← VCE Software Development U4O1

Assessing project plan effectiveness: impact of changes

Judging how changes to a project plan affected completion, such as delays, dropped features and quality, and whether the project finished on time.

Part of: VCE Software Development - U4O1 - development and evaluation — Module 197

Understanding Assessing project plan effectiveness: impact of changes in VCE Software Development U4O1

What it does: The days_late value measures how far completion slipped from the plan because of changes. A completion percentage below 100 shows that dropped features reduced how much of the plan was finished. When judging impact of changes, you look at what each change did to the finish date. A two-week push back is a delay. Finishing by the original deadline shows the plan coped with the changes, even though tasks moved. A dropped feature means part of the planned scope was not completed. It lowers effectiveness even if the deadline is met. Impact is not only about time. Rushing to stay on schedule can reduce the quality of the solution.

Common mistakes: The subtraction is the wrong way round, so a late project gives a negative delay. It should be delay = actual - planned. The number of dropped features is stored as a string, so planned - dropped causes a TypeError. It should be dropped = 3.

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This module's key terms are also in a printable crossword (Modules 186–198) and word search (Modules 172–198).

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Learning

Duo

A team added a new feature mid-project, which pushed the final delivery back two weeks. How should this be recorded when assessing the plan?

As a change with no impact on the projectAs a change that caused a delay to completion

Matches

Finished 2 weeks late, but all tasks were done, so the changes had no impact.

↓

The delay was ignored. Finishing late is an impact of changes and means the project was not completed on time.

Applying

Meanings

Term

impact of changes

Meaning

Judging how changes to a project plan affected completion, such as delays, dropped features and quality, and whether the project finished on time.

Practice

Impact of changes:

Testing

Gaps

delay = actual planned

Check Answer

Spots

2actual = 38

3delay = planned - actual

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Quick Questions

1. A team added a new feature mid-project, which pushed the final delivery back two weeks. How should this be recorded when assessing the plan?

A. As a change with no impact on the project

B. As a change that caused a delay to completion ✓

When judging impact of changes, you look at what each change did to the finish date. A two-week push back is a delay.

2. Which statement best describes judging the impact of changes on a project plan?

A. Counting how many lines of code were written

B. Judging how changes affected completion, including delays, dropped features and quality ✓

Impact is about the effect on completion: delays, dropped features, quality and whether the project finished on time.

3. A project was due on 30 September and was handed over on 30 September, even though two tasks were rescheduled. What is the impact on completion?

A. Completed on time, so the changes had little negative impact ✓

B. Completed late, so the changes failed

Finishing by the original deadline shows the plan coped with the changes, even though tasks moved.

4. Because of a technical issue, the team removed the search feature from the final solution. How is this impact described?

A. A dropped feature that reduces how much of the solution was delivered ✓

B. A delay that has no effect on the features delivered

A dropped feature means part of the planned scope was not completed. It lowers effectiveness even if the deadline is met.

5. Which result suggests the changes had a LARGE negative impact on the plan?

A. The project finished three weeks late with two features dropped ✓

B. The project finished on time with all features working

Late completion plus dropped features shows the changes seriously affected the outcome.

Match the Pairs

Planned finish: 12 Sep | Actual finish: 26 Sep → The project finished 14 days late, so a change caused a delay and the plan did not achieve completion on time.

Features planned: 8 | Features delivered: 6 → Two features were dropped, so the solution is less complete than planned.

To judge the impact of a delay, subtract the planned finish date from the actual finish date to get the days late. → days_late = actual_finish - planned_finish

To judge the impact of dropped features, work out the percentage of planned features that were delivered. → completion = delivered / planned * 100

Finished 2 weeks late, but all tasks were done, so the changes had no impact. → The delay was ignored. Finishing late is an impact of changes and means the project was not completed on time.

Finished on time after cutting testing, so the changes only had a good impact. → Quality was ignored. Cutting testing to meet the deadline may have lowered the quality of the solution.

Key Term

impact of changes

Judging how changes to a project plan affected completion, such as delays, dropped features and quality, and whether the project finished on time.

Fill in the Blanks

1. delay = actual - planned

Hint: Type the arithmetic operator that finds how many days the project ran over its plan.

2. late = actual > planned

Hint: Type the comparison operator that is True when the actual days are more than the planned days.

3. if delay > 0: print("Project was late")

Hint: Type the keyword that starts a decision to report a delay.

4. planned = ["login", "search", "reports"] done = ["login", "search"] dropped = len(planned) - len(done)

Hint: Type the built-in function that counts the items in a list, to work out how many features were dropped.

5. status = "Late" if delay > 0 else "On time"

Hint: Type the keyword that gives the other result when the project was not delayed.

Spot the Error

Question 1

A planned = 30

B actual = 38

C delay = planned - actual

D print("Delay:", delay)

Line C — The subtraction is the wrong way round, so a late project gives a negative delay. It should be delay = actual - planned.

Question 2

A planned = 10

B dropped = "3"

C built = planned - dropped

D print(built, "features built")

Line B — The number of dropped features is stored as a string, so planned - dropped causes a TypeError. It should be dropped = 3.

Question 3

A planned = 20

B built = 15

C pct = planned / built * 100

D print(pct, "% complete")

Line C — Completion is the features built divided by the features planned. The division is inverted, so the percentage is wrong. It should be built / planned * 100.

Question 4

A planned = 40

B actual = 52

C delay = actual - planned

D if delay > 0

E print("Finished late")

Line D — An if statement must end with a colon. It should be if delay > 0:.

Question 5

A dropped = 2

B if dropped = 0:

C print("Scope reduced")

D else:

E print("Full scope")

Line B — A single = assigns a value. A condition needs a comparison operator. To detect dropped features it should be if dropped > 0:.

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