The Rate Chart System (RTC)

The Rate Chart System (RTC) is a tool developed by the Software Engineering Division of Advanced Technology Ltd. (ATL), to provide software managers with a means of measuring and tracking the progress of a software project. The need for such a tool arose from the realization that insufficient visibility reduces the capability of software managers to detect lags in the progress rate of a project on time. This reduces the effectiveness of the corrective measures which are often too late to remedy the situation and to bring the development track back to the planned schedule. In order to employ RTC, one starts by entering all the parameters which are involved in measuring the project development progress. These include the hierarchical decomposition of the project, the list of development phases and their relative weights, the interim steps (milestones) involved in carrying out each phase and their relative weights, list of output items of each phase (work units) and their relative complexity, personnel assignments and the planned project schedule. While the project is in progress the system is updated with milestone completion data for each work unit and reports are produced on a regular basis