Often within technology organizations there is a general belief that increasing staff increases the amount of production. But what if there were better options? Wouldn’t it be great to see some additional management options using predictive analytics? This type of analysis could save organizations millions of dollars by showing how to hit their goals by just planning more effectively.

Where do you start? First, we recommend centralizing your project data so your information can be easily accessed. These projects can be completed, in-progress, or getting ready to start. The best way to do this is with a tool that lets you store the data and that also lets you generate the forecasts, all in one convenient place.

The next step would be to run built-in forecasting models to see if you can complete the required amount of work with the existing number of resources.  These models also provide other options to consider, like adjusting the number of resources on a software release or extending a project schedule to save money. The best models are empirically-based and time-tested. To generate the analysis, you need to enter some basic project level goals and the models then leverage historical data to forecast a reliable duration, effort, cost, and staffing assessment for each release.

What if you could leverage summary level cost, duration, and productivity data to support estimates for future projects, at the release and enterprise level? C-level executives, development managers, and project stakeholders are all involved at some level in project planning. They want quick access to information on a regular basis and they want web-based solutions to make it happen. So how does it all work? There are web-based analytics tools that allow you to create a centralized database for all of your projects. These tools store the data, leverage it to generate project and portfolio estimates, and then provide a communication vehicle throughout the organization to ensure that everyone involved is on the same page. It all starts with having the data in one place. 

Once you have all of your project data in one place, then you can focus on analyzing the completed projects. You can compare them against industry trends and leverage a 5-star report to show how they rate on performance in the industry. The initial measures to focus on would be size, duration, effort, reliability, and productivity. A project's productivity will be calculated automatically once you have entered the size, duration and effort. We call this measure a Productivity Index. This measure can be compared to industry and used as a benchmark to measure process improvements over time.  These numbers give you a quantitative picture of your current project environment.