Project management metrics are very necessary and essential for implementing practical and sustainable project management practices and processes into an organization. These metrics enable us to improve our understanding by simply removing uncertainty so that we can form well-informed decision. These metrics are key to improving how projects are managed and even delivered. Metrics help in estimating cost and schedule for completion along with increasing accuracy over time.
Advantages :
- Project management metrics help us to measure or calculate and understand maturity of organization.
- They help in managing projects and resources in more effective way.
- It also helps for demonstrating year-over-year improvements in project management maturity.
- With respect to time, they provide insight into how process and product are developing gradually.
Steps to choosing metrics : Each and every business or organization needs unique metrics that can align and add value with its target or goal. Following are steps to choose metrics :
- Firstly, to know and understand main purpose or target or goal of project of work is essential.
- Secondly, to determine and identify critical factors that are needed to be fulfilled for success and to achieve goal.
- Thirdly, to take critical factors for project of program and determine how to measure its completion.
Metrics for Modern Process : Nowadays, several metrics are available that helps in managing modern process. A total of seven core metrics are available that are essential and vital for all software projects. These seven metrics are categorised into two categories: management indicators and quality indicators. Out of seven, three of them are management indicators and rest of them are quality indicators. All of these metrics generally have two dimensions: static value that is used as an objective and dynamic trend that is used to manage main achievement of that particular objective. These metrics are simply based upon common sense and experience regarding field with both successful and unsuccessful metrics programs. Metrics that are generally related to costs simply prove value of team.
- Management Indicators : Metrics that are given below must be interpreted to serve as indicators. They might indicate problem or issue, minor perturbation, or simply change that is generally being managed. Metrics are given below :
- Work and progress – Work that is performed over given period of time. Its planning about iteration that means to determine and discuss planning next cycle, phase, or iteration.
- Budgeted cost and expenditure – Cost that is incurred over given period of time. Its Financial insight that means to understand implications regarding financial decisions that are made today.
- Staffing team dynamics – Personnel changes occurred over given period of time. Its resource plan that means to allocate and utilise resources simply to achieve highest efficiency of these resources.
- Quality Indicators : Quality indicators are Key Performance Indicators (KPI) that are very critical during realisation of project. These indicators are needed to be monitored carefully in order to confirm and ensure that team is working or performing on proper tasks. Metrics are given below :
- Change traffic and stability – Change of traffic and stability over given period of time. Its planning about iteration that means to determine and discuss planning next cycle, phase, or iteration. They also indicate convergence schedule that means to indicate convergence points in schedule where two to more activities come together and explain dependencies of successor activity.
- Breakage and modularity – Average breakage and modularity per change over given period of time. There is convergence, software scrap and to indicate quality of software.
- Rework and adaptability – Average rework per change over given period of time. There is convergence, software scrap and to indicate quality of software.
- Meantime between failure (MTBF) and maturity – Rate of defect over given period of time. There is to indicate quality of software, test coverage simply to measure and calculate amount of testing performed by set of tests.
