| Name | Trend Analysis |
| Abbreviation | TRA |
| Learning Cost | 120 |
| Playing Cost | 200 |
| Suggested Phases | 1,2 |
Engineers
| Mechanical Engineer | Industrial Design | System Engineer | Electrical Engineer | Production Engineer | Software Engineer |
| ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
Technique and Issue Views
| BusinessNeeds | Stakeholder | Stakeholder Needs | System Requirements | System Structure Architecture |
| ✔ | ✗ | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| System Functional Architecture | Detail Hardware Design | Detail Service Design | Detail Software Design | Manufacturing Operations |
| ✔ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✔ |
Technique Traits
| Identify Stakeholders | Elicit Needs | Remove Ambiguity | Layman's Terms | Technical Terms | Teamworkings |
| 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2' |
| Traceability | Prioritizing | Exploring Breadth | Inside the Box | Outside the box | V&V |
| 3 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Verification and Validation
| Analysis | Calculus | Inspection | Demonstration | Test |
| ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
Stemming from statistics and stock market predictions, trend analysis aims to used data to identify trends between characteristics in previous projects and their success, in order to predict the success of current projects. Variables that are used to predict future success usually include variances in budget, cost, schedule, or scope. This allows to identify possible problem areas and fix the problems before they compromise the success of the overall project. [1] [2]
A baseline (anticipated effort for the project) is first established, together with actual effort (hours billed to the project), and earned value (measurement of progress on the project). The quantity to be analyzed is subtracted from the earned value to calculate the variances (e.g. schedule variance = earned value – actual effort; cost variance = earned value – baseline). Negative variances (for example in cost) give us a clue regarding what parts of the project are deviating from what is expected to lead to a successful project, hance early action can be taken to fix those mistakes.
