Software project management

Theory : 75 marks
Project Dissertation :50 marks
Internal Test: 25 marks

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Software Project Management

Chapter One

An Introduction

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Unit1 has 3 chapters

1) Introduction to SPM

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In this introduction the main questions to be
addressed will be:
 What is software project management? Is it
really different from ‘ordinary’ project
management?
 How do you know when a project has been
successful? For example, do the
expectations of the customer/client match
those of the developers?

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Why is project management
important?
 Large amounts of money are spent on ICT e.g.
UK government in 2003-4 spent £2.3 billions on
contracts for ICT and only £1.4 billions on road
building
 Project often fail – Standish Group claim only a
one third of ICT projects are successful. 82%
were late and 43% exceeded their budget.
 Poor project management a major factor in
these failures
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What is a project?
Some dictionary definitions:
“A specific plan or design”
“A planned undertaking”
“A large undertaking e.g. a public works
scheme”

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What is a Project?
 An endeavor with specific objectives:
Usually consists of multiple tasks
With defined precedence relationships
With a specific time period for completion
 Non-Software Examples:
A wedding
An MBA degree
A house construction project
A political election campaign
Jobs versus projects

‘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!

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Characteristics of projects
A task is more ‘project-like’ if it is:
 Non-routine
 Planned
 Aiming at a specific target
 Carried out for a customer
 Carried out by a temporary work group
 Involving several specialisms
 Made up of several different phases
 Constrained by time and resources
 Large and/or complex

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Software projects VS other
projects?
 Invisibility :Other projects visible. Software project
invisible.

 Complexity : software project more complex than other

projects .

 Conformity : other projects more conform than

software .

 Flexibility : software projects more flexible than others .

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Contract management versus
technical project management
Projects can be:
 In-house: clients and developers are employed
by the same organization
 Out-sourced: clients and developers employed
by different organizations .so client appoints
‘Project manager’ to supervise the project as
per company’s requirement

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Activities covered by project
management

Feasibility study : Is project technically feasible and worthwhile

from a business point of view?
Planning : Only done if project is feasible
Execution :Implement plan, but plan may be changed as we go
along
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The software development life-
cycle (ISO 12207)

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ISO 12207 life-cycle
 Requirements analysis
 Requirements elicitation: what does the client
need?
 Analysis:converting ‘customer-facing’
requirements into equivalents that developers can
understand
 Requirements will cover
Functions

Quality

Resource constraints i.e. costs

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ISO 12207 life-cycle
 Architecture design
 Based on system requirements
 Definescomponents of system: hardware,
software, organizational
 Software requirements will come out of this
 Code and test
 Of individual components
 Integration

 Putting the components together

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ISO12207 continued
 Qualification testing
 Testing the system (not just the software)
 Installation

 The process of making the system operational

 Includes
setting up standing data, setting
system parameters, installing on operational
hardware platforms, user training etc
 Acceptance support
 Including maintenance and enhancement
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Plans, methods and methodologies

A plan of an activity must be based on some

idea of a method of work.

While a method relates to a type of activity in

general, a plan takes that method (one or
more methods) and converts them into real
activities by identifying:
•Start and end dates
•Who will carry it out
•What tools and materials would be needed.

•Group of method is called methodologies

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Some ways of categorizing projects
Distinguishing different types of project is
important as different types of task need
different project approaches e.g.
 Voluntary systems (such as computer games)
versus compulsory systems e.g. the order
processing system in an organization
 Information systems versus embedded systems
 Outsourced Projects
 Objective driven development
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Stakeholders
These are people who have a stake or interest in the project

In general, they could be users/clients or developers/implementers

They could be:

 Within the project team
 Outside the project team, but within the same organization
 Outside both the project team and the organization

Different stakeholders may have different objectives – need to define common

project objectives

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Setting objectives (Stakeholder)

 Answering the question ‘What do we have to

do to have a success?’
 Need for a project authority
 Sets the project scope
 Allocates/approves costs
 Could be one person - or a group
 Project Board
 Project Management Board
 Steering committee
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Objectives should be SMART
S – specific, that is, concrete and well-defined
M – measurable, that is, satisfaction of the
objective can be objectively judged
A – achievable, that is, it is within the power of
the individual or group concerned to meet the
target
R – relevant, the objective must relevant to the
true purpose of the project
T – time constrained: there is defined point in time
by which the objective should be achieved
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Measures of effectiveness
How do we know that the goal or objective has
been achieved?
By considering following pts
e.g. user satisfaction with software product:
 Repeat business – they buy further products from
us
 Number of complaints – if low

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The business case
Benefits of delivered project must outweigh costs
Costs include:
- Development
- Operation

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Success is met if (Project
success or failure ):
The agreed functionality is
met.
Required quality is achieved
On time
Within budget

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What is management?
This involves the following activities:
 Planning – deciding what is to be done
 Organizing – making arrangements
 Staffing – selecting the right people for the
job
 Directing – giving instructions
continued…
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What is management? (continued)
 Monitoring – checking on progress
 Controlling – taking action to remedy
hold-ups
 Innovating
– coming up with solutions
when problems emerge
 Representing – communicating with
clients, users, developers and other
stakeholders
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Principal Project Management Processes

In the project initiation stage, an initial plan is made.

As the project starts, the project is executed and
controlled to proceed as planned. Finally, the project
is closed.
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Project Planning
 Carried out before development starts.
 Important activities:
 Estimation

 Scheduling

 Staffing

 Risk management
 Miscellaneous plans

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Management control

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Traditional versus Modern Project Management
 Projects are increasingly being based on either tailoring
some existing product or reusing certain pre-built
libraries.
 Facilitating and accommodating client feedbacks
 Facilitating customer participation in project development
work
 Incremental delivery of the product with evolving
functionalities.
 Quality management
 Change management

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