What is Project?

A project is a group of tasks that need to complete to reach a clear result. A

project also defines as a set of inputs and outputs which are required to achieve
a goal. Projects can vary from simple to difficult and can be operated by one
person or a hundred.

Projects usually described and approved by a project manager or team

executive. They go beyond their expectations and objects, and it's up to the team
to handle logistics and complete the project on time. For good project
development, some teams split the project into specific tasks so they can
manage responsibility and utilize team strengths.

What is software project management?

Software project management is an art and discipline of planning and

supervising software projects. It is a sub-discipline of software project
management in which software projects planned, implemented, monitored and
controlled.

It is a procedure of managing, allocating and timing resources to develop

computer software that fulfills requirements. Advertisement

In software Project Management, the client and the developers need to know the
length, period and cost of the project.

Prerequisite of software project management?

There are three needs for software project management. These are:

1. Time
2. Cost
3. Quality

It is an essential part of the software organization to deliver a quality product,

keeping the cost within the client?s budget and deliver the project as per
schedule. There are various factors, both external and internal, which may
impact this triple factor. Any of three-factor can severely affect the other two.

Project Manager
A project manager is a character who has the overall responsibility for the
planning, design, execution, monitoring, controlling and closure of a project. A
project manager represents an essential role in the achievement of the projects.

A project manager is a character who is responsible for giving decisions, both

large and small projects. The project manager is used to manage the risk and
minimize uncertainty. Every decision the project manager makes must directly
profit their project.

Role of a Project Manager:

1. Leader

A project manager must lead his team and should provide them direction to
make them understand what is expected from all of them.

2. Medium:

The Project manager is a medium between his clients and his team. He must
coordinate and transfer all the appropriate information from the clients to his
team and report to the senior management.

3. Mentor:

He should be there to guide his team at each step and make sure that the team
has an attachment. He provides a recommendation to his team and points them
in the right direction.

Responsibilities of a Project Manager:

1. Managing risks and issues.

2. Create the project team and assigns tasks to several team members.
3. Activity planning and sequencing.
4. Monitoring and reporting progress.
5. Modifies the project plan to deal with the situation.
Activities
Software Project Management consists of many activities that includes planning
of the project deciding the scope of product, estimation of cost in different
terms, scheduling of tasks, etc.
The list of activities are as follows:
1. Project planning and Tracking
2. Project Resource Management
3. Scope Management
4. Estimation Management
5. Project Risk Management
6. Scheduling Management
7. Project Communication Management
8. Configuration Management
Now we will discuss all these activities -
1. Project Planning: It is a set of multiple processes, or we can say that it a task
that performed before the construction of the product starts.
2. Scope Management: It describes the scope of the project. Scope
management is important because it clearly defines what would do and what
would not. Scope Management create the project to contain restricted and
quantitative tasks, which may merely be documented and successively avoids
price and time overrun.
3. Estimation management: This is not only about cost estimation because
whenever we start to develop software, but we also figure out their size(line of
code), efforts, time as well as cost.
If we talk about the size, then Line of code depends upon user or software
requirement.
If we talk about effort, we should know about the size of the software, because
based on the size we can quickly estimate how big team required to produce the
software.
If we talk about time, when size and efforts are estimated, the time required to
develop the software can easily determine.
And if we talk about cost, it includes all the elements such as:
o Size of software
o Quality
o Hardware
o Communication
o Training
o Additional Software and tools
o Skilled manpower
4. Scheduling Management: Scheduling Management in software refers to all
the activities to complete in the specified order and within time slotted to each
activity. Project managers define multiple tasks and arrange them keeping
various factors in mind.
For scheduling, it is compulsory -
o Find out multiple tasks and correlate them.
o Divide time into units.
o Assign the respective number of work-units for every job.
o Calculate the total time from start to finish.
o Break down the project into modules.
5. Project Resource Management: In software Development, all the elements
are referred to as resources for the project. It can be a human resource,
productive tools, and libraries.
Resource management includes:
o Create a project team and assign responsibilities to every team member
o Developing a resource plan is derived from the project plan.
o Adjustment of resources.
6. Project Risk Management: Risk management consists of all the activities
like identification, analyzing and preparing the plan for predictable and
unpredictable risk in the project.
Several points show the risks in the project:
o The Experienced team leaves the project, and the new team joins it.
o Changes in requirement.
o Change in technologies and the environment.
o Market competition.
7. Project Communication Management: Communication is an essential
factor in the success of the project. It is a bridge between client, organization,
team members and as well as other stakeholders of the project such as hardware
suppliers.
From the planning to closure, communication plays a vital role. In all the
phases, communication must be clear and understood. Miscommunication can
create a big blunder in the project.
8. Project Configuration Management: Configuration management is about
to control the changes in software like requirements, design, and development
of the product.
The Primary goal is to increase productivity with fewer errors.