MG6088 SOFTWARE PROJECT

MANAGEMENT UNIT –I
 Dr.A.Kathirvel, Professor and Head, Dept
of CSE M.N.M Jain Engineering College,
Chennai
UNIT I

PROJECT EVALUATION AND PROJECT PLANNING

Importance of Software Project Management – Activities
Methodologies – Categorization of Software Projects –
Setting objectives – Management Principles – Management
Control – Project portfolio Management – Cost-benefit
evaluation technology – Risk evaluation – Strategic
program Management – Stepwise Project Planning.
TEXT BOOK
Bob Hughes, Mike Cotterell and Rajib Mall: Software Project
Management – Fifth Edition, Tata McGraw Hill, New Delhi, 2012.
An Introduction

What is a project?
Some dictionary definitions:
🞑 “A specific plan or design”
🞑 “A planned undertaking”

🞑 “A large undertaking e.g. a public works

scheme” Key points above are planning

 and size of task

Jobs versus projects

◻ ‘Jobs’ – repetition of very well-defined and well understood

tasks with very little uncertainty
◻ ‘Exploration’ – e.g. finding a cure for cancer: the outcome is
very uncertain
◻ ‘Projects’ – in the middle!
4

4
Characteristics of projects

◻ Non-routine
◻ Planned

◻ Aiming at a specific target

◻ Work carried out for a customer

◻ Involving several specialisms

◻ Made up of several different

phases ◻ Constrained by time and

resources ◻ Large and/or complex

5
Are software projects really different from
otherprojects?

Not really! …but…

◻ Invisibility

◻ Complexity

◻ Conformity

◻ Flexibility

make software more problematic to

build than other engineered
products.
 6

Activities covered by project management

Feasibility study
Is project technically feasible and worthwhile from a business point
of view? Planning
Only done if project is feasible
Execution
Implement plan, but plan may be changed as we go along
7

ISO 12207 life-cycle

Requirements analysis
🞑 Requirements elicitation: what does the client need? 🞑
Analysis: converting ‘customer-facing’ requirements into
equivalents that developers can understand
🞑 Requirements will cover
◼ Functions, Quality, Resource constraints i.e. costs
◻ Architecture design
🞑 Based on system requirements
🞑 Defines components of system: hardware, software,
organizational 🞑 Software requirements will come out of this
◻ Code and test
🞑 Of individual components
◻ Integration
🞑 Putting the components together
8
Activities covered by project management

9
9

ISO12207 …
◻ Qualification testing
🞑 Testing the system (not just the software)
◻ Installation
🞑 The
process of making the system operational
🞑 Includes setting up standing data, setting system
parameters, installing on operational hardware platforms,
user training etc ◻ Acceptance support
🞑 Including maintenance and enhancement

10

Categorization of software projects

Distinguishing different types of project is important as
different types of task need different project
approaches e.g. 🞑 Information systems versus embedded
systems
🞑 Objective-based versus product-based

Stakeholders
These are people who have a stake or interest in the
project. In general, they could be users/clients or
evelopers/implementers They could be:
◻ Within the project team

◻ Outside the project team, but within the same

organization ◻ Outside both the project team and the

organization

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 Setting objectives

◻ Answering the question ‘What do we have to do to have a project success?’ ◻

Need for a project authority
🞑 Sets the project scope, Allocates/approves costs

◻ Could be one person - or a group

🞑 Project Board, Project Management Board, Steering committee

Objectives should be SMART

S – specific, that is, concrete and well-defined
M – measurable, that is, satisfaction of the objective can be objectively judged
A – achievable, that is, it is within the power of the individual or group concerned to
meet the target
R – relevant, the objective must relevant to the true purpose of the project T – time
constrained: there is defined point in time by which the objective should be achieved
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 Goals/sub-objectives

These are steps along the way to achieving the objective. Informally, these
can be defined by completing the sentence…
Objective X will be achieved
IF the following goals are all achieved
A……………
B……………
C…………… etc
Often a goal can be allocated to an individual.
Individual may have the capability of achieving goal, but not the
objective on their own e.g.
Objective – user satisfaction with software product
Analyst goal – accurate requirements
Developer goal – software that is reliable
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 Measures of effectiveness

How do we know that the goal or objective has been

achieved? By a practical test, that can be objectively assessed.

e.g. for user satisfaction with software product:

◻ Repeat business – they buy further products from us

◻ Number of complaints – if low etc etc

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What is management?

This involves the following activities:

🞑 Planning – deciding what is to be done

🞑 Organizing – making arrangements

🞑 Staffing – selecting the right people for the

job 🞑 Directing – giving instructions

🞑 Monitoring – checking on progress
🞑 Controlling – taking action to remedy hold-ups 🞑
Innovating – coming up with solutions when
problems emerge
🞑 Representing – liaising with clients, users,
developers and other stakeholders
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 Management control

❑ Data– the raw details

e.g.‘6,000 documents processed at
location X’
❑ Information– the data is processed to
produce something that is meaningful
and useful
e.g. ‘productivity is 100 documentsa day’
❑ Comparison with objectives/goals

e.g. we will not meet target of processing

all documents by 31st March
❑ Modelling– working out the probable
outcomes of various decisions
e.g. if we employ two more staff at
locationX how quickly can we get the
documents processed?
❑ Implementation– carrying out the
remedial actions that have been decided
upon
 16

Benefits the
organization
management
for

benefits
developers users

use
build
application to deliver

•Providing an organization with a capability does not guarantee that

this will provide benefits envisaged – need for benefits management
•This has to be outside the project – project will have been
completed
•Therefore done at programme level

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Benefits management

To carry this out, you must:

◻ Define expected benefits

◻ Analyse balance between costs and benefits ◻

Plan how benefits will be achieved

◻ Allocate responsibilities for their achievement

◻ Monitor achievement of benefits

Cost benefit analysis (CBA)

You need to:
◻ Identify all the costs which could be:
 🞑 Development costs, Set-up, Operational costs
◻ Identify the value of benefits
◻ Check benefits are greater than costs

18

Cost benefit analysis (CBA)/ Cost benefit

evaluation techniques(CBET)
Net

Year Cash-flow 0 -100,000 profit 50,000

Net profit
10,000
‘Year 0’ represents all the costs
before system is operation
1
‘Cash-flow’ is value of income
2 10,000 3 10,000 4 20,000 5 less outgoing
100,000 Net profit value of all the
 cash-flows for the lifetime of the application
19

19

Cost benefit analysis (CBA)/ Cost benefit

evaluation techniques(CBET)
Pay back period
This is the time it takes to start generating a surplus of income over
outgoings. What would it be below?
Year Cash-flow Accumulated
-100,000
10,000
 10,000
10,000
20,000

0 -100,000
1 -90,000
2 -80,000
3 -70,000
4 -50,000
5 100,000 50,000

20

Cost benefit analysis (CBA)/ Cost benefit

evaluation techniques(CBET)
Return on investment (ROI)
Average annual profit
ROI =
Total investmentX 100

In the previous example

• average annual profit
= 50,000/5
= 10,000
• ROI = 10,000/100,000 X 100
= 10%

21

Cost benefit analysis (CBA)/ Cost

benefit evaluation techniques(CBET)

Net present value

❑ Would you rather I gave you £100 today or in 12 months
time? ❑ If I gave you £100 now you could put it in savings
account and get interest on it.
❑ If the interest rate was 10% how much would I have to
invest now to get £100 in a year’s time?
❑ This figure is the net present value of £100 in one year’s
 time 22

Cost benefit analysis (CBA)/ Cost benefit

evaluation techniques(CBET)
factors
Discount factor
Applying discount
Discount ed cash
Discount factor = interest rate Year Cash flow
flow
(e.g. 10% is 0.10)
1/(1+r)t r is the Discount factor
Discount factor = 1/(1+0.10) =
t is the number of years
0.9091
In the case of 10% rate and one year
In the case of 10% rate and two
 years Discount factor = 1/(1.10 x 100,000 0.6209
1.10) =0.8294
-100,000 1.0000 0 -100,000

10,000 0.9091 1 9,091 2 8,264 3 7,513 4 13,660

10,000 0.8264 5 62,090 NPV 618
10,000 0.7513
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20,000 0.6830

Cost benefit analysis (CBA)/ Cost benefit

evaluation techniques(CBET)

Internal rate of return

◻Internal rate of return (IRR) is the discount rate that

would produce an NPV of 0 for the project ◻ Can be
used to compare different investment opportunities
◻ There is a Microsoft Excel function which can be
used to calculate

24

Risk evaluation

Dealing with uncertainty:

◻project A might appear to give a better return than B but could
be riskier ◻ Could draw up draw a project risk matrix for each
project to assess risks – see next overhead
◻ For riskier projects could use higher discount rates
Example of a project risk matrix
25

Risk evaluation

Decision trees
 26

Programme management

◻ Definition:
‘a group of projects that are managed in a co-ordinated way to gain
benefits that would not be possible were the projects to be managed
independently’ Ferns
❑Programmes may be ◻ Strategic
◻ Business cycle programmes
◻ Infrastructure programmes
◻ Research and development programmes
◻ Innovative partnerships

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Programme managers versus project managers

🞑 Personal relationship
with skilled resources 🞑
Programme manager 🞑 Optimization of
Many simultaneous
resource use
projects
 🞑 Projectstend to be 🞑 Impersonal

seen as similar relationship with

resources
🞑 Minimization of
demand for
resources 🞑 Projects
tend to be seen as
unique

28

28

Project manager
🞑 One project at a time
 Strategic programmes

◻ Based on OGC approach

◻ Initial planning document is the Programme Mandate describing 🞑

The new services/capabilities that the programme should deliver 🞑

How an organization will be improved
🞑 Fit with existing organizational goals

◻ A programme director appointed a champion for the scheme

Next stages/documents
◻ The programme brief – equivalent of a feasibility study: emphasis
on costs and benefits
◻ The vision statement – explains the new capability that the
organization will have
◻ The blueprint – explains the changes to be made to obtain the new
capability
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 Step Wise Project Planning

◻ Practicality
🞑tries to answer the question ‘what do I do now?’

◻ Scalability

🞑useful for small project as well as large

◻ Range of application

◻ Accepted techniques

🞑e.g. borrowed from PRINCE etc

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‘Step Wise’ - an
overview

3. Analyse
0.Select project
characteristics
1. Identify project
project objectives 2. Identify project infrastructure
10. Lower level
planning 6. Identify activity
planning 6. Identify activity
risks
risks
Review
9. Execute plan 7. Allocate
4. Identify products resources
and activities
8. Review/ publicize
5. Estimate effort plan
Lower
5. Estimate effort for
level
activity
detail
for activity
10. Lower level
 For each activity

31

A project scenario

◻ Hardware/software engineering company (C++ language

of choice)
◻ teams are selected for individual projects - some friction

has been found between team members

◻ HR manager suggests psychometric testing to select team

◻ Software package to be used to test staff

◻ Visual basic suggested as a vehicle for implementation ◻

usability is important - decision to carry out usability tests

32

Step 1 establish project scope and objectives

◻ 1.1 Identify objectives and measures of effectiveness

🞑 ‘how do we know if we have succeeded?’

◻ 1.2 Establish a project authority

🞑 ‘who is the boss?’

◻ 1.3 Identify all stakeholders in the project and their

interests
🞑 ‘who will be affected/involved in the project?’

◻ 1.4 Modify objectives in the light of stakeholder analysis

🞑 ‘dowe need to do things to win over stakeholders?’ ◻ 1.5
Establish methods of communication with all parties 🞑
‘how do we keep in contact?’

33

Back to the scenario

◻ Project authority
🞑 should be a project manager rather than HR manager?
◻ Stakeholders

🞑 project team members to complete on-line questionnaires:

concern about results?
◻ Revision to objectives

🞑 provide feedback to team members on results

Step 2 Establish project infrastructure

◻ 2.1 Establish link between project and any strategic plan
 🞑 ‘why did they want the project?’
◻ 2.2 Identify installation standards and procedures

🞑 ‘what standards do we have to follow?’

◻ 2.3. Identify project team organization

🞑 ‘where do I fit in?’

34
Step 3 Analysis of project characteristics

◻ 3.1 Distinguish the project as either objective or product-based.

🞑 Is there more than one way of achieving success?

◻ 3.2 Analyse other project characteristics (including quality based ones)

🞑 what is different about this project?

◻ Identify high level project risks

🞑 ‘what could go wrong?’

🞑 ‘what can we do to stop it?’

◻ Take into account user requirements concerning implementation

◻ Select general life cycle approach

 🞑 waterfall?Increments? Prototypes?
◻ Review overall resource estimates

🞑 ‘does all this increase the cost?’

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Back to the scenario

◻ Objectives vs. products

🞑 use paper questionnaire then input results of the analysis?

◻ Some risks

🞑 team members worried about implications and do no co

operate
🞑 project managers unwilling to try out application

🞑 Developer not familiar with features of VB

◻ Answer? - evolutionary prototype?

 36

Step 4 Identify project products and activities

4.1 Identify and describe project products - ‘what do we

have to produce?’
A product breakdown
structure (PBS)

Usability testing

Test results Testing

arrangements
Selected subjects Change requests
design
Completed
questionnaire
Booked PC Analysis report
Questionnaire 37
 Products

◻ The result of an activity

◻ Could be (among other things)

🞑 physical thing (‘installed pc’),

🞑 a document (‘logical data structure’)
🞑 a person (‘trained user’)
🞑 a new version of an old product (‘updated software’) ◻
The following are NOT normally products:
🞑 activities (e.g. ‘training’)
🞑 events (e.g. ‘interviews completed’)
🞑 resources and actors (e.g. ‘software developer’) - may be
exceptions to this
◻ Products CAN BE deliverable or intermediate 38

Product description (PD)

 ◻ Product identity
◻ Description - what is it?
◻ Derivation - what is it based on?
◻ Composition - what does it contain?
◻ Format
◻ Relevant standards
◻ Quality criteria

Create a PD for ‘test data’

39
39

Step 4 continued
 instances
◻ The PBS and PFD will probably
4.2 document Generic Product

flows Testing plan

Step 4.3 Recognize product

Selected subjects Booked generic products specific instances
Questionnaire machine e.g. ‘software e.g. ‘module A’,
design
modules’ ‘module B’ …
Test results ◻It might be ◻ But in many cases
Completed possible to identify this will have to
have identified
questionnaire
Analysis report
 planning

Change 40
requests 40
be left to later, more detailed,
4.4. Produce ideal activity network

◻Identify the activities needed to create each product in the PFD ◻

More than one activity might be needed to create a single product ◻
Hint: Identify activities by verb + noun but avoid ‘produce…’ (too
vague)
◻ Draw up activity network
Select
subjects
Design machine Draft change
questionnaire Conduct tests requests
Plan
Analyse
testing Book results
 41

Step 4.5 Add check-points if needed

Design
system

Design
system
Design
module A
Design
module B

Design
module C

Design
module A

Design
module B

Design
module C
Code
module A

Code
module B

Code
module C

Check-point
Code
module A

Code
module B

Code
module C
Test
system

put in a
check point
 Test
system 42

Step 5:Estimate effort for each activity

◻5.1 Carry out bottom-up estimates

🞑 distinguish carefully between effort and elapsed time ◻
5.2. Revise plan to create controllable activities 🞑 break up
very long activities into a series of smaller ones 🞑 bundle up
very short activities (create check lists?)

Step 6: Identify activity risks

◻ 6.1.Identify and quantify risks for activities
 🞑 damage if risk occurs (measure in time lost or money)
🞑 likelihood if risk occurring
◻ 6.2. Plan risk reduction and contingency measures

🞑 risk reduction: activity to stop risk occurring

🞑 contingency: action if risk does occur

43
◻ 6.3 Adjust overall plans and estimates to take account of risks 🞑
e.g. add new activities which reduce risks associated with other
activities e.g. training, pilot trials, information gathering

Step 7: Allocate resources

◻ 7.1 Identify and allocate resources to activities
◻ 7.2 Revise plans and estimates to take into account resource
constraints
🞑 e.g. staff not being available until a later date
🞑 non-project activities
 44
TA = testing assistant
Gantt charts Week
LT = lead tester
APRIL
commencing MARCH
9 16 5 12 19 26 LT

Plan testing
2
Select subjects
TA
Design
questionnaire Book LT

machine Conduct tests TA

Analyse results

Draft changes LT
 TA

LT

45

Step 8: Review/publicise plan

◻ 8.1 Review quality aspects of project plan

◻ 8.2 Document plan and obtain agreement

Step 9 and 10: Execute plan and create

lower level plans

46