SFScon 2020 - Elia Rigo - A study about Project Management techniques in virtual and on-site projects
0 likes89 views
This thesis analyzes software engineering and project management techniques, particularly Agile and PMI methodologies, in the Italian IT sector, based on interviews with industry professionals. It identifies a preference for Agile methods but also highlights situations where traditional PMI approaches may be more effective, emphasizing the need for a hybrid methodology that balances both frameworks. Key findings indicate common challenges in remote project management, such as engaging teams and communication inefficiencies.
SFScon 2020 - Elia Rigo - A study about Project Management techniques in virtual and on-site projects
- 1. A STUDY ABOUT SOFTWARE ENGINEERING AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES IN VIRTUAL AND ON-SITE PROJECTS Supervisors: Paolo Bouquet, Andrea Molinari Student: Elia Rigo
- 2. ABSTRACT This thesis was born from the interest gained and developed in my last work experience at the Bruno Kessler Foundation, where I held a role both in development and in management, as I performed some actions as a Project Manager. Hence the idea of examining in depth the related topics and this work figure; also, for a possible career path in this sector. This study aims to analyse and identify the main Project Management Techniques (Agile and PMI Traditional above all) in the Italian IT sector. Is there a better or preferred technique than the others? If yes, why? The second part of the study aims to understand if Agile and PMI approaches are effective even in distributed or remote development contexts.
- 3. PERSONAL CONTRIBUTION AND PROBLEMS The study is focused on a series of interviews with professional figures such as Project Managers, Agile Coaches or CTOs. Surely the first problem faced was to gather a background-knowledge suitable for carrying out a study on this theme. If on the one hand, I felt strong of my skills in the development side, I could not say the same about how to manage a project under an Agile or a Traditional aspect. The second problem was to be able to find a number of questions that are generic enough for everyone, but at the same time, specific enough to analyse the methodology adopted by each company, also going deep when necessary.
- 4. PMBOK® VS AGILE A comparison …
- 5. PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND SOFTWARE LIFE CYCLES “Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements.” PMBOK® Lean, Dynamic Software Dev, Feature Driven Dev Traditional PMI, Waterfall Scrum, Crystal, XP
- 6. PMBOK® - 5 Process Groups Initiation Planning Execution Closing Monitoring Controlling
- 7. A critical path is a sequence of activity that determines the longest path through a project. The longest critical path represents the shortest possible duration of the project. A first criticism: the Critical Chain Method PMBOK® - Critical Path Method
- 8. THE ROLES IN MANAGING (SOFTWARE) PROJECTS • Project Manager: the activities of this figure space from consulting with the team or the business leaders on new ideas, to meeting customer needs, passing through improving organizational performance. • Project Management Office: it is a department that manages the governance of the projects and facilitates the sharing of resources, tools, and methodologies between PM and projects.. • “Project Manager” in Agile: it is usually not present in favour of “similar” figure like: Product Owner, Agile Coach (e.g. Scrum Master), Team leader and Self-managing team.
- 9. VIRTUAL PROJECTS, REMOTE WORKING & DISTRIBUTE TEAMS “Virtual project teams are those where at least one member of the team is remote from the others.” L e a d i n g v i r t u a l p r o j e c t t e a m s : d o s a n d d o n ’ t s P . E . P u l l a n
- 10. The business world started to see virtual projects as the only possible path for future corporations to survive. Especially if it helps to reduce costs like resources, office rents, travels, parking, etc. Nowadays, software development in remote working contexts or distributed teams is constantly growing, but it is not without problems. The main problems identified from a study of Dr. Pullan in 2015 are: PRO & CONS OF VIRTUAL PROJECTS • Engaging remote participants (76%) • Missing out on dynamics and nuances of conversation (58%) • Working across time zones (56%) • Working across different cultures (56%) • Building trust (55%) • Monitoring work done (47%)
- 12. To understand if and how the previous methodologies are used, we interviewed Project Managers, CTOs and Agile Coaches from 16 different companies divided into 4 main categories. We took inspiration from the Assintel 2019 Report. ◦ IT Consultancy ◦ Software House ◦ Cloud Service & Architecture Provider ◦ Company Product Seller (Financial, Automotive, Entertainment, Pharmaceutic, etc.) An attempt was made to compose each category of one “small” company (<20 emp.), two “medium” companies (20-100 emp.) and one “big” company (>100 emp.) OVERVIEW
- 13. Define a compact number of valid questions took time and continuous validation. The main problem was finding a trade of between PMI and Agile questions. We decided to divide the questions into 4 main groups: 1. Company Framework. 2. Company Project Management Techniques. 3. Project Management Technique. 4. Comparison between on-site and virtual work and difficulties in the introduction of PMI/Agile Technique inside teams and company. INTERVIEW STRUCTURE
- 14. ◦ Around the 90% of the companies use fixed teams with very specific skills (same IT Skills and balance between junior and senior) ◦ Around 50% of company assigned only 1 project per developer. The other 50% assigned 2 or more projects per developer. ◦ 55% of companies adopt distributed teams or virtual projects. COMPANY FRAMEWORK
- 15. ◦ 14 companies use an Agile Methodology. ◦ Scrum is the preferred framework (with the addition of some variants). ◦ It is difficult to find both the figure of Project Manager and Product Owner. ◦ But, it is common in companies that at a higher level use a more traditional approach. ◦ Only 3 companies have a Scrum Master. ◦ Every company adopts a PMO. COMPANY PROJECT MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES
- 16. ◦ We have three types of requirements elaboration: ◦ Requirements and initial document are provided by the client. ◦ Via traditional documentation. ◦ Minimum documentation (or absent). ◦ “Increment and Adaptive” is the most used Project Life Cycle but a lot of companies (≈75%) are forced to make predictions via milestone or GANTTs. ◦ The most used platform for project management is the Atlassian Suite. ◦ Budget control and management is done via traditional approach (human hours estimate). PROJECT MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUE – 1
- 17. ◦ Physical or virtual representation of Kanban board is the preferred method, also by company that adopt PMI. ◦ Almost every company do a Morning Stand-Up. ◦ Agile company perform also Backlog review and retrospective. ◦ Traditional companies have faced the quality management since the beginning of the project while Agile companies have standard quality methods that are applied to every project. ◦ The idea of risk changes from reality to reality. In Agile contexts, when we talk about risk, they think of risks related to the world of software. There is no parallel thought to "development path risks" even if asked directly. PROJECT MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUE – 2
- 18. ◦ In medium and big companies it is elaborated a final internal report at the close of the project. Small companies prefer a minimal approach that avoid any redundant documents or process. ◦ Only five (medium) companies elaborate a “Story of the project” to highlight the decisions made and to share this information with other teams or divisions. ◦ Keep track of the lesson learned and best practices is widely accepted as a good practice. While we cannot say the same about the software documentation. ◦ It is a rare practice also keep track of the satisfiability of the client. A lot of companies are constantly in contact with the customer so they monitor it “every day” (they said). PROJECT MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUE – 3
- 19. ◦ Generally 13 companies out of 16 do not see any difference between Virtual Project and on-site project on topic like deadline or time spent writing email. But the same companies experiment an increase in the number of weekly meeting. ◦ 3 companies have seen an increase in the time spent writing emails, but a decrease in the delivery time and fixed cost like rent, travels and parking. ◦ Despite the use of various systems to encourage communication only 2 companies boast a decrease in response times, while 6 companies experiment an increase and an asynchrony in answer with a delay up to 30 minutes to get answer. ◦ The main problem raised by 10 (medium-big) companies out of 14 that use Agile is the approval of Agile Methodology by the management. ◦ Master Agile methodologies requires effort and time, but every company agree that on the midterm the results soon arrive. COMPARISON BETWEEN ON-SITE AND VIRTUAL WORK AND DIFFICULTIES IN THE INTRODUCTION OF PMI/AGILE
- 21. The interviews showed that the most adopted methodology is Agile. However, cases have emerged in which a more Traditional PMI methodology is more effective than an Agile method. Agile shows some intrinsic limitations, in particular, we cite: 1. The lack of a PMO (Project Management Office). 2. “Weak” collection of initial requirements and documents. 3. Path risk analysis. 4. Lack of a well-defined roadmap about the development of the project. 5. Budget estimation. 6. Difficulty in implementing Agile to the managerial class and large projects. CONCLUSIONS
- 22. What emerges most from this study is the need for a "Hybrid Approach", that is, a layer between the Agile approach and the PMI approach. A layer that puts teams in agreement with the management side and vice versa. We will try to make an effort to propose at least a solution to the previous problems: 1. Mitigate the presence of a PMO with a periodic meeting of all the POs and the management. 2. Mitigate the “weak” collection of initial requirements adding additional material to Epics and User stories. 3. Use techniques like Critical Path Method or Critical Chain Method to understand critical dependencies and understand the duration of the activities. 4. A roadmap is the result of techniques like Prioritization, CPM or CCM. 5. Once defined a roadmap, calculating the project costs becomes trivial. 6. If all the previous points have been respected, the hybrid approach is also suitable for large projects and should be more “accepted” by the management class. FUTURE WORKS
- 23. END THANKS FOR THE ATTENTION QUESTIONS ?