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Project Management |
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Define project
terms of reference, set up a project
calendar and configure project properties (such
as manager, sponsor, client, start and end
dates, budget, overhead levels and contingency).
Password protect
sensitive project information including
financial, resource or metric data.
Import and
export
templates to share metrics and useful
data between projects.
In addition to a comprehensive
help system
Circa incorporates a
Navigator which provides concise
explanations and shortcuts to key features –
great for novice or infrequent users! |
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Software Requirements |
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Understand
requirements and scope the project using
software artifacts. Work at the concept
(analysis) or concrete (design) level.
Create
software artifacts within Circa or import them
using
XMI from any
UML CASE tool.
Set
qualifiers (size, complexity, reuse and
genericity), apply
technologies, define the
baseline (new or modification) and choose
a
priority. Position artifacts within a
package
structure.
Alternatively use Circa’s
auto populate
feature to produce rapid first-cut estimates at
the bid stage of a project. |
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Production Activities |
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Specify
production artifacts
to take account of creative content and
production activities such as developing a help
system, designing product branding, integration
of software and hardware or staff training.
Each production artifact is given an
identification code, detailed
description,
priority and optionally a link to an
external document. Specify either
internal effort or an
outsourced cost.
Use the
Activity Detail window to compare the
amount of production and software effort. |
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Resource Management |
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Define
resources
in terms of their availability and rates
of pay. Indicate their
skill levels in each of the development
activities. Optionally import resource
information from
MS Project.
Allocate resources to project teams as workers.
Assign workers to tasks in the project
schedule. Use the
colour-coding
on the
Resource Loading chart to establish
whether any of the resources are overworked or
under utilised.
Establish
the best team size for individual tasks or the
entire project using the
Optimum Resource chart. |
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Risk Assessment |
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Identify
and
assess the level of
risk exposure for a project. Describe
each risk, state its
probability (likelihood of firing) and
its level of
impact, and document a contingency plan.
Circa will suggest a
priority level for each risk.
Circa combines all the risk information to
derive an appropriate level of
contingency to be applied to project
estimates.
View the
Risk chart to ascertain the probability
of project completion within a given timeframe.
The risk chart offers a range of
possible durations depending on whether
an optimistic, realistic or pessimistic outlook
is taken. |
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Defect Tracking |
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Log
defects in software or production
activities.
Assess the
effort and
cost associated with investigating,
correcting and re-testing project defects.
Document the nature of the
problem, who reported the defect and
when. Assign a
priority and track the
status and
severity of the defect.
Allocate defects to
tasks to schedule their investigation and
resolution.
When a defect has been addressed, record its
resolution details and
test results. |
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Metrics Calibration |
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Use built-in
productivity metrics to drive estimates
of software effort. Define your own metrics or
adjust metrics over time to increase estimate
accuracy.
Define a set of
metrics for each
classifier (type of software artifact)
including base productivity metric, percentage
breakdown by activity and
technologies.
Define a set of technologies and indicate their
impact on development activities.
Customise the
labels associated with development
activities, alter the
impact of
qualifiers and
risks and define the
activity profile for software
defects. |
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Project Schedule |
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Define a development
process and
schedule work. Drag and drop software and
production artifacts, defects and workers to
allocate them to
tasks. Software and production artifacts
can be
segmented to split their effort across
multiple tasks.
View the project schedule as a
Gantt chart and drag tasks to create
dependencies. Task
progress is reflected in the
colour-coding (red for
planned, yellow for
in progress and green for
complete).
Optionally
export the tasks, milestones and resource
allocations to
MS Project. |
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Accurate Estimates |
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Produce accurate estimates of
effort,
person-days,
duration and
cost for each task, iteration, phase and
for the entire project.
Use the
Summary window to view estimates as well
as a prediction of
start and
end dates. Use the
Activity Detail window to view the amount
of production and software effort and to see the
software effort apportioned to development
activities.
Gather and record
actuals to monitor and control project
progress. Use the
Variances window to analyse differences
between estimates and actuals. |
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Management Reporting |
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Run a project
validation report to check key project
indicators such as
budget and
deadlines.
Produce detailed
management
information
reports
in
HTML and
MS Excel formats. Reports can contain all
of the information entered into Circa, including
details of software and production artifacts,
defects, resources, risks and metrics as well as
estimates at task, iteration, phase and project
levels.
Create a
custom report format by selecting which
sections, tables and columns to include. |
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