INSE - Lecture 15  SE Project Management  This lecture is a brief overview –  mainly things to remember to do!

Definition: “ project ”  "Planned undertaking, long-term task..." (Concise Oxford Dictionary)  … for our purposes, it would be a software- building task  leaves “ long-term ” as a matter of judgement.

Definition: “ Management ”  For us, this quite a few kinds of activity:  Innovating — new ideas  Planning — exactly what  Estimating — cost, effort, time, resources  Scheduling — when  Directing — who does what, when  Re-planning — handling difficulties  Auditing — was it okay?  Monitoring — is it/will it be okay?  Recording — for the future  Reporting — to management  Representing — to clients ……

Software is different …  … in ways that make PM of SE different than other PM:  Invisibility – nothing for client to see from end of prototyping until delivery.  Complexity – both the need and the product  Conformity – meet user need precisely  Flexibility – a strength and a weakness

PM extras to the lifecycle  Lifecycle models usually leave out PM activities!  Such PM activities include:  Feasability – is the project practicable?  Costing – what resources will it require?  Planning – what should be done when?

PM extensions of the lifecycle  Most of the rest of the lecture!  Often just a tedious set of checklists

Preparatory  Choose the right Project Manager!  ?Perhaps the most common cause of failure of major projects?  Needs  SE knowledge  Experience in the application domain

Contract  Problem:  need the requirements to do the spec to do enough design to do estimates to know what cost to put in contract;  but don’t have £££ to do that work till after contract.  Especially need requirements ahead of time often have to guess for contract purposes  “Don’t forget” issues Acceptance criteria & mechanisms Reuse policy Safety/security issues …

Preparation  Major delivery or incremental deliveries?  Estimation  Scheduling  Staffing – team & training  Pre-technical –  standards & guidelines  tools? language? FM?  review style & infrastructure?  Risk assessments, contingency plans

Requirements/Spec stages  Monitor!  User check/prototype  Ensure a Review!

Design stage  Monitor!  Design method? tools?  Strategy – top-down? hardest-first?  Modularization & reuse  Division of labour  Prototype?  Maintainability  Ensure a review

Coding stage  Monitor!  Ensuring/measuring progress  Ensuring good style/conformance to Standards and guidelines  Ensuring maintainability  Scheduling – very project-sensitive  Ensure a review!

Test stage  Monitor!  Ensure adequate philosophy/design/ planning  Harnesses & any stubs ready ahead of need  Records  Audit trail  Ensure a review!

Debug (& corrective maintenance)  Adequate system for reporting & tracking  Monitor!  Ensure adequate re-testing afterwards

Delivery  Adequate user preparation  Ensure smooth hand-over  Contingency plans for problems?  Acceptance tests often need some following up

Innovative Maintenance  All again – not allowing any deterioration

Throughout  Good documentation!  Conformance to Standards & guidelines!  Configuration management  Team & individual issues  Routine admin

After this lecture  Watch your managers!  For the things to do better than, when you get the chance/need  For the things not to do

 © C Lester

The Software Project Manager?