Long ago there was a large program, the Worrld Wide Command Control and Communications Systems, that was supposed to replace the AutoDIN. After many billions of government dollars, there was no Dial Tone. From the after action report the Software Project Managers Network was founded in 1992 by Norm Brown. From that organization came Little Books. One of the book is titled Project Breathalyzer, October 1997. These are the tests to determine of your project can pass the test.
- A credible activity network supported by a WBS, Control Account, Work Package structure.
- A credible schedule and budget for all the identified activities?
- What deliverables you are accountable for.
- Your top 5 risks.
- Your cost, schedule, and technical performance margin.
- The estimated cost for each deliverable.
- The external dependencies and how they drive your cost, schedule, and technical performance measures and how you are going to manage them.
- Your staff has sufficient technical expertise to accomplish the planned work.
- You have adequate staff to maintain your planned schedule, cost, technical performance measures.
We've used these tests in the following way:
- Have the project staff answer these questions every week.
- If there are not credible answers, then go get the answers.
- Once you get the answers, assess how these answers impact the cost, schedule, and performance of your project.
No matter the answers, you need to ask and answer these.
