The scrum approach, much like any other form of project management, requires an understanding of the details of the work and knowledge of where we are within that continuum at any given time. With this knowledge we will know when the project is displaying undesirable schedule or budget deviations. The standard project management tools can be used by scrum teams to their advantage, while providing documentation for upstream managers who may not understand how scrum works.
3.10.1 Earned Value Management
Earned value management techniques are not unique to either traditional project management or scrum project management. This technique was born from Depart-ment of Defense; however, the technique applies any time the team makes the effort to estimate the work and track the work results to plan (see Figure 3.7).
3.10.1.1 Planned Value
Planned value is the sum of all of the costs of the project up front. This summation establishes a time and expenditure rate, allowing those monitoring the project to determine if they are on the predicted spending track (see Figure 3.8). This is the baseline for project expenditure.
The planned value illustrated in the figure is derived from a conventional project.
This figure illustrates the seemingly ubiquitous “S” curve of the cumulative expendi-tures of the project. The lower portion of the “S” is what we typically see during the planning phase of the project. The long linear portion of the curve is associated with the execution and control portion of the project leading to delivery of the product.
We associate the final curve of the “S” with the closing activities of the project. For a scrum project, the cumulative curve will be largely linear, since each work period is essentially the hours available for the scrum team.
Cumulative Cost
Time
Earned Value Planned Value
Figure 3.7 Earned value management.
3.10.1.2 Earned Value
Earned value is also known as Budgeted Cost Work Performed (BCWP). This is the amount of value earned for specific work progress by the project. Stated another way, this is the amount accomplished as a reflection of the dollar amount spent. Let’s say we have a specific task that has a budget of $30,000. Monitoring the task, we find that we are 25% complete. We can use this to determine the amount spent on
Cumulative Cost
Time Figure 3.8 Planned value.
Cumulative Cost
Time Actual
Cost
Figure 3.9 Actual cost.
this effort:
$30,000
0.25 =$7,500 3.10.1.3 Actual Cost
The actual cost is the cost it has taken the project to deliver at any point during the project (see Figure 3.9).
3.10.2 Critical Path Method
In conventional project management, the critical path is composed of the longest, slackless, consecutive task durations of the project. This amounts to the shortest time the project could be delivered and meet expectations (see Figure 3.10). To be able to use this technique, the project manager must know all of the tasks required and the durations of those tasks. Additionally, the project manager must know the dependencies between tasks. Any increase in the duration of slackless tasks extends the project delivery date.
Knowing these task dependencies and the critical path allows the project manager to make decisions about how best to achieve project goals. We might use such emergency actions as fast tracking (paralleling tasks and activities to shorten the path) or crashing (adding resources to shorten the critical path). We see no reason why fast-tracking and crashing, undesirable as they are, cannot be used in the scrum approach. If nothing else, they will benefit from the intense auditing and improved communications among our scrum teams.
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Figure 3.11 Example of PERT.
3.10.3 PERT
Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is a method of schedule devel-opment. The tasks that are required to generate a specific deliverable (work product or product backlog) are manipulated in terms of order of execution with the goal being to minimize the amount of time to deliver the final product. This method could be employed as preparation for the upcoming sprint. The priority-ordered product backlog is modified such that the team will determine the tasks that must be undertaken to achieve these sprint deliverable items. The tasks are then reworked using the PERT approach to streamline the dependencies (see Figure 3.11).
3.10.4 Gantt Charts
Gantt charts are a common tool for communicating tasks and responsibilities in conventional project management. We lay out the tasks in order of start dates and represent durations with a bar chart. Since a true Gantt chart does not represent task dependencies, the tool is mainly useful for communication only. It is much weaker than a network diagram, which does indeed show dependencies among tasks.
In the last decade, some of the project management softwares have produced a hybrid chart, the improved Gantt chart. In this chart, the dependencies can be seen in the graphical portion and other information such as percentage of completion is also rendered (see Figure 3.12).