LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
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Triangle benchmarking in practice
IT Confidence 2015 Florence,
19.10.2015
Pekka Forselius
LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
Definitions related to benchmarking
benchmark: ”something that is used as a standard by
which other things can be judged or measured”
Source: Longman Dictionary of
contemporary English
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benchmark: ”reference point against which
comparisons can be made” Source: ISO/IEC 29155-1 IT project
performance benchmarking framework
benchmarking: ”activity of comparing
objects of interest to each other or
against a benchmark to evaluate
charasteristic(s)” Source: ISO/IEC 29155-1
LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
But before practice …
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a brief look at background and
basic elements of Triangle
benchmarking
LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
Project Management - What?
project management
consists of the ten
knowledge areas (source:
Project Management Body
of Knowledge, PMI)
… a project manager must
manage all ten areas at
same time
evaluating success is
complex and often (too)
challenging
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LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
A simplified approach
Actually, when we try to
manage a project to
generally agreed
success, we are allowed
to concentrate on the
three most important
knowledge areas (source: all
articles about ”Project Management
Triangle” and ”Iron Triangle”)
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LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
Project Management Triangle
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Everybody
”KNOWS”
Project
Management
triangle, but
unfortunately
very few ICT
decision
makers
understand
its nature
correctly!
LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
Observations about PM triangle
”If you can’t measure it, you cannot manage it!” –
For management purposes all three dimensions
need to be measured, and the measurement
principles shall be defined. Examples:
Cost = Supplier’s development cost from requirements
specification to ready to install.
Time = Duration of development in months, from the
same activities as above.
Scope = Quantity or size of the outcomes.
Shape and size of the triangle are not constant!
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LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
A new look at the PM triangle
Everybody wants more
outcomes with same
cost and time, i.e.
”higher triangle”, but
how to get it?
What are the important
elements of a triangle?
How to influence the
shape of a triangle?
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LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
Elements of a PM triangle
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LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
Examples of IT PM triangles
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LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
Business case, starting point
Early requirements from a feasibility
study, including business processes
Stakeholder analysis, including users
Scope statement, system overview
picture
Will another system be replaced?
Investment calculations, including
numbers of transactions, volumes, etc.
Rough budget and schedule 11
LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
Amount of outcomes
Size of the software, estimated and
measured in Function Points
Methods: all ISO/IEC FSM standards,
e.g. FiSMA method (ISO/IEC
29881:2010) at all accuracy levels
Tools: FiSMA 1.1 Size Estimator and
Experience® Service
An independent Scope Manager
recommended (not necessary to be external)
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LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
Focus on quality too
Quality requirements MUST be
connected to functional requirements
Method: specify first the requirements
for the entire IT system, then for the
business processes, and for the lower
level FUR if needed.
Tools: e.g. FiSMA Quality
Requirements Analysis, ISO/IEC 9126
and 25010 (Software product quality
standards)
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LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
Capability of Developer Team
The better the capability of developer team, the
less re-work needed, and the more competitive
price they can propose!
Availability of resources and maturity of
development process are important!
The capability level depends also on skills and
experience of the developers, i.e. how well they
can:
• Read, question, communicate, and understand the functional
requirements
• Design the functions
• Provide the program code
• Test the outcome units and integrated components
• Prepare the installation of software.
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NOTE! The
required developer
skills are all related
to SDLC –standard
(ISO/IEC 12207)
LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
Capability of Product Owner
The better the capability of product owner, the
faster the delivery of software!
Availability of resources and maturity of
requirements management process are
important!
The capability level of product owner also
depends on how clearly its team can:
• Recognize and define all users
• Write all necessary user stories
• Specify terms and define ER model
• Draw business process charts
• Write and update use cases
• Define functional requirements
• Specify quality requirements
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NOTE! The skills
required from the
product owner have
NOTHING to do with
management approach
(agile or not).
LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
The most important metrics
To evaluate first the
reality of project plans,
and in the end the
success of the project
we need to measure:
Delivery speed =
h/b (FPs/month)
Unit price = a/h
(€/FP)
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LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
From theory to practice …
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what data is needed, how to draw
a triangle from data elements, and
what kind of IT projects can be
compared by Triangle
benchmarking?
LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
What data to collect?
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• Project ID (+ connections to program and portfolio if needed)
• Basic classifiers
• Software size
• Total effort and/or cost
• Start date
• End date
• (Duration can be calculated based on the dates)
LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
How to draw a standard triangle
1 unit = 200 FP
1 unit = 100 K€ = 1000 h
1 unit = 3 months
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LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
Be careful with your presentation!
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LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
Color coding for Triangle benchmarking
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Traffic light analogy:
• Red is bad
• Yellow is normal
• Green is good
All combinations are possible
LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
Scalability issues of Triangle benchmarking
The method is applicable
for comparing:
Single iterations (e.g.
retrospectives)
IT projects
IT development programs
The examples on the next
slides show that the
triangles work at all levels
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Input for retrospectives, for
evaluating the iterations:
LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
Example 1: ES40 UI+BL/4SUM Partners
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LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
Example 1: ES40 UI+BL program
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LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
Example 2: Valtimo/MoSH subprogram RTK
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Six iterations:
LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
Example 2: Valtimo/MoSH 8 subprograms
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LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
Example 2: Valtimo/MoSH program
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LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
Conclusions from Triangle benchmarking results
If you see red, don’t cry!
If you see green, don’t laugh!
Whatever you see, don’t become proud or ashamed!
IF you see red, pay all attention to triangle slopes:
you can only improve your capability (i.e. your skills,
availability and tools). Product owner can improve
the way to specify and manage requirements and
developer team can improve keeping their focus on
the user needs.
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LEADERSHIP
ESTIMATION
BENCHMARKING
SCOPE MANAGEMENT
Thank you!
Pekka Forselius, MSc, MBA,
Certified Scope Manager, Immediate Past President of ISBSG, Senior Advisor at FiSMA
email: [email protected]
see also www.4sumpartners.com, www.fisma.fi and www.isbsg.org
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