Is there an easier way to track scope changes in ExtremePlanner?

Question

I am about to join a new software team midway through a project. They are using ExtremePlanner to track their progress.

While they tracking tasks completed, they are not tracking how the estimated size of the project is changing over time. In the short time I have been monitoring the project this estimate has changed faster than the completion rate of the tasks. My gut feeling says that this is not just a blip but a problem that has been consistent throughout the project lifetime.

But how do I prove or disprove this?

I have not found the ExtremePlanner metrics useful for this. I have been exporting the data to MS Excel but the exported task and story info is missing important data like the creation date. Working around this is a bit of work. Is there a better way of doing this?

Alternately am I making too much of this? It has been argued by some of my prospective team mates that since no new features have been added that the scope has not changed and it is not a problem. However I argue that since new work within the features is continually being found the scope is changing and that this needs to be taken in to account when estimating the release date.

Answer 1

If this is an Agile project (e.g., using Scrum, XP, etc.), then presumably you are working in iterations (or sprints).

So my question would be - do things change so frequently within a single iteration that you need to measure those? Typically an agile project steers by freezing functionality within a single iteration. Yes, you may discover new possible implementation details or technical hurdles, but either they are just details within a 2 week iteration.

If you iterations get too long, I do see your concerns, since you'd be going a bit long to course correct if it takes a month or 6 weeks for each iteration.

I guess I'd ask - what would you do if you had these reports, and what would be on them?

A baseline of what the task estimates were originally and what they are now? ExtremePlanner does provide information on Original Estimates for tasks so you can compare those against the current state of the iteration (see the Task view - you may need to click the "customize" link for that view to display the original estimate column).

If it's something more, I'd be interested in what you would find useful there (we use ExtremePlanner also and haven't run into this need, though we use 2 week iterations).

Hope this helps.