Using velocity tracking, developers strive to measure and monitor the productivity of software developement - passage from one milestone to the next one

Tracking Project Velocity
By Petrus Keyter, John Jan Popovic
Using velocity tracking, project stakeholders, managers and developers strive to measure and monitor the productivity of software developers and others participating in an Agile-based project.

To be able to make realistic estimate workload and start planning, we should have answers to these two CRUCIAL questions:

a. What assumptions and preconditions have not been yet fulfilled; so we can not start to make any estimate of the volume of work and start planning development?

b. Have the end user/ client CONFIRMED the future solution mockup (interface layout and operating procedures, "frozen design - user interface feature freeze"), before the coding has started!?

Definition of realistic Road Map which can be instrumental for the future development can only be done after we know the answers to above questions.

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Caveat - 8 Warnings
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1. Requirements: Unclear, vague, lack of agreement, lack of priority, contradictory, ambiguous, imprecise.

2. Resources: Lack of resources, resource conflicts, turnover of key resources, poor planning.

3. Schedules: Too tight, unrealistic, overly optimistic.

4. Planning: Based on insufficient data, missing items, insufficient details, poor estimates.

5. Risks: Unidentified or assumed, not managed.

The most common obstacles that interfere with recovering failed projects are:
6. PLANNING: Poor up-front planning is probably the most common problem. You should have spent more time planning, and do not start execution without fully understanding the work to be done.

7. ROADMAP: Incomplete or vague project work-plan (schedule) is the roadmap that describes what and when must be completed. You'll have problems, if you do not know upfront, how or who will accomplish the specified task.

8. APPROVAL: Getting stakeholders to accept the changes needed to bring the projects back on track-whether they are changes in scope, budget, resources, etc.

NOTE: The top level design must be completed and frozen before any code is written. Testing and debugging are necessary just to weed out the coding mistakes.

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The art of start
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What we need is to get at least some elementary, small part of the future system working first, so that we can tell that we are moving forward.
For the start, we need to construct partially functional working base, which is incrementally extendible.


Managing a project is not easy, with people, finances, time, equipment and materials to be managed on an ongoing basis to ensure project success. However, if you keep an eye on the following five important project areas, you will very much be on top of everything on your project.

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1. Finances and time
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You must on a weekly basis review your project to see if it is still on track. You must identify all tasks that are slipping or running late and see if they would be delaying the overall project completion date. In order to re-assign time to more critical tasks, see if there are any non-critical tasks that can be delayed to later or even after project completion. Another method of time saving is to see if you cannot complete any tasks quicker and earlier.

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2. Resource allocation
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You must keep a close eye on the percentage of time each of your team members are allocated to a task. If certain team members are over allocated and others are under allocated, you may need to look at reworking your schedule and working more efficiently. You may need to balance everyone’s workload better so that everyone is allocated 80 to 100 percent.

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3. Progress and efficiency of the team
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Not only must you continuously track the progress of every team member, but also the efficiency of every team member. This means that apart from the percentage progress everyone makes on his or her tasks, you must also check how many tasks are completed on time. Time sheets are very good tools in monitoring progress and efficiency of team members.

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4. Risks, issues and changes
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All risks, issues and changes must be managed on an ongoing basis using appropriate management processes and forms and logs to record all these items. A great tip is to try and resolve any issues or risks as soon as they are identified, in order to minimize the impact they may have on your project. Changes must be discussed and prioritized with the relevant stakeholders on an ongoing basis and their impact on the project must be track and monitored.

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5. Project health checks
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Tracking projects at a low level is part of ongoing project management, but you must also be able to every now and then during the project’s existence sit back and review the project from a higher level to gain a view of the project’s overall health and status. By taking a weekly summarized view of the project, you will be able to more effectively manage the project and lead the team.

Keeping these five areas constantly in mind during the entire project will ensure that you would be able to identify problems well in advance and then be able to act on these appropriately to ensure project success.