Teaching material for a course in Software Project Management & Software Engineering – part IV

Part 4: People Management Chapter 18 (introduction – people management) Software projects are labor intensive. All the project work is done mostly manually by software engineers. So a large number of people are needed to work on software projects. Then there are people from customer and supplier organizations. So in a nutshell, software projects are all about managing people. Cost wise also, most of project cost is the wages of people working on the project. So people management is the most important aspect on software projects. On project teams, people need to be paid salaries, get rewards for good performance, get reprimands for bad work, need good supporting infrastructure for doing productive work etc. The project manager needs to ensure that office politics is totally avoided. He needs to ensure that conflicts, whenever they arise are resolved quickly. Depending on the nature of business, the project and program management organization structure should be such that synergies are created among project teams and at the same time, optimal use of people is achieved so that idle time for people is kept low.

Part 4: People Management Chapter 18 (introduction – people management) Relationship with customers is a tricky business. Managing customer expectations in a changing business scenario is a challenge. Good communication, articulate presentation and honest work progress reporting will go a long way in establishing a healthy relationship with customers. On software projects, project team has to communicate with the customer on daily basis. Customers have high stakes on the project and they expect progress reports on daily basis. People from supplier teams should be taken into confidence from the very beginning of the project so that they work as your own team members. It is important that they communicate with you on daily basis. Knowledge transfer sessions are organized for every new activity so that they are on the same page with you.

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 18 (people management) people management aspects for customers, suppliers & project team

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 18 (people management) Team management challenges for project team

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 18 (people management) Team management – solution for challenges

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 18 (people management) Supplier management success factors

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 18 (people management) Customer management challenges

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 18 (people management) Solutions for Customer management challenges

Part 4: People Management Chapter 19 (team management) On software project teams, all people are highly educated. Every team members has at least some college education. At the same time, software engineers are in high demand. So attrition is a big issue on software projects. Measures like personal development, work from home, flexible work timings etc. go a long way in keep motivating your team members to be on your project and do not seek opportunities elsewhere. People coming and going on projects is a big headache and it leads to low productivity. Junior team members need nurturing and good training programs will help them to become productive fast. Even senior team members need to learn new technologies as existing technologies become obsolete. Keeping each and every team member up to date on technology is very important on software projects.

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 19 (team management) Solutions for attrition

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 19 (team management) Organizational challenges

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 19 (team management) Solutions for organizational challenges

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 19 (team management) Many teams concept for iterative projects

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 19 (team management) Reporting hierarchy for matrix organization

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 19 (team management) Program management organization structure

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 19 (team management) Organizational hierarchy for outsourced project

Part 4: People Management Chapter 20 (customer management) Customers expectations are always high. Meeting and exceeding those expectations is difficult. Only through a dedicated approach to customer management, it is possible to meet these expectations. You need to create a good rapport with the people from customer side so that they will stand by you when you face any problems on your project. If you are the project manager from supplier side then you also need to take care of the profitability margin set for your project. If the customer is not happy with performance of any of your team members then you will have to make a replacement but salary of the replaced per son should be within your budget. Also while giving raise and rewards, make sure that you do not cross the budget limit.

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 20 (customer management) Concrete requirement from customer

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 20 (customer management) Foggy requirement from customer

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 20 (customer management) Drawback of gold plating

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 20 (customer management) Negotiation topics with customer

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 20 (customer management) Consideration for customer for choosing a software solution

Part 4: People Management Chapter 21 (supplier management) Suppliers should be chosen after scrutiny of their qualifications and their past experiences. Request for quotation and request for information can be used for supplier selection. Once a supplier is selected then proper legal and commercial agreements should be made with the supplier so that if they do not perform then proper action can be initiated against them. If you need them on short term then you make agreement with them accordingly. However if you need them on long term then you should make sure that the supplier will be able to stick to the terms on which they have agreed. The supplier should hire account managers for their projects who will be responsible for all commercial and legal aspects about their projects.

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 21 (supplier management) History of outsourcing of software projects

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 21 (supplier management) Contents of RFI for supplier selection for software projects

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 21 (supplier management) RFP for supplier selection for software projects

Part 3: Software Engineering Chapter 21 (supplier management) Functional organization structure of software service provider