PMSR

So, I mentioned PMSR before. I think that stands for Project Management Statistic Report. I think. I honestly don't think anyone really knows except the person that cam up with it. What was that report from Office Space, the TPA report? Well this one beats that out. Its not done in triplicate, but it probably takes 2 or 3 people to put it together twice a month.

This report attempts to summarize a software project into a single spreadsheet. Everything from estimated effort to number of "planned" defects is contained in the report. Well its true that defects are expected to be found in any software project. But expecting something and planning for it are two different things, right? My hope springs eternal with every project that it will have 0 defects.

The other factor that drives me crazy with these is the color coding:
Green - Good. On target
Yellow - Not so good. Something is being missed.
Red - You've been bad.

Now the teams not wanting to go all the way to Yellow or Red, start coming up with their own colors. Yellow-Red, Green-Yellow, etc. Gets to be like the National Threat level. And that applies to the general reaction to the colors in the review meetings.

PMSR, the 4 little letters that drive fear into the engineers working on the product. Counting defects, counting lines of code, counting test cases, count everything all the time.

Ok, I have seen a glimmer of meaning in some of these metrics when looked at as trends. But they can never tell the true status of a project. Or measure the dedication of the staff working on the project and the likelihood that we will make it on time.

My best measure of the projected status of a project is how often my quality leads show up in my office in a week.
Maybe I should add that metric to the report.

Oh well, done venting for now. Next maybe I'll need to focus on the process of purchase approvals.