Software Project Management

Introduction
 Software Crisis
• We have a software crisis!
• What are the symptoms of the software
crisis?
– Fail to meet user requirements.
– Expensive.
– Difficult to alter, debug, and enhance.
– Often delivered late.
 Which Factors are the Key Contributors to the
Software Crisis?
• Larger problems
• Poor project management
• Lack of adequate training in software engg
– Accurate Effort estimation
– Accurate Requirement Specification
• Increasing skill shortage and manpower turnover
• Low productivity improvements.
 Essence of a Project
All of mankind’s greatest accomplishments –
from building the pyramids to discovering a
cure for polio to putting a man on the moon –
began as a Project
• So what is a project?
 What do the following headlines have in common?

• Millions watch Olympic Opening Ceremony at

Rio de Janeiro
• WiFi system set to go live in proposed Rajarhat
(W.B.) smart city
• Videocon opens up locked out consumer
electronics plant of Philips at Salt Lake, Kolkata
 What do the following headlines have in common?

• Launch of a new web site by TIU

• Installation of a new method for peer - review
of patient care in DAMA Hospital of TIG.
• Apple’s new I-phone hits the India market.

ALL OF THESE EVENTS REPRESENT

PROJECTS
 What Is a Project?

• A Project is “ a temporary endeavor undertaken to

create a unique product, service or result.”
Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK)

• Project Defined
– A complex, non-routine, one-time effort limited by
time, budget, resources, and performance
specifications designed to meet customer needs.
 What Is a Project?

• Major Characteristics of a Project

– Has an established objective.
– Has a defined life span with a beginning and an
end.
– Typically requires across-the-organizational
participation.
– Involves doing something never been done before.
– Has specific time, cost, and performance
requirements.
 What a Project is not

A routine, repetitive work.

Not bound by time and budget
Not specific and unique objective
 Illustrations of Project Characteristics

1. Singular purpose (constructing a bridge by 31st

December or designing and interactive web site) as
opposed to performing repetitive operations by
work men in a CTV manufacturing plant
2. Defined end point (contrary to ongoing operations,
resources move from one project to another)
3. Has a fixed Budget
4. Predefined Time Schedule
 Illustrations of Project Characteristics

5. Non-routine and unique (landing of mechanical

rovers on Mars)

6. Triple constraints of specific Time, Cost and

Performance targets. (Balancing the trade-offs
between time, cost and performance while fully
satisfying the customer in a dynamic mode)
 Comparison of Routine Work with Projects
Routine, Repetitive Work Projects
Taking class notes Writing a term paper
Daily entering sales receipts into the Setting up a sales kiosk for a
accounting ledger professional accounting meeting
Responding to a supply-chain request Developing a supply-chain information
system
Practicing scales on the piano
Writing a new piano piece
Routine manufacture of an Apple iPod
Designing an iPod that is approximately
2 X 4 inches, interfaces with PC, and
stores 10,000 songs
Attaching tags on a manufactured
product Wire-tag projects for GE and
Wal-Mart

TABLE 1.1
Project Activity Cycle

FIGURE 1.2
The Project Life Cycle
Project Management Trade-offs

FIGURE 4.1
 The Project Manager's Role And
Responsibilities
• The objective of every project manager is to
deliver the product on time, within budget
and with the required quality. Although the
precise responsibilities of a project manager
will vary from company to company and from
project to project, they should always include
planning and forecasting
 The Project Manager's Role And Responsibilities

• produces the Project Management Plan (PMP);

• defines the organizational roles and allocates staff to
them;
• controls the project by informing staff of their part in
the plan;
• leads the project by making the major decisions and by
motivating staff to perform well;
• monitors the project by measuring progress;
• reports progress to initiators and senior managers.
 The Project Manager's Role And
Responsibilities
• interpersonal responsibilities:
– leading the project team;
– liaising with initiators, senior management and
suppliers;
– being the 'figurehead', i.e. setting the example to
the project team
– and representing the project on formal occasions.
 The Project Manager's Role And
Responsibilities
informational responsibilities:
– monitoring the performance of staff and the
implementation of the project plan;
– disseminating information about tasks to the
project team;
– disseminating information about project status to
initiators and senior management;
– acting as the spokesman for the project team.
 The Project Manager's Role And
Responsibilities
• decisional responsibilities:
– allocating resources according to the project plan,
and adjusting those allocations when circumstances
dictate
– negotiating with the initiator about the optimum
interpretation of contractual obligations, with the
company management for resources, and with
project staff about their tasks;
– handling disturbances to the smooth progress of the
project such as equipment failures and personnel
problems.
Ten Step Project Management
 Ten Step Project Management
1. Define the work
2. Build the Schedule and Budget
3. Manage The Schedule & Budget
4. Manage Issues
5. Manage Change
6. Manage Communication
7. Manage Risk
8. Manage Human Resources
9. Manage Quality
10. Manage Matrices
 Define the work
• All projects have deadlines.
• Hitting aggressive deadlines puts pressure on the
project manager to start the project as soon as
possible.
• Before the project work begins, one needs to spend
time in planning to make sure that the work is properly
understood and agreed to.
• This is not wasted time or 'overhead' time.
• This is the time the project manager spends ensuring
that the project team and the client have common
perceptions of what the project is going to deliver,
when it will be complete, what it will cost, who will do
the work and how the work will be done
 Build the Schedule and Budget
• The schedule is a vital tool to ensure that the project
team knows what they need to do.
• It is very difficult to create a valid schedule if the
project manager is not really sure of what the project
will deliver.
• The budget represents the amount of money available
to spend on the project.
• The budget could contain only the external costs of the
project
• Some organizations also include the costs of internal
labor in the budget.
 Manage the Schedule and Budget
• Manage the schedule and budget to ensure that the
project finishes on schedule and within budget.
• A successful project manager keep the schedule up to
date
• The schedule describes the work that
– needs to occur,
– the order of the activities,
– the effort that is required, the assigned resources, etc.
• Managing the schedule means that the Project
Manager understands
– the work to be completed,
– who is assigned to complete the work,
– when the work is due, etc
 Manage the Schedule and Budget

• The schedule will need to be reviewed periodically.

• The project manager updates the schedule with the
current state of work that is completed and in-
progress.
• The remaining work should be evaluated to see if the
project will be completed within the original effort,
cost, and duration estimates.
• If it cannot, the project manager must implement
corrective action.
 Manage Issues
• An issue is a formally-defined problem that will impede
the progress of the project and cannot be totally
resolved by the project manager and project team
without outside help
• Issues management is one of the fundamental parts of
the Ten Step Project Management Process
• Issues cannot be ignored and they cannot be deferred
to some later time. Issues must be resolved quickly and
effectively
 Manage Change
• One can make perfect plans, but they cannot
account for every potential change that may
occur.
• The longer the project, the more likely the
project manager will be dealing with changes.
• There may be following type of changes:
– Scope changes
– Configuration changes
– All other changes
 Manage Communication
• Properly communicating on a project is a critical
success factor for managing the expectations of the
sponsor and the stakeholders
• Two typical forums for communicating status are
– Status meeting
– Status Reports.
• Larger projects, or any project that results in some
culture change, need to be more sophisticated in how
they communicate to various stakeholders.
• It is always preferable to prepare a communication plan
along with the schedule
 Manage Risk
• Risk refers to future conditions or circumstances that
exist outside of the control of the project team that will
have an adverse impact on the project if they occur.
• An issue is a current problem that must be dealt with,
a risk is a potential future problem that has not yet
occurred.
• A reactive project manager tries to resolve issues when
they occur. A proactive project manager tries to resolve
potential problems before they occur
 Manage Human Resources
• The project manager also has people
management responsibilities.
• These responsibilities are shared with the
functional managers of the team members.
• Some people go as far as to say that
managing people on a project is the most
challenging and the most important of all the
project management responsibilities
 Manage Quality
• Quality is ultimately defined by the client and
represents how close the project and
deliverables come to meeting the client’s
requirements and expectations
• Sometimes there is a tendency to think that
'quality' means the best material, the best
equipment and absolutely zero defects
• Managing quality means delivering the
deliverables as per the customer specifications
and expectations
 Manage Quality
• Depending on the roles of the stakeholders,
they may have different quality requirements
that need to be satisfied. For instance:
– The company – The solution meets strategic goals
– Buyers - The solution meets specifications
– End users – The solution helps them do their job
better, faster, easier
 Manage Metrics
• All projects should be gathering basic metrics
information regarding cost, effort and duration
• In Project management focuses on collecting metrics to
determine how well the deliverables satisfy the client’s
expectations and how well the internal project delivery
processes are working.
• Depending on the results, corrective action or process
improvement activities can be undertaken to make the
processes more efficient and effective
• Managing metrics and managing quality are related
 Creating the Work
Breakdown Structure
• Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
– An hierarchical outline (map) that identifies the
products and work elements involved in a project
– Defines the relationship of the final deliverable (the
project) to its subdeliverables, and in turn, their
relationships to work packages
– Best suited for design and build projects that have
tangible outcomes rather than process-oriented
projects
 WBS
WBS - Work Breakdown Structure
• Dominant prerequisite for successfully
integrating and controlling the total project
Framework on which a project is built and the"
map" for executing the project
• Graphically depicts the hierarchy of the project
 WBS
Benefits of Using a WBS
• Provides the framework to identify development
projects separately from geographies,
accounting systems, funding sources, and so on
• Clarifies responsibilities
• Focuses attention on project objectives
 WBS
Benefits of Using a WBS
• Encourages detailed planning and
documentation
• Identifies specific work packages for estimating
and assigning work
WBS
 WBS Development

Develop and/or review project goals and

objectives
Prepare a summary (high-level) WBS
– Total project: Level 1
– Major subsystem and project services: Level 2
– Major subsystems and project services
elements:Level 3
 WBS Development
• Meet with responsible project team members,
sponsors, and other project stakeholders
(internal and external)
 WBS Development

• Responsible departments and geographies

further define to lowest meaningful level, which
produces work packages, including -
• Technical performance parameters
• Schedule (with a defined delivery date)
• Expenses
 Responsibility Matrices
• Responsibility Matrix (RM)
– Also called a linear responsibility chart
– Summarizes the tasks to be accomplished and who is
responsible for what on the project
• Lists project activities and participants
• Clarifies critical interfaces between units and individuals that
need coordination
• Provide an means for all participants to view their
responsibilities and agree on their assignments
• Clarifies the extent or type of authority that can be exercised
by each participant
Responsibility Matrix for a Market Research
Project

FIGURE 4.7
 Criteria for Completeness of WBS
• Status/completion is measurable.
• Start/end events are clearly defined.
• Activity has a deliverable.
• Time and cost are easily estimated.
• Activity duration is within acceptable limits.
• Work assignments are independent.
 Activity Resource Requirements and cost

• Estimate Activity Resources is the process

of estimating the type and quantities of
material, human resources, equipment, or
supplies required to perform each activity.
 Project Management Plan
• A project management plan is a formal
approved document that defines how
the project is executed, monitored and
controlled. It may be a summary or a detailed
document and may be a compendium of
baselines, subsidiary management plans and
other planning documents
Components of Project Management Plan

• Baselines for : Scope, Schedule, Cost

• Management Plans for : Scope, Schedule,
Cost, Quality, Human Resources,
Communications, Risk and Procurement
• Other plans: Requirement management plan,
Change management plan, Configuration
management plan, Process Improvement Plan.