Invest Lite Help
Model your project for success with the predictive power of Invest Lite.
START SCREEN
The screen that you’ll see when Invest Lite starts for the first time is the new project setup page, which asks for some basic information.
A suitable name for your project is recommended. Start and End dates are required.
Optionally enter a budget amount in $ or £.
When you have any, you can load the save file of an Invest Lite project on the righthand panel.
SUMMARY
Click on the Summary tab to review the information that you entered at first.
Adjust Name, Dates and Budget here.
RESOURCES
Click on the Resources tab to model and manage your team data.
For a team whose work you will plan and estimate, choose a Velocity Estimated type.
For a resource that you’ll only have a delivery estimation, like an external partner team, select a Duration Estimated type.
Choose a team name and Estimation scale, such as T-Shirt. As of today, right now, estimate how much project work you expect this team can complete in a week, regardless of how many people are in the team. Click on the Team Velocity cell and enter your Ideal Days estimate.
You may anticipate that aspects of your team will change over time. The cost might change and also the availability. This will have an impact on the team’s velocity. Let’s say the team is on holiday in December for two of the four weeks. In that month, the Velocity Change will be -50%. When the whole team returns in January the Velocity Change increase will be 100% - that is to say, double the figure of December. Note that Invest is not using the baseline Velocity % for the purpose of calculating any subsequent changes.
The Parallelism of the team means how many project tasks it can work on simultaneously. This does not mean it is working faster, but it may be working smarter and affecting delivery dates.
DASHBOARD SCOPE
The Scope Chart shows completed deliveries as a blue line, breaking into green, orange and red lines representing forecasted delivery dates as optimistic, likely and pessimistic, respectively. The range between these forecasts is the area called the cone of uncertainty. Periodically taking snapshots of your project, rather than simply saving, sets up a series of time points by which you can compare the present with the past.
When you compare two time points, the scope chart will show extra lines indicating original and changed scope. Scope revisions happen when new work is added and/or when more or less work effort is proved necessary over time. Invest will show you ahead of time if you need to make adjustments to resources or expectations to meet the original project goals.
DASHBOARD COST
Your resources are consuming the project budget, represented as a horizontal line on the Cost Chart. This chart includes costs within the Start and End Dates of your project only. If you find from the Scope Chart that your forecast deliveries will fall beyond the targeted project end date, adjust the End Date on the Summary tab to reveal any surplus costs that can be forecast.
