Automatic Creation of Countermeasure Plan against Process Delay: Creation of Countermeasures based on Crashing and Fast-tracking

Success or failure of a software project mainly depends on the management capability of the project manager. Therefore, EVA (Earned Value Analysis) is gaining much attention recently as a method of managing a project in an integrated fashion by introducing a unified metric called EV (Earned Value) and quantitatively measuring and analyzing the cost and schedule of a project. Project managers can use EVA to estimate SEAC (Schedule Estimate At Completion) and EAC (Estimate At Completion). However, since EVA does not include constraints as a factor for assigning human resources, such as the available periods of each person, etc., EVA quite often generates inaccurate estimations for SEAC and EAC. In addition, suppose that a situation arises due to a delay in project progress, in which the deadline cannot be met if the project proceeds as is with no countermeasures adopted. In this case, it is necessary to provide a prospect that indicates whether the project can be completed within the original delivery deadline (i.e., the original delivery deadline can be met) or not if any countermeasures are adopted to recover the process delay. If there is some way to bring the project back to its original schedule and complete it within the assigned time table, it is necessary to be able to present the countermeasure or an actual development plan. However, EVA cannot be used to show such a prospect or present the means to restore the project to its original timeline even if such countermeasures exist. This paper proposes a method to solve these problems and discusses its effectiveness by comparing the authors’ approach with that of the EVA. Key-Words: Schedule Planning for Software Development, Countermeasure Plan against Process Delay, Crashing, Fast-tracking