Introduction to software Project Management
- 2. 2 INTODUCTION • 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?
- 3. What is a project? • A project is a temporary effort to create a unique product or service. Projects usually include constraints and risks regarding cost, schedule or performance outcome. • A project is planned set of interrelated tasks to be executed over a fixed period and within certain cost and other limitations. 3
- 4. What is Management? Management is achieving goals in a way that makes the best use of all resources This involves the following activities: • Planning – It is the basic function of management. “Planning is deciding in advance - what to do, when to do & how to do. It bridges the gap from where we are & where we want to be”. “deciding what is to be done” • Organizing – It is the process of bringing together physical, financial and human resources and developing productive relationship amongst them for achievement of organizational goals. “making arrangements” 4
- 5. What is management? • Staffing – It is the function of manning the organization structure and keeping it manned. Manpower, training “ selecting the right people for the job” • Directing – Supervision, Motivation, Leadership, Communication. “giving instructions” • Controlling –The purpose of controlling is to ensure that everything occurs in conformities with the standards. • Monitoring – checking on progress • Innovating – coming up with solutions when problems emerge • Representing – communicating with clients, users, developers and other stakeholders 5
- 6. What is Project Management? • Project Management is the discipline of planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling resources to achieve specific goals • Project management is a methodical approach to planning and guiding project processes from start to finish. 6
- 7. Why Project Management? • Better control of financial, physical, and human resources • Improved customer relations • Shorter development times • Lower costs • Higher quality and increased reliability • Improved productivity • Better internal coordination 7
- 8. Software project versus others Are software projects different from other projects? • Invisibility, progress in software project is not immediately visible. • Complexity. • Conformity, software system has to conform to the requirement of human clients. • Flexibility, one strength of software is its flexible and easy to change. 8
- 9. Categories of Software projects • Information system project, system interface with organization, registration system. • Embedded system (process control), system interface with a machine, control the air conditioning equipment in a building. 9
- 10. Project Management Responsibilities • Key project management responsibilities include - creating clear and realistic project objectives, - building project requirements - managing the triple constraint for projects, which is cost, time, and scope • The Triple Constraint • The scope constraint refers to what must be done to produce the project's end result • The time constraint refers to the amount of time available to complete a project? • The cost constraint refers to the budgeted amount available for the project • It is the project manager’s duty to balance these three often competing goals 10
- 11. Activities Covered by Project Management 11
- 12. Activities Covered by Project Management Feasibility Study: • The feasibility study assesses whether a project is worth starting • Information is gathered about the aspects of requirements of the proposed application. Requirements elicitation programme can, at least irritably, be complex and difficult. • The developmental and operational costs, and the value of the benefits of the new system, will also have to be estimated. With a large system, the feasibility study could be a project in its own right with its own plan. • The study could be part of a strategic planning exercise examine of potential software developments. Sometimes an organization assesses a programme of development a number of projects. 12
- 13. Activities Covered by Project Management Planning : • lf the feasibility study indicates that the prospective project method, which appears viable, then project planning can start. • For larger projects, we is described in would not do all our detailed planning at the beginning. • It takes outline plan for the whole project and a detailed one for the first stage. This iterative Because we will have more detailed and accurate project information approach to after the earlier stages of the project have been completed, planning of planning. the later stages is left to nearer their start. 13
- 14. Activities Covered by Project Management 14 Proiect execution : • The project can now be executed. The execution outline of the of a project often contain s design and implementation sub-phases. content of a plan. Students new to project planning often find that the boundary between design and planning can be hazy. Design is making decisions about the form of the products to be created. This could relate to the external appearance of the software, that is, the user interface, or the internal architecture. The plan details the activities to be carried out to create these products. Planning and design can be confused because at the most detailed level, planning decisions are influenced by design decisions. Thus a software product with five major components is likely to require five sets of activities to create them.