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Those who are ignorant of history are doomed to repeat it. This is not only true of great conflicts, but equally true in the IT world. Too often costs exceed estimates, and we are ignorant as to why, or by how much. We do not have data to help us understand what went wrong, what went right, or how to apply it to the next project. We are ignorant of our history as a department, a company, and an industry.
If you all you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. Problem Solving 101: identify the problem, figure out what you need to fix it. If we agree that the problem is inadequate data to reconcile estimates and real costs, and use that information for future projects, then the solution is a tool that will collect, organize and distill that data into something usable. In other words, the solution is software. Not just any software, but software designed and tested by the boots-on-the-ground IT professionals who need and use the data.
I am interested to learn from the community what software or other mechanism people use to address software project estimation needs and cost/effort actuals analysis, as well as for project accounting.
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John Aivazian wrote: I am interested to learn from the community what software or other mechanism people use to address software project estimation needs and cost/effort actuals analysis, as well as for project accounting.
Software is a tool not a solution.
Microsoft Project is used for project management and project task management (two different things) however whether that is successful depends on the "processes" that are in place at the company.
A company that is not committed to creating and maintaining process control will never succeed at project/task management in any meaningful way. The company must be committed enough to make successful implementation of process control a significant factor is measuring success of managers and lower level workers. The company must also have the buy in of a high level manager to insure compliance. One proven successful way to do this is to base employee reviews in a significant way on the employees use/compliance with existing process controls.
Naturally for it to be really successful the company must also recognize that those using the process control procedures must have significant input in the creation of the processes and also that processes can change over time.
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Hi jschell,
I don’t mean to be too flip but thanks for the brilliant flash of the obvious. I think everyone is well aware of that Microsoft Project can and cannot do. I am really interested in what people are using upstream of Project for software project estimation (cost and effort) before a plan is created in Project, which Project sorely lacks, as well as downstream for actual project accounting. It seems to me that there are very few solutions out there to address these needs.
John Aivazian
gnmsoftware.com
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John Aivazian wrote: I am really interested in what people are using
As I said what they are using is Project. They use it for estimation. They use it for task tracking.
Any lack in the tool doesn't alter the fact that they are using it for that.
I have worked on projects with up to about 100 people and I haven't worked on single team projects for probably 15 years. And everyone uses Project. I have never heard any suggestion for any other tool. The only alternative that usually occurs is when no tool at all is used.
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Quill and parchment.
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair.
nils illegitimus carborundum
me, me, me
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