Software Project Management Week 1 Lecture 2 Content from: Applied software project management (Andrew Stellman & Jennifer Greene) Software Project Management (Bob Hughes & Mike Cotterell 6/12/2018

Management Management may involve: planning — deciding what is to be done organizing — making arrangement staffing — selecting the right people directing — giving instructions monitoring — checking on progress controlling — taking action to remedy hold-ups innovating — coming up with new solutions representing — liaising with users 6/12/2018

Problems with Software Projects from Management Point of View Thayer, Pyster and Wood Survey Poor estimates and plans Lack of quality standards and measures Lack of guidance about making organizational decisions Lack of techniques to make progress visible Poor role definition-who does what? Incorrect success criteria 6/12/2018

Students Survey (on a Computing and Information System Course) Inadequate specification of work Management ignorance of IT Lack of knowledge of application area Lack of standards Lack of up-to-date documentation Preceding activities not completed on time-including late delivery of equipment. Lack of communication between users and technicians Lack of communication leading to duplication of work. 6/12/2018

Students Survey (on a Computing and Information System Course) Lack of commitment-especially when a project is tied to one person who then moves Narrow scope of technical expertise Changing statutory requirements Changing software environment Deadline pressure Lack of quality control Remote management Lack of training. (POOR COMMUNICATION) 6/12/2018

Problems faced by Customers (1996 Survey) The US Internal Revenue system was to abandon its tax system modernization programme after having spent $4 billion. The state of California spent $1 billion on its non functional welfare database. The 339 pound million UK air traffic control system was reported as being two years behind schedule. A discount stock brokerage company had 50 ppl. working 14 hours or more a day to correct clerically 3 months of record- the report commented that the new system had been rushed into operation without enough testing. AND MANY MORE 6/12/2018

Why these Projects Failed? 6/12/2018

Why Do Software Projects Fail? People begin programming before they understand the problem Everyone likes to feel that they’re making progress When the team starts to code as soon as the project begins, they see immediate gains When problems become more complex (as they always do!), the work gets bogged down In the best case, a team that begins programming too soon will end up writing good software that solves the wrong problem 6/12/2018 Applied Software Project Management

Why Do Software Projects Fail? The team has an unrealistic idea about how much work is involved. From far away, most complex problems seem simple to solve Teams can commit to impossible deadlines by being overly optimistic and not thinking through the work Few people realize the deadline is optimistic until it’s blown 6/12/2018

Why Do Software Projects Fail? Defects are injected early but discovered late. Projects can address the wrong needs Requirements can specify incorrect behavior Design, architecture and code can be technically flawed Test plans can miss functionality The later these problems are found, the more likely they are to cause the project to fail 6/12/2018

Why Do Software Projects Fail? Programmers have poor habits – and they don’t feel accountable for their work. Programmers don’t have good control of their source code Code written by one person is often difficult for another person to understand Programmers don’t test their code, which makes diagnosing and fixing bugs more expensive The team does not have a good sense of the overall health of the project. 6/12/2018

Why Do Software Projects Fail? Managers try to test quality into the software. Everyone assumes that the testers will catch all of the defects that were injected throughout the project. When testers look for defects, managers tell them they are wasting time. When testers find defects, programmers are antagonized because they feel that they are being personally criticized. When testers miss defects, everyone blames them for not being perfect. 6/12/2018

Setting Objectives Project objectives should be clearly defined for successful project. Managers and Team members should know what constitutes a successful project Different specialists and different stakeholders, all should agree on well defined objectives. For more than 1 user groups, project authority ( held by project steering committee or project board) needs to be established (overall authority over what needs to be accomplished) 6/12/2018

Project Steering Committee Overall responsibility of setting, monitoring and modifying objectives. Contains representatives from user, development and management group. PM responsible for running project on day to day basis, but has to report to this committee on regular basis. The committee can purpose changes to project objectives and resources. 6/12/2018

Setting Sub objectives and Goals. To achieve objectives we divide it into sub objectives and goals. (Football Match Analogy) Goals are steps into achieving goals Objective must be in control of individuals. “software application to be produced must pay for itself by reducing staff costs over 2 years” Is it a business objective or Developer Objective? 6/12/2018

Measures of Effectiveness Objectives should be concrete and well defined, should be obvious to all whether it the project successful or not. Measure of effectiveness telling how successful the project was. Objective, to remove customer complaints by 50% Versus to improve customer relations? For example: Mean time between Failure measure of software reliability. 6/12/2018

Stakeholders Have Stake or interest in the project. Should be identified as early as possible. Project leader should be aware that not everyone has same objectives and motivations. Stakeholders Type Internal to project team External to project team but in the same organization External to the organization 6/12/2018

The Business Case Justification for a project. Cost Benefit Analysis in Feasibility Study. Quantification of benefits via business model (how the new application can generate claimed benefits) 6/12/2018

Requirement Specification Functional requirements what the system is to do systems analysis and design methods aims to provide these Quality requirements How system has to do it (non functional requirements) other attributes of the system e.g response time; usability; reliability Resource/time requirements cost Time Trade-offs between the different factors All requirements must be consistent with the business case. 6/12/2018

The Project Control Cycle real world actions collect data define objectives data process data implement information make decisions modelling decisions 6/12/2018

Problem Paul is the manager of a software development section, on Tuesday at 10:00 he has meeting with their group manager about the staffing requirement for coming year. Paul has already drafted a document ‘bidding’ for staff. This is based on the work planned for his section for the next year. Document is discussed at meeting, at 2:00, Paul has meeting with his senior staff regarding an important project his section is taking, One of the programming staff just had an accident and will be in hospital for some time. It is decided that project can be kept on schedule by transferring another team member from less urgent work to this project. A temporary replacement is to e brought in to do the less urgent work, but this may take a week or so to arrange. Paul has to phone both the personnel manager about getting a replacement and the user for whom the less urgent work is being done explaining why it is likely to be delayed. Identify which of the eight management responsibilities listed above Paul was responding to at different points during his day. 6/12/2018