Project Management PDF

Week 3: Project management Nguyễn Thị Minh Tuyền Adapted from slides of Ian Sommerville  Topics covered 1. Project planning 2. Risk management 3. Managing people 4. Teamwork 2  Software project management £ Conc...

Week 3: Project management Nguyễn Thị Minh Tuyền Adapted from slides of Ian Sommerville  Topics covered 1. Project planning 2. Risk management 3. Managing people 4. Teamwork 2  Software project management £ Concerned with activities involved in p ensuring that software is delivered on time and on schedule and p accordance with the requirements of the organisations developing and p procuring the software. £ Is needed because... p software development is always subject to budget and schedule constraints that are set by the organisation developing the software. £ Good management cannot guarantee project success. However, bad management usually results in project failure. 3  Success criteria £ Important goals for most projects: p Deliver the software to the customer at the agreed time. p Keep overall costs within budget. p Deliver software that meets the customer’s expectations. p Maintain a happy and well-functioning development team. 4  Software management distinctions £ The product is intangible. p Software cannot be seen or touched. £ Many software projects are 'one-off' projects. p Large software projects are usually different in some ways from previous projects. £ Software processes are variable and organization- specific. p We still cannot reliably predict when a particular software process is likely to lead to development problems. 5  Factors influencing project management £ Company size £ Software customers £ Software size £ Software type £ Organizational culture £ Software development processes These factors mean that project managers in different organizations may work in quite different ways. 6  Universal management activities £ Project planning p Project managers are responsible for planning, estimating and scheduling project development and assigning people to tasks. £ Reporting p Project managers are usually responsible for reporting on the progress of a project to customers and to the managers of the company developing the software. £ Proposal writing p Project managers write a proposal to win a contract to carry out an item of work. The proposal describes the objectives of the project and how it will be carried out. 7  Universal management activities £ Risk management p Project managers assess the risks that may affect a project, monitor these risks and take action when problems arise. £ People management p Project managers have to choose people for their team and establish ways of working that leads to effective team performance. 8  Topics covered 1. Project planning 2. Risk management 3. Managing people 4. Teamwork 9  Project planning £ One of the most important jobs of a software project manager. £ Project planning involves p break down the work into parts and assign these to project team members, p anticipate problems that might arise and prepare tentative solutions to those problems. £ The project plan p created at the start of a project, p used to communicate how the work will be done to the project team and customers, and to help assess progress on the project. 10  Planning stages £ At the proposal stage p when you are bidding for a contract to develop or provide a software system. £ During the project startup phase p when you have to plan who will work on the project, how the project will be broken down into increments, how resources will be allocated across your company, etc. £ Periodically throughout the project p when you modify your plan in the light of experience gained and information from monitoring the progress of the work. 11  Proposal planning £ Planning may be necessary with only outline software requirements. £ Goal: to provide information that will be used in setting a price for the system to customers. £ Project pricing involves p estimating how much the software will cost to develop, p taking factors such as staff costs, hardware costs, software costs, etc. into account. 12  Project startup planning £ Know more about the system requirements but do not have design or implementation information. £ Create a plan with enough detail to make decisions about the project budget and staffing. p This plan is the basis for project resource allocation £ The startup plan should also define project monitoring mechanisms. p Keep track of the progress and p Compare actual and planned progress and costs. £ A startup plan is still needed for agile development to allow resources to be allocated to the project. 13  Development planning £ The project plan should be regularly amended as the project progresses and you know more about the software and its development £ The project schedule, cost-estimate and risks have to be regularly revised. 14  The project planning process [project «system» [unfinished] finished] Project planner Identify constraints Do the work [ no problems ] Identify Define project risks schedule Monitor progress against plan Define [serious milestones problems] and [minor problems and slippages] deliverables Initiate risk Replan mitigation actions project 15 Project scheduling 16  Project scheduling £ Is the process of deciding how the work in a project will be organized as separate tasks, and when and how these tasks will be executed. £ Estimate the calendar time needed to complete each task, the effort required and who will work on the tasks that have been identified. £ Estimate the resources needed to complete each task, the time required on specialized hardware, and what the travel budget will be. 17  Project scheduling activities £ Split project into tasks and estimate time and resources required to complete each task. £ Organize tasks concurrently to make optimal use of workforce. £ Minimize task dependencies to avoid delays caused by one task waiting for another to complete. £ Dependent on project managers intuition and experience. 18  The project scheduling process Identify Identify activity Estimate resources Allocate people Create project activities dependencies for activities to activities charts Software requirements Bar charts describing the and design information project schedule 19  Scheduling problems £ Estimating the difficulty of problems and hence the cost of developing a solution is hard. £ Productivity is not proportional to the number of people working on a task. £ Adding people to a late project makes it later because of communication overheads. £ The unexpected always happens. Always allow contingency in planning. 20  Schedule presentation £ Use graphical notations to illustrate the project schedule. p These show the project breakdown into tasks. p Tasks should not be too small. They should take about a week or two. £ Calendar-based p Bar charts (Gantt charts) are the most commonly used representation for project schedules. p They show who is responsible for each activity, the expected elapsed time, and when the activity is scheduled to begin and end. £ Activity networks p Are network diagrams, Show task dependencies 21  Project activities £ Project activities (tasks) are the basic planning element. Each activity has: p a duration in calendar days or months, p an effort estimate, which shows the number of person- days or person-months to complete the work, p a deadline by which the activity should be complete, p a defined end-point, which might be a document, the holding of a review meeting, the successful execution of all tests, etc. 22  Milestones and deliverables £ Milestones are stages in the project where a progress assessment can be made. £ Deliverables are work products that are delivered to the customer, e.g. a requirements document for the system. 23  Tasks, durations, and dependencies Task Effort (person-days) Duration (days) Dependencies T1 15 10 T2 8 15 T3 20 15 T1 (M1) T4 5 10 T5 5 10 T2, T4 (M3) T6 10 5 T1, T2 (M4) T7 25 20 T1 (M1) T8 75 25 T4 (M2) T9 10 15 T3, T6 (M5) T10 20 15 T7, T8 (M6) T11 10 10 T9 (M7) T12 20 10 T10, T11 (M8) 24  Activity bar chart Week 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Start T1 T2 (M1/T1) T3 T4 (M3/T2 & T4) T5 (M4/T1& T2) T6 T7 (M2/T4) T8 (M5/T3 & T6) T9 (M6/T7 & T8) T10 (M7/T 9) T11 (M8/T10 & T11) T12 25 Finish  Staff allocation chart Week 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Jane T1 T3 T9 T10 T12 Ali T1 T8 Geetha T2 T6 T7 T10 T3 Maya T8 Fred T4 T8 T11 T12 Mary T5 Hong T7 T6 26 Estimation techniques 27  Estimation techniques £ Organizations need to make software effort and cost estimates. £ Experience-based techniques p The estimate is based on the manager’s experience of past projects and the application domain. p The manager makes an informed judgment of what the effort requirements are likely to be. £ Algorithmic cost modeling p A formulaic approach is used to compute the project effort based on estimates of product attributes, such as size, and process characteristics, such as experience of staff involved. 28  Estimate uncertainty 4x 2x x Feasibility Requirements Design Code Delivery 0.5x 0.25x 29  Risk management £ Risk management is concerned with identifying risks and drawing up plans to minimise their effect on a project. £ Software risk management is important because of the inherent uncertainties in software development. p These uncertainties stem from loosely defined requirements, requirements changes due to changes in customer needs, difficulties in estimating the time and resources required for software development, and differences in individual skills. £ You have to anticipate risks, understand the impact of these risks on the project, the product and the business, and take steps to avoid these risks. 30  Risk classification £ There are two dimensions of risk classification p The type of risk (technical, organizational,..) p what is affected by the risk £ Project risks affect schedule or resources; £ Product risks affect the quality or performance of the software being developed; £ Business risks affect the organisation developing or procuring the software. 31  Examples of common project, product, and business risks Risk Affects Description Staff turnover Project Experienced staff will leave the project before it is finished. Management change Project There will be a change of organizational management with different priorities. Hardware unavailability Project Hardware that is essential for the project will not be delivered on schedule. Requirements change Project and There will be a larger number of changes to the product requirements than anticipated. Specification delays Project and Specifications of essential interfaces are not available on product schedule. Size underestimate Project and The size of the system has been underestimated. product CASE tool Product CASE tools, which support the project, do not perform as underperformance anticipated. Technology change Business The underlying technology on which the system is built is superseded by new technology. Product competition Business A competitive product is marketed before the system is 32 completed.  Risk management process £ Risk identification p Identify project, product and business risks; £ Risk analysis p Assess the likelihood and consequences of these risks; £ Risk planning p Draw up plans to avoid or minimise the effects of the risk; £ Risk monitoring p Monitor the risks throughout the project; 33  Risk management process Risk Risk Risk Risk identification analysis planning monitoring Risk avoidance List of potential Prioritized risk Risk and contingency risks list assessment plans 34  Risk identification £ May be a team activities or based on the individual project manager’s experience. £ A checklist of common risks may be used to identify risks in a project p Technology risks. p People risks. p Organisational risks. p Tools risks. p Requirements risks. p Estimation risks. 35  Examples of different risk types Risk type Possible risks Technology The database used in the system cannot process as many transactions per second as expected. (1) Reusable software components contain defects that mean they cannot be reused as planned. (2) People It is impossible to recruit staff with the skills required. (3) Key staff are ill and unavailable at critical times. (4) Required training for staff is not available. (5) Organizational The organization is restructured so that different management are responsible for the project. (6) Organizational financial problems force reductions in the project budget. (7) Tools The code generated by software code generation tools is inefficient. (8) Software tools cannot work together in an integrated way. (9) Requirements Changes to requirements that require major design rework are proposed. (10) Customers fail to understand the impact of requirements changes. (11) Estimation The time required to develop the software is underestimated. (12) The rate of defect repair is underestimated. (13) The size of the software is underestimated. (14) 36  Risk analysis £ Assess probability and seriousness of each risk. £ Probability may be very low, low, moderate, high or very high. £ Risk consequences might be catastrophic, serious, tolerable or insignificant. 37  Risk types and examples Risk Probability Effects Organizational financial problems force reductions in the Low Catastrophic project budget (7). It is impossible to recruit staff with the skills required for the High Catastrophic project (3). Key staff are ill at critical times in the project (4). Moderate Serious Faults in reusable software components have to be Moderate Serious repaired before these components are reused. (2). Changes to requirements that require major design rework Moderate Serious are proposed (10). The organization is restructured so that different High Serious management are responsible for the project (6). The database used in the system cannot process as many Moderate Serious transactions per second as expected (1). 38  Risk types and examples Risk Probability Effects The time required to develop the software is High Serious underestimated (12). Software tools cannot be integrated (9). High Tolerable Customers fail to understand the impact of Moderate Tolerable requirements changes (11). Required training for staff is not available (5). Moderate Tolerable The rate of defect repair is underestimated (13). Moderate Tolerable The size of the software is underestimated (14). High Tolerable Code generated by code generation tools is inefficient Moderate Insignificant (8). 39  Risk planning £ Consider each risk and develop a strategy to manage that risk. £ Avoidance strategies p The probability that the risk will arise is reduced; £ Minimisation strategies p The impact of the risk on the project or product will be reduced; £ Contingency plans p If the risk arises, contingency plans are plans to deal with that risk; 40  What-if questions £ What if several engineers are ill at the same time? £ What if an economic downturn leads to budget cuts of 20% for the project? £ What if the performance of open-source software is inadequate and the only expert on that open source software leaves? £ What if the company that supplies and maintains software components goes out of business? £ What if the customer fails to deliver the revised requirements as predicted? 41  Strategies to help manage risk Risk Strategy Organizational Prepare a briefing document for senior management financial problems showing how the project is making a very important contribution to the goals of the business and presenting reasons why cuts to the project budget would not be cost-effective. Recruitment problems Alert customer to potential difficulties and the possibility of delays; investigate buying-in components. Staff illness Reorganize team so that there is more overlap of work and people therefore understand each other’s jobs. Defective Replace potentially defective components with bought- components in components of known reliability. Requirements Derive traceability information to assess requirements changes change impact; maximize information hiding in the design. 42  Strategies to help manage risk Risk Strategy Organizational Prepare a briefing document for senior management restructuring showing how the project is making a very important contribution to the goals of the business. Database Investigate the possibility of buying a higher- performance performance database. Underestimated Investigate buying-in components; investigate use of development time a program generator. 43  Risk monitoring £ Assess each identified risks regularly to decide whether or not it is becoming less or more probable. £ Also assess whether the effects of the risk have changed. £ Each key risk should be discussed at management progress meetings. 44  Risk indicators Risk type Potential indicators Late delivery of hardware or support software; many Technology reported technology problems. Poor staff morale; poor relationships amongst team People members; high staff turnover. Organizational gossip; lack of action by senior Organizational management. Reluctance by team members to use tools; complaints Tools about CASE tools; demands for higher-powered workstations. Many requirements change requests; customer Requirements complaints. Failure to meet agreed schedule; failure to clear reported Estimation defects. 45  Topics covered 1. Project planning 2. Risk management 3. Managing people 4. Teamwork 46  Managing people £ People are an organisation’s most important assets. £ The tasks of a manager are essentially people- oriented. Unless there is some understanding of people, management will be unsuccessful. £ Poor people management is an important contributor to project failure.  People management factors £ Consistency p Team members should all be treated in a comparable way without favourites or discrimination. £ Respect p Different team members have different skills and these differences should be respected. £ Inclusion p Involve all team members and make sure that people’s views are considered. £ Honesty p You should always be honest about what is going well and what is going badly in a project.  Motivating people £ An important role of a manager is to motivate the people working on a project. £ Means organizing the work and the working environment to encourage people to work effectively. p If people are not motivated, they will not be interested in the work they are doing. They will work slowly, be more likely to make mistakes and will not contribute to the broader goals of the team or the organization. £ Is a complex issue but it appears that there are different types of motivation based on: p Basic needs (e.g. food, sleep, etc.); p Personal needs (e.g. respect, self-esteem); 49 p Social needs (e.g. to be accepted as part of a group).  Human needs hierarchy Self- realization needs Esteem needs Social needs Safety needs Physiological needs 50  Need satisfaction £ In software development groups, basic physiological and safety needs are not an issue. £ Social p Provide communal facilities; p Allow informal communications e.g. via social networking £ Esteem p Recognition of achievements; p Appropriate rewards. £ Self-realization p Training - people want to learn more; p Responsibility. 51  Personality types £ The needs hierarchy is almost certainly an over- simplification of motivation in practice. £ Motivation should also take into account different personality types: p Task-oriented; p Self-oriented; p Interaction-oriented. 52  Personality types £ Task-oriented. p The motivation for doing the work is the work itself; £ Self-oriented. p The work is a means to an end which is the achievement of individual goals - e.g. to get rich, to play tennis, to travel etc.; £ Interaction-oriented p The principal motivation is the presence and actions of co-workers. People go to work because they like to go to work. 53  Motivation balance £ Individual motivations are made up of elements of each class. £ The balance can change depending on personal circumstances and external events. £ However, people are not just motivated by personal factors but also by being part of a group and culture. £ People go to work because they are motivated by the people that they work with. 54  Topics covered 1. Project planning 2. Risk management 3. Managing people 4. Teamwork 55  Teamwork £ Most software engineering is a group activity p The development schedule for most non-trivial software projects is such that they cannot be completed by one person working alone. £ A good group is cohesive and has a team spirit. p The people involved are motivated by the success of the group as well as by their own personal goals. £ Group interaction is a key determinant of group performance. £ Flexibility in group composition is limited p Managers must do the best they can with available people. 56  Group cohesiveness £ In a cohesive group, members consider the group to be more important than any individual in it. £ The advantages of a cohesive group are: p Group quality standards can be developed by the group members. p Team members learn from each other and get to know each other’s work; Inhibitions caused by ignorance are reduced. p Knowledge is shared. Continuity can be maintained if a group member leaves. p Refactoring and continual improvement is encouraged. Group members work collectively to deliver high quality results and fix problems, irrespective of the individuals who originally created the design or program.  Effectiveness of a team £ The people in the group p You need a mix of people in a project group as software development involves diverse activities such as negotiating with clients, programming, testing and documentation. £ The group organization p A group should be organized so that individuals can contribute to the best of their abilities and tasks can be completed as expected. £ Technical and managerial communications p Good communications between group members, and between the software engineering team and other 58 project stakeholders, is essential.  Selecting group members £ A manager or team leader’s job is to create a cohesive group and organize their group so that they can work together effectively. £ This involves creating a group with the right balance of technical skills and personalities, and organizing that group so that the members work together effectively. 59  Assembling a team £ May not be possible to appoint the ideal people to work on a project p Project budget may not allow for the use of highly-paid staff; p Staff with the appropriate experience may not be available; p An organisation may wish to develop employee skills on a software project. £ Managers have to work within these constraints especially when there are shortages of trained staff. 60  Group composition £ Group composed of members who share the same motivation can be problematic p Task-oriented - everyone wants to do their own thing; p Self-oriented - everyone wants to be the boss; p Interaction-oriented - too much chatting, not enough work. £ An effective group has a balance of all types. £ This can be difficult to achieve software engineers are often task-oriented. £ Interaction-oriented people are very important as they can detect and defuse tensions that arise. 61  Group organization £ The way that a group is organized affects p the decisions that are made by that group, p the ways that information is exchanged and p the interactions between the development group and external project stakeholders. £ Key questions include: p Should the project manager be the technical leader of the group? p Who will be involved in making critical technical decisions, and how will these be made? p How will interactions with external stakeholders and senior company management be handled? p How can groups integrate people who are not co-located? 62 p How can knowledge be shared across the group?  Group organization £ Small software engineering groups are usually organised informally without a rigid structure. £ For large projects, there may be a hierarchical structure where different groups are responsible for different sub-projects. £ Agile development is always based around an informal group on the principle that formal structure inhibits information exchange 63  Informal groups £ The group acts as a whole and comes to a consensus on decisions affecting the system. £ The group leader serves as the external interface of the group but does not allocate specific work items. £ Rather, work is discussed by the group as a whole and tasks are allocated according to ability and experience. £ This approach is successful for groups where all members are experienced and competent. 64  Group communications £ Good communications are essential for effective group working. £ Information must be exchanged on the status of work, design decisions and changes to previous decisions. £ Good communications also strengthens group cohesion as it promotes understanding. 65  Group communications £ Group size p The larger the group, the harder it is for people to communicate with other group members. £ Group structure p Communication is better in informally structured groups than in hierarchically structured groups. £ Group composition p Communication is better when there are different personality types in a group and when groups are mixed rather than single sex. £ The physical work environment p Good workplace organisation can help encourage communications. 66 Questions? 67