Jessica ThornIT Project Manager| MINDEXBuffalo, Ny, United States
Using some common estimation techniques, we presented a timeline to the customer that had full delivery and completion in Q4 2025. My boss is asking for a plan to continually track if we are on track for this deadline with updates semi-weekly. He keeps bringing up tracking story point completion (which means SPing everything up front, ew) and I want to give him other options. Saving Changes...
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Jessica, if you are going to measure using story points or sprints then I highly recommend using Burn-Down or Burn-Up Graphs! Saving Changes...
Edgardo DijamcoSenior Technical Project ManagerChristchurch, CAN, New Zealand
Apart from Burn-Down or Burn-Up Graphs, you can create several milestones and then track progress against them. I would suggest setting clear deliverables for each milestone, and measure progress by evaluating whether deliverables are met as scheduled. Saving Changes...
Rather than be forced into estimating the size of individual work items, if the team gets good at slicing work items to a relatively uniformly small size you can then use flow metrics to help with forecasting. Tools such as Monte Carlo simulation could be used to determine based on past throughput what the range of possibilities is for completing a set of similar sized work items.
A really good YouTube channel to follow on this approach is Drunk Agile with Dan Vicanti and Prateek Singh...
Program Manager, PPM&PMO Specialist.| Coppel, Mexico.Culiacán, Sinaloa, Mexico
What I've found helpful is to include a section in the weekly status report outlining what's currently active, what's planned for completion next week, and what has been concluded. I hope this helps! Best regards. Saving Changes...
Project Manager| AWR Development (BD) Ltd. Cox's Bazer , Bangladesh
Hi Jessica Thorn,
If you're measuring progress with story points or sprints, I recommend using Burn-Down or Burn-Up graphs.
Burn-Down graphs show work remaining over time to assess if deadlines are met, while Burn-Up graphs display completed work against the total project scope to visualize progress and changes.
Both graphs enhance communication with stakeholders and help identify issues early, making it easier to adjust plans.
BR,
Golam Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Beyond the great comments above the thing is simple: what your stakeholders need to know, no more than that. For example, in my case, I created a method that was adopted for one of the top ten companies in the world. That was just because I made a previous needs assessment then I create what they need. It was not easy because you will find stakeholders for different bussines unit whom needs to have different dimensions on the view Saving Changes...
I think the Burn-Down graphs would be most useful because they will highlight work done and what is remaining story points. It will also highlight the time spent and time left in the iterations. Saving Changes...
Keith MelvinSumaria Systems, LLCDayton, OH, United States
If tasks are not captured in Story Points, have you come up with some form of measurement for the task, e.g, days, hours, weeks?
We used EVM a bit. We also use MS Project quite a bit try to baseline our projects in a schedule format. Efforts are baselined in days/weeks/hours and we develop Milestones to track to.
This gives us a way to peer into the task level and see how much is done and look at the overall project to how close we are to a milestone. Saving Changes...
First, I think you require certain project management software, such as Microsoft Project.
Second, I personally prefer using Kanban for tracking. I suggest that you use Kanban to monitor progress toward the Q4 2025 deadline by setting up a Kanban board to visualize the workflow and utilizing metrics like lead time and cycle time to gauge the pace.
You could implement a Cumulative Flow Diagram to identify bottlenecks and track velocity based on completed tasks to gain insights into team capacity. Regular burndown charts can help monitor work remaining if we break the project into smaller phases, and I recommend holding semi-weekly review meetings to keep the team aligned on progress and any roadblocks.
Additionally, defining key milestones and maintaining a risk register will help manage potential delays, allowing for a more flexible and adaptive approach to tracking without solely relying on upfront story point estimations.
Saving Changes...
Thomas WalentaGlobal Project Economy ExpertHackenheim, Germany
Generally, you made a prediction based on assumptions, and one direct way is to track the assumptions.
You could also present a milestone chart and do MTA (milestone trend analysis), but you need to break down the timeline (into phases). Saving Changes...
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