S Curves within 6th Sense Analytics
Continued from "S Curves - An Introduction"
In this post I want to map some of my ongoing S Curve discussion to 6th Sense Analytics data. The reason I�m bringing up S Curves in the first place is I feel they are a solid complimentary tool for traditional project tracking and management. Additionally, using Active Time as your project work indicator is particularly useful because of its accuracy and relationship to true project work, as it naturally filters out much of the noise associated with the work.
I want to share a couple of Active Time S Curve charts from real 6th Sense Analytics development work so you get a more concrete feel for their format and usefulness.
Individual Project Team Member S Curves
Chart 1 illustrates a 3 team member effort that was focused towards server level work within the 6th Sense Analytics engine during a 2 month period of time. While there were 3 engineers physically assigned to the work, as you can see, Peter is the only fully engaged contributor. In fact, if the project assumptions had all 3 contributing at the same rate, then this chart would indicate a resource dilution or diversion from plan.
So this chart is useful for verifying resource assumptions at a more gross level as they contribute to the project and you can clearly see the S shaped curve for Peter.
Chart 1 - click to enlargeProject Based S Curves
As you saw, the individual S Curve view to a project displays the nuance for each contributor. However, an equally powerful view is seeing how the entire team is contributing, and subsequently how well the overall project behavior matches your expectations. In Chart 2 the 3 engineers are rolled up into a project S Curve for the same period of time.
Now keep in mind that the roll up in the example is not that spectacular because Randy & Todd were not contributing very heavily during this time interval. However, if there were a team of 5 contributing fully, you�d see a fundamentally different (cumulative) picture.
Chart 2 - click to enlargeLonger Duration S Curves � Repeated Cycles
As you extend the duration for the S Curves, you see the curves cycling or repeating over time as the Analytics Server project gets worked on by the team. In Chart 3 below you see the same teams� contribution rates increase over time, with Randy and Todd starting to increase and Peter�s actually tapering off abut thru the middle of 2006.
If you examine their cumulative trends you�ll see individual S Curves represented within each. For example, you see flattening periods around April 9th and May 14th that surely represent completion of specific work items. In order to figure out exactly what they were, we�d have to cross reference against their plan details.
Chart 3 - click to enlargeChart 4 represents the same time period and engineers, just at the project level. It�s a bit simpler here to see the ongoing project S Curves as the project progresses through several development iterations.
Chart 4 - click to enlargeOne of the reasons I�m so bullish on 6th Sense Analytics data is the cumulative power of Active Time views for generating S Curves. By toggling between individuals, technologies, and projects and adjusting your durations to cover interesting project milestones, you can create and extremely powerful project management view into your work and progress!
This post will be continued�
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Getting Back to Basics with Data
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S Curves from a Testing Perspective
