Software Project Management

decides

what is to be done?
who has to do it?
how is it to be done?

activities

deciding what needs to be done

estimating costs

ensuring there are suitable people to undertake the project

defining responsibilities

scheduling

making arrangements for the work

offices (PMO)

organizational group responsible for coordinating the PM function throughout an organization

possible goals

collect, organize, and integrate project data

develop and maintain templates for project documentation

develop and coordinate training needs

provide PM consulting services

a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result.

temporary

has a difinite beginning and a difinite end

a project ends

its objectives have been reached

or it has been terminated

result

unique: it is distinguishable from all other results

may outlive the project

attributes

Has a unique purpose
Is temporary
Is developed using progressive elaboration
Requires resources, often from various areas
Should have a primary customer or sponsor Involves uncertainty

Concerned with activities involved in ensuring SW is delivered on time, on schedule and in accordance with the requirements

PM is needed because SW development
is always subject to budget and schedule constraints set by the organisation developing the software

proposal writing

project planning & schedualing

project costing

project monitoring & reviews

personnel selection & evaluation

report writing & presentations

scope goals

time goals

cost goals

it's the project manager’s duty to balance these three competing goals

budget may not allow for the use of highly-paid staff

Staff w/appropriate experience may not be available

An organization may wish to develop employee skills on a SP

the most time-consuming PM activity

types

development process project plan

quality plan

validation plan

configuration management plan

maintenance plan

staff development plan

process model

define P scope and milestones

create work breakdown structure

perform size and effort estimations

establish schedule

establish cost planning

structure

introduction

project organization

risk analysis

work breakdown

milestone

end-point of logical stage in P

at each milestonr there should be a formal output presented to management

deliverable

project results delivered to customers

resource requierments

project schedule

split into tasks

organize tasks concurrently

minimize tasks dependencies

process

identify activites

identify activity dependencies

estimate resources for activity

allocate people to activities

create project charts

bar chart

activity networks

monitoring and reporting mechanisms

success

on-time

on-budget

scope coverage

failed

over-time

over-budget

and/or with less scope

why projects fail?

an unrealistic deadline

changing customer requirements

underestimate of effort

predictable and/or unpredictable risks

Technical difficulties

Miscommunication among project staff

failure in project management

impaired

cancelled & unused

project plan compliation