SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Planning – scope, milestones & deliverables, Risk Management,

Metrics & Measurements
 Software project management
• Informal definition of management
– The art of getting work done through other people
• Software project management is concerned with
activities involved in ensuring that software is
delivered on time and on schedule and in
accordance with the requirements of the
organisations developing and procuring the
software
• Project management is needed because software
development is always subject to budget and
schedule constraints that are set by the
organisation developing the software
 Management activities
• Project planning and scheduling
• Project costing
• Project monitoring and reviews
• Personnel selection and evaluation
• Report writing and presentations
 Project planning
• A plan, drawn up at the start of the project,
should be used as the driver for the project
• The initial plan should be the best possible
plan given the available information. It must
be regularly revised as new information
becomes available
 Project planning process
Establish the project constraints
Make initial assessments of the project parameters
Define project milestones and deliverables
while project has not been completed or cancelled loop
Draw up project schedule
Initiate activities according to schedule
Wait ( for a while )
Review project progress
Revise estimates of project parameters
Update the project schedule
Re-negotiate project constraints and deliverables
if ( problems arise ) then
Initiate technical review and possible revision
end if
end loop
 The project plan
• The project plan sets out:
– The resources available to the project
– The work breakdown
– A schedule for the work
 Project plan structure
• Introduction
– Objectives, constraints (e.g., budget, time, etc…)
• Project organisation
– People involved and their roles in the team
• Risk analysis
– Possible risks, their likelihood and reduction strategies
• Hardware and software resource requirements
• Work breakdown
– Breaks down the project into activities, identifies milestones,
deliverables
• Project schedule
– Activity dependencies, estimated milestone time, people allocation
•
 Activity organization
• Activities in a project should be organised to
produce tangible outputs for management to
judge progress
• Milestones are the end-point of a process
activity
• Deliverables are project results delivered to
customers
 Project scheduling
• Split project into tasks and estimate time and resources required to
complete each task
• Organize tasks concurrently to make optimal use of workforce
• Minimize task dependencies to avoid delays caused by one task
waiting for another to complete
• Important to note that the schedule evolves over time. During early
stages of planning, a macroscopic schedule is developed that identifies
all major SE activities. As the project gets under way, each entry is
refined into a detailed schedule where specific tasks required to
accomplish an activity are identified and scheduled
 Scheduling problems
• Estimating the difficulty of problems and hence the cost of
developing a solution is hard
• Common myth: “If we fall behind schedule, we can always
add more programmers and catch up later in the project”
– Productivity is not proportional to the number of people working on a
task
– Adding people to a late project makes it later because of
communication overheads (CLASS DISCUSSION)
 Scope of the Project
• Project scope is the part of project planning
that involves determining and documenting a
list of specific project goals, deliverables,
tasks, costs and deadlines.
 Milestones and deliverables
• Milestones are tools used in project
management to mark specific points along a
project timeline.
• These points may signal anchors such as a
project start and end date, a need for external
review or input and budget checks, among
others.
• In many instances, milestones do not impact
project duration.
• Instead, they focus on major progress points
that must be reached to achieve success.
•  Milestones can also be used to maintain
accountability and motivate staff.
• Deliverable is a term used in project
management to describe a tangible or
intangible object produced as a result of
the project that is intended to be delivered to
a customer (either internal or external).
A deliverable could be a report, a document,
a server upgrade or any other building block
of an overall project.
• A deliverable usually has a due date and is
tangible, measurable and specific.
• A deliverable can be given to either an external
or internal customer and satisfies a milestone or
due date that is created and produced in the
project plan.
• A deliverable can be a software product, a
design document, a training program or other
asset that is required by the project plan.
 Bar charts and activity networks
• Graphical notations used to illustrate the
project schedule
• Show project breakdown into tasks. Tasks
should not be too small. They should take
about a week or two
• Activity charts show task dependencies and
the critical path
• Activity Bar charts show schedule against
calendar time
Thank You