Unit – I Presentation

Unit – 1 (Introduction to Software Project management) Definition:-  Software project management is the art and science of planning and leading software projects.  The software projects are planned, implemented, monitored and controlled. Advantages:-  Easily manage your company’s projects  Accessibility  Cost

 Flexibility  Support  Speed  Integration Updates. Goal :-  Enable a group of engineers to work efficiently towards successful completion of a software project. Importance of Software Project Management:-  Software project management comprises of product development techniques and management skills.  The product development technique defines the following,

1) Assessing performance 2) Awareness of the process standards 3) Defining the product 4) Evaluating alternative processes 5) Managing requirements 6) Managing subcontractors 7) Performing the initial assessment 8) Selecting the methods and tools 9) Tailoring processes 10) Tracking product quality 11) Understanding development activities

 Management skills consist of project management and people management skills.  Project management skills include, 1) Building an work breakdown structure 2) Documenting plans 3) Estimating cost and effort 4) Managing risks 5) Monitoring development 6) Scheduling 7) Selecting metrics 8) Selecting project management tools 9) Tracking processes and project progress

 People management skills are described in perspective with product and project competencies.  People management skills include, 1) Appraising performance 2) Handling intellectual property 3) Holding effective meetings 4) Interaction and communication 5) Leadership 6) Managing change 7) Negotiating successfully 8) Planning careers 9) Presenting effectively

10) Recruiting 11) Selecting a team 12) Team Building

8 Four Project Dimensions People Product Technology Tools Management Structure Business Environment Process Methods One solution! People Process Product Technology

1)Project Definition A Specific plan or design. A Planned undertaking or large undertaking. It assumes that to a large extent we can determine how we are going to carry out a task before we start. Eg – Public works scheme

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.

1.1) Activities of Project Management  Project management plan begins with a set of activities that are involved in the development process.  Overview of the project  Project deliverables  Managerial processes  Technical processes  Work packages  Schedule of the project  Budget estimation.

1.2) Characteristics of project  Some of the characteristics of project include,  Planning of process is required  Clear objectives have to be specified  Project must have a predetermined time span  Involves different phases of work  Resources used on the project are constrained  Non routine tasks are involved.

2) Contract management  The client organization will appoint a project manager to supervise the contract.  Project manager will be able to delegate many technical oriented decisions to the contractors.  The project manager will not be concerned about estimating the effort needed to write individual software components.  The overall project is fulfilled within budget and on time.  Supplier side-project managers are concerned with more technical management issues.

3) Activities covered by Software Project Management  A software project is not only concerned with the actual writing of software.  Three successive processes  Feasibility Study, Planning, Project Execution 3.1) Feasibility Study  Prospective project is worth starting  Information is gathered about the requirements of the proposed application.  Requirements elicitation can at least initially be complex and difficult.

3.2) Planning  A large project would not do all detailed planning right at the beginning.  Formulate an outline plan for the whole project a detailed one for the first stage and more detailed planning of the later stages. Feasibility study Plan Project execution How do we do it? Is it worth doing? Do it!

3.3) Project execution  The execution of a project often contains design and implementation sub phases.  Design is thinking and making decisions about the precise form of the products that the project is to create.  Planning and design can be confused because at the most detailed level, planning decisions are influenced by design decisions.

 Set of activities are, Requirements analysis Architecture design Detailed design Code and Test Integration Qualification testing Installation Acceptance support.

4) Overview of Project Planning - Stepwise Project Planning  The plan is nothing – the planning is everything. Step 0:Select Project Step 1:Identify project scope and objectives  Identify objectives and measures of effectiveness in meeting them.  Establish a project authority

STEP WISE PROJECT PLANNING 0.Select Project 1.Identify scope and objectives 2.Identify project infrastructure 3.Analyse project characteristics 4.Identify products and activities

5.Estimate effort for each activity 6.Identify activity risks 7.Allocate resources 8.Review plan 9.Execute plan

 Identify stakeholders  Modify objectives in the light of stakeholder analysis  Establish methods of communication with all parties. Step 2:Identify project infrastructure  Establish relationship between project and strategic planning  Identify installation standards and procedures  Identify project team organization. Step 3:Analyse project characteristics  Distinguish the project as either objectives or product driven

 Analyse other project characteristics  Identify high level project risks  Take into account user requirements concerning implementation.  Select general life cycle approach  Review overall resources estimates. Step 4:Identify project products and activities  Identify and describe project products  Document generic products flows  Recognize product instances

 Produce ideal activity network  Modify ideal to take in to account need for stages and checkpoints.

Step 5:Estimate effort for each activity  Carry out bottom-up estimates  Revise plan to create controllable activities. Step 6:Identify activity risks  Identify and quantify activity-based risks  Plan risk reduction and contingency measures where appropriate  Adjust plans and estimates to take account of risks.

Step 7:Allocate resources  Identify and allocate resources  Revise plans and estimates to take account of resource constraints.  Staff priority list is generated based on the task allocated to them because some staffs are used for more than one task.  Gantt chart pictorially represents when activities have to take place and which one has to be executed at the same time.  The chart represents when staff will be carrying out the tasks in each month.

Step 8:Review/publicize plan  Review quality aspects of project plan.  Document plans and obtain agreement.  Steps involved in project plan review are,  Define the problem 1) What, if any review work has already been done? 2) What is the problem we are trying to solve?  Determine the focus  Select the appropriate tools  Identify the participants  Document the review plan

Step 9 and 10 :Execute plan/lower levels of planning  It may require the reiteration of the planning process at a lower level.  Detailed planning of later stages is necessary because more information will be available than the start stage.