Software Project Management - CS615

CS615 - Software Project Management - Lecture Handout 27

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ORGANIZATION

Basic Definition

Basically, an organization is a group of people intentionally organized to accomplish an overall, common goal or set of goals. Business organizations can range in size from two people to tens of thousands.

How you interpret each of the above major parts of an organization depends very much on your values and your nature. People can view organizations as machines, organisms, families, groups, etc.

CS615 - Software Project Management - Lecture Handout 28

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ORGANIZATION

ORGANIZATIONAL PLANNING

Organizational planning involves identifying, documenting, and assigning project roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships.

Roles, responsibilities, and reporting relationships may be assigned to individuals or to groups. The individuals and groups may be part of the organization performing the project, or they may be external to it. Internal groups are often associated with a specific functional department such as engineering, marketing, or accounting.

CS615 - Software Project Management - Lecture Handout 29

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ESTIMATION

Estimation - Concepts

Watts Humphrey in his book, Managing the Software process, has said, “If you don’t know where you are, a map won’t help.” This saying is very relevant while dealing with software project estimation. In a software project, unless you are sure
that your estimation is accurate, you cannot make much progress.

CS615 - Software Project Management - Lecture Handout 30

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ESTIMATION

Decomposition Techniques

Software project estimation is a form of problem solving, and in most cases, the problem to be solved (i.e., developing a cost and effort estimate for a software project) is too complex to be considered in one piece. For this reason, we decompose the problem, re-characterizing it as a set of smaller (and hopefully, more manageable) problems.

CS615 - Software Project Management - Lecture Handout 31

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ESTIMATION

Estimation – Tools

Measuring effort for a project

Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO)

The COCOMO technique is another popular estimation technique. Dr: Barry Boehm propounded this technique in 1981. COCOMO uses cost driver attributes to calculate the effort and duration of a project. The COCOMO technique has three levels of implementation. With each level, the complexity of the model increases. The levels of the COCOMO technique are:

CS615 - Software Project Management - Lecture Handout 32

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Work Breakdown Structure

WBS Preview

Salient features

Large, complex projects are organized and comprehended by breaking them into progressively smaller pieces until they are a collection of defined "work packages" that may include a number of tasks.

A $1,000,000,000 project is simply a lot of $50,000 projects joined together.

CS615 - Software Project Management - Lecture Handout 33

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Work Breakdown Structure

WBS- A Mandatory Management Tool

The WBS as a project management tool

Mapping WBS for Cost Management

In a product-oriented WBS, functional categories of work may form "cost accounts" within a WBS element. Cost account managers are responsible for a functional area’s contribution to a WBS element. Cost accounts from several departments or functions may combine into one WBS element.

CS615 - Software Project Management - Lecture Handout 34

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Work Breakdown Structure

WBS- A Mandatory Management Tool

Characteristics of a High-Quality WBS

Review and signoff from top to bottom
Includes logical flow and is hierarchical in nature
Clear and concise
Provides ability to roll-up information to higher levels
Receives 100% team buy-in

CS615 - Software Project Management - Lecture Handout 35

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Work Breakdown Structure

WBS- A Mandatory Management Tool

Sample WBS

Sample 1: These two graphics illustrate approaching the WBS as a parts list or as a process list

CS615 - Software Project Management - Lecture Handout 36

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Work Breakdown Structure

WBS- Major Steps

Define Project Development Phases

For large systems, the decomposition of the system into smaller components needs to be done early in the planning cycle

The rationale for the decomposition must be known, otherwise, different results derived from different reasons for the system decomposition may occur.

CS615 - Software Project Management - Lecture Handout 37

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Scheduling

Understanding Schedule

Salient Features:

Fred Brooks, the well-known author of The Mythical-Man-Month [BRO95], was once asked how software projects fall behind schedule. His response was as simple as it was profound: "One day at a time."

The reality of a technical project (whether it involves building a hydroelectric plant or developing an operating system) is that hundreds of small tasks must occur to accomplish a larger goal.

CS615 - Software Project Management - Lecture Handout 38

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Scheduling

Scheduling Tools

GANTT CHARTS

There are various tools that help you create a schedule. One of the simplest project management tools used to represent the timeline of activities is the Gantt chart.

Long before the advent of computers, Henry L. Gantt lent his name to a simple and very useful graphical representation of a project development schedule.

CS615 - Software Project Management - Lecture Handout 39

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Risk and Change Management

Risk is defined as the possibility of loss. It is the inability to achieve program objectives within defined cost, schedule, and technical constraints. Risk management is a set of actions that helps the project manager plan an approach to deal with uncertain occurrences.

A software project encounters two types of risks, development process risks and product- related risks. Some of the development process risks are developer errors, natural disasters, disgruntled employees, and poor management objectives.
Some project related risks are incomplete requirements, unclear project deliverables and objectives, and complexity of the product.

CS615 - Software Project Management - Lecture Handout 40

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Risk and Change Management

Fundamentals

What is it?

Change Management is the process by which changes to the Project’s scope, deliverables, timescales or resources are formally defined, evaluated and approved prior to implementation.

A core aspect of the Project Manager’s role is to manage change within the project successfully. This is achieved by understanding the business and system drivers requiring the change, documenting the benefits and costs of adopting the change and formulating a structured plan for implementing the change

CS615 - Software Project Management - Lecture Handout 41

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Risk and Change Management

Risk Management Process

Risk Identification

Risk Identification involves:

Identifying risks that may occur on a particular project
Determining which risks might affect the project
Documenting their characteristics

CS615 - Software Project Management - Lecture Handout 42

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Quality

Quality Concept

What is it? It's not enough to talk the talk by saying that soft ware quality is important, you have to (1) explicitly define what is meant when you say 'software quality, (2) create a set of activities that will help ensure that every software engineering Work product exhibits high quality, (3) perform quality assurance activities on every software project, (4) use metrics to develop strategies to improving your software process and as a consequence the quality of. the end product.

CS615 - Software Project Management - Lecture Handout 43,44,45

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Application Tools

Managing Tasks in Microsoft Project 2000

Project management is a highly specia1ized and professional task. The chances that a project can go haywire are very high because project management includes numerous activities, such as planning, resource allocation, risk management, and
estimation. You can automate all these activities using a tool, Microsoft Project 2000. Activities such as project planning, resource and cost allocation, and project tracking can be done easily using the various user-friendly features of Microsoft
Project 2000.

Software Project Management - CS615

ORGANIZATION

Basic Definition

ORGANIZATION

ORGANIZATIONAL PLANNING

ESTIMATION

Estimation - Concepts

ESTIMATION

Decomposition Techniques

ESTIMATION

Estimation – Tools

Measuring effort for a project

Constructive Cost Model (COCOMO)

Work Breakdown Structure

WBS Preview

Salient features

Work Breakdown Structure

WBS- A Mandatory Management Tool

The WBS as a project management tool

Work Breakdown Structure

WBS- A Mandatory Management Tool

Characteristics of a High-Quality WBS

Work Breakdown Structure

WBS- A Mandatory Management Tool

Sample WBS

Work Breakdown Structure

WBS- Major Steps

Define Project Development Phases

Scheduling

Understanding Schedule

Salient Features:

Scheduling

Scheduling Tools

GANTT CHARTS

Risk and Change Management

Risk and Change Management

Fundamentals

What is it?

Risk and Change Management

Risk Management Process

Risk Identification

Quality

Quality Concept

Application Tools

Managing Tasks in Microsoft Project 2000

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