Development Projects and Reporting

In development projects the testing is usually reported accurately. Test management tools have everything needed for reporting. Change requests that have an impact on the budget need to be reported in detail as well. But all the other observations, that also have an impact on the business, are left outside from the reports. This is why most projects don’t have an accurate indicator of their problem solving ability. The ever growing pile of unsolved, unplanned issues is not being monitored.

Handling open issues

Which of these is most accurate for you when handling open issues:

1. You tell your problem to project manager: ” Oh hey, this thing needs to be considered too”. If you happen to be in a meeting, your problem is logged.
2. You send your questions with an email to all who might be somehow involved.
3. You find the project page and an Excel sheet or log considering the matter at hand and add your question there.
4. You add your question to shared project management tool, where all the other questions are as well. You can monitor the answers in real time, of all your projects.

Situations 1, 2 and most of the time also 3, have a problem: project’s problem solving ability is not reportable or manageable. If you disagree, check if you can get a graph like the one below, from all your open issues. How many open issues are there in a project?

Why monitoring is useful

• Software testing professionals have learned that all found observations need to be routed and prioritized quickly. This way the observation gets fixed on schedule. Same rule applies to open issues in business or project.
• People don’t get frustrated when they are being listened to. The answers can be as simple as: ”Your issue has been logged and is being dealt with in the correct project phase”
• You can monitor who does their work and who is always lagging behind.
• Monitoring project quality. If there are a lot of open issues, you can reflect on project planning or work methods.
• Making monitoring possible for project work load.
• And the classic: You get what you measure.

Problem solving ability’s impact on project progress

The first picture was from a project that has poor problem solving ability. Open issues are building up every week, and finally we are in a situation where it’s impossible for them to be even solved anymore.

The second picture below is from a project that has good problem solving ability. There are open issues, but they are also handled in sufficient efficiency.

And it goes without saying that the first project is not going to be finished on schedule. The second project’s steering group reports on the other hand are greener than a summer meadow.