 times as old as
someone who is 10 years old.
Measuring project progress

Earned Value Analysis (EVA) is an industry standard method of measuring a project's progress at any given
point in time, forecasting its completion date and final cost, and analyzing variances in the schedule and
budget as the project proceeds. It compares the planned amount of work with what has actually been
completed, to determine if the cost, schedule, and work accomplished are progressing in accordance with the
plan. As work is completed, it is considered "earned
EVA is a snapshot in time, which can be used as a management tool as an early warning system to detect
deficient or endangered progress. It ensures a clear definition of work prior to beginning that work. It
provides an objective measure of accomplishments, and an early and accurate picture of the contract status. It
can be as simple as tracking an elemental cost estimate breakdown as a design progresses from concept
through to 100% construction documents, or it can be calculated and tracked using a series of mathematical
formulae (see below). In either case, it provides a basis for course correction. It answers two key questions:
At the end of the project, is it likely that the cost will be less than, equal to or greater than the original
estimate?
Will the project likely be completed on time?
Work breakdown structure

EVA works most effectively when it is compartmentalized, i.e. when the project is broken
down into an organized Work Breakdown Structure, or WBS. The WBS is used as the basic
building block for the planning of the project. It is a product-oriented division of project tasks
that ensures the entire Scope of Work is captured and allows for the integration of technical,
schedule, and cost information. It breaks down all the work scope into appropriate elements
for planning, budgeting, scheduling, cost accounting, work authorization, progress measuring,
and management control. The two most common WBS systems are the Construction
Specifications Institute (CSI) format, and the Uniformat. Often at the preliminary stages of
design the Uniformat lends a better understanding of the cost centers, and at final bid level of
documents often the CSI format is used. The indirect costs of design, oversight, and
management must be included in the WBS to reflect the full budget.
Calculating Earned Value

Earned Value Management measures progress against a baseline. It involves calculating

three key values for each activity in the WBS:
1. The Planned Value (PV), (formerly known as the budgeted cost of work scheduled or
BCWS)that portion of the approved cost estimate planned to be spent on the given
activity during a given period.
2. The Actual Cost (AC), (formerly known as the actual cost of work performed or ACWP)
the total of the costs incurred in accomplishing work on the activity in a given period. This
Actual Cost must correspond to whatever was budgeted for the Planned Value and the
Earned Value (e.g. all labor, material, equipment, and indirect costs).
3. The Earned Value (EV), (formerly known as the budget cost of work performed or BCWP)
the value of the work actually completed.
Calculating cost and schedule metrics

These three values are combined to determine at that point in time whether
or not work is being accomplished as planned. The most commonly used
measures are the cost variance:
Cost Variance (CV) = EV AC
and the
schedule variance:
Schedule Variance (SV) = EV - PV
These two values can be converted to efficiency indicators to reflect the cost
and schedule performance of the project. The most commonly used cost-
efficiency indicator is the cost performance index (CPI). It is calculated thus:
CPI = EV / AC
Schedule metrics

These two values can be converted to efficiency indicators to reflect the cost and schedule
performance of the project. The most commonly used cost-efficiency indicator is the cost
performance index (CPI). It is calculated thus:
CPI = EV / AC
The sum of all individual EV budgets divided by the sum of all individual AC's is known as the
cumulative CPI, and is generally used to forecast the cost to complete a project.
The schedule performance index (SPI), calculated thus:
SPI = EV / PV
is often used with the CPI to forecast overall project completion estimates.
A negative schedule variance (SV) calculated at a given point in time means the project is behind
schedule, while a negative cost variance (CV) means the project is over budget.
Project tracking

Project Tracking refers to the management of projects, which includes

but is not limited to measuring and reporting the status of milestones,
tasks and activities required in achieving the pre-defined project results.
Project Tracking can also refer to Project Management software, which
automates the tracking of tasks, assignments, events and activities
related to the project.
A project is a one-time effort to accomplish an explicit objective by a
specific time. Each project is unique although similar projects may
exist. Every project has a definite beginning and a definite ending.
Project management is the process of overseeing planning, organizing,
scheduling, leading, communicating and controlling of activities to
achieve the pre-defined outcome on time and within budget.
continuation

There are various tools and techniques available to manage and track projects. Project
management software is frequently used by companies to assist in managing the initiation,
execution, tracking and closing of projects. By automating many of the project
management tasks such as scheduling, time and expense reporting, and charge back
reporting, project managers have access to real-time analytics, which ensure the efficient
management of resource allocation and utilization. Automation also assists project
managers in consistent project execution, improved resource utilization and reduced
resource gaps, operational efficiency and it facilitates communication and decision-
making.
Project template
END

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