Software Project Management

Unit -I
Unit -I
Introduction to software project management
Project Management is the discipline of defining and achieving targets while optimizing the use of
resources (time, money, people, materials, energy, space, etc) over the course of a project (a set of
activities of finite duration).
Why is project management important?
• Large amounts of money are spent on ICT(Information and communications technology) e.g. UK
government in 2003-4 spent £2.3 billions on contracts for ICT and only £1.4 billions on road
building

• Project often fail – Standish Group claim only a third of ICT projects are successful. 82% were late
and 43% exceeded their budget.

• Poor project management a major factor in these failures

• 1 billion = 100 crore

Software Development Life Cycle:

The software development life-cycle is a methodology that also forms the framework for planning
and controlling the creation, testing, and delivery of an information system. [1]
The software development life-cycle concept acts as the foundation for multiple different
development and delivery methodologies, such as the Hardware development life-cycle
and Software development life-cycle. While Hardware development life-cycles deal specifically with
hardware and Software development life-cycles deal specifically with software, a Systems
development life-cycle differs from each in that it can deal with any combination of hardware and
software, as a system can be composed of hardware only, software only, or a combination of both. [
Four Project Dimensions
People

Process

Product

Technology

The 5 Variables of Project Control

1. Time - amount of time required to complete the project. 2. Cost - calculated from the time variable
3. Quality - The amount of time put into individual tasks determines the overall quality of the project.
4. Scope - Requirements specified for the end result. 5. Risk - Potential points of failure. Srividya
College of Engineering & Technology Course Material (Lesson Notes)
MG6088 Software Project Management Unit -I Page
Trade – off triangle:
The triangle illustrates the relationship between three primary forces in a project. Time is the
available time to deliver the project, cost represents the amount of money or resources available and
quality represents the fit-to-purpose that the project must achieve to be a success.
The normal situation is that one of these factors is fixed and the other two will vary in inverse
proportion to each other. For example time is often fixed and the quality of the end product will
depend on the cost or resources available. Similarly if you are working to a fixed level of quality then
the cost of the project will largely be dependent upon the time available (if you have longer you can
do it with fewer people).
1.2 Project definition
What is a project?
Some dictionary definitions:
“A specific plan or design” “A planned undertaking”
“A large undertaking e.g. a public works scheme”
Longmans dictionary
Key points above are planning and size of task
Jobs versus projects
‗Jobs‘ – repetition of very well-defined and well understood tasks with very little uncertainty
‗Exploration‘ – e.g. finding a cure for cancer: the outcome is very uncertain Projects – in the
middle!
• Jobs- Very Little Uncertainty

• Task is well defined and there is little uncertainty.

• Software Process Management vs Software Project Management

Projects
• Projects seem to come somewhere between these two extremes. There are usually well-defined
hoped-for outcomes but there are risks and uncertainties about achieving those outcomes.

• A software project can be defined as a planned activity that describes how we are going to carry out
a task before we start.

• It is a planned activity about developing a software before u actually design and implement it.

Examples of Software Projects:

Putting a robot vehicle on Mars to search for signs of life.
• Relative novelty of the project

• International nature of the project

• Successful achievement of the project from engineering point of view is the safe landing of the
robot, not the discovery of signs of life.

Writing an Operating System

Characteristics of projects
A task is more ‗project-like‘ if it is:
• Non-routine

• Planned

• Aiming at a specific target

• Carried out for a customer

• Carried out by a temporary work group

• Involving several specialisms

• Made up of several different phases

• Constrained by time and resources

• Large and/or complex

Are software projects really different from other projects?
Not really …but
• Invisibility

– Bridge construction
• Complexity

• Conformity (Cement & steel physical law vs conform to human mind)

• Flexibility(Easy to change is strength)

make software more problematic to build than other engineered artefacts.

1.3 Contract management Some ways of categorizing projects
Distinguishing different types of project is important as different types of task need different project
approaches e.g.
• Voluntary systems (such as computer games –what game will do?) versus compulsory systems
e.g. the order processing system in an organization(recording a sale)

• Information systems(Enable staff to carry out office processes) versus embedded systems(process
control-which controls machine)

• Objective-based versus product-based

With objective-based projects, a general objective or problem is defined, and there are several
different ways in which that objective could be reached. The project team have freedom to select
what appears to be the most appropriate approach.

With product-based projects, the product is already very strictly

defined and the development team’s job is to implement the specification with which they have
been presented.
Contract management versus technical project management
Projects can be:
• In-house: clients and developers are employed by the same organization

• Out-sourced: clients and developers employed by different organizations

• ‗Project manager‘ could be:

– a ‗contract manager‘ in the client organization

– a technical project manager in the supplier/services organization
Brainstorming
• Read the News article and find the Client‘s consideration /requirement before outsourcing a project.

What is management?
This involves the following activities:
• Planning – deciding what is to be done

• Organizing – making arrangements

• Staffing – selecting the right people for the job

• Directing – giving instructions

• Monitoring – checking on progress

• Controlling – taking action to remedy hold-ups

• Innovating – coming up with solutions when problems emerge

• Representing – liaising with clients, users, developers and other stakeholders

Management control- Project Control Cycle Modelling – working out the probable outcomes of
various decisions
e.g. if we employ two more staff at location X how quickly can we get the documents processed?
Implementation – carrying out the remedial actions that have been decided upon
1.4 Activities covered by project management
A software project is not only concerned with the actual writing of software. Usually there are three
successive processes that bring a new system into being.
Feasibility study
Is project technically feasible and worthwhile from a business point of view?(recommendation of the
feasibility study might be not to carry out the proposed project)
Planning
Only done if project is feasible - evolving plan allows us to control the project.
Execution
Implement plan, but plan may be changed as we go along
The software development life-cycle (ISO 12207)
The software development life cycle is a technical model. It identifies the technical constraints on the
order activities are done. This does NOT imply that a ‗waterfall‘ approach is the only way to
organize projects. The technical model could be implemented as increments or in an evolutionary
manner.
ISO 12207 life-cycles are:
1. Requirements analysis

2. Architecture Design

3. Code and test

4. Installation \ Acceptance support

Requirements analysis
– Requirements eli-ci-tation(kindle): what does the client need?
– Analysis: converting ‗customer-facing‘ requirements into equivalents that developers can
understand
– Requirements will cover
• Functions

• Quality

• Resource constraints i.e. costs

Requirement analysis has to face in (at least) two different directions. It needs to communicate and
elicit the requirements of the users, speaking in their language. It needs to organize and translate
those requirements into a form that developers can understand and relate to.
Architecture Design
Software Software
Requirements Components
– Based on system requirements
– Defines components of system: hardware, software, organizational
– Software requirements will come out of this
Code and test
– Of individual components (separately coded and tested)
• Integration

– Putting the components together

• Qualification testing(the whole system)

– Testing the system (not just the software)

• Installation(meaning most like implementation) Install –Complete System

– The process of making the system operational

– Includes setting up standing data, setting system parameters, installing on operational hardware
platforms, user training etc
• Acceptance support

– Including maintenance and enhancement

1.5 Plans, methods and methodologies

• A plan of an activity must be based on some idea of a method of work. While a method relates to a
type of activity in general, a plan takes one or more methods and converts them into real activities by
identifying:

Start and end dates

Who will carry it out

What tools and materials would be needed.

• A methodology is a set of related methods. Strictly speaking ‗methodology‘ ought to mean the
study of methods!
Plans, methods and methodologies
Methodology = a set of methods
Context
Plan
Methods
+ start and end dates for each activity, A way of working staffing, tools and materials etc
Stakeholders
These are people who have a stake or interest in the project In general, they could be users/clients or
developers/implementers
They could be:
• Within the project team

• Outside the project team, but within the same organization

• Outside both the project team and the organization

Different stakeholders may have different objectives – need to define common project objectives
Project Leader is to recognize these different interests (good Communicator/Negotiator)
Boehm & Ross – ‗Theory W‘ Win-Win
Setting objectives
• ‗What do we have to do to have a success?’
• Need for a project authority

– Sets the project scope

– Allocates/approves costs
• Could be one person - or a group (Project Authority-most important-control-finance-
monitor-modify objectives)

– Project Board
– Project Management Board
– Steering committee
Objectives
Informally, the objective of a project can be defined by completing the statement:
The project will be regarded as a success if……….
…………
Rather like post-conditions for the project, Focus on what will be put in place, rather than how
activities will be carried out
e.g. ‘a new payroll application will be operational by 4th April’ not ‘design and code a new
payroll application’
Objectives should be SMART
S – specific, that is, concrete and well-defined
M – measurable, that is, satisfaction of the objective can be objectively judged
A – achievable, that is, it is within the power of the individual or group concerned to meet the target
R – relevant/Resource Constrained, the objective must relevant to the true purpose of the project
T – time constrained: there is defined point in time by which the objective should be achieved
Goals/sub-objectives
These are steps along the way to achieving the objective
Informally, these can be defined by completing the sentence To reach objective X, the following
must be in place
A……………
B…………… C…………… etc
Often a goal can be allocated to an individual. Individual might have the capability of achieving goal
on their own, but not the overall objective e.g.
Overall objective – user satisfaction with software product Analyst goal – accurate requirements
Developer goal – reliable software Measures of effectiveness
How do we know that the goal or objective has been achieved? By a practical test, that can be
objectively assessed.
e.g. for user satisfaction with software product:
• Repeat business – they buy further products from us

• Number of complaints – if low etc etc

• Measures of effectiveness
• Performance Measurement-

– To measure reliability – mtbf

– Mean time between failures
– Seek Predictive Measures
• Large number of errors during code, inspections needed
1.6 Stepwise Planning(step 0- step 3 )
‘Step Wise’ - aspirations
• Practicality

– tries to answer the question ‘what do I do now?’

• Scalability

– useful for small project as well as large

• Range of application

• Accepted techniques

– e.g. borrowed from PRINCE etc

2
‘Step Wise’ - an overview [Link]
1. Identify project 2. Identify
project
project objectives infrastructure