Software Project Management

Project Lifecycle and Organization

Lecture 2
(Kamran Dahri)
Software Project Performance

• Software User Community

– Software products to run for hours
without crashing, executing millions of
source code instructions with few or no
errors.
• Software Development Community
– Expects far less than this.
Software Project Success?

• Users and clients might complain if a

project is
– Delivered several months late
– Hard to use
– Lacks few critical features
• But
– If bulk of the project is delivered at all at
any cost most software consumers will
consider the project a success.
Software Project Failure?

• A total collapse of the project.

– Project not delivered
– Project cancelled
Software Project Success?

• A successful project should meet its

– Cost
– Schedule
– Quality
 Survival Needs

• Maslow’s Human need hierarchy

 Survival Needs

• Software Project need hierarchy

 Survival Rights

• Customer’s Bill of Rights

– To set objectives for the project and have
them followed.
– To know how long the software project will
take and how much it will cost.
– To decide which features are in and which are
out of the software.
– To make reasonable changes to requirements
throughout the course of the project and to
know the costs of making those changes.
 Survival Rights

• Customer’s Bill of Rights

– To know the project’s status clearly and
confidently.
– To be apprised regularly of risks that
could affect cost, schedule, or quality,
and to be provided with options for
addressing potential problems.
– To have ready access to project
deliverables throughout the project.
 Survival Rights

• Project Team’s Bill of Rights

– To know the project objectives and to
clarify priorities.
– To know in detail what product they’re
supposed to build and to clarify the
product definition if it is unclear.
– To have ready access to the customer,
manager, marketer, or other person
responsible for making decisions about
the software’s functionality.
 Survival Rights

• Project Team’s Bill of Rights

– To work each phase of the project in a
technically responsible way.
– To approve effort and schedule estimates for
any work that they will be asked to perform.
– To have the project’s status reported
accurately to customers and upper
management.
– To work in a productive environment free
from frequent interruptions and distractions.
 Project Lifecycle

• What is a Project Life cycle?

– The life cycle provides the basic
framework for managing a project,
regardless of the specific work
involved.
– A collection of generally sequential
and sometimes overlapping project
phases
Characteristics of the
Project Life Cycle
• Cost and staffing
Characteristics of the
Project Life Cycle
• Stakeholder influence, Risk, and
Uncertainty – Cost of Changes
Characteristics of the
Project Life Cycle
• Stakeholder influence, Risk, and
Uncertainty
Product Lifecycle
Product vs. Project Lifecycle
Project Process Groups
 Project Phases

• Sequential Phases
 Project Phases

• Project phases are division within a

project where extra control is needed
to effectively manage the completion
of a major deliverable.

• The phase structure allows the project

to be segmented into logical subsets
for ease of management, planning and
control.
 Project Phases

• Project phases are division within a

project where extra control is needed
to effectively manage the completion
of a major deliverable.

• The phase structure allows the project

to be segmented into logical subsets
for ease of management, planning and
control.
 Project Phases

• Phase-to-phase Relationships
– Sequential
– Overlapping
– Iterative
 Project Phases

• Sequential Phases
 Project Phases

• Overlapping Phases
 Project Phases

• Iterative
– One phase is planned at any given
time and planning for the next is
carried out as work progresses on the
current phase and deliverables.
– Useful in largely undefined, uncertain,
or rapidly changing environments such
as research.
 Stakeholders

• Persons or organizations who are

actively involved in the project or
whose interests may be positively or
negatively affected by the
performance or completion of the
project
Stakeholders
Enterprise Environmental Factors

• Projects do not execute in a

vacuum.
• Each project is influenced by its
surroundings.
Enterprise Environmental Factors

– Organizational culture, structure and

processes
– Government or Industrial Standards
– Infrastructure
– Existing Human Resources
– Personnel administration
– Company work authorization system
Enterprise Environmental Factors

– Marketplace conditions
– Stakeholder risk tolerance
– Political climate
– Organization’s established
communication channels
– Commercial databases
– Project Management Information
System
Organizational Culture

• Culture and styles have a strong

influence on a project’s ability to
meet its objectives.
– Shared visions, values, norms, beliefs,
and expectations
– Policies, methods, and procedures
– View of authority relationships
– Work ethics and work hours
Organizational Structure

• A key factor which can affect the

availability of resources and
influence how projects are
conducted.
– Functional Organization
– Projectized Organization

– Matrix Organization
Organizational Structure

• Functional Organization
– Most common and oldest type
– Grouped by areas of specialization
• Accounting
• Engineering
• Manufacturing
• Marketing
• Production
• Sales
Organizational Structure

• Functional Organization
Organizational Structure

• Functional Organization
– Projects generally exist within a single
department
– Project coordination takes place
through Functional Managers
Organizational Structure

• Functional Organization
Organizational Structure

• Projectized Organization
– Entire company is organized by
projects
Organizational Structure

• Projectized Organization
– Personnel are assigned to projects
– Team members are often co-located
– When the project is over they need to
be reassigned
Organizational Structure

• Projectized Organization
Organizational Structure

• Matrix Organization
– Blend of functional and projectized
– Team members report to two Managers
– Can be one of the three:
• Weak Matrix
• Balanced Matrix
• Strong Matrix
Organizational Structure

• Weak Matrix Organization

Organizational Structure

• Balanced Matrix Organization

Organizational Structure

• Strong Matrix Organization

Organizational Structure
Organizational Structure

• Project Expediter
– Acts as a staff assistant and project
communicator
• Project Coordinator
– Reports to a higher-level manager
– Has some power to make decisions
Organizational Structure

• Advantages
Functional Matrix Projectized
Easier management Highly visible Efficient project
of specialists Project Objectives organization
Clear chain of Support from Loyalty to project
command Functional areas
Clearly defined Maximum Effective
career path utilization of scarce communication
resources
Specialists grouped Team members Project Manager
together always have a has total authority
-duplication department
avoided
Organizational Process Assets

• Processes and Procedures

• Corporate Knowledge Base
Organizational Process Assets

• Processes and Procedures

– Organizational standard processes
– Standardized guidelines, work instructions,
proposal evaluation criteria, performance
measurement criteria
– Templates
– Guidelines and criteria for tailoring
processes
– Organization communication requirements
– Project closure guidelines or requirements
Organizational Process Assets

• Processes and Procedures

– Financial control procedures

– Issue and defect management
procedures
– Change control procedures
– Procedures for prioritizing, approving,
and issuing work authorizations
Organizational Process Assets

• Corporate Knowledge Base

– Process measurement databases
– Project files
– Historical information
– Issue and defect management
databases
– Configuration management knowledge
bases
– Financial databases