Managing Software Projects

Work Breakdown Structure

 Planning
• Scoping
• Estimation
• Risk
• Schedule
• Control Strategy
 What is a WBS?
• Project Planning Tool
• Hierarchical List of Activities
• Includes managerial, administrative and
developmental activities for
– Managing the Project
– Developing software
– Providing support for all project activities
 Need of WBS
• Cost estimating
– To make sure all activities are estimated
– To make sure each activity is accounted for its cost
• Cost Accounting
– To “charge” appropriate cost to each activity
– Determine actual cost of the element
• Schedule performance
– To monitor activities
– Measure project progress
 Planning, Estimating, Scheduling
• What’s the difference?
• Plan: Identify activities. No specific start and end
dates.
• Estimating: Determining the size & duration of
activities.
• Schedule: Adds specific start and end dates,
relationships, and resources.
Not to confuse with Project Milestones
• A significant event in a project.

• Associated with a deliverable

• Milestones have zero duration

• Mark the end of an activity

• Phases are not Milestones

 Identify Work Concerning Software

• Go through available documentation

• Make complete list of items that impact entire
software building cost
• Scan source documents such as
– SOW (statement of work)
– Requirement documents
– Specification / concepts
– Design documents
– Standards (internal and external)
 How To Schedule
• Identify “what” needs to be done
– Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• Identify “how much” (the size)
– Size estimation techniques
• Identify the dependency between tasks
– Dependency graph, network diagram
• Estimate total duration of the work to be done
– The actual schedule
 Partitioning Your Project
• Decompose project into manageable chunks
• ALL projects need this step
• Divide & Conquer
• Two main causes of project failure
– Forgetting something critical
– Ballpark estimates become targets
• How does partitioning help this?
 WBS
• List of Activities, not Things
• List of items can come from many sources
– SOW, Proposal, brainstorming, stakeholders, team
• Describe activities using “bullet language”
– Meaningful but terse labels
• All WBS paths do not have to go to the same level
• Do not plan more detail than you can manage
Project
Level-1

Components
Level-2

Components
Level-3
 Project Elements
• A Project: functions, activities, tasks
WBS
 WBS – Tree view

Main Module

Sub Module1a Sub Module1b Sub Module1c Sub Module1d

Sub Module2a Sub Module2b Sub Module2c Sub Module2d

 Work Breakdown Structure: WBS
• Hierarchical list of project’s work activities
• 2 Formats
– Outline (indented format)
– Graphical Tree (Organizational Chart)
• Uses a decimal numbering system
– Ex: 3.1.5
– 0 is typically top level
• Includes
– Development, Mgmt., and project support tasks
• Shows “is contained in” relationships
• Does not show dependencies
WBS Chart Example
 WBS Outline Example
0.0 Retail Web Site
1.0 Project Management
2.0 Requirements Gathering
3.0 Analysis & Design
4.0 Site Software Development
4.1 HTML Design and Creation
4.2 Backend Software
4.2.1 Database Implementation
4.2.2 Middleware Development
4.2.3 Security Subsystems
4.2.4 Catalog Engine
4.2.5 Transaction Processing
4.3 Graphics and Interface
4.4 Content Creation
5.0 Testing and Production
 WBS Types
• Project Process WBS
• a.k.a Activity-oriented
• Ex: Requirements, Analysis, Design, Testing
• Typically used by PM
• Creating a list of all activities that the project is thought to involve.
(generally verbs)
• Product Process WBS
• a.k.a. Entity-oriented
• Ex: Financial engine, Interface system, DB
• Typically used by engineering manager
• Appropriate when used for getting a product as a end-result
(deliverable) from the activities. (generally nouns)

• Hybrid WBS: both above

• This is not unusual
• Ex: Lifecycle phases at high level with component or feature-specifics
within phases
• Rationale: processes produce products
• Structuring of both products and activities
Product WBS
Process WBS
Outline WBS with Gantt
WBS by PMI Process Groups
 WBS Types
• Less frequently used alternatives
– Organizational WBS
• Research, Product Design, Engineering, Operations
• Can be useful for highly cross-functional projects
– Geographical WBS
• Can be useful with distributed teams
• Mysore team, Hyderabad team, Off-shore team
 WBS & Methodology
• PM must map activities to chosen lifecycle
• Each lifecycle has different sets of activities
• Integral process activities occur for all
– Planning, configuration, testing
• Operations and maintenance phases are not
normally in plan (considered post-project)
• Some models are “straightened” for WBS
– Spiral and other iterative models
– Linear sequence several times
• Deliverables of tasks vary by methodology
 WBS Techniques
• Mind Mapping
• Top-Down
• Bottom-Up
• Analogy
• Rolling Wave
– 1st pass: go 1-3 levels deep
– Gather more requirements or data
– Add more detail later
• Post-its on a wall
Mind Mapping
 WBS Techniques
• Top-down
– Start at highest level
– Systematically develop increasing level of detail
– Best if
• The problem is well understood
• Technology and methodology are not new
• This is similar to an earlier project or problem
• Team well-versed
– But is also applied in majority of situations
 WBS Techniques
• Bottom-up
– Start at lowest level tasks
– Aggregate into summaries and higher levels
– Cons
• Time consuming
• Needs more requirements complete
• Team not familiar
– Pros
• Detailed
 WBS Techniques
• Analogy
– Base WBS upon that of a “similar” project
– Use a template
– Analogy also can be estimation basis
– Pros
• Based on past actual experience
– Cons
• Needs comparable project
 WBS Techniques
• Brainstorming
– Generate all activities you can think of that need
to be done
– Group them into categories
• Both Top-down and Brainstorming can be
used on the same WBS
• Remember to get the people who will be
doing the work involved (buy-in matters!)
WBS dictionary
 WBS – Basis of Many Things
• Activity Definition
• Network scheduling
• Costing
• Risk analysis
• Organizational structure
• Control
• Measurement
 WBS Guidelines Part 1
• Should be easy to understand
• Some companies have corporate standards for these
schemes
• Some top-level items, like Project Mgmt. are in WBS
for each project
– Others vary by project
• What often hurts most is what’s missing
• Break down until you can generate accurate time &
cost estimates
• Ensure each element corresponds to a deliverable
 WBS Guidelines Part 2
• How detailed should it be?
– Not very detailed
– Each level should have no more than 7 items
– It can evolve over time
– Apply the 8/80 rule 4/40 rule
• Is this enough detail?
– Will the same person do the work in
each box?
– Do we know how long each box will take
to complete?
– Will each box take less than a week to
complete?
• If any of these answers is “No”, then we need to further decompose
the task.
• What tool should you use?
– Excel, Word, MS-Project
– Org chart diagramming tool (Visio, etc)
– Specialized commercial apps
• Re-use a “template” if you have one
 Creating Work Packages
• Lowest level of WBS where work gets done
• Software element to be produced
• Who or How many people will do it
• Responsible person for its completion
• Scheduled start and end dates
• Effort Estimate (Rupees, hours/days)
• Acceptance criteria – quality measure
 General Guidelines

• A WBS can be mix of products (deliverables)

and activities (processes)
• Break project into pieces, to reduce
complexity
• All processes and deliverables to be numbered
and labeled
• If possible maintain a WBS dictionary
 General Guidelines…cont’d
• The WBS is generally hybrid of Product and
Process

• Sources for identifying activities are

documentation such as Project Charter and
SOW / SRS
Arrange the following activities into the
WBS - how the work items decompose
into activities
• Shop for shoes
• Create guest list
• Have the tailoring and fitting done
• Shop for dress
• Find caterer
• Cater the wedding
• Wait for RSVPs
• Mail the invitations
• Finalize the menu
• Print the invitations
• Choose the bouquet
Solution ?
 Develop a Product Oriented WBS
A nation wide florists’ network is hoping that a new web-based
system will speed orders to their customer. Red Flowers Ltd., want to
roll out their system on the Internet (www.RedFlowers.com).

The system should provide the florists with the facility of logging on
to their site to receive and place orders, queries on flower delivery
times, substitution of certain flowers.

The company is also in the process of adding electronic mail and

chat capabilities. The company plans to train the florist for the same.
This will help them communicate their ideas about business, design,
marketing etc.,

Customers may enquire through e-mail / phone. So the helpdesk

needs to be two-pronged.
Write a WBS for developing and delivering the solution the above
described project.
 Develop a Process Oriented WBS
Mysore Minerals Corporation (MMC), which is a Dandeli-based
company has problems maintaining its personnel records. The
managers are so busy that the daily record-keeping of the
employees is also not possible due to booming business. Added to
the chaos, were the scores of reports that the governmental
agencies required. The HR dept. lagged behind on daily records
because they spent too much time completing reports for the
government, on absenteeism and training.

Each of these reports essentially required the same data but in

different formats.

To manage the data effectively, MMC wants proper application

software in place. It needs to interact with its parent office in
Bangalore for, a number of requirements and sending reports.
Security and data integrity are of prime importance and are
assigned differently at various levels to each clerk / manager /
president / etc.,