In many cases, the trend group used by your project was “inherited” from the template or existing project used as a configuration source when the project was created or imported. While relying on a configuration source speeds up the creation and maintenance of new projects, you should review these inherited settings to ensure that they accurately reflect current project characteristics. Fortunately, reviewing settings is still much faster than filling out every single field manually!
Trend groups used for estimation or benchmarking should accurately reflect the project(s) you are working with. For example, Real Time projects are typically extremely complex. Consequently, they take longer and use more effort (producing lower productivity) than less complex application domains like Business. Using a Real Time trend to estimate or benchmark an IT application would result in lower productivity indexes (during estimation) or inflated five-star ratings when benchmarking closeout (completed) projects. To ensure valid comparisons, make sure the trend group for your project reflects the kind of problems it solves (application domain), implementation work (are you writing code, or configuration a pre-existing package), and lifecycle or development methodology (Agile).
Examples of QSM trend groups include QSM Business, QSM Avionics, or QSM Package Implementation trends. For descriptions of the QSM trend groups included with your license, see the Application types listed in the Environment Field Definition section and the QSM Reference Trend Descriptions in the Appendix of this user guide.