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Extending the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) for Data Visualization in Software Project Management

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Abstract

The human brain responds better to visual information when compared to plain text. In other words, our brain consumes visual information more easily than text-only content, which helps improve communication, sharing and retaining information, reducing misinterpretation, and clarifying complex information. However, most of the tools adopted for software project management are based on textual reports. The number of software projects that fail is huge, and the stakeholders’ lack of understanding of the project is among the reasons for project failure. The implementation of data visualization using techniques and tools for project management can help identify and prevent project issues such as unexpected budget increases, unrealistic deadlines, lack of clear goals, and success criteria. In this paper, we extend our previous work by evaluating the proposed data visualization extension for the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK\(\text{\textregistered}\) guide) in terms of its applicability in software project management and alignment within the PMBOK guide. The results from the evaluation show that our proposal adds support to visual project management and helps to identify the status and progress of the project quickly and prevent future issues related to communication. Our proposal was also found to be helpful for less experienced software project managers.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the study participants and acknowledge that this research was partially sponsored by Dell Brazil using incentives of the Brazilian Informatics Law (Law no 8.2.48, year 1991).

Funding

This research was partially sponsored by Dell Brazil using incentives of the Brazilian Informatics Law (Law no 8.2.48, year 1991).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Technology, PUCRS University, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil

    Julia Colleoni Couto, Duncan Dubugras Ruiz & Rafael Prikladnicki

  2. University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

    Josiane Kroll

Authors
  1. Julia Colleoni Couto
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  2. Josiane Kroll
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  3. Duncan Dubugras Ruiz
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  4. Rafael Prikladnicki
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Contributions

JC developed the extension, conceived and designed the mapping study, the focus group, and the two surveys, analyzed the data, wrote the paper, prepared figures and tables, reviewed drafts of the paper. JK helped design the evaluation survey, analyzed the data, wrote the paper, prepared figures and tables, reviewed drafts of the paper. DR and RP reviewed drafts of the paper.

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Correspondence to Julia Colleoni Couto.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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This article is part of the topical collection “Enterprise Information Systems” guest edited by Michal Smialek, Slimane Hammoudi, Alexander Brodsky and Joaquim Filipe.

Appendix A Context examples for PMBOK KAs.

Appendix A Context examples for PMBOK KAs.

Table 6 presents DV techniques and tools and context examples for each PMBOK KA.

Table 6 Data Visualization techniques and tools with context examples for each PMBOK KAs ([7])
Full size table

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Couto, J.C., Kroll, J., Ruiz, D.D. et al. Extending the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) for Data Visualization in Software Project Management. SN COMPUT. SCI. 3, 283 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42979-022-01168-z

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