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The CPI calculation is useful when comparing projects to one another, as well as phases
within projects. The project manager can create a chart of the CPI for each completed
phase of the project to determine the accuracy of the estimates. If there are many phases
in which the CPI is far from 100%, this information should be taken into account during
future estimation sessions. The total CPI of the entire project can be compared to that of
other projects, as well, to determine which teams may need estimation training or better
management of resources.

The progress of the project should be tracked at the review meetings in terms of slips, vari-
ance, and earned value. The simplest way to track the project’s progress is by comparing
the due date of the actual schedule with the due date of the baseline to anticipate the
expected delay in the due date. The variance data and the individual delays that led to the
variance should also be recorded, as well as any viable theories or conclusions drawn
about why the schedule slipped. This information will be taken into account in the post-
mortem report (see Chapter 8).

NOTE
The most popular tool for creating a project schedule is Microsoft
Project. There are also free and open source project scheduling tools
available for most platforms that feature task lists, resource allocation,
predecessors, and Gantt charts. These include:
• Open Workbench (http://www.openworkbench.org/)
• dotProject (http://www.dotproject.net/)
• netOffice (http://netoffice.sourceforge.net/)
• TUTOS (http://www.tutos.org/)

Managing Multiple Projects
Many project managers are responsible for multiple projects. If each project is planned
well, managing a set of them should not be difficult. When projects don’t share dependen-
cies, managing them is straightforward—just manage each project individually, with a
separate project schedule for each one.

When projects share dependencies, they are more challenging to manage. There are two

ways that one project might depend on another. In the first type, two projects rely on the
same resources; in the second type, a work product generated by one project is needed by
the other. Getting a handle on these dependencies is the first important step in managing
multiple projects.

Understand Dependencies Between Projects
The most common way for projects to be interdependent is through shared resources. One
instance of this happening is “pipelined” projects. In many software organizations, soft-
ware projects go through a set of sequential phases: requirements, design, development,
programming, and testing. In each phase, most of the work is done by a small subset of the
team, leaving the rest of the team available to work on other projects. To allow the team

66 CHAPTER FOUR