In order to foster trust and credibility between a project team and its stakeholders, the team has the responsibility to clearly communicate the health of the project. As the leaders of a project, we can apply the metaphor of medical care and their use of "vital signs" to help form a holistic view of the state of the project. Come learn the five "Project Vital Signs", their associated quantitative metrics and how to enable a team to effectively use them as a tool to diagnose and treat project health problems.

1. Project Vital SignsStelios PantazopoulosLead Consultantprojectvitalsigns.com

2. My fellow IT practitioners… IT has lost trust and credibility with the business Photo Credit: wbz.com

3. How? Poor track record Poor visibility ROI hard to quantify

4. Restoring trust and credibility begins with the Project

5. Simply saying “the Project is ‘on track’” is not good enough

6. Photo Credit: the-yes-man.com

7. Photo Credit: Paul Jerry on flicr.com

8. Need to show how and why Project is on track

9. The Need Holistic view into the State of the Project

10. Project as a Patient Photo Credit: EMS_EMT on flickr.com

11. Project as a Patient Photo Credit: EMS_EMT on flickr.com

12. In Medicine… Medical History x Tests x Vital Signs x Experience  Diagnosis  Treatment

13. Vital Signs

14. Vital Signs Photo Credit: osborn.stephen on flicr.com

15. Vital Signs Simple, quantitative, near real-time metrics conveyed via a chart published to a location and easily referenced by all

16. PMBOK Project Levers

17. PMBOK Project Levers + 1

18. Objectives with Vital Signs Bring visibility into all 5 project levers Simple, quantitative, near-real time metrics Publish to charts in full public display Where possible include history and trends

19. Project Vital Signs Scope Burn Up Current State of Delivery Budget Burn Down Delivery Quality Team Dynamics

20. Scope Burn Up Photo Credit:Dru Bloomfield - At Home in Scottsdale on flickr.com

21. Schedule x Scope = Expected Delivery Date Scope Burn Up

25. Current State of Delivery Photo Credit: austrini on flickr.com

26. Scope x Team = Real-time state of delivery Current State of Delivery

30. Budget Burn Down Photo Credit: purpleslog on flickr.com

31. Schedule x Budget = $$$tatus Budget Burn Down

35. Delivery Quality Photo Credit: jurvetson on flickr.com

36. Schedule x Quality = How good is the end product Delivery Quality

40. Alternative to Bugs as a Measure of Quality

41. Alternative to Bugs as a Measure of Quality

43. Team Dynamics Photo Credit: waldopepper at flickr.com

44. Schedule x Team = State of the team at different stages of delivery Team Dynamics

45. Tuckman Model of Group Development http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Forming-storming-norming-performing

49. Project Dashboard Photo Credit: jiazi on flickr.com

53. Example Scenario

54. Today is Aug 12Start of Iteration 5Production Release Sep 9, 4 weeks

55. What is the Current State of the Project?What is the Diagnosis?What (if any) Treatment is required?

56. Vital Signs

58. Scope Burn Up

59. Current State of Delivery

60. Budget Burn Down

61. Delivery Quality

62. Team Dynamics

63. What is the Current State of the Project? Not going to make it.

64. What is the Diagnosis? The team is firing on all cylinders. Quality is good. Not enough time to deliver the full backlog for the September 9th release. Not enough money to carry us through the warranty period ending September 23rd.

65. What is the Treatment? Release on Aug 26th instead of Sep 9th. Includes 35 stories that are ready for, currently in or have passed QA. Remaining 20 stories to be included in a future release, budgeted for at a later time.

66. Current State of Delivery : Before

67. Current State of Delivery : After

68. Current State of Delivery : After

69. Scope Burn Up : Before Treatment

70. Scope Burn Up : After Treatment

71. Budget Burn Down : Before Treatment

72. Budget Burn Down : After Treatment

73. Delivery Quality : After Treatment

74. Team Dynamics : After Treatment

75. Key Messages

76. Visibility into all leversthe PMBOK 4 + Team Photo Credit: lumaxart on flickr.com

77. Transparency is key Photo Credit: urbanshoregirl on flickr.com

78. Shared team responsibility Photo Credit: Robert S. Donovan on flickr.com

79. Project Vital Signs projectvitalsigns.com stelios@thoughtworks.com Special thanks to Agile 2010, ThoughtWorks, Kraig Parkinson and, my wife, Tami