Software Project Management Intro

Software Project Management Introduction

• Software Project Management explores fundamental questions
• The text addresses "What is software project management and how does it compare to regular management"
• The text addresses "How do we ensure projects are successful and client expectations are met?"

Who Are Managers?

• Managers coordinate and integrate the work of others to achieve organizational goals
• Managerial levels are structured as follows:
• Top Managers
• Middle Managers
• First-Line Managers
• Non-managerial Employees

What is Management?

• Efficiency means "doing things right" and is getting the most output for the least inputs
• Effectiveness means "doing the right things" and is attaining organizational goals

Functional Approach to Management

• Planning involves defining goals, establishing strategy, and developing subplans to coordinate activities.
• Organizing determines what needs to be done, how it will be done, and who is to do it.
• Leading involves directing and motivating all involved parties and resolving conflicts.
• Controlling involves monitoring activities to ensure they are accomplished as planned.
• All of these lead to achieving the organization's stated purpose.

Skills Approach to Management

• Technical skills involve knowledge and proficiency in a specific field.
• Human skills involve the ability to work well with other people.
• Conceptual skills involve the ability to think and conceptualize about abstract and complex situations concerning the organization.

Skills Needed at Different Management Levels

• Top Managers heavily rely on Conceptual Skills
• Middle Managers rely on Human skills
• Lower-level Managers rely on Technical Skills.

Planning as a Managerial Activity

• Planning involves defining the organization's goals.
• Planning involves establishing an overall strategy for achieving those goals.
• Planning involves developing a set of plans to integrate and coordinate organizational work.
• Planning provides direction, reduces uncertainty.
• Planning minimizes waste and redundancy, and sets the standards for controlling

Activities Involved In Effective Resources Management

• Planning is deciding in advance what to do, when to do, & how to do it, bridging the gap between the current state and the desired state
• Organizing is bringing together physical, financial, and human resources, developing productive relationships to achieve organizational goals
• Staffing is manning the organization structure, selecting the right people for the job
• Directing includes supervision, motivation, leadership, and communication
• Controlling ensures that everything occurs in conformance with standards
• Monitoring is checking on progress
• Innovating is devising solutions when problems arise
• Representing involves liaising with clients, users, developers, and other stakeholders

What is a Project?

• A project is a temporary endeavor to create a unique product or service
• Projects commonly include constraints and risks concerning cost, schedule, or performance outcomes
• A project is a planned set of interrelated tasks to be executed over a fixed period, with certain cost and other limitations
• 'Jobs' is the repetition of very well-defined and understood tasks having little uncertainty
• 'Exploration' is the investigation of finding an uncertain outcome, like a cure for cancer
• 'Projects' falls in the middle

Defining Project Management

• Project Management means planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling resources to achieve goals
• Project management provides a planning and guiding approach to project processes from start to finish

Why Use Project Management?

• Employing better control of financial, physical, and human resources
• Improving customer relations
• Shortening development times
• Lowering costs
• Raising quality and increasing reliability
• Ameliorating productivity
• Optimizing internal coordination

Characteristics of Projects

• Projects are non-routine
• Projects are planned
• Projects aim at a specific target
• Projects are work carried out for a customer
• Projects involve several specialisms
• Projects are made up of several different phases
• Projects are constrained by time and resources
• Projects are large and/or complex

Management Approaches

• Traditional culture: managers dictate tasks to employees and solve problems at the top level
• Quality culture: managers coach the team, communicating vision/mission/goals, providing resources, removing barriers
• Quality culture: managers seek employee input/feedback, build trust, provide training, and reward/recognize performance

Software Project Differences

• Invisibility makes progress in software projects not immediately visible
• Software projects involve complexity
• Software systems must conform to human client requirements
• Software is flexible and easily changeable

Categories of Software Projects

• Information systems versus embedded systems projects
• Objective-based versus product-based projects
• Outsourcing and "Off the Shelf" Projects

Software Projects Examples

• Information system projects system interfaces with an organization and registration system
• Embedded system examples include process control and machine interfaces.
• Another embedded example is the control of air conditioning equipment in a building

Project Management Basics

• Key responsibilities include creating clear objectives, building project requirements, and managing the triple constraint
• Managing the triple constraint of cost, time, and scope includes
• The scope constraint includes what must be done to produce the project's end result
• The time constraint is the amount of time available to complete a project
• The cost constraint refers to the budgeted amount available for the project
• Project managers must balance these competing goals

Management Styles

• Situational management determines operational procedures based on the organization's current situation, emphasizing an adaptive style
• Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with changes from the perspective of the organization and the individual
• Change management includes adapting to change, controlling change, and implementing change

Skills for Project Managers

• Project managers need a wide variety of skills
• Skills include being comfortable with change, understanding organizations
• Skills include being able to lead teams, using both "hard" and "soft" skills
• Hard skills include product knowledge and familiarity with PM tools/techniques
• Soft skills include the ability to work with people

Suggested Skills for Project Managers

• Communication: listening and persuasion skills
• Organizational: planning, goal-setting, and analysis skills
• Team-building: showing empathy, motivating, and promoting esprit de corps
• Leadership: setting examples, providing vision, and being positive and energetic
• Coping: flexibility, creativity, patience, and persistence
• Technology: experience and project knowledge

Project Management Activities

• Feasibility study determines if the project is technically feasible and worthwhile from a business point of view.
• Planning is only done if the project is deemed feasible
• Execution implements the plan, which may be changed as project goes along

The Software Development Life-Cycle (ISO 12207)

• Requirements analysis elicits the client's needs and converts customer-facing requirements into developer-understandable equivalents
• Requirements cover project functions, quality, and resource constraints
• Architecture design, based on system requirements, defines system components (hardware, software, organizational)

ISO 12207 Life-Cycle

• Code and test is performed for individual components
• Integration involves putting all the components together
• Qualification testing tests the entire system, not just the software
• Installation makes the system operational, sets up standing data/system parameters, installs on hardware platforms, and includes user training
• Acceptance support includes maintenance and enhancement

Common Software Project Problems

• Examples include poor estimates and plans
• Examples include lack of quality standards and measures
• Examples include lack of guidance about making organizational decisions
• Examples include lack of techniques to make progress visible
• Examples include poor role definition and incorrect success criteria

More Software Project Problems

• Examples include lack of knowledge of application area
• Examples include lack of up-to-date documentation
• Examples include preceding activities not completed on time
• Examples include in the lack of communication between users and technicians
• Examples include a lack of commitment, especially when linked to one person
• Examples include a narrow scope of technical expertise
• Examples include changing statutory requirements and software environment
• Examples include deadline pressure and a lack of training

Setting Objectives

• Project objectives address the question 'What do we have to do to have a success?'
• Setting objectives includes the need for a project authority, which sets the scope and allocates/approves costs

Project Authority

• Project Authority can be one person or a group
• Project boards, project management boards, and steering committees are types of boards
• The project objective is achieving the statement "The project will be regarded as a success if..."

Defining Objectives

• Objectives should be SMART
• Objectives should be specific, or concrete and well-defined
• Objectives should be measurable, the satisfaction of the objective can be objectively judged
• Objectives need to be achievable, with the individual/group able to meet the target
• Objectives should be relevant to the true purpose of the project
• Objectives need to be time constrained, as there is a defined point when the objectives should be achieved

Defining Project Goals

• Goals/sub-objectives are steps to achieving the objective
• Defined using "Objective X will be achieved IF the following goals are all achieved"
• Individuals may only have the capability of achieving a goal, but not the objective, on their own
• Objective is user satisfaction with the software product
• Analyst goal is accurate requirements
• Developer goal is software that is reliable

Measures of Effectiveness

• Practical and objectively assessed tests are used to determine goal/objective achievement
• Repeat business indicates user satisfaction with the software product
• A low number of complaints indicates user satisfaction with the software product

Project Stakeholders

• Stakeholders include those with a stake/interest in the project
• Stakeholders are generally users/clients or developers/implementers
• Stakeholders can be within the project team
• Stakeholders can be outside the team but in the same organization
• Stakeholders can be outside both the project team and the organization

The Business Case

• The business case means the benefits of the delivered project must outweigh costs
• Costs include development and operation costs
• Benefits can be quantifiable and non-quantifiable

Management Control

• Data is the raw details acquired
• An information example is '6,000 documents processed at location X'
• Information is data processed to produce something meaningful/useful
• Information includes 'productivity is 100 documents a day'
• Goals are compared with objectives
• Example goals include 'we will not meet target of processing all documents by 31st March'
• Modelling involves working out probable outcomes of decisions
• The question becomes, "if we employ two more staff at location X how quickly can we get the documents processed?"
• Implementation involves carrying out remedial actions already decided

Effective Decision Making

• A project manager must be capable of negotiating and influencing
• The key is to focus on goals to be served
• Follow a proper decision making process
• Study the environment factors
• Develop personal qualities
• Simulate team creativity
• Manage opportunity

Decision Making Process

• Define the problem; “Which TV to buy?”
• Collect facts; gather data related to TVs from showrooms
• Find solutions; Narrow down TV options while considering budget
• Select a solution; choose the TV
• Implement the solution; purchase TV
• Monitor the solution; ensure all TV features work adequately

Lecture Key Points

• Projects are non-routine and uncertain
• Projects have particular problems, like a lack of visibility
• Clear objectives are essential and need to be assessed objectively
• Stuff happens, it's not usually possible to plan precisely, a need for control is expected
• Proper communication is critical