In CloudThrottle, Charge code refers to a unique identifier or code used to track and allocate costs or expenses associated with specific activities, projects, or programs within a PPA (Program, Project, or Activity) framework. It is typically used to assign costs to different cost centers or initiatives, allowing for accurate financial tracking and budget management.
Showback is a practice of providing visibility and reporting of resource usage and associated costs to internal stakeholders or departments within an organization. It is a transparent process that demonstrates the consumption of resources and the resulting costs, without necessarily charging or billing those costs to individual departments or projects.
Here's a further explanation:
- Program: A program is a collection of related projects that are managed together to achieve strategic objectives. Programs are typically broader in scope and longer in duration than individual projects. They often involve multiple interdependent projects working towards a common goal. Programs provide a higher level of management and coordination to ensure the successful delivery of the desired outcomes.
- Project: A project is a temporary endeavor with a defined objective, specific deliverables, a defined timeline, and allocated resources. Projects are distinct and unique initiatives undertaken to create a desired result or outcome. They have clear boundaries, specific goals, and require coordinated effort to achieve the desired deliverables within the given constraints of time, cost, and scope.
- Activity: An activity refers to the individual tasks or work packages that are necessary to complete a project or program. Activities are the smallest units of work within a project or program and are typically sequential or parallel in nature. They represent specific actions or steps required to achieve the project or program objectives.
The concept of categorizing initiatives as Programs, Projects, and Activities is widely recognized and applied in project management and budgeting practices to provide a structured framework for classification and management.
In CloudThrottle, you can define Program in "Products" module, and Project and Activity will be entered in "Charge Code Setup" section under "Financial Management". This Chargeback data merged with Cloud Billing data in "Cloud Cost Modeler" will provide visibility and reporting of resource usage and associated costs to internal stakeholders or departments.
Here are some examples of how the PPA (Program, Project, or Activity) framework can be applied in software development. These examples showcase how the PPA framework can be applied in software development to categorize initiatives into programs, projects, and activities.
Example: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System
- Program: Development of an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System
- ~Project: Development of the financial module within the ERP system
- ~~Activity: Designing the user interface for financial transactions
- ~~Activity: Implementing the backend logic for financial calculations
- ~~Activity: Testing the financial module for accuracy and performance
Example: Mobile Application Development
- Program: Mobile Application Development
- ~Project: Development of a social media app
- ~~Activity: Designing the user interface for profile creation and messaging features
- ~~Activity: Implementing the backend server to handle user interactions and data storage
- ~~Activity: Testing the app on multiple mobile devices and operating systems for compatibility
Example: Web Development for an E-commerce Platform
- Program: Web Development for an E-commerce Platform
- ~Project: Development of the payment gateway integration
- ~~Activity: Researching and selecting a suitable payment gateway provider
- ~~Activity: Integrating the chosen payment gateway's API with the e-commerce platform
- ~~Activity: Testing the payment gateway integration for secure and reliable payment processing
Example: Software Product Development
- Program: Software Product Development
- ~Project: Development of a project management software
- ~~Activity: Gathering and analyzing user requirements for task management features
- ~~Activity: Designing the database schema and data models for storing project data
- ~~Activity: Coding and testing the task management functionality according to specifications
Example: Software Quality Assurance
- Program: Software Quality Assurance
- ~Project: Implementation of automated testing framework
- ~~Activity: Evaluating and selecting an appropriate testing framework
- ~~Activity: Developing automated test scripts for regression testing
- ~~Activity: Integrating the automated testing framework with continuous integration tools for seamless test execution