Burn Down The Disco · Dec 5, 02:04 AM
Recent events at work have brought around change in management practices. As new fads come to those whose fate it is to count beans and report on progress, so comes new jargon. One thing really caught my eye: the ‘burn down chart’.
I have some sympathy for managers. Project management should be an exact science. How else would we build bridges, skyscrapers, houses, a stadium? How would any of those projects come in on time or to budget? However in the world of software, what should be an exact science is more like magic. Project management has to bridge the gap between people doing the work and people running the business. Out of this chaotic arrangement comes the burn down chart.
The idea is simple. Plot a time series of ‘remaining work’ measured however you like. One measure would be a number of reported faults. From the slope of the line, estimate a completion date. Added interest comes from ‘re-scoping’ the project (sliding the line to the right and upwards).
Several things worry me about this. Firstly, by grouping together all work it’s possible to lose track of the size of work packages. If measuring faults, not all faults are as difficult to fix; not all faults are as important to the customer. As a planning tool it only shows you an endgame, not the detail. To make well informed changes, you have to look deeper.
Also, it can be deceptive. The information is only as good as the measure of ‘remaining work’. If that measure is reported faults, the value will depend heavily on the level of testing, the rate of change of the software, as well as the effort spent on fixing faults. This is a complex relationship, particularly if the testing, writing and fixing is really done by the same people. It’s not likely to result in a straight line graph.
Finally, it doesn’t show other dimensions of the project, such as the size of teams, the amount of hours or effort put in, holidays, etc.
In spite of the flaws, the chart is very popular and provides a quick summary of the recent progress. The slope provides an estimate of the time to complete, and as it falls away from the factual values the dotted line is a clear indication that this is only an estimate. If this is dumbed down engineering, maybe the attraction is that you can produce something quickly and then get on with the real work.
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