SE 477 January 4, 2017

Advanced Software
Project Management

Reading materials
• References and Textbooks:
The Standard for Project Management and A Guide to the
Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)— 7th
ed, Project Management Institute, 2021.
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge
(PMBOK® Guide )— 6th Edition, Project Management Institute,
2017.
IT Project Management, by kathy schwalbe 7th ed.

Lecture 1 1
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Course Assessment
• Quizzes (2) + Midterm Exams (2) + Final Exam
• Weekly reading and home assignments (Journal
Reviews)
• Industrial Visits
• Team project
• Topics for homework and reading assignments will be
made available on the course webpage (eLearning)

• Homework logistics
 Homework must be submitted via eLearning on the assignment due date.
 Submit MS Word or Adobe PDF files only

Course Objectives
• Students will understand the basic principles and terminology of
project management.

• Students will understand how development and project

management concerns relate and how they may be integrated
with one another.

• Students will be able to determine the major reasons for IT

project failures and how they might be averted.

• Students will be able to carry out an essential subset of the

activities associated with project planning, execution, monitoring
and control, and close-out.

Lecture 1 2
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Topics
1. Introduction: What is a project? Project characteristics; Project managers;
Project organization; Putting a process in place; Software process; Phases for
software project management; Classic Mistakes; Project management tools;

2. The Project Management and Information Technology Context: Overview of

Project Management and System Development Processes; SDLC vs. PLC;
Project Phases and the Project Life Cycle; overview of Project Initiation and
Project Management Plan;

3. The Project Management Process: Mapping the Process Groups to the

Knowledge Areas; Project Pre-Initiation and Initiation phases

4. Project Planning and Scheduling: Strategic Planning and Project Selection;

Developing a Project Charter; Developing a Project Management Plan;
Schedule Development: Scheduling: Gantt Chart and PERT and Critical Path
Method (CPM); Schedule compression; Resource leveling; Mythical Man
Month.

Topics
5. Project Scope and Time Management: Defining Project Scope; Creating
the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS); Scope Management; Verifying
Scope and Controlling Scope; Activity Definition; Estimating Activity
Resources and Durations, Activity Sequencing.
6. Quality Assurance and Risk Management: Planning, risk identification,
quantification and prioritization; Risk analysis, response planning,
avoidance, mitigation, monitoring

7. Execution and Monitoring Projects: control and tracking; Project

velocity; Earned Value Analysis; Quality Control, Planning and
Assessment; Change control and project tracking; Final stages: Project
Recovery; Project closeout; Project Success

8. Project Cost and budget Management : What Is Project Cost

Management? Basic Principles of Cost Management; Estimating Costs;
Types of Cost Estimates; Cost Estimation Tools and Techniques; Process
and project metrics, Estimation for software projects costs

Lecture 1 3
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Lecture 1:
Introduction

Welcome Introduction to SPM

Course!
• Instructor: Kuulaa Qaqqabaa (PhD in CSE)

• Assistant Professor, Department of Software Engineering (AASTU)

• Director, Center of Excellence for HPC and Big Data Analytics

• Office: College of Electrical and Mechanical Eng., Block 64 (Room-

206).

• Email1: kuulaa@[Link] (Not Used for Course Related Issues)

• Email2: aastukk@[Link] com (Can be used for the Course

Related Issues)

Lecture 1 4
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Introduction: SPM Fundamentals

• Many people and organizations today have a new or renewed
interest in project management.
• Worldwide IT spending was $3.5 trillion in 2017, a 2.4 percent
increase from 2016 spending.
• The Project Management Institute reported that the number of jobs
reached almost 66 million in 2017. By 2027, employers will need
87.7 million individuals working in project management–oriented
roles.
• In 2017, the average annual salary (without bonuses) for someone in
the project management profession was $112,000 in the U.S. and
$130,866 in Switzerland
• The top skills employers look for in new college graduates are all
related to project management: team-work, problem-solving, and
verbal communications

What is a project?
• PMI definition
• A project is a temporary endeavor (having specific start and completion dates)
undertaken to create a unique product or service.

• Better: A sequence of connected and related activities (requirement

engineering, system engineering, coding, testing, documentation,
controlling, …) that must be completed by a specific time, within budget,
and according to specification.

• A project is temporary means that every project has a definite beginning

and definite end.

• A project end is reached when:

 project’s objectives have been achieved OR
• It is clear that objective will not be met. The project is terminated in such a
situation.

• A project is unique means that it is different in some distinguishing way

from all other similar products or services.

• Projects end when their objectives have been reached or the project has
been terminated
10

Lecture 1 5
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Program and Project Portfolio Management

• About one-quarter of the world’s gross domestic product is spent
on projects.
• Two important concepts that help projects meet enterprise goals:
• Use of programs
• Project portfolio management

• A program is “a group of related projects managed in a

coordinated manner to obtain benefits and control not available
from managing them individually” (PMBOK® Guide — Sixth
Edition, 2017).
• Examples of common programs in the IT field include:
 infrastructure,
 applications development, and
 user support.

• A program manager provides leadership and direction for the

project managers heading the projects within the program
11

Project Portfolio Management

• As part of project portfolio management, organizations
group and manage projects and programs as a portfolio
of investments that contribute to the entire enterprise’s
success.

• Portfolio managers help their organizations make wise

investment decisions by helping to select and analyze
projects from a strategic perspective.

12

Lecture 1 6
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Project Management vs. Portfolio Management

13

Project Management vs. Program Management

• What’s a ‘program’?
Mostly differences of scale

Often a number of related projects

Longer than projects

Example: Program Manager for MS Office

• Includes projects: Spelling, drawing, Word, Xcel, PowerPoint, etc.

14

Lecture 1 7
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Project characteristics
• A project is unique (has customer-specified performance
criteria):
• A Project creates unique deliverables: product, service, or result
• Even technically-identical projects are distinctly unique, due to
internal or external contingent factors
• Projects are temporary
• Every project has a definite beginning and a definite end
• Project end may be reached through success, qualified success,
failure, or redundancy
• Projects need not be of short duration, but they are of finite duration.
• Projects consume resources
• Personnel resources
• Physical and material resources
• Financial (monetary) resources
15

Projects vs. operations/production

16

Lecture 1 8
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Project characteristics
• Four characteristics of projects:
• finite time
• people assigned
• clear roles and responsibilities
• things to deliver

• Have you ever had this feeling about a project?

• not enough time
• too few people
• people not sure what they should be doing
• too much to do
17

How do IT projects differ from others?

• IT products and services possess greater complexity
 IT products and services are intrinsically complex by nature
Computing + communication + diverse data ⇒ complexity

• IT projects have tight schedules

Tight schedules are the norm in IT development
Scheduling is aggravated by a pervasive ‘rush to market’ mentality

• IT is an integral part of enterprise infrastructure

IT is no longer an auxiliary element of the enterprise
A business’ success is often critically dependent upon IT support

• IT is permeated by quickly-changing technology

Technology evolves (and may even become obsolete) during the
lifetime of a major project
18

Lecture 1 9
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Characteristics of IT
• IT encompasses all forms of technology (HW & SW) used to create, store,
exchange, and use information in various forms

• ‘Information’ includes conventional data, voice, images, multimedia, etc.

• Of central importance are computer, software, network and

communications technologies

• Virtually all significant projects are now distributed: networks of

computers communicate only via message passing

• Distribution poses additional challenges in IT projects: reliability,

availability, security, and information synchronization
• One cannot clearly see and determine how far a piece of software has
progressed.
• Difficult to estimate schedule.
• Difficult to determine cost.
19

What is Project Management?

• Project management is “the application of knowledge, skills,
tools and techniques to project activities to meet project
requirements” (PMBOK® Guide, Fifth Edition, 2013).
• PM is the discipline or art of planning, organizing, and
managing resources to bring about the successful completion
of specific project goals and objectives.
• Software Project Management (SPM) is a sub-discipline of PM
in which software projects are planned, monitored and
controlled
• SPM is the art to define, plan, execute, and monitor the
activities that will bring software products to existence.
• Project managers strive to meet the triple constraint by
balancing project scope, time, and cost goals.
20

Lecture 1 10
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Project management processes

• Regardless of the type of project lifecycle, project management
encompasses the following process groups, shown with some
representative tasks:
1. Initiating/Define – Scope the project; Charter the project; identify
stakeholders
2. Planning – Develop the project plan. Collect requirements; identify
schedule; plan scope, cost, quality, human resource, risk, and
procurement management
3. Executing – Launch the plan. Direct and manage project work;
perform quality assurance; manage and develop project team;
conduct procurements
4. Monitoring and Controlling – Monitor project progress. Monitor
and control project work; manage scope change; monitor and
control schedule; control quality; control risks; control
procurements
5. Closing – Close out the project: Close project; close procurements

21

Typical Development
Phases of PM

22

Lecture 1 11
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Advantages of Using Formal PM

• Better control of financial, physical, and human resources
• Improved customer relations
• Shorter development times
• Lower costs and improved productivity
• Higher quality and increased reliability
• Higher profit margins
• Better internal coordination
• Positive impact on meeting strategic goals
• Higher worker morale
23

Software Project Management

• In 1960s and 1970s, many companies applied the existing and well-
established PM methods in order to manage new software development
efforts.

• But, project schedules slipped during test runs, especially when confusion
occurred in the gray zone between the user specifications and the
delivered software.

• To be able to avoid these problems, software project management

methods focused on matching user requirements to delivered products, in
a method known now as the waterfall model.

• Software project management is an art and science of planning and

leading software projects.

• It is a sub-discipline of project management in which software projects are

planned, implemented, monitored and controlled.

• Today software project management methods are still evolving, but the
current trend leads away from the waterfall model to a more cyclic project
delivery model that imitates a software development process.
24

Lecture 1 12
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Software Development Process

• What is the software development process?
• A process is a set of documented procedures, methods,
practices, and tools used to produce a software product.

• The process will answer the following:

• What to do? Tasks/activities

• How to do it? Procedure/practice

• When to do it? Sequence of activities

• What are the artifacts? (input/output)

25

Software Project Process (contd…)

• If the programmer and designer follow the process, then
the artifacts they produce will be:
Predictable

Based on the requirements

Easy to maintain and control

Consistent with the writing style

Of acceptable quality

Within acceptable milestones

• By following the process, we will be able to know
precisely what/how/when/where it happened!
26

Lecture 1 13
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Core Project Management Activities (contd…)

• Identify requirements
• Address the various needs, concerns, and expectations of
the stakeholders in the project
• Establish active, effective, collaborative communications
among the stakeholders
• Manage stakeholders towards meeting project
requirements and creating project deliverables
• Balance the competing project constraints, including:
scope, quality, schedule, budget, resources, and risks

Paraphrased from: A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®

Guide)–Fifth Edition Project Management Institute, 2013.

27

Software Project Trade-offs

• What is the goal?
• Balance the main three (other 2 constraints scope and resource) …
in order to:
1. Stay within the budget (cost)
2. Deliver on time to gain market share (time)
3. Exceed customer satisfaction (quality).

The time/scheduling hypocrisy

• What can you tell me about the next project, you ask?
 It is due on June 1st tells your manager

• We hold deadlines too dearly. Of course, time to market is critical.

• But what generally happens on projects when you hit that
deadline?
28

Lecture 1 14
SE 477 January 4, 2017

What makes a project successful?

• Successful project management means meeting all three
goals (scope, time, cost) – and satisfying the project’s
sponsor.
• Trade-off Triangle
• Project constraints: Fast, cheap, good
• Also stated as: “On-time, on-budget, high-quality.
• Note that the reality is often ignored in project planning
• Know which of these three are
fixed or variable for every project
Time: How long should it take to
complete the project?
What is the project s schedule?
Cost: Budget to complete the project?
Scope: What work will be done as
part of the project?
29 of 96

Success Metrics
1. On schedule (Time)
 Requires good: plan; estimation; control

2. Within budget (Cost)

 Again: planning, estimation & control

3. According to requirements (Scope)

 Importance of good requirements
 Perception & negotiation critical

Sometimes high quality may or may not be same as item 3

The real measure is:
Whether the customer is happy.

Customer satisfaction is critical in SPM!

30

Lecture 1 15
SE 477 January 4, 2017

The triple constraint of project management

31

Project Management Knowledge Areas

• Knowledge areas describe the key competencies that project managers
must develop.

• Project managers must have knowledge and skills in all 10 knowledge

areas. i.e., in management of:
1. Scope,
2. schedule,
3. cost,
4. quality,
5. resource,
6. communications,
7. risks,
8. procurements,
9. stakeholder, and
10. project integration.

• This PMBOK guide (textbook) includes an entire chapter on each

knowledge area 32

Lecture 1 16
SE 477 January 4, 2017

PM Knowledge Areas (Framework)

33

Four Core Knowledge Areas

• The following are 4 core knowledge areas of PM because they
lead to specific project objectives
1. Project scope management involves defining and managing all the
work required to complete the project successfully.
2. Project time management includes estimating how long it will take
to complete the work, developing an acceptable project schedule,
and ensuring timely completion of the project.
3. Project cost management consists of preparing and managing the
budget for the project.
4. Project quality management ensures that the project will satisfy
the stated or implied needs for which it was undertaken.

• The 4 facilitating knowledge areas of PM are:

1. Human resource management.,
2. Communication management.,
3. Risk management., and
4. Procurement management.
34

Lecture 1 17
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Project Management Tools and Techniques

• Project management tools and techniques assist project
managers and their teams in various aspects of project
management.
• Some specific ones include
• Project charter, scope statement, and WBS (scope)
• Gantt charts, network diagrams, critical path analysis, critical chain
scheduling (time)
• Cost estimates and earned value management (cost).
• PMBOK® Guide – Sixth Edition lists tools and techniques
based on their purpose:
• Data gathering
• Data analysis
• Data representation
• Decision making
• Communication
• Interpersonal and team skills
35

PM Tools and Techniques by Knowledge Area

36

Lecture 1 18
SE 477 January 4, 2017

PM Tools and Techniques by Knowledge Area

37

Factors in Project
Success & Failure

Lecture 1 19
SE 477 January 4, 2017

What Went Wrong?

• IT Projects have a terrible track record, as described in the What
Went Wrong?

• A 1995 Standish Group study (CHAOS) found that only 16.2% of IT

projects were successful in meeting scope, time, and cost goals.

• over 31% of IT projects were canceled before completion, costing

over $81 billion in the U.S. alone.

• A PricewaterhouseCoopers study found that over half of all

projects fail and only 2.5% of corporations consistently meet their
targets for scope, time, and cost goals for all types of project

39

Software Crisis
• Many software-related failures: auto-pilot systems, air
traffic control systems, banking systems, IRS.
• On January 15, 1990, the AT&T long-distance telephone
network broke down, interrupting long-distance telephone
services in US for over 8 hours. [Missing break in a switch
statement.]
• On June 4, 1996, the maiden flight of the new and improved
Ariane 5 rocket exploded 37 seconds after lift-off.
• On June 8, 2001, a software problem caused the NYSE to shut
down the entire trading floor for over an hour.
• It is easy to cite many, many, many more.

40

Lecture 1 20
SE 477 January 4, 2017

What is the problem?

 As indicated earlier, over 31% of IT projects were canceled [never seeing
completion], costing over $81 billion in the U.S. alone
o They never worked
o Too late for the market window

• Most projects are

Late in delivery

Missing functionality

Have major defects (bugs)

Did not do what the customer wanted

Hard to maintain and support

41

The Standish Group’s CHAOS Report (2001)

• Standish compiles and publishes a periodic survey on the
success and failure rates of IT projects.
• These statistics date from 2001–however, based on more
recent complementary reports, these numbers have
remained fairly stable over the years:

Average IT project schedule overrun: 163%

Average IT project cost overrun: 145%
Actual deliverable functionality compared to plan: 67%
IT projects judged a success: 26%
Lost value from marginal and failed projects: $75 billion
42

Lecture 1 21
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Chaos Report 2012

Project Success: Type 1. The project is completed on-time and on-
budget, with all features and functions as initially specified. (2012:
39%)
Project Challenged: Type 2. The project is completed and operational
but over-budget, over the time estimate, and offers fewer features
and functions than originally specified. (2012: 43%)

Project Impaired:
Type 3.
The project is canceled
at some point
during the
development cycle.
(2012: 18%) (Are ALL
impaired
projects failures???)

43

A Case Study: The Initial Launch of

[Link] (2013)

44

Lecture 1 22
SE 477 January 4, 2017

ACA – [Link]
• ACA signed into law on March 23, 2010
• [Link] is a healthcare exchange website.
“One-stop shopping sites for health insurance”
CBO forecast: 7 million users during the first year
• Development contracts awarded in September 2011
• No-bid, cost-plus contracts

• Pre-certified private contractors

• [Link] launched on October 1, 2013

• Serious technological problems

45

[Link] – The Launch Problems

• Performance: response time (landing page) > 8s
• “Maddeningly long wait times"

• Navigation: broken UI

• Stability: intermittent crashes, availability ≈ 43%

• Functionality: incorrect and incomplete data

• Error rate (per page) ≈ 6%

• Scalability: < 1,100 concurrent users

• Enrollment completion rate < 30%

46

Lecture 1 23
SE 477 January 4, 2017

[Link] – The Contractors & The Cost

• The lead contractor: CGI Group
At least 47 private companies involved
Including QSSI, Equifax, Serco

• Coordinated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid

Services (CMS)
• Total budget: $293 million
CGI: $196 million (2013). $112 million paid Oct. 2013
QSSI: $85 million

• Estimated actual cost: > $500 million by Oct. 2013

47

[Link] – The Failures – Software Eng.

• Inadequate Testing
“This system just was not tested enough.” – CMS

Full test began T -2 weeks (time before launch).

Final “pre-flight checklist” T -1 week: 41 of 91 functions fail.

No “end-to-end” test as late as T -4 days
Stress tests T -1 day: performance degradation with only 1,100
concurrent users. (50,000-60,000 expected)
Final top-to-bottom security tests not finished.

No integration test. No beta test.

48

Lecture 1 24
SE 477 January 4, 2017

[Link] – The Failures – Software Eng.

• Evolving, Rolling Requirements
Regulations and policies were still in flux when contracts
awarded in 2011.
The specifications for the project were delayed repeatedly.
The regulations and policies were modified repeatedly until
summer 2013.
Repeated changes result in design changes.
CGI did not start coding until Spring 2013.

• Failure to Effectively Manage Changes

• “Write-down-all-the-requirements-then-build-to-those-
requirements”
• Did not adopt an agile development approach.
• Committed to an all-or-nothing launch date.
49

What is the problem?

• Ever-Present Difficulties
Few guiding scientific principles
Few universally applicable methods
As much people problems as technological
 managerial / psychological / sociological

Sponsors unwilling to spend money for supposedly

unrewarding activities
 Quality

Organizational rivalries
Time pressure
Cost pressure
50

Lecture 1 25
SE 477 January 4, 2017

What Went Right?

• The Standish Group’s CHAOS studies show
improvements in the statistics for IT projects:
• The number of successful projects was 29% in 2015
• 62% of small projects were successful, 6% of large, 9% of
medium, and 21% of moderate size

• 39% of all agile projects were successful compared to

11% of waterfall projects

51

What Went Right? Improved Project

Performance/Success
• The Standish Group’s CHAOS studies show improvements
in IT projects in the past decade

52

Lecture 1 26
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Why the Improvements?

• The reasons for the increase in successful projects vary.
First, the average cost of a project has been more than cut in
half.
Better tools have been created to monitor and control progress
and better skilled project managers with better management
processes are being used. The fact that there are processes is
significant in itself.” *

*The Standish Group, "CHAOS 2001: A Recipe for

Success" (2001).

53

Why do IT Projects Fail?

54

Lecture 1 27
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Failure Curves for Software Projects

55

Why do IT projects fail?

• Requirements, requirements, requirements
Requirements are unclear, incomplete, or the project
management methodology does not accommodate changing
requirements effectively
• Lack of adequate user involvement
A disengaged or absentee user (~customer) is an invitation for
project problems or outright failure
Often the result of a lack of business and IT integration
• Unrealistic expectations (including unrealistic time frame
expectations)
Closely related to/result of ‘Lack of user involvement’
“How hard can it be?” attitude of business and technical
management
Overly optimistic ‘can do’ attitude at all levels
☛It is the project management team's responsibility to educate
users in the realities of the project
56

Lecture 1 28
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Why do IT projects fail?

• Lack of clear planning
You cannot achieve any goal without planning
Proper approach to planning in a complex project must be
adaptive: big planning up front is a waste of time and gives a
false sense of security
Related issues: Perceived rush to get started; overconfidence

• Unclear (or lack of) vision and/or objectives

The project vision must be established as one of the first steps
in project planning
The vision for a project should be short, concise, and laser-
sharp: the ‘elevator statement’ format is most effective
57

Why do SE Projects Fail? More Issues

• People begin programming before they understand the problem.

• The team has an unrealistic idea about how much work is involved.

• Defects are injected early but discovered late.

• Programmers have poor habits – and they don’t feel accountable

for their work.

• Managers try to test quality into the software.

• Everyone assumes that the testers will catch all of the defects that were
injected throughout the project.
• When testers look for defects, managers tell them they are wasting time.
• When testers find defects, programmers are antagonized because they feel
that they are being personally criticized.
• When testers miss defects, everyone blames them for not being perfect.
58

Lecture 1 29
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Why do IT Projects Fail? Classic Mistakes

• Anti-Patterns
• Seductive Appeal: good reason for decisions at the time
• Types
People-Related

Process-Related

Product-Related

Technology-Related
• Gilligan’s Island

59

People-Related Mistakes Part 1

• Undermined motivation
• Weak personnel
 Weak vs. Junior

• Uncontrolled problem employees

• Heroics
• Adding people to a late project
• Lack of match between people and needs
 Incompetent or over competent

 Culture clash

60

Lecture 1 30
SE 477 January 4, 2017

People-Related Mistakes Part 2

• Noisy, crowded offices
• Customer-Developer friction
Unrealistic expectations
Lack of user input

• Politics over substance

• Lack of effective project sponsorship
• Lack of stakeholder buy-in
• Wishful thinking

61

Process-Related Mistakes Part 1

• Optimistic schedules
Omitting necessary tasks from estimates
Planning to catch-up later
Code-like-hell programming
Insufficient risk management

• Contractor failure

• Insufficient planning

• Abandonment of plan under pressure

62

Lecture 1 31
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Process-Related Mistakes Part 2

• Wasted time during fuzzy front end

• Shortchanged upstream activities

• Inadequate design

• Shortchanged quality assurance

• Insufficient management controls

• Frequent convergence

63

Product-Related Mistakes
• Requirements gold-plating
Gilding the lily

• Feature creep

• Developer gold-plating
Beware the pet project

• Push-me, pull-me negotiation

Slip schedule + add features

• Research-oriented development
64

Lecture 1 32
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Technology-Related Mistakes
• Silver-bullet syndrome
• Overestimated savings from new tools and methods
Fad warning

• Switching tools in mid-project

• Lack of automated source-code control

65

Factor for IT Project Success

• There are several ways to define project success:
• The project met scope, time, and cost goals
• The project satisfied the customer/sponsor
• The results of the project met its main objective, such as making or
saving a certain amount of money, providing a good return on
investment, or simply making the sponsors happy
• Top three reasons why federal technology projects succeed
• Adequate funding
• Staff expertise
• Engagement from all stakeholders
• Research findings show that companies that excel in project
delivery capability:
• Use an integrated toolbox
• Grow project leaders
• Develop a streamlined project delivery process
• Measure project health using metrics, like customer satisfaction or
return on investment
66

Lecture 1 33
SE 477 January 4, 2017

What Helps Projects Succeed?

1. Executive support 7. Firm basic
requirements
2. User involvement
8. Formal methodology
3. Experienced project
manager
9. Reliable estimates
4. Clear business
10. Other criteria, such as
objectives small milestones,
5. Minimized scope proper planning,
competent staff, and
6. Standard software ownership
infrastructure
67

Project Success Factors

Factors of Success Points

Executive sponsorship 15

Emotional maturity 15

User involvement 15

Optimization 15

Skilled resources 10

Agile processes 7

Modest execution 6

Project management expertise 5

Clear business objectives 4

Source: The Standish Group, CHAOS Manifesto 2015 (2015) 68

Lecture 1 34
SE 477 January 4, 2017

What Helps Projects Succeed? (contd …)

• Make sure all decisions are based on openly shared
information.
It’s important to create a culture of transparency.

• Don’t second-guess your team members’ expertise.

Managers need to trust team members.
Don’t impose an artificial hierarchy on the project team

• Introduce software quality from the very beginning of the

project.
Review everything, test everything.

• Remember that the fastest way through the project is to use

good engineering practices.
Every one of these practices is about saving time and increasing
quality by planning well and finding defects early.
Cutting them out will cost time and reduce quality.
69

Four Project Dimensions

• Four Project Dimensions (The 4 P’s)

People — the most important element of a successful

project
Product — the software to be built
Process — the set of framework activities and software
engineering tasks to get the job done

Project — all work required to make the product a

reality

70

Lecture 1 35
SE 477 January 4, 2017

The 4 P’s: People

• “It’s always a people problem”
– Gerald Weinberg, “The Secrets of Consulting”
• Developer productivity: 10-to-1 range
Teams 3 (or 5) to 1 difference

• Improvements:
Team selection
Team organization
Motivation

• Other success factors

Matching people to tasks
Career development
Balance: individual and team
Clear communication 71

The 4 P’s: Process

• Is process stifling?
2 Types: Management & Technical
• Development fundamentals
• Quality assurance
• Risk management
• Lifecycle planning
• Avoid abuse by neglect
• Customer orientation
• Process maturity improvement
• Rework avoidance
• Goals
• cut time-to-market
• Improve quality
72

Lecture 1 36
SE 477 January 4, 2017

The 4 P’s: Product

• The “tangible” dimension

• Product size management

• Product characteristics and requirements

• Feature creep management

73

Software Project
Management
Fundamentals

Lecture 1 37
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Project Planning
• The goal for all project managers is to bring a project to
completion:
 on time,
 within the budgeted costs, and
 to meet the planned performance or end-product goals by orchestrating all
resources assigned to the project effectively and efficiently(Simpson, 1987).
• The purpose of planning is to identify the:
 scope of the project,
 estimate the work involved,
 and create a project schedule.

• Project planning begins with requirements that define the software

to be developed.
• The project plan is then developed to describe the tasks that will
lead to completion.
• 75

Project Planning
• Determine requirements

• Determine resources

• Select lifecycle model

• Determine product features strategy

• Tracking
Cost, effort, schedule
Planned vs. Actual
How to handle when things go off plan?

76

Lecture 1 38
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Project Monitoring and Control

• The purpose:
To keep the team and management up to date on the project's
progress.
If the project deviates from the plan, then the project
manager can take action to correct the problem.

• Project monitoring and control involves status meetings

to gather status from the team.

• When changes need to be made, change control is used

to keep the products up to date.
77

Measurements
• To date and projected
Cost
Schedule
Effort
Product features

• Alternatives
• Earned value analysis
• Defect rates
• Productivity (ex: SLOC)
• Complexity (ex: function points)
78

Lecture 1 39
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Technical Fundamentals
Assumed Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

• Requirements

• Analysis

• Design

• Construction

• Quality Assurance (aka Testing)

• Deployment
79

Getting organized
So, … now what?
• Who is involved?
Stakeholders
• What do they want done?
Charter, vision, requirements
• Who do we have available to do the work?
Resources and staffing
• How do we do this?
Project planning, WBS
• How much will it cost
Estimating
• When will it be finished?
Scheduling
• What can possibly go wrong?
Risk Management 80

Lecture 1 40
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Summary of Essential Points

• Projects and operations have both similarities and
differences
• Complex projects exhibit highly contingent behavior, are
unpredictable, and face complex risks
• Virtually all IT projects should be considered complex
projects
• Complex project management requires integration of
significant sociological, psychological, and technical skills
• The factors contributing to project success and failure are
reasonably well-known
• This course discusses ways to achieve project success
factors
81

Summary of Essential Points

• There is a growing need for more efficient and systematic PM,
especially for information technology (SE) projects
• In this introductory lecture, we have explained what a project is,
provided examples of IT projects, list various attributes of projects,
and describe constraints of PM
• We have defined PM and discussed key elements of PM framework,
including project stakeholders, the PM knowledge areas, common
tools and techniques, reasons for the failure and success IT projects
• We have discussed the relationship between project, program, and
portfolio management and the contributions each makes to
enterprise success
• We have outlined the role of project managers by describing what
they do, what skills they need, the talent triangle, and career
opportunities for IT project managers

82

Lecture 1 41
SE 477 January 4, 2017

PM Professional Organizations and Certifications

• Following are related to Project Management
Professional Organizations
• Project Management Institute (PMI) ([Link])
• Software Engineering Institute (SEI)
• IEEE Software Engineering Group
Certifications (Exams)
• PMI’s PMP (Project Management Professional)
• CAPMP (Certified Associate Project Management Professional)
Reference: The “PMBOK” – PMI Body of Knowledge (by PMI)
PM Tools
• Collabtive
• GanttProject
• ProjectLibre
• Redmine
• MS Project
• Primavera Project Manager
• Wrike
• Zoho projects
83

Next Lecture - 2
Topic:
Overview of Projects & System Development Life Cycles:
Software project management overview and Project
organization; Software process; Phases for software project
management; Project management tools.

Reading:
• PMBOK-SWE Ch. 2;

84

Lecture 1 42
SE 477 January 4, 2017

Potential Team Project Topics

• MoT (Ministry of Transportation) wants to develop web-based
(mobile-based) online bus management and reservation system
called GuzoNet, that registers and provide its users more efficient
transportation services.
• MoH (Ministry of Health) wants to develop an integrated (both
web-based and mobile-based) customer record management
system that registers and provide its users more efficient and up-
to-date healthcare services.
• A. A. or Shegar City Admiration wants to develop an integrated
(both web-based and mobile-based) e-commerce) that provide its
users with more efficient and up-to-date services about the
existing goods and services across the city.
• MoA (Ministry of Agriculture) wants to develop integrated (both
web-based and mobile-based) multilingual and multimodal system
that registers and provide the farmers with more efficient and up-
to-date consultancy and information services.

85

ASPM-Assignment-I
• Write a short note (a summarized review report of 2 – 3
pages) on some of the major factors for failure and
success of software (IT) projects in Ethiopia over the last
2 or 3 decades. You may focus on specific sector(s) such
as healthcare, education, agriculture, transportation, etc.

86

Lecture 1 43