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.
PART-A
1 What is a project?
The dictionary definitions put a clear emphasis on the project being a planned activity.
The other definitions include
  
A Specific plan or design
  
A planned undertaking
  
A large undertaking
2 Define software project management.(May 14)
Software project management is the 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.
3 What are the characteristics of a project? (Dec 12, 13)
  
Non-routine tasks are involved
  
Planning is required
  
Specific objectives are to be met
  
The project has a predetermined time span
  
Work is carried out for someone other than yourself
  
Work involves several specialism
  
People are formed into temporary work group
  
Work is carried out in several phases
  
Resources available are constrained
  
The project is large and complex.
4 What are the characteristics that make software projects different from other projects?
(Dec 14, May 12,15)
Invisibility - When a physical artifact is being constructed the progress being made can
actually be seen. With Software, progress is not immediately visible.
Complexity - software products contain more complexity than other engineered
artifacts.
Conformity - The ‗traditional‘ engineerwithphysicalis.Theseu physical systems can have
some complexity, but are governed by physical laws that are consistent. Software
developers have to conform to the requirements of human clients. It is not just that
individual can be inconsistent.
Flexibility - The ease with which software can be changed is usually seen as one of its
strengths.
5 What are the three successive processes that bring a new system?(Dec 11)

The feasibility study- Evaluate the cost of the software development against the Software
Engineering
  
Planning-Outline the structure of the project
 
Project Execution- Product Implementation activities.
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 6 What are the phases in software development life cycle?
  
Requirement analysis
  
Architecture design
  
Detailed design
  
Code and test
  
Integration
  
Qualification testing
  
Installation
  
Acceptance support
7 List the various ways to categorize software projects.
  
Compulsory versus voluntary projects
  
Information systems versus embedded systems
  
Outsourced projects
  
Object driven versus product driven development
8 Who are project stakeholders? (May 15)
These are people who have a stake or interest in the project. Stakeholders can
be categorized as:
  
Internal to the project team
  
External to the project team but within the same organization
  
External to both the project and the organization.
9 What is project steering committee? What are their roles?
Overall authority over the project is often termed as project steering committee or
project management board. The project manager runs the project on a day-to-day basis,
but regularly reports to the steering committee.
Roles:
 
 Setting, monitoring and modifying objectives.

The project managerruns the project on a day-to-day basis, but regularly reports to the
 steering committee.
10 What are the activities of management?
  
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 new solutions.
  
Representing –liaising with clients, users , developers , suppliers
11 Define 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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 12 What is Goals/sub-objectives?
A goal can be allocated to an individual. Individual may have the capability of
achieving goal, but not the objective on their own. A more appropriate goal or sub-
objective for the software developers would be to keep development costs within a
certain budget.
e.g. Objective –user satisfaction with software product , Analyst goal –accurate
requirements and Developer goal –software that is reliable
13 Define Management control. (Dec 18)
Management Control System is defined a keep operations going according to plan.

14 What is project evaluation?

Project evaluation is a step by step process of collecting, recording and
organizing information about
  
Project results
 
 short - term outputs (immediate results of activities or project deliverables)

Long –term
 outputs (changes in behavior, practice or policy resulting from the
 result.
15 Why is project evaluation important?
  
What progress has been made?
  
Were the desired outcomes achieved? Why?
  
Whether the project can be refined to achieve better outcomes?
  
Do the project results justify the project inputs?
16 What is Project portfolio Management?
Project Portfolio Management (PPM) is the centralized management of the processes,
methods, and technologies used by project managers and project management
offices(PMOs) to analyze and collectively manage current or proposed projects based
on numerous key characteristics.
17 What are the key aspects of Project portfolio Management?
  
Portfolio definition
  
Portfolio management
  
Portfolio optimization
18 What is objective of a project?
Informally, the objective of a project can be defined by completing the statement: The
project will be regarded as a - conditionssuccessforthe project, Focus on what will be
put in place, rather than how activities will be carried out.

e.g. ‗a new payroll application will be new payroll application‘

19 What are the steps in cost-benefit analysis?(Dec 12, 13,18)

Cost –benefit analysis consists of two steps

Identifying and estimating all of the costs and benefits of carrying out the
project and operating the delivered application. It includes development
 cost of
system, Operating cost of system, Benefits obtained by system.
 
Expressing these costs and benefits in common units.
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 20 What is net profit?
The net profit of a project is the differences between the total costs and the total income
over the life of the project. Advantage is easy to calculate and disadvantages are does
not show profit relative to size investment
21 What do you understand by payback period?(Dec 14)
The payback period is the time taken to break even or pay back the initial investment.
Normally, the project with the shortest payback period will be chosen on the basis that
an organization will wish to minimize t
  
Advantage: Simple to calculate, not sensitive to small forecasting errors.
  
Disadvantage: Ignores the overall profitability of the project.
22 What is Return on investment?(May 12)
 
 It provides a way of comparing the net profitability to the investment required.

A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of  an investment or to
compare the efficiency of a number of different investments
Disadvantages
 
 It takes no account of the timing of the cash flows.

Rate of
returns bears no relationship to the interest rates offered or changed by
bank.

ROI = average annual profit * 100 Total
investment

Average annual profit = net profit Total no.
of years
23 When Net present value is calculated for a project? (Dec 12)
The calculation of net present value is a project evaluation technique that takes into
account the profitability of a project and the timing of cash flows that are produced.
The NPV for a project is obtained by discounting each cash flow and summing the
discounted values.
24 What is the use of decision tree in Risk Evaluation? (May 13)
A decision tree is a diagramming analysis technique used to help select the best
course of action in situations in which future outcomes are uncertain
25 What is the concept of strategic programmes? (Dec 13)
Several projects together can implement a single strategy. For example the merging of
two organizations‘ computer systemsdealingcouwith particular application area. Each
activity could be treated as a distinct project, but would be coordinated as a programme.

26 What are the steps involved in step wise planning?

  
Identify project scope and objectives.
  
Identify project infrastructure. Analyze project characteristics.
  
Identify project products and activities.
  
Estimate effort for each activity.
  
Identify activity risks.
  
Allocate resources.
  
Review / publicize plan
 
Execute plan/ lower levels of planning.
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27 Draw the diagram of overview of stepwise project planning.

28 What is the need for software project management? (April/May 2018)

It is necessary for an organization to deliver quality product, keeping the cost
within client's budget constrain and deliver the project as per scheduled. Hence in order,
software project management is necessary to incorporate user requirements along with
budget and time constraints.
29 Define Software Quality Metrics. (April/May 2018)
Software Quality Metrics means measurement of attributes, pertaining to software
quality along with its process of development. The term "software quality metrics" illustrate
the picture of measuring the software qualities by recording the number of defects or
security loopholes present in the software.
30 Mention the need of cost benefit analysis (April/May 2019)
Cost-benefit analysis is a simple technique for comparing the business value a
project will produce with the cost of producing it ..... So project managers conduct the cost -
benefit analysis by gathering data on the value of the benefits and the cost of the project.
31 Identify the sequence of stages involved in typical project life cycle. (April/May 2019)
A standard project typically has the following four major phases:
 Initiation 
 Planning 
 Implementation 
 Closure. 
Taken together, these phases represent the path a project takes from the beginning to its
end and are generally referred to as the project life cycle
32 Explain two ways of setting objectives. (Apr 18)
• Answering the question ‗Whatsuccess?‘dowe have
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 • 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
PART-B
1 Explain the difference between software projects and other projects in detail. /How
does project management methodology differ for simple projects and complex
projects ?(Nov/Dec 2018)
1. Invisibility When a physical artifact such as a bridge or road is being constructed
the progress being made can actually be seen. With software, progress is not
immediately visible. One way of perceiving software project management is as the
process of making visible that which is invisible.
2. Complexity Per dollar, pound or euro spent, software products contain more
complexity than other engineered artifacts.
3. Conformity The ‗traditional‘uallyworkingengineerwithphysical issystemsu and
physical materials like cement and steel. These physical systems can have some
complexity, but are governed by physical laws that are consistent. Software
developers have to conform to the requirements of human clients. It is not just that
individuals can be inconsistent. Organizations, because of lapses in collective
memory, in internal communication or in effective decision making can exhibit
remarkable ‗organizational stupidity‘for.
4. Flexibility The ease with which software can be changed is usually seen as one of
its strengths. However, this means that where the software system interfaces with a
physical or organizational system, it is expected that, where necessary, the software
will change to accommodate the other components rather than vice versa. This
means the software systems are likely to be subject to a high degree of change.

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2 Describe about activities covered by the software project management with
example.(Or) Explain the various software development life cycle activities as
outlined by ISO 12207 with a neat diagram.( Dec 12,14,19 May 12, 13, 14, 15)
a. The feasibility study
This investigates whether a prospective project is worth starting –that it has a valid
business case. Information is gathered about the requirements of the proposed
application. Requirements elicitation can, at least initially, be complex and difficult. The
client and other stakeholders may be aware of the problems they wish to overcome and
the aims they wish to pursue, but not be sure about the means of achievement. The
probable developmental and operational costs, along with the value of the benefits of
the new system, will also have to be estimated. With a large system, the feasibility
study could be treated as a project in its own right –and have its own planning sub-
phase. The study could be part of a strategic planning exercise examining and
prioritizing a range of potential software developments. Sometimes an organization
has a policy where a group of projects is planned as a programme of development.

b. Planning
If the feasibility study produces results which indicate that the prospective project
appears viable, then planning of the project can take place. However, for a large
project, we would not do all our detailed planning right at the beginning. We would
formulate an outline plan for the whole project and a detailed one for the first stage.
More detailed planning of the later stages would be done as they approached. This is
because we would have more detailed and accurate information upon which to base
our plans nearer to the start of the later stages.
Project Planning
The biggest single problem that afflicts software developing is that of underestimating
resources required for a project. Developing a realistic project plan is essential to gain
an understanding of the resources required, and how these should be applied.
Types of plan:
√Software development plan.
The central plan, which describes how the system will be
developed. √Quality assurance plan.
Specifies the quality procedures & stand
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 √Validation plan.
Defines how a client thatwillhasbeenvalidatedeveloped. the s √Configuration
management plan.
Defines how the system will be configured
√Maintenance plan.
Defines how the system will be maintaine
√Staff development plan.
Describes how the skills of the participants will be
developed. c. Project execution
The project can now be executed. The execution of a project often contains design and
implementation sub-phases. Students new to project planning often find it difficult to
separate planning and design, and often the boundary between the two can be hazy.
Essentially, design is thinking and making decisions about the precise form of the
products that the project is to create. In the case of software, this could relate to the
external appearance of the software, that is, the user interface, or the internal
architecture. The plan lays down the activities that have to be carried out in order to
create these products. Planning and design can be confused because at the most
detailed level, planning decisions are influenced by design decisions. For example, if a
software product is to have five major components, then it is likely that there will be
five sets of activities that will create them.

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 Requirements analysis This starts with requirements elicitation which investigates
what the potential users and their managers and employers require as features and
qualities of the new system. These will relate to the system as a whole. A quality
requirement might be, for instance, that the user should be able to complete a
transaction within a certain time. In this case transaction time would be affected by the
speed of human operation, as well as hardware and software performance. These are
‗customer-facing‘ requirements.
●Architecture design This maps the requirements to the components of the system
that is to be built. At the system level, decisions will need to be made about which
processes in the new system will be carried out by the user and which can be
computerized. This design of the system architecture thus forms an input to the
development of the software requirements. A second architecture design process then
takes place which maps the software requirements to software components.
●Code and test This could refer to writing code in a procedural language such as C#
or Java, or could refer to the use of an application-builder such as Microsoft Access.
Initial testing to debug individual software components would be carried out at this
stage.
● Integration The individual components are collected together and tested to see if
they meet the overall requirements. Integration could be at the level of software where
different software components are combined, or at the level of the system as a whole
where the software and other components of the system such as the hardware
platforms and networks and the user procedures are brought together.
● Qualification testing The system, including the software components, has to be
tested carefully to ensure that all the requirements have been fulfilled.
● Installation This is the process of making the new system operational. It would
include activities like setting up standing data (such as payroll details for employees if
this were a payroll system). It would also include setting system parameters, installing
the software onto the hardware platforms and user training.
● Acceptance support This is the resolving of problems with the newly installed
system, including the correction of any errors that might have crept into the system
and any extensions and improvements that are required. It is possible to see
software maintenance as a series of minor software projects. In many environments,
most software development is in fact maintenance.
3 What are the activities involved by management? List the problems with
software projects./List out the critical risk in project planning(Dec 12,18)

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It has been suggested that management involves the following activities:
●Planning –deciding what is to be done;
●Organizing –making arrangements;
●Staffing –selecting the right people for the job etc;
●Directing –giving instructions;
●Monitoring –checking on progress;
●Controlling –taking action to remedy hold-ups;
●Innovating –coming up with new solutions
●Representing – liaising with clients, users, developer, suppliers and other
Stakeholders
1. Planning:
Planning refers to determination of future course of action to achieve desired goals. It
means deciding in advance what to do, how to do it, when to do it and who is to do it. It
is an ―executiveionthatembodiesthe actskillsof anticipating, influencing and controlling
the nature and direction of of a manager.

A planning process involves the following steps:

(1) Being aware of opportunities or developments marks the beginning of planning
process. This involves assessment of strengths and weaknesses of the environment
in and outside the business organization.
(2) Determination of goals for the organization and the individual
organizational units in the light of new opportunities developments.
(3) Establishment of critical planning premises regarding the internal and external
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environments in which the plans will operate. This involves identification of strengths
and weaknesses of the business enterprise in terms of products, markets, processes,
technologies, personnel, etc.
(4) Identification of the alternative courses of action to achieve the objectives.
(5) Evaluation of the alternative courses of action in the light of their impact
on achievement of the objectives.
(6) Selection of the best alternative course of action.
(7) Formulation of the derivative plans for supporting the plan.
It may be noted that each of the above steps in the planning process requires a lot of
information regarding the internal and external environment in which the plans have
to operate. The information regarding the external environment includes economic
trends, technological changes, availability and cost of various resources, etc.
The information regarding the internal environment includes sales forecasts, financial
resources and plans, state of availability of resources in the company, etc. A manager
also needs various tools for analysis of the information regarding the environment.
2. Organizing:
Organizing involves analysis of activities to be performed to meet the requirements of
plan, grouping them so that they could be assigned to people or groups of people in
organizational units and delegation of authority to use org perform the responsibilities
so assigned. Organizing relates to the people, tasks and technology. Since these factors
differ from organization to organization, there is no typical organizational design that
would be suitable for all organizations. The organization structure has to be designed
according to the specific requirements and conditions of the organization. As the
people, tasks and technology are subject to dynamics of environment, the organizations
are restructured in the light of changing business environment. Organization structures
and information systems are closely related to each other. If the organization structure is
the body of the business enterprise, information system is its nervous system.

The organization structure should be designed keeping in view the natural flow of
information in the business enterprise. The performance measurement schemes must
match the flow of information and the organization structure.
Ideally, any change in information systems should cause corresponding change in the
organization structure; otherwise the information systems would not be able to reflect
the plans of the business. For example, the advancements in data base technologies and
use of distributed information systems are having their own impact on the way
organization structures are designed today.
3. Staffing:
Staffing is the process of manning the organization structure. A manager should ensure
that the right type of people fill up the positions in the organization structure. Staffing
involves selection, appraisal and development of personnel in the organization. The
common mistake that a manager commits is to ignore the staffing activity, leaving it to
personnel department. The staffing activity is too important to be routines in the
personnel department. As theends, tomanager‘sgreatextent,on
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the performance of his sub-ordinates, any neglect of staffing function could adversely

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 affect the managerial effectiveness. With the increasing interdependence of various
functions, appraisal of staff is becoming more complex. There is a need to use more ad-
vanced techniques of performance appraisal. These techniques can be applied with the
help of IT infrastructure.
4. Directing:
Directing involves instructing, guiding and inspiring people in the organization to put
in their best to achieve the common goals of the organization. Thus, directing relates to
the process of motivating, leading and communicating with the people in the
organization in order to achieve the objectives of the company.
Dissemination of information plays a crucial role in directing the efforts of people in
the enterprise. In a business enterprise with operations spread over a wide
geographical area, the personnel have to be mobile and are likely to be located far
away from other members of the team and the immediate superior in the managerial
hierarchy. Directing the subordinates, thus, becomes difficult because the
communication may be quite expensive and may not reach the destination in time.
Today, the information systems are the vehicles of formal communication.
The facility of e-mail and use of the Intranet has transformed the way formal
communication takes place in business enterprises. Seamless flow of information across
various departments with the help of information systems can also help in reducing the
communication gaps that are many-a-time the main cause of employee dissatisfaction.
5. Controlling:
Controlling is a process that analyses whether the actions are being taken as per plans
and takes corrective action to make them to conform to plans. Thus, planning is the
basis of controlling. It focuses on activities that are being performed and the outcomes
of these activities in terms of their impact on the achievement of plan objectives.
Increasing size of the business enterprises has made all the more a difficult activity
Increased competition in the market requires greater delegation of work and
decentralization of decision making in order to ensure quicker response in the
operations of the business enterprise. Thus, controlling plays an important role in
ensuring efficiency and effectiveness of the enterprise. The information systems play an
important role in the control process. These systems not only help in measuring the
performance of operations but also help in identifying deviations of performance from
plans.
The comparison between planned and actual performance is then analysed with the
help of information systems to identify reasons for deviations. The environmental
information is used to identify such reasons. Information regarding what actions are
being taken or what is happening in the internal and external environments of business
is essential for exercising control. Earlier, most of such information used to come by
way of personal observation by the manager. Increasing size of the business enterprise
has made personal observation a very difficult form of control. There is greater reliance
on written reports. With the business becoming more knowledge intensive activity and
composition of personnel of the enterprise getting dominated by knowledge workers,
the measurement of performance is becoming more complex. Simple tabular reports
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KCA 013 - Software Project Management MCA DEPARTMENT
with regard to achievement of quantified goals are not adequate for controlling.

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KCA 013 - Software Project Management MCA DEPARTMENT

Controlling function uses information regarding the planned performance and actual
performance to arrive at deviations. Efficient information systems not only identify
these deviations but also help in analyzing the deviations to pinpoint reasons for
deviation. They also help in modifying the plans quickly in the light of the feedback.
The concept of flexible budgeting has become popular due to availability of better
information processing facilities. With the availability of real time information systems,
the information regarding performance flows quickly. This helps in exercising control
quickly, resulting in lower cost of planning mistakes.
Problem with software projects are:
  Poor estimates and plans. 
  Lack of quality standards and measures. 
  Lack of guidance about making organizational decisions. 
  Lack of techniques to make progress visible. 
 Incorrect success criteria. 
Problems occur from time to time and fixing them in a timely fashion is essential to
achieve correctness of a system and avoid delayed deliveries of products. The above list
looks at the project from the manager‘s make up the members of the project team?
Below is a list of the problems identified by a number of Computing and Information
Systems degree students who had just
Completedindustrialyear‘splacement.

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KCA 013 - Software Project Management MCA DEPARTMENT
4 Discuss about management control in detail.(or) Draw the project control life cycle.
(Apr 19)
Management, in general, can be seen as the process of setting objectives for a system and
then monitoring the system to see what its true performance i is shown as being rather
formless. Especially in the case of large undertakings, there will be a lot going on about
which management should be aware. This will involve the local managers in data
collection. Bare details, such as ‗locati 2000 documents‘, will not be
dataveryprocessingusefuwillbe

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KCA 013 - Software Project Management MCA DEPARTMENT
needed to transform this raw data into useful information. This might be in such forms
as ‗percentage of records processed‘, ‗av person‘ and ‗estimatedInour
example,completiontheprojectmanagementdate‘. might examine the estimated
completionsferforeach dat branch. These can be checked against the overall target date for
completion of this
phase of the project.
In effect they are comparing actual performance with one aspect of the overall
project objectives. They might find that one or two branches will fail to complete the
transfer of details in time. They would then need to consider what to do The project
manager would need to calculate carefully what the impact would be in moving staff
from particular branches. This is modeling the consequences of a potential solution.
Several different proposals could be modeled in this way before one was chosen for
implementation.

Fig 1.2 : Project Control Cycle

The Project Control Cycle
Management, in general, can be seen as the process of setting objectives for a
system and then monitoring the system to see what its true performance is. In Figure
The 'real world' is shown as being rather formless. Especially in the case of large
undertakings, there will be a lot going on about which management should be
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KCA 013 - Software Project Management MCA DEPARTMENT
aware.

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KCA 013 - Software Project Management MCA DEPARTMENT
As an example, take an IT project that is to replace locally held paper-based records
with a centrally-organized database. It might be that staff in a large number of offices
that are geographically dispersed need training and then need to use the new IT
system to set up the back-log of manual records on the new database. It might be that
the system cannot be properly operational until the last record has been transferred. It
might also be the case that the new system will be successful only if new transactions
can be processed within certain time cycles. The managers of the project ought to be
asking questions about such things as how effective training has been, how many
records have still to be transferred to the new database and transfer rates. This will
involve the local managers in data collection. Bare details, such as 'location X has
processed 2000 documents' will not be very useful to higher management: data
processing will be needed to transform this raw data into useful information. This
might be in such forms as 'percentage of records processed', 'average documents
processed per day per person' and 'estimated completion date'.
In the example above, the project leader might examine the 'estimated completion date'
for completing data transfer for each branch and compare this with the overall target
date for completion of this phase of the project. In effect they are comparing actual
performance with one aspect of the overall project objectives. They might find that one
or two branches are not going to complete the transfer of details in time, and would
then need to consider what to do (this is represented in Figure 1.2 by the box making
decisions/plans). One possibility would be to move staff temporarily from one branch
to another. If this is done, there is always the danger that while the completion date for
the one branch is pulled back to before the overall target date, the date for the branch
from which staffs are being moved is pushed forward beyond that date. The project
manager would need to calculate carefully what the impact would be in moving staff
from particular branches. This is modeling the consequences of a potential solution.
Several different proposals could be modeled in this way before one was chosen for
implementation. Having implemented the decision, the situation needs to be kept
under review by collecting and processing further progress details. For instance, the
next time that progress is reported, a branch to which staff has been transferred might
still be behind in transferring details. This might be because the reason why the branch
has got behind in transferring details is because the manual records are incomplete and
another department, for whom the project has a low priority, has to be involved in
providing the missing information. In this case, transferring extra staff to do data input
will not have accelerated data transfer.

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5 Explain in detail about setting objectives. (Apr 18)
• Answering the question ‗Whatsuccess?‘dowe h
• 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

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Objectives
Informally, the objective of a project can be defined by completing the statement:
The project will be regarded as a success ―if................................................ ‖
Rather like post-conditions for the project
Focus on what will be put in place, rather than how activities will be carried out
Objectives should be SMART
An objective is a statement which describes what an individual, team or organisation is
hoping to achieve. Objectives are 'SMART' if they are specific, measurable, achievable,
realistic and, timely (or time-bound).
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
1. Specific
There are a number of different ways in which SMART objectives can be set, one
method is to start by identifying what you want the individual to do or achieve that
reflects both the departmental or team objectives.
For example: You may be a Senior Lecturer and your department is looking at ways to
improve the student experience as one of its objectives or priorities (this may be linked
to results from the student satisfaction survey or feedback from other sources). You are
responsible for reviewing two lecturers and it would therefore be appropriate to look at
their role in this departmental priority. What does the Department need them to
achieve? Is it an increase in student satisfaction in a certain area (e.g. learning
resources)? Is it reducing the numberthesecondo year of studies? Etc.

You may be a manager in a Professional Services department and your department is

also looking at ways to improve the student experience as one of its objectives or
priorities. What does the department need the staff you manage to achieve? Is it the
introduction of new processes/procedures in order to improve the service given to
either students directly or academic departments? Is it maintaining a certain (high)
level of service to students/staff over a period of time?
When setting SMART objectives wherever you are within the organization and
whatever your role, as a reviewer you will need to have as much clarity as possible
about what you want or need your reviewer to achieve.
2.Measurable
Having identified what needs to be achieved and having written this as a statement (in
the box above) you then apply the SMART criteria to it.
For example: Specific: For the lecturer: Increase student satisfaction levels in the
learning resources provided by the department. What kind of increase are you looking
for –a small % increase or a large one? What learning resources are you referring to?

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For the administrator: Reduce the amount of time it takes to respond to academic

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departmental requests for information. What reduction are you aiming for? What do
you mean by respond to? Do you really mean all academic departmental requests for
information or a particular area? Measurable
For both examples –what measures are you going to use? Clarification is needed for
both. How will you know when the objective has been achieved? So for the lecturer the
objective may now look something like the example below: Increase student
satisfaction levels in the 201X student satisfaction survey by 25% in the learning
resources provided for x course. For the administrator the objective may have changed
slightly to look as follows: Ensure all academic departmental requests for information
on x are dealt with within 3 working days by October 201X.
3. Achievable

This is where you need to consider the context, abilities etc of the individual that you
are expecting to do this work. Is it something that they would be able to do? It may be
that the individual would need support in the form of resources, training/
development etc in order to achieve the objective set (you would note these down in
sections C & D of the SRDS form). It might be that the time frame that you place on the
objective (which is currently missing from one of the examples) makes it less
achievable so check this as well.
4. Relevant

Double check that the statement you are now crafting reflects both what is needed by
the department and fits in with the expectations of the individual as described in their
job summary/ job description.
5. Time Constrained

A deadline, date or time when the objective will be accomplished or completed is

necessary and must be included so as to make the objective measurable. A deadline
helps to create the necessary urgency, prompts action and focuses the minds of those
who are accountable for the commitments that they have made through the objectives.
Not setting a deadline reduces the motivation and the urgency of those required to
perform the tasks. Ask yourself if the objective can be accomplished within the
deadlines which have been established, bearing in mind other possible competing
demands which may cause delay.
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
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
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

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6 Explain in detail about Project Portfolio Management.

Strategic and operational assessment carried by an organization on behalf of customer is
 
called portfolio management [third party developers]
 
They make use of assessment of any proposed project themselves.
  
They ensure for consistency with the proposed strategic plan.
  
They proposed project will form part of a portfolio of ongoing and planned projects

Selection of projects must take account of possible effects on other projects in the

portfolio(example: competition of resource) and the overall portfolio profile
( example: specialization versus diversification).
When there are many projects run by an organization, it is vital for the organization to
manage their project portfolio. This helps the organization to categorize the projects
and align the projects with their organizational goals.
Project Portfolio Management (PPM) is a management process with the help of
methods aimed at helping the organization to acquire information and sort out
projects according to a set of criteria.
Objectives of Project Portfolio Management
Same as with financial portfolio management, the project portfolio management also
has its own set of objectives. These objectives are designed to bring about expected
results through coherent team players.
When it comes to the objectives, the following factors need to be outlined.

The need to create a descriptive document, which contains vital information such as
 
name of project, estimated timeframe, cost and business objectives.

The project needs to be evaluated on a regular basis to ensure that the project is
 
meeting its target and stays in its course.

Selection of the team players, who will work towards achieving the project's

objectives.
Benefits of Project Portfolio Management
Project portfolio management ensures that projects have a set of objectives, which
when followed brings about the expected results. Furthermore, PPM can be used to
bring out changes to the organization which will create a flexible structure within the
organization in terms of project execution. In this manner, the change will not be a
threat for the organization.
The following benefits can be gained through efficient project portfolio management:
 
Greater adaptability towards change.
  
Constant review and close monitoring brings about a higher return.

Management's perspectives with regards to project portfolio management are seen as an

'initiative towards
 higher return'. Therefore, this will not be considered to be a detrimental
factor to work.

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
Identification of dependencies is easier to identify. This will eliminate some inefficiency
 
from occurring.
  
Advantage over other competitors (competitive advantage).

Helps to concentrate on the strategies, which will help to achieve the targets rather than focusing
 
on the project itself.

The responsibilities of IT are focused on part of the business rather than scattering across
 
several.

The mix of both IT and business projects are seen as contributors to achieving the organizational

objectives.
Project Portfolio Management Tools
There are many tools that can be used for project portfolio management. Following are
the essential features of those tools:
 
A systematic method of evaluation of projects.
  
Resources need to be planned.
  
Costs and the benefits need to be kept on track.
 
Undertaking cost benefit analysis.
 
Progress reports from time to time.
 
Access to information as and when its required.
 
Communication mechanism, which will take through the information necessary.
Techniques Used to Measure PPM
There are various techniques, which are used to measure or support PPM process
from time to time. However, there are three types of techniques, which are widely
used
 
Heuristic model.
 
Scoring technique.
 
Visual or Mapping techniques.
The use of such techniques should be done in consideration of the project and
organizational objectives, resource skills and the infrastructure for project
management.
Why Project Managers to Focus on PPM?
PPM is crucial for a project to be successful as well as to identify any back lags if it
were to occur. Project Managers often face a difficult situation arising from lack of
planning and sometimes this may lead to a project withdrawal. It's the primary
responsibility of project managers to ensure that there are enough available resources
for the projects that an organization undertakes. Proper resources will ensure that the
project is completed within the set timeline and delivered without a compromise on
quality.
Project managers also may wish to work on projects, which are given its utmost
priority and value to an organization. This will enable project managers to deliver and
receive support for quality projects that they have undertaken. PPM ensures that these
objectives of the project management will be met.
The Five Question Model
The five question model of project portfolio management illustrates that the project

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manager is required to answer five essential questions before the inception as well as

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during the project execution. The answers to these questions will determine the success
of the implementation of the project. Therefore, all the project managers of the
organization need to have an awareness of the organizational project portfolio
management in order to contribute to the organizational goals when executing
respective projects.

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7 Explain in detail about cost-benefit evaluation techniques and its methods
with examples. (May 12, 13,14,15,19,Dec 14)
Various cost-benefits Evaluation Techniques are
√ Net profit
√ Payback period
√ Return on investment
√ Net present value
√ Internal rate of return
1. Net profit
  
Difference between total cost and total income

 Pros: 
Easy to calculate
Cons
  
Does not show profit relative to size investment (e.g., consider Project 2)
  
Does not consider timing of payments (e.g., Projects 1 and 3)
 
Not very useful other than for "back of envelope" evaluations

2. Payback period

The payback period is the time taken to recover the initial investment or is the
length of time required for cumulative incoming returns to equal the cumulative
costs of an investment
Advantages Four project cash flow projections
 Year Project1 Project2
Simple and easy to calculate.
Project3 Project4

It is also0 a seriously-100,000flawed method-1,000,000ofevaluating-100,000investments -120,000
Disadvantages1 10,000 200,000 30,000 30,000

It attaches2 no value10,000to cash flows200,000after the end of 30,000thepayback period30,000.

It makes no adjustments for risk.
3 10,000 200,000 30,000 30,000
4 20,000 200,000 30,000 30,000
5 100,000 300,000 50,000 75,000
Net 50,000 100,000 50,000 75,000
profit

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  
It is not directly related to wealth maximization as NPV is.
  
It ignores the time value of money.
 
The "cut off" period is arbitrary.
Project 1 = 10,000+10,000+10,000+20,000+1,00,000=1,50,000
Project 2 = 2,00,000+2,00,000+2,00,000+2,00,000+3,00,000=11,000,00
Project 3 = 30,000+30,000+30,000+30,000 + 75,000 =1,95,000
3. Return on investment
  
It provides a way of comparing the net profitability to the investment required

A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency
 of an investment or to compare
the efficiency of a number of different investments
Disadvantages
  
It takes no account of the timing of the cash flows.
 
Rate of returns bears no relationship to the interest rates offered or changed by
bank.
ROI = average annual profit * 100
total investment
average annual profit = net profit total
no. of years
Calculate ROI for project 1.
Ans: Total investment =1,00,000
Net profit = 50,000
Total no. of year = 5
Average annual profit=50,000/5=10,000rs
ROI= (10,000/1,00,000) *100 = 10%
4. Net present value

A project evaluation technique that takes into account
 the profitability of a project
 and the timing of the cash flows that are produced.

 Sum of all incoming and outgoing
 payments, discounted using an interest rate, to a fixed
point in time (the present)
 
Present value = (value in year t)/(1+r)^t
Pros:
  
Takes into account profitability
 
Considers timing of payments Considers economic situation through discount
rate
Cons: Discount rate can be difficult choose
5. Internal rate of return (IRR)

 Internal rate of return (IRR) is the discount rate that would producean NPV of 0 for the
project. It can be used to compare different investment opportunities
 
Pros: Calculates figure which is easily to interest rates
Cons: Difficult to calculate (iterative)

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8 Explain risk evaluation.( Dec 11,12,14, May 12,14,15,18)
Risk evaluation is meant to decide whether to proceed with the project or not,
and whether the project is meeting its objectives.
Risk Occurs:
  
When the project exceed its original specification
 
Deviations from achieving it objectives and so on.
Every project involves risk. The project risks which prevent the project being
completed successfully and the business risk that the delivered products are
nor profitable.

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Risk evaluation consists of

Risk identification and ranking
  
Risk and NPV
  
Cost benefit analysis
  
Risk profile analysis

Risk identification and ranking
  
Identify the risk and give priority.
 
 Could draw up draw a project risk matrix for each project to assess risks

Project risk matrix used to identify and rank the risk of the project
Example of a project risk matrix

Risk and net present value


Where a project is relatively risky it is common practice to use a higher discount
 rate to calculate the NPV. The risk
 premium be an additional 2 % for an safe project
or 5 % for a fairly risky project
 
Projects may be categorized as high, medium or low risk using a scoring method
and risk premiums designated for each category.
Cost-benefit analysis

A rather more sophisticated approach to the evaluation of risk is to consider each
possible outcome,
 probability of its occurring and the corresponding value of the
 outcome.

Rather than a single cash flow forecast for a project, we will
then have a set of cash flow
 forecasts, each with an associated probability of occurring.

The value of the project is then obtained by summing of the cost or benefit for each
possible outcome weighted by its corresponding probability.
 
Drawback: Does not take full account of worst-case scenarios.(averaging out the
negative and positive outcomes of the scenarios)
Risk profile analysis

 An approach which attempts to overcome some of the objections to  cost benefit
averaging is the construction of risk profiles using sensitivity analysis.
 
This makes use of ―riskanalysisprofiles‖. us

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
It compares the sensitivity of each factor of project profiles by varying

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Parameters which affect the project cost benefits.

Eg:Vary the original estimates
 of risk plus or minus 5% and re-calculate the
expected cost benefits.
  
P1 depart far from p2,have large variation
  
P3 have much profitable than expected
  
All three projects have the same expected profit
 
Compare to p2, p1 is less risky.

9 Explain decision trees with examples.(May 15)

Decision tree
Decision tree provide tools for evaluating expected outcomes and choosing
between alternate strategies. A decision tree is a decision support tool that uses a tree-
like graph or model of decisions and their possible consequences, including chance
event outcomes, resource costs, and utility. It is one way to display an algorithm.

Decision trees method for risk evaluation:-

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1. Amanda is responsible for extending the invoicing system.
2. An alternative would be to replace the whole of the system.
3. The decision is influenced by the likelihood of org expanding their market.
4. There is a strong rumor that they could benefit from their main competitor going
out of business: in this case they could pick up a huge amount of new business, but
the invoicing system could not cope.
5. However replacing the system immediately would mean other important projects
would have to be delayed.
6. The NPV of extending the invoicing system is assessed as £75,000 if there is no
sudden expansion.
7. If there were a sudden expansion then there would be a loss of £100,000.
8. If the whole system were replaced and there was a large expansion there would be
a NPV of £250,000 due to the benefits of being able to handle increased sales.
9. If sales did not increase then the NPV would be -£50,000.
10. The decision tree shows these possible outcomes and also shows the estimated
probability of each outcome.
11. The value of each outcome is the NPV multiplied by the probability of its occurring.
12. The value of a path that springs from a particular decision is the sum of the values
of the possible outcomes from that decision. If it is decided to extend the system the
sum of the values of the outcomes is £40,000 (75,000 x 0.8 –100,000 x 0.2) while for
replacement it would be £10,000 (250,000 x 0.2 –50,000 x 0.80).
13. Extending the system therefore seems to be best option.

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10 Explain in detail about strategic program management/ List out the types of critical
risks in project planning (Nov/Dec 2018)
Strategic Programmes
Strategic planning is an organization's process of defining its strategy, or
direction, and making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue this strategy. In
order to determine the direction of the organization, it is necessary to understand its
current position and the possible avenues through which it can pursue a particular
course of action. Strategic programming makes sense when the world is expected to
hold still or change predictably while the intended strategies unfold, so that
formulation can logically precede implementation.
Strategic Project Management
Strategic Project Management (SPM) (also called Enterprise Project Management by
some) has been defined by Callahan & B project management knowledge, skills, tools
and techniques in the context of the companies goals and objectives so that the project
deliverables will contribute to company value in a way that can be meas nothing more
than picking the right projects for the organization to ensure optimal returns. This
sounds very simple and straightforward, but research shows that there are many
organizations that have overlooked the important fact of aligning projects with
corporate strategy. Strategy is a pattern in a stream of explicit and implicit strategic
projects designed to create a specific competitive positioning.

The Process of Strategic Project Management

Now that we know that the goal of strategic project management is to take a project
from start to finish in ways that are competitive and efficient, let's look at the process.
The following are strategies a project manager, such as Kara, can use to push an

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ordinary project to an extraordinary project.
1. Know the direction of the project Before starting the project, Kara fully outlines the
project objectives and identifies how the project will help the company's efficiency and
competitiveness as a whole. She determines who has the most at stake in this project,
plans a completion timeline, and develops a reliable budget.
Once Kara has completed these steps, she lets management know what the project will
accomplish, in this case, creation of a new Christmas doughnut. She makes sure
everyone understands why the project is important to the company, namely, to boost
holiday sales and test new efficiency techniques. Then she lays out the expected
timeline and budget to complete the project successfully.
2. Explain responsibilities For her next step, Kara creates an ideal project team by
gathering employees with qualities that are essential for the project. In this case, such
qualities include visual creativity and efficiency, so that the product stays on track, is
completed in time for the holidays, and gives the company an edge over its
competitors. She consults with her boss to better understand the qualities certain
employees offer and how those qualities align with the overall goal of the project. She
then meets with the selected employees to explain the project and responsibilities and
to make assignments based on interests and strengths.

Creating a project team specifically based on strengths and interests is an approach

Kara hopes will make this project a superstar and be a work assignment technique the
company can use after the holiday season.

3. Project planning During this stage, Kara outlines the steps and tasks of the project.
This means she aligns each step with the timeline so that everyone on the team is
aware of when each step needs to be completed. As she outlines the steps and tasks,
Kara also focuses on what each employee does best so that an outstanding project is
completed and the company's efficiency, quality, and competitiveness improve.

This is also the time when Kara decides how much money will be spent on each task or
responsibility. The less money spent, the more profit there is, thus helping the
company stay competitive with other businesses in the industry. So when Kara assigns
the tasks to her team, she lets each person know when she expects the tasks to be
completed.

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The Relevance of Strategic Thinking to Project Management
Strategic thinking is typically associated with 'very big picture' thinking, or 'helicopter
thinking' It is relevant to project management at a number of levels.
1. Business projects often materialize as a result of formal or informal strategy
development. Besides projects which are of a corporate development and
external nature, there are frequently internal projects which are aimed at
reaping major organizational change.
2. Individual business projects which have materialized on a 'bottom-up' basis.
Each project of that kind then needs to be linked back up to the business
strategy. This should be accomplished by teasing out the strategic objectives of
each and every major project.
3. Within the project itself: each and every project has both an internal
environment and also some strategy for achieving its own, inherent advantage.

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11 Explain the step-wise project planning in detail with suitable Flowchart.
(Dec 11,12,14,19 May 12,13,14,15,
19)

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Step 1: Identify project scope and objectives.

Project objectives, Project authorities, and Modified project objectives.
Step 2: Identify project Infra structure.
Role of existing strategic plans, identifying standards, project
organization. Step 3: Analyze project characteristics, High-level risks.
Step 4: Identify project products and activities, Product break down structure, IOE has
standard PFD, Identifying product instances, Activity network for IOE Maintenance
Accounts.
Step 5: Estimate effort for each activity, IOE Maintenance Group Accounts- breaking
activities down into manageable tasks.
Step 6: Identify activity risks.
Identifying risks for Amanda
Step 7: Allocate Resources.
Taking resource constraints into
account, Step 8: Review/Publicize plan
IOE existing quality standards
Step 9 &10: Execute plan and lower levels of planning, lower level planning for
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individual modules.

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UNIT II PROJECT LIFE CYCLE AND EFFORT ESTIMATION
Software process and Process Models –Choice of Process models - mental delivery –Rapid
Application development –Agile methods –Extreme Programming –SCRUM –Managing
interactive processes –Basics of Software estimation –Effort and Cost estimation techniques
–COSMIC Full function points - COCOMO II A Parametric Productivity Model - Staffing
Pattern.
PART-A
1 What is a software process model?
A Process Model describes the sequence of phases for the entire lifetime of a product.
Therefore it is sometimes also called Product Life Cycle. This covers everything from
the initial commercial idea until the final de-installation or disassembling of the
product after its use.
2 What were the phases in software process model?
There are three main phases:
  
Concept phase
  
Implementation phase
 
Maintenance phase
Each of these main phases usually has some sub-phases, like a requirement engineering
phase, a design phase, a build phase and a testing phase. The sub-phases may occur in
more than one main phase each of them with a specific peculiarity depending on the
main phase.
3 List various software process models.
Waterfall model, Spiral model, V-model, Iterative model, Agile model and RAD model.
4 Define RAD/Expand RAD. Is it incremental model? Justify. (Nov/Dec 18,19)
RAD model is Rapid Application Development model. It is a type of incremental
model. In RAD model the components or functions are developed in parallel as if they
were mini projects. The developments are time boxed, delivered and then assembled
into a working prototype.
5 Write down the major aims of the RAD model.
 
 To decrease the time taken and the cost incurred to develop software systems.

To limit the cost of accommodating change requests by incorporating them as early
 as
 possible before large investments have been made on development and testing.
6 What are the phases in the rapid application development (RAD) model?
  
Business modeling
  
Data modeling
  
Process modeling
  
Application generation
 
Testing and turnover

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7 What are the advantages of the RAD model? (Apr 19)
  
Reduced development time.
  
Increases reusability of components
  
Quick initial reviews occur
  
Encourages customer feedback
 
Integration from very beginning solves a lot of integration issues.

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8 Define Agile Methods.

Agile model is a combination of iterative and incremental process models
with focus on process adaptability and customer satisfaction by rapid
 delivery of working software product.

Agile Methods break the product into small incremental builds. These builds
are provided in iterations. Every iteration involves cross functional teams
working simultaneously on various areas like planning, requirements analysis,
 design, coding, unit testing, and acceptance testing.
9 List out the various agile approaches.
  
Crystal Technologies
  
Atern(formerly DSDM)
  
Feature-driven Development
  
Scrum
  
Extreme Programming(XP)
10 What is extreme programming?
Extreme programming (XP) is a software development methodology, which is
intended to improve software quality and responsiveness to changing customer
requirements. As a type of agile software development, it advocates frequent "releases"
in short development cycles, to improve productivity and introduce checkpoints at
which new customer requirements can be adopted.
11 List the fundamental principles of extreme programming?
The fundamental principles of Extreme Programming are Rapid feedback,
Assume simplicity, Incremental change, Embracing change and Quality work.
12 What are the values of extreme programming?
Extreme Programming (XP) is based on the five values
  
Communication
  
Simplicity
  
Feedback
  
Courage
 
Respect
13 What are the limitations of extreme programming?

 This becomes difficult
 where developers and users belong to different
organizations.
  
Development staff needs to be physically located in the same office.
 
 Communication problems if the application does not have a visual interface.

Large, complex systems may  initially need significant architectural effort. This
might preclude the use of XP.

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14 What is SCRUM? (Apr 18, Dec 18,19)

Scrum is an efficient framework within which
 you can develop software with
 teamwork. It is based on agile principles.

Scrum supports continuous
 collaboration among the customer, team members, and
relevant stakeholders.

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15 Define software estimation.
Estimation techniques are of utmost importance in software development life cycle,
where the time required to complete a particular task is estimated before a project
begins. Estimation is the process of finding an estimate, or approximation, which is a
value that can be used for some purpose even if input data may be incomplete,
uncertain, or unstable.
16 List out steps in software estimation.(Apr 19)
The four basic steps in Software Project Estimation are
  
Estimate the size of the development product.
  
Estimate the effort in person-months or person-hours.
  
Estimate the schedule in calendar months.
 
Estimate the project cost in agreed currency.
17 What are software effort estimation techniques?
  
Algorithm models
  
Expert judgment
  
Analogy
  
Parkinson
  
Price to win
  
Top-down
  
Bottom-up
18 Distinguish between Bottom-up and Top-Down estimate.
Bottom-up Top-down
Use when no past project data Based on past project data
Identify all tasks that have to be done –so Divide overall estimate between jobs to be
quite time-consuming done
19 Define COSMIC Full function points.
 
 COSMIC FFP –Common Software Measurement Consortium Full Function Point.

COSMIC deals  with decomposing the system architecture into a hierarchy of
software layers.
  
Unit is Cfsu(COSMIC functional size units).
20 Write about COCOMO model.
  
Constructive Cost Model.
  
It refers to a group of models.
 
The basic model was built around the equation:
Effort=c*size k,

Where effort is measured in pm,or the number of ‗person-months‘.
21 Define organic mode.
Organic mode is the case when relatively small teams developed software in a
highly familiar in-house environment and when the system being developed was
small and the interface requirements were flexible.

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22 Define application composition.
In application composition the external features of the system that the users will
experience are designed. Prototyping will typically be employed to do this. With small
application that can be built using high-productivity application building tools,
development can stop at this point.

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23 List the steps of estimate effort.
Step 1: Use Wideband Delphi Technique to construct WBS. We suggest that the
tasks should not be more than 8 hrs. If a task is of larger duration, split it.
Step 2: Use Wideband Delphi Technique or Three-point Estimation to arrive at
the Effort Estimates for the Tasks.
24 Give an idea about parametric model?
  
Models that focus on task or system size. Eg.Function Points.
 
FPs originally used to estimate Lines of Code, rather than effort

  Models that focus on productivity: e.g. COCOMO 

 
In this Lines of code (or FPs etc) is an input

25 What is the use of COCOMO model and its types?

COCOMO predicts the effort and schedule for a software product development based
on inputs relating to the size of the software and a number of cost drivers that affect
productivity.
COCOMO has three different models that reflect the complexity:
  
The Basic Model
  
The Intermediate Model
  
The Detailed Model
26 Write any two advantages of function point analysis.(Dec 11)
  
Improved project estimating
  
Understanding project and maintenance productivity
  
Managing changing project requirements
 
Gathering user requirements.
PART-B
1 Discuss in detail about software process and process models. (Apr 19)
A software process is a set of activities that leads to the production of a software
product. These activities may involve the development of software from scratch in a
standard programming language like Java or C. Increasingly, however, new software is
developed by extending and modifying existing systems and by configuring and
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integrating off-the-shelf software or system components.
Software processes are complex and, like all intellectual and creative processes,
rely on people making decisions and judgments. Because of the need for judgement and
creativity, attempts to automate software processes have met with limited success.
Computer-aided software engineering (CASE) tools can support some process
activities. However, there is no possibility, at least in the next few years, of more
extensive automation where software takes over creative design from the engineers
involved in the software process.
Although there are many software processes, some fundamental activities are
common to all software processes:
1. Software specification the functionality of the software and constraints on its
operation must be defined.
2. Software design and implementation the software to meet the specification must be
produced.
3. Software validation the software must be validated to ensure that it does what
the customer wants.
4. Software evolution the software must evolve to meet changing customer needs.
Software process models
The waterfall model
  
Plan-driven model. Separate and distinct phases of specification and development.
 
 Incremental development

Specification,
 development and validation are interleaved. May be plan-driven or
agile.
 
 Reuse-oriented software engineering

The system is assembled from existing components. May be plan-driven or
agile. In practice, most large systems are developed
 using a process that
 incorporates elements from all of these models.

The waterfall model

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Fundamental development activities:
1. Requirements analysis and definition The system's services, constraints and goals
are, established by consultation with system users. They are then defined in detail and
serve as a system specification.
2. System and software design the systems design process partitions the requirements
to either hardware or software systems. It establishes overall system architecture.
Software design involves identifying and describing the fundamental software system
abstractions and their relationships.
3. Implementation and unit testing during this stage, the software design is realized as
a set of programs or program units. Unit testing involves verifying that each unit meets
its specification.
4. Integration and system testing the individual program units or programs are
integrated and tested as a complete system to ensure that the software requirements
have been met. After testing, the software system is delivered to the customer.
5. Operation and maintenance normally (although not necessarily) this is the longest
life-cycle phase. The system is installed and put into practical use. Maintenance:
involves correcting errors which were not discovered in earlier stages of the life cycle,
improving the implementation of system new requirements are discovered.

In principle, the result of each phase is one or more documents that are approved
('signed off). The following phase: should not start until the previous phase has
finished. In practice, these stages overlap and fled information to each other. During
design, problems with requirements are identified; during coding design problems are
found and so on. The software process is not a simple linear model but involves a
sequence of iterations of the development activities.
Incremental development benefits
The cost of accommodating changing customer requirements is reduced.

The amount of analysis and documentation
 that has to be redone is much less than is
required with the waterfall model.
 
 It is easier to get customer feedback on the development work that has been done.

 Customers can comment
 on demonstrations of the software and see how much has
been implemented.
 
 More rapid delivery and deployment of useful software to the customer is possible.

Customers are able to use and gain value from the software earlier than is possible with a
waterfall process.
The process is not visible.

Managers need regular deliverables to measure progress. If systems are developed
 quickly, it isnot cost-effective to produce documents that reflect every version of
the system.
 
 System structure tends to degrade as new increments are added.

Unless time and money is spent on refactoring to improve the software, regular
change tends to corrupt it structure.  Incorporating further software changes
becomes increasingly difficult and costly.
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2 Explain in detail about Rapid Application development.
Rapid Application Development model relies on prototyping and rapid cycles of
iterative development to speed up development and elicit early feedback from business
users. After each iteration, developers can refine and validate the features with
stakeholders. RAD model is also characterized by reiterative user testing and the re-use
of software components. Hence, RAD has been instrumental in reducing the friction
points in delivering successful enterprise applications.
Wave Maker makes use of the RAD model to provide a Rapid Application
Development platform to create web and mobile applications. The following diagram
depicts Wave Maker RAD platform architecture, based on the MVC (Model-View-
Controller) pattern. Open standards, easy customization and rapid prototyping are
central to the platform.

Phases in RAD Model:

  
Business Modeling
  
Data Modeling
  
Process Modeling
  
Application Modeling
 
Testing and Turnover

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Business Modeling: In this phase of development business model should be designed

based on the information available from different business activities. Before start the
development there should be a complete picture of business process functionality.
Data Modeling: Once the business modeling phase over and all the business analysis
completed, all the required and necessary data based on business analysis are identified
in data modeling phase.
Process Modeling: All the data identified in data modeling phase are planned to
process or implement the identified data to achieve the business functionality flow. In
this phase all the data modification process is defined.
Application Modeling: In this phase application id developed and coding completed.
With help of automation tools all data implemented and processed to work as real time.
Testing and turnover: All the testing activates are performed to test the developed
application.
Advantages of RAD Model:
  
Fast application development and delivery.
 
Lest testing activity required.
  
Visualization of progress.
  
Less resource required.

Review by the client from the very beginning of development so very less chance to
 
miss the requirements.
  
Very flexible if any changes required.
  
Cost effective.
 
Good for small projects.
Disadvantages of RAD Model:
 
High skilled resources required.
 
On each development phaserequired. client‘s fee
  
Automated code generation is very costly.
  
Difficult to manage.
 
Not a good process for long term and big projects.
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 
Proper modularization of project required.

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3 Explain about Agile methods.(Nov/Dec 18)
Agile software development methodology is a process for developing software
(like other software development methodologies –Waterfall model, V-Model, Iterative
model etc.) However, Agile methodology differs significantly from other
methodologies. In English, Agile means ‗ability to
responding swiftly to change –this is a key aspect of Agile software development as
well.
Brief overview of Agile Methodology
 In traditional software development methodologies like Waterfall model, a
project can take several months or years to complete and the customer may not
get to see the end product until the completion of the project. 

 At a high level, non-Agile projects allocate extensive periods of time for
Requirements gathering, design, development, testing and UAT, before finally
deploying the project. 

 In contrast to this, Agile projects have Sprints or iterations which are shorter in
duration (Sprints/iterations can vary from 2 weeks to 2 months) during which
pre-determined features are developed and delivered. 

 Agile projects can have one or more iterations and deliver the complete product
at the end of the final iteration. 
Example of Agile software development
Example: Google is working on project to come up with a competing product for MS
Word, that provides all the features provided by MS Word and any other features
requested by the marketing team. The final product needs to be ready in 10 months of
time. Let us see how this project is executed in traditional and Agile methodologies.
In traditional Waterfall model –
 At a high level, the project teams would spend 15% of their time on

gathering requirements and analysis (1.5 months) 

 20% of their time on design (2 months) 

 40% on coding (4 months) and unit testing 
 20% on System and Integration testing (2 months). 

 At the end of this cycle, the project may also have 2 weeks of User
 Acceptance testing by marketing teams. 
 In this approach, the customer does not get to see the end product until the end 
of the project, when it becomes too late to make significant
changes. project schedule in traditional software development.
With Agile development methodology –
 In the Agile methodology, each project is broken up into several ‗Iterati 

 All Iterations should be of the same time duration (between 2 to 8 weeks). 

 At the end of each iteration, a working product should be delivered. 

 In simple terms, in the Agile approach the project will be broken up into
10 releases (assuming each iteration is set to last 4 weeks). 

 Rather than spending 1.5 months on requirements gathering, in Agile software
development, the team will decide the basic core features that are required in the 
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product and decide which of these features can be developed in the first

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iteration.
 Any remaining features that cannot be delivered in the first iteration will
be taken up in the next iteration or subsequent iterations, based on priority. 

 At the end of the first iterations, the team will deliver a working software
with the features that were finalized for that iteration. 

There will be 10 iterations and at the end of each iteration the customer is delivered a
working software that is incrementally enhanced and updated with the features that
were shortlisted for that iteration.

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4 List the role and principles of extreme programming. (Apr 18)
Extreme Programming technique is very helpful when there is constantly
changing demands or requirements from the customers or when they are not sure
about the functionality of the system. It advocates frequent "releases" of the product in
short development cycles, which inherently improves the productivity of the system
and also introduces a checkpoint where any customer requirements can be easily
implemented. The XP develops software keeping customer in the target.

Phases of extreme programming:

There are 6 phases available in Agile XP method, and those are explained as follows:
Planning
  
Identification of stakeholders and sponsors
  
Infrastructure Requirements
  
Security related information and gathering
  
Service Level Agreements and its conditions

Analysis
  
Capturing of Stories in Parking lot
  
Prioritize stories in Parking lot
  
Scrubbing of stories for estimation
  
Define Iteration SPAN(Time)
  
Resource planning for both Development and QA teams

Design
  
Break down of tasks
  
Test Scenario preparation for each task
 
Regression Automation Framework
Execution

Coding

Unit Testing
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
Execution of Manual test scenarios

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  
Defect Report generation
  
Conversion of Manual to Automation regression test cases
  
Mid Iteration review
 
End of Iteration review
Wrapping
  
Small Releases
  
Regression Testing
  
Demos and reviews
  
Develop new stories based on the need
  
Process Improvements based on end of iteration review comments

Closure
  
Pilot Launch
  
Training
  
Production Launch
  
SLA Guarantee assurance
  
Review SOA strategy
 
Production Support
There are two storyboards available to track the work on a daily basis, and those
are listed below for reference.
Story Cardboard

This is a traditional way of collecting all the stories in a board in the form of stick
notes to track daily XP activities. As this manual
 activity involves more effort and
time, it is better to switch to an online form.
Online Storyboard

Online tool Storyboard can be used to store the stories. Several teams can use it for
different purposes.
Roles
Customer
  
Writes User Stories and specifies Functional Tests
  
Sets priorities, explains stories
  
May or may not be an end-user

 Has 
authority to decide questions about the stories !
Programmer
  
Estimates stories
  
Defines Tasks from stories, and estimates
 
Implements Stories and Unit Tests
Coach

Watches everything, makes sure the project stays on course

Helps with anything

 Tracker

  
Monitors Programmers progress, takes action if things seem to be going off track.
 
Actions include setting up a meeting with Customer, asking Coach or another
Programmer to help
Tester
  
Implements and runs Functional Tests (not Unit Tests!)

 Graphs
 results, and makes sure people know when test results decline.
Doomsayer
 
Ensures that everybody knows the risks involved

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
Ensures that bad news isn't hidden, glossed over, or blown out of proportion

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Manager

Schedules meetings (e.g. Iteration Plan, Release Plan), makes sure the meeting
 process is followed,
 records results of meeting for future reporting, and passes to
the Tracker
  
Possibly responsible to the Gold Owner.
 
Goes to meetings, brings back useful information
Gold Owner
 
The person funding the project, which may or may not be the same as the Customer

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5What is SCRUM? Explain.
SCRUM is an agile development method which concentrates specifically on how
to manage tasks within a team based development environment. Basically, Scrum is
derived from activity that occurs during a rugby match. Scrum believes in empowering
the development team and advocates working in small teams (say- 7 to 9 members).
It consists of three roles, and their responsibilities are explained as follows

Scrum Master
Master is responsible for setting up the team, sprint meeting and removes obstacles
to progress
Product owner
The Product Owner creates product backlog, prioritizes the backlog and is
responsible for the delivery of the functionality at each iteration
Scrum Team
Team manages its own work and organizes the work to complete the sprint or cycle
Product Backlog
This is a repository where requirements are tracked with details on the no of
requirements to be completed for each release. It should be maintained and prioritized
by product owner, and it should be distributed to the scrum team. Team can also
request for a new requirement addition or modification or deletion

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Scrum Practices
Practices are described in detailed:

Process flow of Scrum:

Process flow of scrum testing is as follows:
Each iteration of a scrum is known as Sprint
Product backlog is a list where all details are entered to get end product
During each Sprint, top items of Product backlog are selected and turned into Sprint
backlog
Team works on the defined sprint backlog
Team checks for the daily work
At the end of the sprint, team delivers product functionality

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6 Explain in detail about Managing interactive processes.
Models are defined as explicit representations of some portions of reality as perceived
by some actor. A model is active if it influences the reality it reflects; if changes to the
representation also change the way some actors perceive reality. Model activation is the
process by which a model affects reality. Activation involves actors interpreting the
model and adjusting their behavior to it. This process can be Automated, where a
software component executes the model, Manual, where the model guides the actions
of human actors, or Interactive, where prescribed aspects of the model are
automatically interpreted and ambiguous parts are left to the users to resolve, with tool
support. Fully automated activation implies that the model must be formal and
complete, while manual and interactive activation also can handle informal and
evolving models. We define a model to be interactive if it is interactively activated. The
process of defining and updating an interactive model is called articulation. In this

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thesis we are primarily concerned with interactive models of work processes. By
altering models of their own work, users can control and customize the behavior of an
interactive system. The inter-play of articulation and activation (Figure 2) keeps the
models alive and up to date as resources for learning, coordination and work support.
The three engineering challenges (articulation, activation, and reuse) all contribute to
increasing the benefits of interactive models and decreasing the efforts and learning
required to use the system.

The Potential of Interactive Process Models

The constantly changing nature of the competitive environment in the global network
economy creates emergent organizations, culture, meaning, social relationships, decision
processes and so on are continually emergent, following no predefined pattern" . This
environment requires evolving information systems, adapting their behavior to updated
models of the usage environment.

Articulation: Simple and User-Oriented Process Modeling

Our approach relies on the assumption that end users must be actively involved in
creating, updating and interpreting models of their own work, as part of the work.
Local participants are the only ones with sufficient knowledge of the process. Modeling
by end users has met skepticism from the workflow research community. On the other
hand, studies of user participation in IS development, tailoring, knowledge
management and process improvement indicate that our approach is viable. In
workflow management, users also deal creatively with change and exceptions, often by
taking the process out of the system and handling it manually. Systems not designed
for user involvement thus present a barrier to local innovation, and are unable to
capture these contributions for further assessment and knowledge management. End
user participation remains primarily an organizational problem, involving trust, power
and community building, but simple, user-oriented, and adaptable modeling languages
will remove many barriers.
Activation: Customized and Integrated Software Support
Simple and useful tools motivate use. Information systems that offer a wide range of
functionality often become overwhelmingly complex and incomprehensible.
Consequently, only a small portion of the available functionality is utilized. This
condition is known as featurisms. We need role and task specific user
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interfaces, containing just what is needed in the current context.

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containing just what is needed in the current context. Interfaces and semantics should

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also adapt to the local needs of each project. Process models, articulating who performs
which tasks when and why, is a powerful resource for such customization. Systems and
processes should also adapt to the skills and preferences of each individual.
Personalization fosters a sense of ownership, further motivating active participation.
In virtual enterprises, the unique nature of each project, and the changing set
of partners, seldom makes it economically viable to integrate information systems
through conventional development methods. Standardization requires that the domain
is static and well understood, and is thus seldom appropriate for knowledge work.
Consequently, we need a flexible infrastructure that allows shared understanding and
semantic interoperability to emerge from the project, rather than being a prerequisite
for cooperation. Interactive models provide a simple, visual approach to capture shared
understanding as it unfolds.
Reuse: Process Knowledge Management
The gap between what people say and what they do, makes it difficult to use plans and
other official descriptions of work as input to KM . Local articulation of process models
must thus be straightforward, but still some knowledge cannot be modeled and will
remain tacit. Process models will thus be incomplete while they are used, subject to an
ongoing elaboration and interpretation. Models are completed only when they are no
longer in use. Interactive modeling allows the system to handle incomplete, evolving
descriptions of work, by involving users in resolving incompleteness and
inconsistencies during activation. The openness of the approach allows local process
innovation to be captured, assessed and packaged for reuse in similar future projects.

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7 Discuss in detail about basics of software
estimation. (Apr 19)
The four basic steps in software project estimation are:
1) Estimate the size of the development product. This generally ends up in either Lines
of Code (LOC) or Function Points (FP), but there are other possible units of measure. A
discussion of the pros & cons of each is discussed in some of the material referenced at
the end of this report.
2) Estimate the effort in person-months or person-hours.
3) Estimate the schedule in calendar months.
4) Estimate the project cost in dollars (or local currency)
Estimating size
An accurate estimate of the size of the software to be built is the first step to an effective
estimate. Your source(s) of information regarding the scope of the project should,
wherever possible, start with formal descriptions of the requirements
Two main ways you can estimate product size are:
1) By analogy. Having done a similar project in the past and knowing its size, you
estimate each major piece of the new project as a percentage of the size of a similar
piece of the previous project. Estimate the total size of the new project by adding up the
estimated sizes of each of the pieces. An experienced estimator can produce reasonably
good size estimates by analogy if accurate size values are available for the previous
project and if the new project is sufficiently similar to the previous one.
2) By counting product features and using an algorithmic approach such as Function

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Points to convert the count into an estimate of size. Macro-level ―produc

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include the number of subsystems, classes/modules, methods/functions. More
detailed ―product features‖ may includedatabase
tables, reports, messages, and so on.
Estimating effort
Once you have an estimate of the size of your product, you can derive the effort
estimate. This conversion from software size to total project effort can only be done if
you have a defined software development lifecycle and development process that you
follow to specify, design, develop, and test the software. A software development
project involves far more than simply coding the software –in fact, coding is often the
smallest part of the overall effort. Writing and reviewing documentation, implementing
prototypes, designing the deliverables, and reviewing and testing the code take up the
larger portion of overall project effort. The project effort estimate requires you to
identify and estimate, and then sum up all the activities you must perform to build a
product of the estimated size.
There are two main ways to derive effort from size:
1) The best way is to use your organizat much effort previous projects of the estimated
size have taken.
2) If you don‘t have historical data fro started collecting it yet or because your new
project is very different in one or more key aspects, you can use a mature and generally
accepted algorithmic approach such as
Barry Boehm‘s COCOMO model or the Putna into an effort estimate.

Estimating schedule
The third step in estimating a software development project is to determine the project
schedule from the effort estimate. This generally involves estimating the number of
people who will work on the project, what they will work on (the Work Breakdown
Structure), when they will start working on the project and when they will finish (this is
the ―staffing profile‖). Once you have th calendar schedule. Again, historical d industry
data models can be used to predict the number of people you will need for a project of a
given size and how work can be broken down into a schedule.

Estimating Cost
There are many factors to consider when estimating the total cost of a project. These
include labor, hardware and software purchases or rentals, travel for meeting or testing
purposes, telecommunications (e.g., long-distance phone calls, video-conferences,
dedicated lines for testing, etc.), training courses, office space, and so on.
Exactly how you estimate total project cost will depend on how your organization
allocates costs. Some costs may not be allocated to individual projects and may be taken
care of by adding an overhead value to labor rates ($ per hour). Often, a software
development project manager will only estimate the labor cost and identify any
additional project costs not considered ―overhe
The simplest labor cost can be obtained by multiplying the project‘seffortestimate (in
hours) by a general labor rate ($ per hour). A more accurate labor cost would result
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from using a specific labor rate for each staff position (e.g., Technical, QA, Project

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Management, Documentation, Support, etc.). You would have to determine what
percentage of total project effort should be allocated to each position. Again, historical
data or industry data models can help.

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8 What are effort and cost estimation techniques? Explain in detail/Analyze the
importance of COCOMO model for software estimation. (Dec 18,Apr 19)
Size Oriented Metrics
i) Source Lines of Code (SLOC): is software metric used to measure the size of software
program by counting the number of lines metric does not count blank lines, comment
lines, and library. SLOC measures are programming language dependent. They cannot
easily accommodate nonprocedural languages. SLOC also can be used to measure
others, such as errors/KLOC, defects/KLOC, pages of documentation/KLOC,
cost/KLOC. ii) Deliverable Source
Instruction (DSI): i similar to SLOC. T-then-else‖ statement, it would be counted

DSI .
Function Oriented Metrics:
Function Point (FP): FP defined by Allan Albrecht at IBM in 1979, is a unit of
measurement to express the amount software functionality [5]. Function point analysis
(FPA) is the method of measuring the size of software. The advantage is that it can
avoid source code error when selecting different programming languages. FP is
programming language independent, making ideal for applications using conventional
and nonprocedural languages. It is base on data that are more likely to be known early
in the evolution of project.
Function types are as:
•External Inputs (EI): it originates from user or transmit ted from another application.
• External Outputs (EO) : it is derived data within application that provides
information to the user.
• External Enquiries (EQ) : it is online i/p that results in the generation of some
immediate s/w response in the form of an online output.
• Internal Logical Files (ILF) : is logical grouping of data that resides within the

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applications boundary and maintained via EI.

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•External Interface Files (EIF) : is logical grouping of data that resides external to
application but provides information that may be of use to the application.
Test Point (TP) Test point used for test point analysis (TPA), to estimate test effort for
system and acceptance tests. However, it is important to note that TPA itself only
covers functional testing. Hence, it is always used with FPA, that does not cover system
and acceptance tests. Consequently, FPA and TPA merged together provide means for
estimating both, white and black box testing efforts. There are a lot of dependent and
independent factors that need to be taken into account
Test effort estimation using UCP, is based upon use cases (UC). UC is systems behavior
under various conditions, based on requests from a stakeholder. UC capture
contractual agreements between these stakeholders about the systems behaviour. Thus,
the primary task of UCP is to map use cases (UC) to test cases (TC). Hereby, each
scenario together with the corresponding exception flow for each UC serves as input
for a specific TC. Basically, the amount of test cases identified through this mapping
results in the corresponding test effort estimation
COCOMO (Constructive Cost Models):
This family of models proposed by Barry Boehm , is the most popular method which is
categorized in algorithmic methods. This method uses some equations and parameters,
which have been derived from previous experiences about software projects for
estimation. The models have been widely accepted in practice. In the COCOMOs, the
code-size S is given in thousand LOC (KLOC) and Effort is in person-month. Three
models of COCOMO given by Barry Boehm Simple COCOMO: It was the first model
suggested by Barry Boehm, which follows following formula: Effort = a*(KLOC)b
where S is the code-size, and a, b are complexity factors. This model uses three sets of a,
b depending on the complexity of the software only as given in table IX. The basic
COCOMO model is simple and easy to use. As many cost factors are not considered, it
can only be used as a rough estimate.
Intermediate COCOMO: In the intermediate COCOMO, a nominal effort estimation is
obtained using the power function with three sets of a, b, with coefficient a being
slightly different from that of the basic COCOMO as shown in table 1.

Expertise Based Estimation

It is the most frequently applied estimation strategy for software projects. There is no
substantial evidence for use of estimation based models however there are situations
where one can expect expert based estimation to be more precise than formal methods.
This method is usually used when there is limitation in finding data and gathering

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requirements. Consultation is the basic issue in this method. The following expert

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estimation best practice guidelines are considered aiming at reducing the size of
situational and human biases in expert estimation.
. • Evaluatemationaccuracy,estibutavoid high evaluation pressure.
•Avoid conflicting estimation goals.
•Ask the estimators to justify and criticize their estimates.
•Avoid irrelevant and unreliable estimation information.
•Use documented data from previous development tasks.
• Find estimation experts with relevant domain background and good estimation
records.
•Estimate top-down and bottom-up, independently of each other.
•Use estimation checklists.
•Combine estimates from different experts and estimation strategies.
•Assess the uncertainty of the estimate.
Delphi Method:
The aim of Delphi method is to combine expert opinion and prevent bias due to
positions, status or dominant personalities. Delphi arranges an especial meeting among
the project experts and tries to achieve the true information. Delphi includes some steps
as,
a) The coordinator gives an estimation form to each expert.
b) Each expert presents his own estimation (without discussing with others).
c) The coordinator gathers all Forms and sum them up and start another iteration.
d) steps (b-c) are repeated until an approval is gained.
Rule Based Systems: Uses human expert knowledge to solve real-world problems that
normally would re- quire human intelligence. Expert knowledge is often represented in
the form of rules or as data within the Personnel Capability = Low THEN Risk Level =
High
Bayesian Belief Network
It is the process of fore- casting the software effort to estimate software costs of both
development and maintenance. In the past decades, various kinds of software cost and
effort estimation methods have been proposed. However, there is no optimal approach
to accurately predict the effort needed for developing a software system. Because, the
information gathered at the early stages of software system development is insufficient
for providing a precise effort prediction. It is a complex activity that requires
knowledge of a number of key attributes. Bundle of data is needed, which is often
impossible to get in needed quantities. Hence, Bayesian Belief Networks are effective
for cost and effort estimation [9], [14]. BBNs are especially useful when the information
about the past and/or the current situation is vague, incomplete, conflicting, and
uncertain. They are a very effective method of modeling uncertain situations that
depend on cause and effect. They are compact networks of probabilities that capture the
probabilistic relationship between variables, as well as historical information about
their relation- ships. BBNs are very effective for modeling situations where some
information is already known and incoming data is uncertain or partially unavailable.
An important fact to realize about Bayesian Belief Networks is that they are not
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dependent on knowing exact historical information or current evidence.

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9 Discuss in detail about COSMIC full function points. (Apr 19)
Function Point Analysis (FPA) is one of the most widely used methods to determine the
size of software projects. FPA originated at a time when only a mainframe environment
was available. Sizing of specifications was typically based on functional decomposition
and modeled data. Nowadays, development methods like Object Oriented, Component
Based and RAD are applied more often. There is also more attention on architecture
and the use of client server and multitier environments. Another development is the
growth in complexity caused by more integrated applications, real‐time applications
and embedded systems and combinations. FPA was not designed to cope with these
various newer development approaches.
The Common Software Measurement International Consortium (COSMIC), aimed to
develop, test, bring to market and to seek acceptance of a new software sizing method
to support estimating and performance measurement (productivity, time to market and
quality). The measurement method must be applicable for estimating the effort for
developing and maintaining software in various software domains. Not only business
software (MIS) but also real time software (avionics, telecom, process control) and
embedded software (mobile phones, consumer electronics) can be measured.
The basis for measurement must be found, just as in FPA, in the user requirements the
software must fulfill. The result of the measurement must be independent of the
development environment and the method used to specify these requirements. Sizes
depend only on the user require.
COSMIC Concepts
The Functional User Requirements (FUR) are, according to the definition of a functional
size measurement method, the basis for measurement. They specif procedures that the
software should fulfill.
The FUR are analyzed to identify the functional processes. A Functional Process is an
elementary component of a set of FUR. It is triggered by one or more events in the
world of the user of the software being measured. The process is complete when it has
executed all that is required to be done in response to the triggering event.
Each functional process consists of a set of sub processes that are either movements or
manipulations of data. Since no one knows how to measure data manipulation, and
since the aim is to measure ‗data movem is made that each functional process consists of
a set of data movements.
A Data Movement moves one Data Group. A Data Group is a unique cohesive set of
data (attributes) specifying an ‗object the user). Each Data Movement is counted as one
CFP (COSMIC function point). COSMIC recognizes 4 (types of) Data Movements:

  
Entry moves data from outside into the process
  
Exit moves data from the process to the outside world
  
Read moves data from persistent storage to the process
 
Write moves data from the process to persistent storage.

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From a pure size measurement point of view, the most important improvements of the
COSMIC method compared with using traditional Function Points are as follows

The COSMIC method was designed to measure the functional requirements of
software in the domains of business application, real-time and infrastructure
software (e.g. operating systems, web components, etc.), in any layer of a multi-
layer architecture and at any level of decomposition. Traditional Function Points
were designed to measure only t of business software in the application layer.


Traditional Function Points use a size scale with a limited range of possible sizes
for each component. COSMIC functional processes are measured on a
continuous size scale with a minimum of 2 CFP and no upper size limit. Modern
software can have extremely large processes. Individual functional processes of
roughly 100 CFP have been measured in avionics software systems and in
public national insurance systems. Traditional Function Points can therefore give
highly misleading sizes for certain types of software which means that great care
must be taken
 when using these sizes for performance measurement or
 estimating

The COSMIC method gives a much finer measure of the size of any changes to
be made to software than traditional function points.
The smallest change that
can be measured with the COSMIC method is 1 CFP.
Users of the COSMIC method have reported the following benefits, compared with
using '1st generation' methods

Easy to learn and stable due to the principles-based approach, hence 'future proof' and
cost-effective to implement;

Well-accepted by project staff due to the ease of mapping of the concepts to
modern software requirements documentation methods, and to its compatibility
with modern software architectures;
  
Improves estimating accuracy, especially for larger software projects;
 
 Possible to size requirements automatically that are held in CASE tools;

Reveals real performance improvement where using traditional function points
 has not indicated any improvement due to their  inability to recognize how
software processes have increased in size over time;
 
Sizing with COSMIC is an excellent way of controlling the quality of the

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requirements at all stages as they evolve.

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10 Explain in about COCOMO II a parametric productivity model. (Nov/Dec
18,19) COCOMO a parametric model
COCOMO (Constructive Cost Estimation Model) was proposed by Boehm. According
to him, any software development project can be classified into one of the following
three categories based on the development complexity: organic, semidetached, and
embedded. The classification is done considering the characteristics of the product as
well as those of the development team and development environment. Usually these
three product classes correspond to application, utility and system programs,
respectively. Data processing programs are normally considered to be application
programs. Compilers, linkers, etc., are utility programs. Operating systems and real-
time system programs, etc. are system programs.
The definition of organic, semidetached, and embedded systems are elaborated below.
 Organic: A development project can be considered of organic type, if the project
deals with developing a well understood application program, the size of the
development team is reasonably small, and the team members are experienced
in developing similar types of projects. 

 Semidetached: A development project can be considered of semidetached type,
if the development consists of a mixture of experienced and inexperienced staff.
Team members may have limited experience on related systems but may be
unfamiliar with some aspects of the system being developed. 

 Embedded: A development project is considered to be of embedded type, if the
software being developed is strongly coupled to complex hardware, or if the
stringent regulations on the operational procedures exist. 
According to Boehm, software cost estimation should be done through three stages:
Basic COCOMO, Intermediate COCOMO, and Complete COCOMO.
Basic COCOMO Model
The basic COCOMO model gives an approximate estimate of the project parameters.
The basic COCOMO estimation model is given by the following expressions:
Effort = a * (KLOC)b PM Tdev = 2.5 * (Effort)c
Months where
 KLOC is the estimated size of the software product expressed in Kilo Lines

of Code a, b, c are constants for each category of software products 
 Tdev is the estimated time to develop the software, expressed in months 

 Effort is the total effort required to develop the software product, expressed
in person months (PMs) 
The effort estimation is expressed in units of person-months (PM). The value of the
constants a, b, c are given below:
Software project a b c

Organic 2.4 1.05 0.38

Semi-detached 3.0 1.12 0.35

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Embedded 3.6 1.20 0.32

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Intermediate COCOMO Model
The basic COCOMO model assumes that effort and development time are functions of
the product size alone. However, many other project parameters apart from the
product size affect the development effort and time required for the product. Therefore,
in order to obtain an accurate estimation of the effort and project duration, the effect of
all relevant parameters must be taken into account.
The intermediate COCOMO model recognizes this fact and refines the initial estimate
obtained using the basic COCOMO expressions by using a set of 15 cost drivers
(multipliers) based on various attributes of software development. For example, if
modern programming practices are used, the initial estimates are scaled downward by
multiplication with a cost driver having a value less than 1.
Each of the 15 attributes receives a rating on a six-point scale that ranges from "very
low" to "extra high" (in importance or value) as shown below. An effort multiplier from
the table below [i] applies to the rating. The product of all effort multipliers results in an
Effort Adjustment Factor (EAF).
Ratings
Cost Drivers Very Low Nomina High Very Extra
Low l High High
Product attributes
Required software reliability 0.75 0.88 1.00 1.15 1.40
Size of application database 0.94 1.00 1.08 1.16
Complexity of the product 0.70 0.85 1.00 1.15 1.30 1.65
Hardware attributes
Run-time performance constraints 1.00 1.11 1.30 1.66
Memory constraints 1.00 1.06 1.21 1.56
Volatility of the virtual machine environ
0.87 1.00 1.15 1.30
ment
Required turnabout time 0.87 1.00 1.07 1.15
Personnel attributes
Analyst capability 1.46 1.19 1.00 0.86 0.71
Applications experience 1.29 1.13 1.00 0.91 0.82
Software engineer capability 1.42 1.17 1.00 0.86 0.70
Virtual machine experience 1.21 1.10 1.00 0.90
Programming language experience 1.14 1.07 1.00 0.95
Project attributes
Application of software engineering met
1.24 1.10 1.00 0.91 0.82
hods
Use of software tools 1.24 1.10 1.00 0.91 0.83
Required development schedule 1.23 1.08 1.00 1.04 1.10
EAF is used to refine the estimates obtained by basic COCOMO as
follows: Effort|corrected = Effort * EAF
Tdev|corrected = 2.5 * (Effort|corrected) c
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Complete COCOMO Model
Both the basic and intermediate COCOMO models consider a software product as a
single homogeneous entity. However, most large systems are made up several smaller
sub-systems, each of them in turn could be of organic type, some semidetached, or
embedded. The complete COCOMO model takes into account these differences in
characteristics of the subsystems and estimates the effort and development time as the
sum of the estimates for the individual subsystems. This approach reduces the
percentage of error in the final estimate.
The following development project can be considered as an example application of the
complete COCOMO model. A distributed Management Information System (MIS)
product for an organization having offices at several places across the country can have
the following sub-components:
 Database part 

 Graphical User Interface (GUI) part 

 Communication part 

Of these, the communication part can be considered as embedded software. The

database part could be semi-detached software, and the GUI part organic software. The
costs for these three components can be estimated separately, and summed up to give
the overall cost of the system.

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11 Write short notes on Staffing Pattern. (Apr 18)
Resource allocation in software development is important and many methods have
been proposed. Related empirical research is yet scarce and evidence is required to
validate the theoretical methods. This paper introduces the staffing pattern as a metric
of resource distribution among project phases, and verifies its effect on software quality
and productivity using real project data. The main findings are: (1) there exist different
staffing patterns in reality; (2) the staffing pattern has significant effect on software
quality (post-release defect density); (3) the staffing pattern has no significant effect on
productivity; (4) the effort invested on test, document or code inspection possibly
explains the effect of staffing pattern on software quality; (5) the effort consumed by
rework perhaps counteracts the effect of other potential factors on productivity.
Preliminary heuristics are suggested to resource allocation practices.
We name these as staffing patterns as follows:
(1) Rapid-team-buildup pattern (abbreviated Rapid for later reference). The staffing
levels peak in requirement phase, and decrease in later phases. This might mean the
culture of excessive documentation or design, leading to low ability to respond rapidly
for requirement change. Another possible reason would be to outsource part of the
system to other organization for design and development. In both situations, we
suppose the software quality and productivity are low.
(2) Fix-staff pattern (abbreviated Fix). The team size is fixed or stable across project
lifecycle. It is likely that the same team has done all work. Due to sufficient learning
time and communication within the team, we assumed that high software quality will
be yielded as a result. It is hard to assess its productivity: perhaps peoples work
efficiently due to effective communication, perhaps this effect cannot counteract against
the excessive human resources investment in a prolonged duration.

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(3) Design-construction-centric pattern (abbreviated Design). The staffing levels are
high in design and construction phases, and low in other phases. The reason for low
staffing level in requirement and test phases may be indifference to them, or
mature/simple product. The software quality and productivity might be low for the
former possibility, and high for the latter.
(4) Implementation-centric pattern (abbreviated Implement). The staffing levels are
high in construction and test phases, and low in other phases. The reason for low
staffing level in requirement and design phases may be indifference to them, or merely
providing coding and testing services in IT outsourcing market. The software quality
and productivity would be low for the former possibility, and high for the latter.
(5) Test-centric pattern (abbreviated Test). The staffing levels are relatively low in early
phases, but increase in test and transition phases. The increasing level in test phase may
be the result of intensive testing by a special team (in-house or outsourcing), or fire-
fighting for too many bugs. The software quality may be high, because the staffing level
in early phases is also stable and the situation is the same as Fix-staff pattern. Moreover,
it is possible that high staffing level in test or transition phase detects and removes
more defects before delivery. Similar to Fix-staff pattern, its productivity is hard to be
determined.
(6) Classical-Rayleigh pattern (abbreviated Rayleigh). Similar to classical Rayleigh
curve, the staffing levels are low at the beginning, gradually increase, peak at
construction phase, and drop at later phases. It is the most common pattern in our data
set. We assumed that the productivity is high in this situation, but the yield may be low
quality pertaining to insufficient communication inside team.
(7) Minimum-design pattern (abbreviated Mini Design). The trend of staffing level is an
―M‖ shape with 2 peaks at requirement design phase is minimized due to indifference
to it, architecture reuse, mature or simple product. It is also possible that several senior
developers are branched from the whole team (and the design is parallel with other
phase) rather than a turnover of staff. The software quality and productivity might be
low for the first possibility (indifference), hard to assess for the last (branching), and
high for the other
possibilities.
UNIT III ACTIVITY PLANNING AND RISK MANAGEMENT
Objectives of Activity planning –Project schedules –Activities –Sequencing and scheduling
–Network Planning models –Forward Pass & Backward Pass techniques –Critical path
(CRM) method –Risk identification –Assessment –Monitoring –PERT technique –Monte
Carlo simulation –Resource Allocation –Creation of critical patterns –Cost schedules.
PART-A

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1 What are the objectives of activity planning? (Dec 12,19,May 13, Apr 19)
  
Feasibility assessment
 
 Resource allocation
 
 Detailed costing
 
 Motivation
 
Co-ordination

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2 Define Project Schedule.
A stage of a larger project, the project plan must be developed to the level of showing
dates when each activity should start and finish and when and how much of each
resource will be required. Once the plan has been refined to this level of detail we call it
a project schedule.
3 What are the three approaches to identify the activities that make up a project?
Essentially there are three approaches to identifying the activities or tasks that make
up a project
  
The activity-based approach,
  
The product-based approach
  
The hybrid approach.
4 Define activities

If an activity must have a clearly defined start and a clearly
defined end-point,
 normally marked by the production of a tangible deliverable.

An activity requires a resource (as most do) then that resource requirement must
be forecast able and is assumed
 to be required at a constant level throughout the
 duration of the activity.

The duration of an activity must be forecast able —assuming normal circum-
 stances, and the reasonable availability of resources.

Some activities might require that othersare completed before they can begin these
 are known as precedence requirements).
5 What do you understand by work breakdown structure (WBS)? (Dec 14)
This involves identifying the main (or high level) tasks required to complete a project
and then breaking each of these down into set of lower-level tasks.
Five levels of WBS.
  
Project- engineering resources has been developed by TASK
  
Deliverables- term for the quantifiable goods or services
  
Components- designing the floor plane
  
work-packages- Models for the description of software artifacts
  
Tasks- Creation and distribution of organizing software
6 What are the rules for constructing precedence networks?
  
A project network should have only one start node.
  
A project network should have only one end node.
  
A node has duration.
  
Links normally have no duration.
  
Precedents are the immediate preceding activities.
  
Times moves from left to right
  
A network may not contain loops.
 
A network should not contain dangles.

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7 Define Hammock activities. (Dec 13)
Hammock activities which, in themselves, have zero duration but are assumed to start
at the same time as the first ‗ham mock last one.

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8 What is meant by forward pass? (Nov/Dec 2018)
The forward pass is carried out to calculate the earliest dates on which each activity
may be started and completed. Significance-calculation method used in Critical Path
Method.
9 What is meant by backward pass? (Nov/Dec 2018)
The second stage in the analysis of a critical path network is to carry out a backward
pass to calculate the latest date at which each activity may be started and finished
without delaying the end date of the project. The calculating the latest dates, we
assume that the latest finish date for the project is the same as the earliest finish date-
that is we wish to complete the project as early as possible.
10 What is critical path?
There will be at least one path through the network that defines the duration of the
project. This is known as critical path. Any delay to any activity on this critical
path will delay the completion of the project.
11 What do you mean by activity-based approach?
The activity based approach consists of creating a list of all the activities that the
project is thought to evolve.
12 What are the measures of activity float?
Free float: the time by which an activity may be delayed without affecting
any subsequent activity
Interfering float: the difference between total float and free float. This is
quite commonly used, particularly in association with the free float.
13 Define activity float.
The difference between an activity‘s e difference between an activity‘s earli activity‘s-
ismeasurefloatofhowmuch the start or completion of an activity may be delayed without
affecting the end date of the project. Any activity with a float of zero is critical (any
delay in carrying out the activity delay the completion date of the project

as a whole.
14 What is the significance of a critical path? (Dec 14)

In managing the project, we must pay particular attention to monitoring
activities on the critical path so that the effects of any delay or resource
 unavailability are detected and corrected at the earliest opportunities.

In planning the project, it is the critical path
 that we must shorten if we are to
 reduce the overall duration of the project.
15 Write any three network diagram methods?
  
PERT — Program evaluation and review technique.
  
CPM — Critical path method.
 
ADM — Arrow Diagramming method.

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16 Define Risk Identification. (Apr 19)
Risk management begins with analyzing the risks involved in the project. Risk
identification is not a one-off initiative since projects are constantly evolving and new
risks arise while other risks may dissipate or reduce in importance.

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17 What is meant by known Risk?
Risk is defined ―an uncertain event or negative effect on a project objective party,
avoiding the risk, reducing the negative effect of the risk, and accepting some or all of
the consequences of a particular risk.

18 What is risk management? (Dec 11)

Risk management process begins when somebody asks what kind of events can
damage the business and how much damage can be done. Identifying and measuring
the potential loss exposures, choosing the most efficient methods of controlling and
financing loss exposure and implementing them and finally monitoring all the
outcomes are the main steps involved in Risk Management.
19 List out the framework for dealing with risk
  
Risk identification –what risks might there be?
  
Risk analysis and prioritization –which are the most serious risks?
  
Risk planning –what are we going to do about them?
 
 Risk monitoring –what is the current state of the risk?
20 List the factors used to identify the risk. (Dec 12)
Approaches to identifying risks include:
  
Use of checklists –usually based on the experience of past projects.
  
Brainstorming –getting knowledgeable stakeholders together to pool concerns.
 
 Causal mapping –identifying possible chains of cause and effect.
21 Draw the categories of risk.

22 Define Risk Assessment.

A systematic process of evaluating the potential risks that may be involved in a
projected activity or undertaking.
23 What is PERT?
Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is a project management tool used to
schedule, organize, and coordinate tasks within a project. It estimation considers three
values: the most optimistic estimate (O), a most likely estimate (M), and a pessimistic
estimate (least likely estimate (L)).

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24 List the advantages of PERT Technique(Dec 19)
  Useful at many stages of project management 
  
Mathematically simple
  
Give critical path and slack time
  
Provide project documentation
 
Useful in monitoring costs

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25 Difference between PERT and CPM.
PERT CPM
It is probabilistic whereas CPM is It estimates of activity duration are based
Deterministic. on historical data.
It estimates are uncertain and we talk of CPM concentrates on time/cost trade off.
ranges of duration and the probability that
activity duration will fall into that range.
26 What is Monte Carlo (MC) method? (Apr 18, Dec 18)
The Monte Carlo method is a numerical method for statistical simulation which utilizes
sequences of random numbers to perform the simulation

27 List out the components of Monte Carlo Simulation.


Probability Distribution Function.

Random Number Generation.

Sampling Rule.

Scoring/Tallying.

Error Estimation.

Parallelization.
28. What is resource allocation?
Resource Allocation is used to assign the variable resource in an economic way. In
project management, resource allocation is the scheduling of activities and the
resources required by those activities while taking into consideration both the resource
availability and the project time.
29 What are the categories of resources?

Labor

Equipment (E.G. Workstations)

Materials

Space

Services

Time: Elapsed Time Can Often Be Reduced By Adding More Staff

Money: Used To buy the other resources.
30 List out Burman’s priority list

Shortest critical activities

Other critical activities

Shortest non-critical activities

Non-critical activities with least float

Non-critical activities

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31 List out the schedules under resource allocation.
  
Activity Schedule indicating start and completion dates for each activity
  
Resource Schedule indicating dates when resources needed + level of resources
 
Cost Schedule showing accumulative expenditure

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32 How costs are categorized?
  
Staff costs
 
Overheads
  
Usage charges
33 Define staff costs.
Staff costs includes not just salary, but also social security contributions by the
employer, holiday pay etc. Timesheets are often used to record actual hours spent on
each project by an individual. One issue can be how time when a staff member is
allocated and available to the project, but is not actually working on the project, is dealt
with.
34 Define Overheads costs.
Overheads e.g. space rental, service charges etc. Some overheads might be directly
attributable to the project, in other cases a percentage of departmental overheads
may be allocated to project costs.
35 Define Usage charges.
Usage charges are some charges can be o charges, postage, car mileage –at the planning
stage an estimate of these may have to be made.

36 Define monitoring (Apr 18)

Exercising control over a project and ensuring that targets are met is a matter of
regular monitoring- finding out what is happening and comparison of actual achievement
against the schedule and, where necessary, revision of plans and schedules to bring the
project as far as possible back on target.
PART-B

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1 Explain in detail about the objectives of activity planning? (Dec 13,Apr 19)
 Ensure Appropriate resources available when required 
  Avoid different competing for the same resources at the same time 
 Produce a detailed schedule showing which staffs carry out each activity. 
 Time cash flow forecast 
 Replan the project during its life to correct drift from the target 
 A detailed plan against which actual achievement may be measured. 
Objectives of activity planning 
Feasibility assessment
Is the project possible within required timescales and resource constraints? It is
not until we have constructed a detailed plan that we can forecast a completion date
with any reasonable knowledge of its achievability.
Resource allocation
What are the most effective ways of allocating resources to the project. When
should the resources be available? The project plan allows us to investigate the
relationship between timescales and resource availability
Detailed costing
How much will the project cost and when is that expenditure likely to take
place? After producing an activity plan and allocating specific resources, we can obtain
more detailed estimates of costs and their timing.
Motivation
Providing targets and being seen to monitor achievement against targets is an
effective way of motivating staff, particularly where they have been involved in setting
those targets in the first place.
Co-ordination
When do the staff in different departments need to be available to work on a
particular project and when do staff need to be transferred between projects? The project
plan, particularly with large projects involving more than a single project team, provides
an effective vehicle for communication and coordination among teams.

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2 Explain in detail about the steps involved in project schedule.(May 14,Apr 19)

Step 1: Identify project scope and objectives.

Project objectives, Project authorities, and Modified project
objectives. Step 2: Identify project Infra structure.
Role of existing strategic plans, identifying standards, project
organization. Step 3: Analyze project characteristics, High-level risks.
Step 4: Identify project products and activities, Product break down structure, IOE has
standard PFD, Identifying product instances, Activity network for IOE Maintenance
Accounts.
Step 5: Estimate effort for each activity, IOE Maintenance Group Accounts- breaking

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activities down into manageable tasks.
Step 6: Identify activity risks.
Identifying risks for Amanda
Step 7: Allocate Resources.
Taking resource constraints into account,
Step 8: Review/Publicize plan
IOE existing quality standards
Step 9 &10: Execute plan and lower levels of planning, lower level planning for
individual modules.

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3 Explain the different network planning models. Give example for precedence
construction. (Nov/Dec 2018,2019)
A project is made up of a sequence of activities that form a network representing
a project.
  
The path taking longest time through this network of activities is called the

 ―criticalpath.‖

The critical path provides
 a wide range of scheduling information useful in
 managing a project.

Critical Path
 Method (CPM) helps to identify the critical path(s) in the project
networks.
  
CPM with a Single Time Estimate
 
 Used when activity times are known with certainty.

Used to determine timing estimates for the project, each activity in the
project, and slack time for activities.
  
CPM with Three Activity Time Estimates (a.k.a. PERT)
 
 Used when activity times are uncertain.

Used to obtain the same information as the Single Time Estimate model and
probability information.
Time-Cost Models
  
Used when trade-off information cost is a major consideration in planning.
 
Used to determine the least cost in reducing total project time.

Example1:
CPM with Single Time Estimate Consider the following consulting project

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Develop a critical path diagram (network) and determine the duration of the critical
path and Slack times for all activities
1. Draw the network
2. Compute early starts and early finish times (forward pass)
3. Compute late starts and late finish times (backward pass)
4. Compute Slack (LS-ES) per activity and Critical Path(s)

Example 2:
CPM with Three Activity Time Estimates Develop a critical path diagram (network)
and determine the duration of the critical path and Slack times for all activities
1. Draw the network
2. Compute early starts and early finish times (forward pass)
3. Compute late starts and late finish times (backward pass)
4. Compute Slack (LS-ES) per activity and Critical Path(s)
What is the probability of finishing this project in less than 53 days?
What is the probability that the project duration will exceed 56 days?

Time-Cost Models

Sometimes it is possible to "crash" (expedite) some activities thus reducing the
 overall completion time for the entire project.

Crashing an activity implies spending additional funds(e.g., overtime costs,
hiring more workers, and so on) to get the task done earlier
On many occasions reducing the project completion time that in turn reduces the fixed
cost outlays can generate substantial savings.
1. Draw the CPM network, identify the CP
2. Identify the least cost activity(ies) on the critical path(s)
3. Shorten the project completion time (CP) at the least cost Repeat until no
more crashing is possible (or cost exceeds the benefits)
•Assume fixed costs = $1,000 day.
•Find the optimum time-cost schedule.
CPM Assumptions/Limitations

Project activities can be identified
 as entities. (There is a clear beginning and
ending point for each activity.)
  
Project activity sequence relationships can be specified and networked.
 
 Project control should focus on the critical path.

The activity times follow the beta distribution, with the variance of the project 
assumed to equal the sum of the variances along the critical path. Project control
should focus on the critical path.
Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)
PERT is a project management tool used to schedule, organize, and coordinate tasks
within a project. It estimation considers three values: the most optimistic estimate (O), a
most likely estimate (M), and a pessimistic estimate (least likely estimate (L)).
Evaluate the PERT techniques

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Three estimates are produced for each activity

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• Most likely time (m)
• Optimistic time (a)
• Pessimistic (b)
Expected= (ati+4me‘+b)/ 6t
Activity standard-a)/6 deviation‘ S = (b
• Expected time: Helps to carry out a forward pass through a network similar
to CPM
• Activity standard deviation: Used as ranking measure of the degree
of uncertainty or risk for each activity.
Activity Optimistic Most Pessimisti Expected Standard
(a) likely (m) c(b) te deviation
s
A 5 6 8 6.17 0.5
B 3 4 5 4.00 0.33
C 2 3 3 2.83 0.17
D 3.5 4 5 4.08 0.25
E 1 3 4 2.83 0.5
F 8 10 15 10.50 1.17
G 2 3 4 3.00 0.33
H 2 2 2.5 2.08 0.08
Why Network Diagrams?
Splits up the decision making process into
  
Method/logic - the order in which tasks have to be completed
  
Time –estimates for the time to completion can be added to each task
 
Resources –these can be added and then analysis carried out
Two Parts to the Analysis
  
Forward Pass
  
Calculates the Duration of the Project
  
Backward Pass
 
Calculates the slack/float for each task and shows the critical path
To calculate the total duration of the Proj
  
For each task:
 
 Take the earliest start time (EST)

Calculate the
 Earliest finish time (EFT):
EFT = EST+Duration

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Backward Pass
  
To calculate the float for each task?
  
For each task:
 
 Take the latest start time (LST)

Calculate 
the latest finish time (LFT):
LST = LFT-Duration

Constructing a Project Network

  
Terminology
 
 Activity: an element of the project that requires time.

Merge
 activity: an activity that has two or more preceding activities on which it
 depends.

Parallel (concurrent) activities:
 Activities that can occur independently and, if
desired, not at the same time

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Activity-on-Node Fundamentals

 
 Path: a sequence of connected, dependent activities.

Critical path: the longest path through the activity network that allows for the
completion of all project-related activities; the shortest expected time in which

the entire project can be completed. Delays on the critical path will delay
completion of the entire project.
Forward Pass Computation
 
 Add activity times along each path in the network (ES + Duration = EF).

Carry the early finish (EF) to the next activity where it becomes its early start

(ES) unless the next succeeding activity is a merge activity, in which case the
largest EF of all preceding activities is selected.
Backward Pass Computation
 
 Subtract activity times along each path in the network (LF - Duration = LS).

 Carry the late start (LS) to the next activity where it becomes its late finish (LF)
unless...
 
The next succeeding activity is a burst activity, in which case the smallest LF of
all preceding activities is selected.
Determining Slack (or Float)

Free Slack (or Float)
o The amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying

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connected successor activities

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
Total Slack
o The amount of time an activity can be delayed without delaying the
entire project
  
The critical path is the network path(s) that has (have) the least slack incommon.

 Sensitivity of a Network

The likelihood
 the original critical path(s) will change once the project is
initiated.
Function of:
The number of critical paths
The amount of slack across near critical activities

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4 Explain the importance of forward pass with an example. (Dec 14, May 15)
Forward pass

The forward pass is carried out to calculate the earliest dates on which each
activity may be started and completed.
The forward pass and the calculation of earliest start dates is calculated according to
the following reasoning.
 Activities A, B and F may start immediately, so the earliest date for their start
 is zero. 
  Activity A will take 6 weeks, so the earliest it can finish is week 6. 
  Activity B will take 4 weeks, so the earliest it can finish is week 4. 
 Activity F will take 10 weeks, so the earliest it can finish is week 10. 

 Activity C can start as soon as A has finished so its earliest start date is week 6. It
will take 3 weeks so the earliest it can finish is week 9. 

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 Activities D and E can start as soon as B is complete so the earliest they can each
start is week 4. Activity D, which will take 4 weeks, can therefore finish by week
8 and activity E, which will take 3 weeks, can therefore finish by week 7. 

 Activity G cannot start until both E and F have been completed. It cannot
therefore start until week 10 — the later of weeks 7 (for activity E) and 10 (for
activity F). It takes 3 weeks and finishes in week 13. 

 Similarly, Activity H cannot start until week 9 — the later of the two earliest fin-
ished dates for the preceding activities C and a 

 The project will be complete when both activities H and G have been completed.
Thus the earliest project completion date will be the later of weeks 11 and 13— 
that is, week 13.
The results of the forward pass are shown in Figure 6.18.

5 How to evaluate the pert techniques.(Dec 11, Apr 14,Apr

18) Three estimates are produced for each activity
  
Most likely time (m)
  
Optimistic time (a)
 
Pessimistic (b)
Expected= (ati+4me‘+b)/ 6t
Activity standardS=(b-a)/6 deviation‘

Expected
 time: Helps to carry out a forward pass through a network similar to
 CPM

 Activity standard deviation: Used as  ranking measure of the degree of
uncertainty or risk for each activity
 
Pert labeling convention

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Event Number Target Date

Expected Date Standard

deviation
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Activity Description Precedents Optimi Most Pessimistic(
stic (a) likely b)
(m)
A Hardware Selection 5 6 8
B Software Design 3 4 5
C Install Hardware A 2 3 3
D Code & test software B 3.5 4 5
E File take-on B 1 3 4
F Write user manuals 8 10 15
G User training E, F 2 3 4
H Install and test C,D 2 2 2.5

Activity Optimistic Most Pessimisti Expected Standard

(a) likely (m) c(b) te deviation s
A 5 6 8 6.17 0.5
B 3 4 5 4.00 0.33
C 2 3 3 2.83 0.17
D 3.5 4 5 4.08 0.25
E 1 3 4 2.83 0.5
F 8 10 15 10.50 1.17
G 2 3 4 3.00 0.33
H 2 2 2.5 2.08 0.08

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6 Explain in detail about the risk identification. (Nov/Dec 2019)
Risk identification
Approaches to identifying risks include:
• Use of checklists –usually based on the experience of past projects
• Brainstorming –getting knowledgeable stakeholders together to pool concerns
• Causal mapping –identifying possible chains of cause and effect
Boehm‘s top 10risksdevelopment
Risk Risk reduction techniques

Personnel shortfalls Staffing with top talent; job matching; teambuilding;

training and career development; early scheduling of
key personnel
Unrealistic time and cost Multiple estimation techniques; design to cost;
estimates incremental development; recording and analysis of
past projects; standardization of methods
Developing the wrong Improved software evaluation; formal specification
software functions methods; user surveys; prototyping; early user
manuals
Developing the wrong Prototyping; task analysis; user involvement
user interface

Gold plating Requirements scrubbing, prototyping,

design to cost

Late changes to Change control, incremental development

requirements

Shortfalls in externally Benchmarking, inspections, formal specifications,

supplied components contractual agreements, quality controls

Shortfalls in externally Quality assurance procedures, competitive design etc

performed tasks

Real time performance Simulation, prototyping, tuning

problems

Development technically Technical analysis, cost-benefit analysis, prototyping ,

too difficult training

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7 Explain in detail about the PERT technique and justify how PERT techniques
provide details in identifying the uncertainties and effort in a project. Find out the
expected duration and the standard deviation/ Create precedence for the following
project. Calculate the earliest dates on which each activity may be started and
completed of project using forward approach (Apr 18,19)
Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT) is a project management tool used to
schedule, organize, and coordinate tasks within a project. It estimation considers three
values: the most optimistic estimate (O), a most likely estimate (M), and a pessimistic

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estimate (least likely estimate (L)).

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Evaluate the PERT techniques
Three estimates are produced for each activity
• Most likely time (m)
• Optimistic time (a)
• Pessimistic (b)
Expected= (ati+4me‘+b)/ 6t
Activity standard deviation‘-a)/6 S = (b
• Expected time: Helps to carry out a forward pass through a network similar
to CPM
• Activity standard deviation: Used as ranking measure of the degree
of uncertainty or risk for each activity.
• Pert labeling convention

Event Number Target Date

Expected Date Standard deviation

Activity Description Precedents Optimi Most Pessimistic(

stic (a) likely b)
(m)
A Hardware Selection 5 6 8
B Software Design 3 4 5
C Install Hardware A 2 3 3
D Code & test software B 3.5 4 5
E File take-on B 1 3 4
F Write user manuals 8 10 15
G User training E, F 2 3 4
H Install and test C,D 2 2 2.5

Fig 3 The critical path

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PERT activity time estimates
Activity Optimistic Activity durations(weeks), Pessimistic
(a) Most likely (m) (b)

A 5 6 8
B 3 4 5
C 2 3 3
D 3.5 4 5
E 1 3 4
F 8 10 15
G 2 3 4
H 2 2 2.5

The above table provides additional activity duration estimates for the network shown
in figure 3. There

Activity Optimistic Most Pessimistic Expected Standard

(a) likely (b) te deviation
(m) s

A 5 6 8 6.17 0.5
B 3 4 5 4.00 0.33
C 2 3 3 2.83 0.17
D 3.5 4 5 4.08 0.25
E 1 3 4 2.83 0.5
F 8 10 15 10.50 1.17
G 2 3 4 3.00 0.33
H 2 2 2.5 2.08 0.08

Activity Standard Deviations

A quantitative measure of the degree of uncertainty of an activity duration estimate
may be obtained by calculating the standard deviation of an activity time, using the
formula s=b-a/6. The activity standard deviation is proportional to the difference
between the optimistic and pessimistic estimates, and can be used as a ranking measure
of the degree of uncertainty or risk for each activity.

The PERT technique uses the following three-step method for calculating the
probability of meeting or missing a target date:
 Calculate the standard deviation of each project event;
 Calculate the z value for each that has a target date;
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 Convert z values to a probabilities.

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8 Explain with an example how critical path can be identified in precedence networks?
(Dec 11,19,Jun 13,Apr 18)
  Formulating a network model 
  Constructing Precedence network 
  Representing lagged activities 
  Hammock activities 
  Labeling conventions 
 Adding the time dimension 
Forward pass
Backward pass
A project usually consists of multiple activities that occur both simultaneously and
sequentially. To determine the flow o
Precedence Diagram. After creating the Precedence Diagram, you can identify the
activities that would, if delayed, cause your project to come in late. This is the Critical
Path definition. A delay in any of the critical path activities will delay the entire project,
regardless of whether the other project activities are completed on or before time. The
act of determining the Critical Path is known as the Critical Path Method or the Critical
Path Analysis.
To determine the Critical Path and conduct Critical Path Analysis, you need to:
  Define the duration of each activity. 
  Identify all the paths. 
  Calculate the duration of each path. 
  Identify the longest path. 
 Identifying the critical path 
There will be at least one path through the network that defines the duration of the
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project. This is known as critical path. Any delay to any activity on this critical path will
delay the completion of the project.
Significance of critical path

In managing the project, we must pay particular attention to monitoring activities
on the critical path so that the effects of any delay or resource unavailability are
detected at the earliest opportunities.

In planning the project, it is the critical path that we must shorten if we are to
reduce the overall duration of the project.

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9 Explain in detail formulating a network model. (Dec 12,May 12)
Formulating a network model
The first stage in creating a network model is to represent the activities and their
relationships as a graph. In activity-on-node we do this by representing activities as
nodes in the graph-the lines between nodes represent dependencies.

Constructing precedence networks

  A project network should have only one start node. 
  A project network should have only one end node. 
  A node has duration. 
  Links normally have no duration. 
 Precedents are the immediate preceding activities.(Fig 6.9) 

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  Times moves from left to right 
 A network may not contain loops.(Fig 6.10) 

 A network should not contain dangles.(Fig 6.11)

Representing lagged activities

We might come across situations where we wished to undertake two activities in
parallel so long as there is a lag between the two. We might wish to document
amendments to a program as it was being tested - particularly if evaluating a prototype.
Where activities can occur in parallel with a time lag between them we represent the lag
with duration on the linking arrow as shown in Figure 6.13. This indicates that
documenting amendments can start one day after the start of prototype testing and will
be completed two days after prototype testing is completed.

Hammock activities
A hammock activity (also hammock task) is a schedule or project planning term for a
grouping of tasks that "hang" between two end dates it is tied to. A hammock activity
can group tasks which are not related in the hierarchical sense of a Work Breakdown
Structure, or are not related in a logical sense of a task dependency where one task

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must wait for another.

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Labeling conventions
Earliest Estimated Earliest
Start Duration Finish

Activity Label, Activity Description

Latest Latest
Float
Start Finish

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10 Explain how you will identify the major risks that might affect your project and
identify the strategies for minimizing each of those risks. (Dec 14,18, May
13,15,19)
Risk Evaluation
After the potential risks have been identified, the project team then evaluates the
risk based on the probability that the risk event will occur and the potential loss
associated with the event. Not all risks are equal. Some risk events are more likely to
happen than others, and the cost of a risk event can vary greatly. Evaluating the risk for
probability of occurrence and the severity or the potential loss to the project is the next
step in the risk management process.
RISK AND IMPACT

1. There is a positive correlation—both increase or decrease together—between

project risk and project complexity. A project with new and emerging technology
will have a high-complexity rating and a correspondingly high risk.
2. The project management team will assign the appropriate resources to the
technology managers to assure the accomplishment of project goals. The more
complex the technology, the more resources the technology manager typically
needs to meet project goals, and each of those resources could face unexpected
problems.
3. Risk evaluation often occurs in a workshop setting. Building on the identification
of the risks, each risk event is analyzed to determine the likelihood of occurring
and the potential cost if it did occur. The likelihood and impact are both rated as
high, medium, or low. A risk mitigation plan addresses the items that have high

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ratings on both factors—likelihood and impact.

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RISK ANALYSIS OF EQUIPMENT DELIVERY
1. A project team analyzed the risk of some important equipment not arriving to the
project on time. The team identified three pieces of equipment that were critical to
the project and would significantly increase the costs of the project if they were late
in arriving.
2. One of the vendors, who was selected to deliver an important piece of equipment, had a
history of being late on other projects. The vendor was good and often took on more
work than it could deliver on time. This risk event (the identified equipment arriving
late) was rated as high likelihood with a high impact. The other two pieces of
equipment were potentially a high impact on the project but with a low
probability of occurring.
RISK MITIGATION
After the risk has been identified and evaluated, the project team develops a risk
mitigation plan, which is a plan to reduce the impact of an unexpected event. The
project team mitigates risks in the following ways:
  
Risk avoidance
  
Risk sharing
  
Risk reduction
 
Risk transfer
Each of these mitigation techniques can be an effective tool in reducing individual risks
and the risk profile of the project. The risk mitigation plan captures the risk mitigation
approach for each identified risk event and the actions the project management team
will take to reduce or eliminate the risk.
Risk avoidance usually involves developing an alternative strategy that has a higher
probability of success but usually at a higher cost associated with accomplishing a
project task.
Risk sharing involves partnering with others to share responsibility for the risk
activities. Many organizations that work on international projects will reduce political,
legal, labor, and others risk types associated with international projects by developing a
joint venture with a company located in that country.
Risk reduction is an investment of funds to reduce the risk on a project. On
international projects, companies will often purchase the guarantee of a currency rate to
reduce the risk associated with fluctuations in the currency exchange rate. A project
manager may hire an expert to review the technical plans or the cost estimate on a
project to increase the confidence in that plan and reduce the project risk.
Risk transfer is a risk reduction method that shifts the risk from the project to another
party. The purchase of insurance on certain items is a risk transfer method. The risk is
transferred from the project to the insurance company.
11 Explain in detail about Monte Carlo Simulation.
A Monte Carlo method is a technique that involves using random numbers and
probability to solve problems. Monte Carlo simulation is a method for iteratively
evaluating a deterministic model using sets of random numbers as inputs. This method
is often used when the model is complex, nonlinear, or involves
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more than just a couple uncertain parameters. A simulation can typically involve over
10,000 evaluations of the model, a task which in the past was only practical using super
computers. The Monte Carlo method is just one of many methods for
analyzing uncertainty propagation, where the goal is to determine how random
variation, lack of knowledge, or error affects the sensitivity, performance,
or reliability of the system that is being modeled.
Monte Carlo simulation is categorized as a sampling method because the inputs are
randomly generated from probability distributions to simulate the process of sampling
from an actual population. So, we try to choose a distribution for the inputs that most
closely matches data we already have, or best represents our current state of
knowledge. The data generated from the simulation can be represented as probability
distributions (or histograms) or converted to error bars, reliability predictions, tolerance
zones, and confidence intervals. (See Figure 2).

The steps in Monte Carlo simulation corresponding to the uncertainty propagation

shown in Figure 2 are fairly simple, and can be easily implemented in Excel for simple
models. All we need to do is follow the five simple steps listed below:
Step 1: Create a parametric model, y = f(x1, x2, ..., xq).
Step 2: Generate a set of random inputs, xi1, xi2, ..., xiq.
Step 3: Evaluate the model and store the results as yi.
Step 4: Repeat steps 2 and 3 for i = 1 to n.
Step 5: Analyze the results using histograms, summary statistics, confidence intervals,

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etc.

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12 Write short notes on Resource Allocation and Cost Schedule/ What are the seven
categories of resources and explain.(Apr 19)
Resource allocation is the assignment of available resources to various uses. In the
context of an entire economy, resources can be allocated by various means, such as
markets or central planning. In project management, resource allocation or resource
management is the scheduling of activities and the resources required by those activities
while taking into consideration both the resource availability and the project time.
Nature of Resources
  
Labor –Members of the project team
  
Equipment –Workstations and other communicating and office equipments
  
Material –Items that are consumed
  
Space –Office space
  
Services –Some specialist services telecommunicating
 
Time –Offset against the other primary resource
Identifying Resource Requirements
  
What resources are required along with the expected level of demand
  
Consider each activity
 
Identify required resources

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Scheduling Resources

Allocating resources for one activity limits flexibility for resource allocation and
scheduling of other activities
Priorities resource allocation

Total float priority
Activities are ordered according to their total float .Those with the smallest float are
assigned the highest priority
Ordered list priority
  
Ordered according to predefined criteria
  
Shortest critical path –Critical activities
  
Shortest non-critical activity
  
Non-critical activity with least float
 
Non-critical activities
Map on activity plan to assess the distribution of resources required over the duration
of the project
  
Recruiting staff has cost
 
Smooth the histogram by delaying the start of some activities

Creating Critical Paths

  
Scheduling resources can create new critical paths
 
Delaying the start of an activity because of lack of resources will cause that activity

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become critical if this uses up its float.

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Manage the allocation of resources within programmers

The resources of an organization consist of people, materials, equipment, knowledge and
time. Organizations typically have limited resources; therefore, tradeoffs on what project
resources are expended and when are made every day within organizations. A resource
allocation plan is an important tool in effective management of scarce resources. The
timing of the need of those resources can be and should be determined within the project
schedules. A resource plan, which describes the type of resource needed and the timing of
that need, is critical to effective resource management. As the project schedule changes,
the resource plan must also be flexible enough to adjust as these changes occur.
Examples
Allocating resources is fairly self-explanatory. If allocating stone for building a house,
the project manager must ensure that she procures enough stone to complete the project.
Regarding leveling, if renting equipment, the project manager must ensure it will be used
steadily rather than sporadically rented and returned. If contracting carpenters, the project
manager should aim to strive to keep a set number of carpenters working at a set number
of hours for the duration of the project to ensure consistency. Carpenters may have
difficulty scheduling more sporadic hours into their schedule, meaning the firm might
then have to contract more workers, leading to inconsistent results. Meanwhile, materials
don't necessarily need to be leveled as they have been purchased rather than rented or
paid by the hour.
Cost Schedules

Calculating cost is straightforward where organization has standard cost figures for
staff and other resources. Staff costs includes not just salary, but also social security
contributions by the employer, holiday pay etc. Timesheets are often used to record actual
hours spent on each project by an individual. One issue can be how time when a staff
member is allocated and available to the project, but is not actually working on the

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project, is dealt with. Overheads e.g. space rental, service charges etc. Some overheads

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might be directly attributable to the project, in other cases a percentage of departmental
overheads may be allocated to project costs. Usage charges are some charges can be on a
‗pay as you go‘ basis e.g. telephone–attheplanning chargstage
an estimate of these may have to be made.

Cost profile

This shows how much is going to be spent in each week. This could be important
where an organization allocates project budgets by financial year or quarter and the
project straddles more than one of these financial periods
Accumulative costs
The project manager will also be concerned about planned accumulative costs. This chart
can be compared to the actual accumulative costs when controlling the project to assess
whether the project is likely to meet its cost targets.

Balancing concerns
Successful project scheduling is not a simple sequence. Because of the inter-linking of
different concerns project planning will need to be iterative. The consequences of decisions
will need to carefully assessed and plans adjusted accordingly.

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UNIT IV PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL
Framework for Management and control – Collection of data Project termination –
Visualizing progress –Cost monitoring –Earned Value Analysis- Project tracking –Change
control- Software Configuration Management –Managing contracts –Contract
Management.
PART-A
1 What are the categories of reporting?
  
Oral formal regular: Weekly or monthly progress meetings
 
 Oral formal ad hoc: End-of-stage meetings
 
 Written formal regular: job sheets, progress reports
 
 Written formal ad hoc: Exception reports, change reports
 
 Oral informal ad hoc: Canteen discussion, social interaction
2 What are the activities that are carried out in project termination process?
  
Project survey
 
 Collection of objective information
 
 Debriefing meeting
 
 Final project review
 
 Result publication
3 What are the reasons for project termination?
  
Project is completed successfully and handed over to the customer.
 
 Incomplete requirements
 
 Lack of resources

 
Some key technologies used in the project have become obsolete during
project execution.
 
Economics of the project has changed.

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4 Draw the project control cycle model.(May 13)
Start

Publish initial plan

Gather project
information
Publish revised
plan
Compare progress
vs Take remedial
targets action
No
satisfactory
Yes
No
• Project
completed

Yes
End project

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5 Draw the project reporting structures.

6 What is the use of check points in monitoring? (Dec 12)

It is essential to set a series of checkpoints in the initial activity plan. Checkpoints may be
regular, tied to specific events such as production of a report or other deliverable.
7 Name the popular visual tools used for monitoring and tracking the project
progress/ How to visualize progress(Dec 12, May 12,13,18)

  
Gantt chart
  
Slip chart
  
Timeline
  
Ball chart
8 What is Gantt chart?

One of the simplest and oldest techniques for tracking project progress. An
activity bar chart indicating scheduled activity dates and durations. Reported
progress is recorded on the chart by shading activity bars .Today cursor
 provides
 visual indication of which activities are ahead or behind schedule.

Disadvantage: do not show clearly the slippage of the project completion date
 through the life of the project.
9 What is slip chart? Mention its use. (Dec 14)
A slip chart is a very alternative favored by some project managers who believe it
provides a more striking visual indication of those activities that are not progressing to
schedule-the more the slip line bends, the greater variation from the plan. Additional
slip lines are added at intervals and, as they built up, the project manager will gain an
idea to whether the project is improving or not. A very jagged line indicates a need for
rescheduling.

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10 What is the timeline chart?

The timeline chart is a method of recording and displaying
 the way in which targets
 have changed throughout the duration of the project.

Planned timeis plotted along the horizontal axis and elapsed time down the
 vertical axis.

The lines meandering down the chart represent scheduled completion dates

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11 State Earned value analysis (May 14,18,Dec 18)

Earned value analysis is based on assigninga value to each task or work package
 based on the original expenditure forecasts.

The assigned value is the original budgeted cost for the item and
 is known as the
 planned value (PV) or budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS)

The total value credited to a project at any point
 is known as the earned value
 (EV)or budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP)
12 List the methods for assigning an earned value in earned value analysis (Dec 11,19)

The 0/100 technique: where a task is assigned a value of zero until that is
 completed when it is given a value of 100 %.

The 50/50 technique: where a task is assigned a value of 50 % until that is
 completed when it is given a value of 100 %.

The 75/25 technique: where a task is assigned a value of 75 % until that is
 completed when it is given a value of 100 %.

The milestone
 technique: Where a task is given a value based on the achievement of
 milestones.

The percentage
 complete: where a task is given a value based on the amount of work
 completed.
13 What forms the basis for cost performance measurement using Earned Value?
Three quantities form the basis for cost performance measurement using Earned Value
Management. They are
  
Budgeted Cost of Work Scheduled (BCWS) or Planned Value (PV)
  
Budgeted Cost of Work Performed (BCWP) or Earned Value (EV) and
  
Actual Cost of Work Performed (ACWP) or Actual Cost (AC).
14 Define Software Configuration Management
Software configuration management (SCM) is a software-engineering discipline
comprising the tools and techniques (processes or methodology) that a company
uses to manage change to its software assets.
15 What are the two principal activities in configuration management process?
  
Configuration Identification and Configuration Control
16 Why Software Configuration Management in a project is essential?
The following are some problems that can occur if a proper configuration
management System is not used.
  
Problems associated with concurrent access
  
Undoing changes
  
System accounting
  
Handling variants
  
Accurate determination of project status
 
Preventing unauthorized access to the work products.

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17 Define Configuration Identification.
Configuration identification involves deciding which parts of the system should be
kept under configuration management. Project managers normally classify the work
products associated with a software development process into three main categories
controlled, pre-controlled and uncontrolled.

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18 Define Configuration Control. (Nov/Dec 2019)
Configuration Control is part of a configuration management system that most directly
affects the day-to-day operations of developers. This activity is used to ensure that the
changes to a system occur smoothly.
19 How work products are classified in software development process?
  
Controlled
  
Pre-controlled
  
uncontrolled
20 Define managing contracts. (Nov/Dec 2018)

Contract management or contract administration is themanagement of contracts
 made with customers, vendors, partners, or employees.

Contract management includes negotiating the terms and conditions in
contracts and ensuring compliance with the terms and conditions, as well as
documenting and agreeing on any changes that may arise during its
 implementation or execution.

It can be summarized as the process of systematically and efficiently managing
contract creation, execution, and analysis for the purpose of maximizing

 financial and operational performance and minimizing risk.
21 Define BCWP, BCWS.
The total value credited to a project at any point is known as the earned value or
budgeted cost of work performed(BCWP) and this can be represented as a value or as a
percentage of the BCWS
22 What is budget variance?
Budget variance can be calculated as ACWP-BCWS and indicates the degree to which
actual costs differ from those planned where the actual cost of each task can be
collected as actual cost of work performed (ACWP).
23 What are the types of contract?
  
Fixed Price Contracts
  
Time And Materials Contracts
  
Fixed Price Per Unit Delivered Contracts
24 List out the contract for a completed software package.

  Bespoke system-It‘s a system thatspecificallyiscreatedforone customer. 

 
 Off-the-shelf-this is sometimes referred to as shrink wrapped software.

Customized Off-the-shelf (COTS) software-this is a  basic core system, which is
 modified to meet the needs of a particular customer.
25 Define fixed price contracts.
The price is fixed when the contract is signed. If there are no changes in the contract
terms, this is the price they pay on completion. When the contract is to construct a
software system, the detailed requirements analysis must already have been carried
out. Once the development is under way the customer cannot change their
requirements without renegotiating the price of the contract.

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26 List the advantages of fixed price contracts.
  
Known customer expenditure
  
Supplier motivation
  
Higher prices to allow for contingency
  
Difficulties in modifying requirements
  
Upward pressure on the cost of changes.
  
Threat to system quality
27 List the advantages of time and materials contracts.
  
Ease of changing requirements and Lack of price pressure
28 List the disadvantages of fixed price contracts.
  
Higher prices to allow for contingency
  
Difficulties in modifying requirements
  
Upward pressure on the cost of changes
  
Threat to system quality
29 Define time and materials contracts.
In time and material contracts the customer is charged at a fixed rate per unit of effort,
for ex per staff-hour. The supplier may provide an initial estimate of the cost based on
their current understanding of thethe basiscustfor final payment.

30 List the disadvantages of time and materials contracts.

  
Customer liability
  
Lack of incentives for supplier
31 Define fixed price per unit delivered contracts.
This is associated with function point (FP) counting. The size of the system to be
delivered is calculated or estimated at the outset of the project. The size could be
estimated in lines of code, but FPs can be more easily derived from requirements
documents.
32 List the disadvantages of fixed price per unit delivered contracts.
  
Difficulties with software size measurement
  
Changing requirements
33 List the advantages of fixed price per unit delivered contracts.
  
Customer understanding
 
 Comparability pricing schedules
 
 Emerging functionality
 
 Supplier efficiency
 
 Life-cycle range
34 What is the process of Evaluation?
  
Scrutiny of the proposal documents
 
 Interviewing suppliers representatives
 
 Demonstration
 
 Site Visits
 
Practical tests.

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PART-B

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1 Explain the framework for Management and control in detail.
CREATING THE FRAMEWORK
Exercising control over a project and ensuring that targets are met is a matter of regular
monitoring, finding out what is happening, and comparing it with current targets. If
there is a mismatch between the planned outcomes and the actual one then either
preplanning is needed to bring the project back on target or the target will have to be
revised. A model of the project control cycle is illustrated in Figure 6.1

Responsibility:
The overall responsibility for ensuring adequate progress on a project is often the role
of the project-steering committee or Project Board. Day-to-day responsibility will be
with the project manager and, in all but the smallest of projects; aspects of this can be
delegated to team leaders. Figure 6.2 illustrates the typical reporting structure found
with medium and large projects. With small projects employing less number of staff
individual team members usually report directly to the project manager. But in most

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cases team leaders will collate repor
summaries to the project manager. These, in turn, will be incorporated into project-level
reports for the steering committee and, via them or directly, progress reports for the
client. Reporting may be oral or written, formal or informal, or regular or ad hoc. Some
examples of each type are tabulated in Table 6.1.

With small projects employing less number of staff individual team members Usually
report directly to the project manager. But in most cases team leaders will collate reports
on their section‘s progress an
These, in turn, will be incorporated into project-level reports for the steering committee
and, via them or directly, progress reports for the client. Reporting may be oral or
written, formal or informal, or regular or ad hoc. Some examples of
each type are tabulated in Table 6.1.

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Assessing the Progress

Progress assessment will be made on the basis of information collected and collated at
 regular intervals or when specific events occur.

Wherever possible, this information  will be objective and tangible - whether or not a
 particular report has been delivered.

Progress assessment will have to relyon the judgment of the team members who
are carrying out the project activities.

Setting Checkpoints
A series of checkpoints in the initial activity plan need to be set. Checkpoints maybe:
  
Regular (Daily, for example)
 
Tied to specific events such as the production of a report or other deliverable

Taking Snapshots

The frequency with which a manager needs to receive information about progress
will depend upon the size and degree of risk of the project or that part of the project
 under their control.

Team leaders, for example, need to assess progress
 daily whereas project managers may
 find weekly or monthly reporting appropriate.

In general, the higher the level, the less frequent and less detailed the reporting
needs to be. A formal  weekly collection of information from staff carrying out
activities is favored.
2 Discuss in detail about collection of data/For a software project, draw an activity
chart with task dependency table. Derive the critical path for completion of the
project based on task dependency table. Derive critical path for completion of the
project. Based on task dependency diagram allocate resource and derive Activity
Chart. (Nov/Dec 18)
DATA COLLECTION
Managers will try to break down long activities into more controllable tasks of one or
two weeks‘duration.However, it will still be necessary to gather information about
partially completed activities and, in particular, forecasts of how much work is left to
be completed. It may be difficult to make such forecasts accurately.
Where there is a series of products, partial completion of activities is easier to estimate.
Counting the number of record specifications or screen layouts produced, for
example, can provide a reasonable measure of progress.
Partial Completion Reporting
All organizations use standard accounting systems with weekly timesheets to charge staff
time to individual jobs. The staff time booked to a project indicates the work carried out
and the charges to the project. However, it does not, tell the project manager what has been
produced or whether tasks are on schedule. It is therefore common to adapt or enhance
existing accounting data collection systems to meet the needs of project control. Weekly
time sheets, for example, are frequently adapted by breaking jobs down to activity level
and requiring information about work done in addition to time spent. Figure 6.3 illustrates
a typical example of such a report form, in this case
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requesting information about likely slippage of completion dates as well as estimates of
completeness. Asking for estimated completion times frequently should be avoided as
this may affect the importance of the originally scheduled targets.

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Risk Reporting
One method overcoming the objections to partial completion reporting is to avoid
asking for estimated completion dates, estimates of the likelihood of meeting the
planned target date. One way of doing this is the traffic light method. This consists of
the following steps:
  
Identify the key elements for assessment in a piece of work (first level)
 
 Break these key elements into constituent elements (second level)


Assess each of the second-level
 elements on the scal ‗not on targetrecoverable‘,but
 and red for ‗not difficulty‘
  
Review all the second level assessments to arrive at first level assessments
 
Review first and second level assessments to produce an overall assessment
Each activity is broken into a number of component parts and deciding whether a
further breakdown is needed and get the team members to complete a return at the end
of each week.
Traffic-light assessment highlights only risk of non-achievement; it is not an attempt to
estimate work done or to quantify expected delays. Following completion of
assessment forms for all activities, the project manager uses these as a basis for
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evaluating the overall status of the project. Any critical activity classified as amber or

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red will require further consideration and often leads to a revision of the project
schedule. Non-critical activities are likely to be considered as a problem if they are
classified as red, especially if their entire float is likely to be consumed. The same is
illustrated in Figure 6.4.

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3Explain the various methods for visualizing the progress of a project.
/ Analyze the methods used for project tracking. (Dec 12,18,19,May 13,15,18,19)
VISUALIZING PROGRESS
Once data has been collected about project progress, a manager needs some way of
presenting that data to greatest effect. Some of these methods such as Gantt charts
provide a static picture, a single snapshot, whereas others such as time line charts try
to show how the project has progressed and changed over time.
The Gantt Chart
Gantt chart is a technique used for tracking project progress. This is essentially an
activity bar chart indicating scheduled activity dates and durations frequently
augmented with activity floats. Reported progress is recorded on the chart by shading
activity bars and a ‗today cursor‘ prov activities are ahead or behind schedule. Figure
6.5 shows an example of Gantt chart as at the end of Tuesday of week 17.

‗Code & test module D‘ has been complet module A‘ appears also to be ahead of s two
modules are behind schedule.

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The Slip Chart

A slip chart illustrated in Figure 6.6 is an alternative favored by some project managers
who believe it provides a more striking visual indication of those activities that are not
progressing to schedule. The more the slip line bends, the greater the variation from the
plan. Additional slip lines are added at intervals and, as they build up, the project
manager will gain an idea as to whether the project is improving subsequent slip lines
bend less or not. A very jagged slip line indicates a need for rescheduling.

Ball Charts
A more prominent way of showing whether or not targets have been met is to use a ball
chart. The same is illustrated in Figure 6.7. In this version of the ball chart, the circles
indicate start and completion points for activities. The circles initially contain the

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original scheduled dates. Whenever revisions are produced, these are added as second

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dates in the appropriate circle until an activity is actually started or completed, when
the relevant date replaces the revised estimate (in bold italic in Figure 6.7).

Circles will contain only two dates, the original and most recent target dates, or the
original and actual dates. Where the actual start or finish date for an activity is later
than the target date, the circle is colored red (dark grey in Figure 6.7) - where an actual
date is on time or earlier than the target then the circle is colored green (light grey in
Figure 6.7). Such charts are frequently placed in a prominent position and the color-
coded balls provide a constant reminder to the project team. Where more than one
team is working in close proximity, such a highly visible record of achievement can
encourage competitiveness between teams.
Another advantage of ball charts over Gantt and slip charts is that they are relatively
easy to keep up to date. Only the dates and possibly colors need to be changed,
whereas the others need to be redrawn each time target dates are revised.

The Timeline
One major disadvantage of Gantt chart, Slip chart and Ball chart is that they do not
slow clearly the slippage of the project completion date through the life of the project.
Knowing the current state of a project helps in revising plans to bring it back on target,
but analyzing and understanding trends helps to avoid slippage in future projects. The
timeline chart is a method of recording and displaying the way in which targets have
changed throughout the duration of the project.
Figure 6.8 illustrates a timeline chart for a project at the end of the sixth week. Planned
time is plotted along the horizontal axis and elapsed time down the vertical axis. The
lines meandering down the chart represent scheduled activity completion date. During
the start of the project ‗analyze existing system‘ Tuesday of week 3, ‗obtain user require

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the final activity, by Tuesday of week 9, and so on.

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At the end of the first week the project manager reviews these target dates and leaves
them as they are - lines are therefore drawn vertically downwards from the target dates
to the end of week one on the actual time axis. At the end of week 2, the project manager
decidesbtain thatuser ‗orequirements‘ will week 6. So the project manager therefore
extends that activity line diagonally to reflect this. The other activity completion targets
are also delayed correspondingly. By the Tuesday of week 3, ‗analyze existing system‘ is
puts a blob on the diagonal timeline to indicate that this has happened. At the end of
week 3 the project manager decides to keep to the existing targets. At the end of week 4
the project manager adds another three days to

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4 Give the importance of cost monitoring in detail.
COST MONITORING
Expenditure monitoring is a vital component of project control because it provides an
indication of the effort that has gone into a project. A project might be on time but only
because more money has been spent on activities than originally budgeted. A
cumulative expenditure chart such as that shown in Figure 6.9 provides a simple
method of comparing actual and planned expenditure. Figure 6.9 illustrates a project
that is running late or one that is on time but has shown substantial costs savings. The
current status of the project activities has to be taken into account before attempting to
interpret the meaning of recorded expenditure. Cost charts become useful if we add

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projected future costs calculated by adding the estimated costs of uncompleted work to
the costs already incurred. Where a computer based planning tool is used, revision of
cost schedules is generally provided automatically once actual expenditure has been
recorded.

Project Management
Project management may be viewed as the process of consolidating different
components of the a project activities under a Project Manager for the purpose of
effective control to accomplish predefined management objective(s) within budget and
set time. It is vital to appreciate tha activities or operations; it is a one-off or an
impermanent activities with time boundary. Hence, a project is a temporary company or
an organization‘s accomplish a distinctive Values, development, Products, Service or
result with a defined beginning and end which usually may be constrained by funding,
time, deliverables, force majeure or political atmosphere crucial to meet your company
goals and objectives, which will bring about the needed development and growth. Tha

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why it is very crucial to plan it properly and allocate the right resources and materials
early on. Any mistake in the planning process can result to delays, or budget overrun
or the non-completion of the project (at set time).
Project Definition
This is where the expectation or goal of the project management objective is developed
and defined without any ambiguity. This phase also involves setting realistic
expectations and identifying all the potential constraints that will be planned against to
mitigate. All the stakeholders in a project including the Board (if applicable), the CEO,
Management Team, Consultant (if required), project manager, his team and client (if
applicable) must be involved in defining the project.
Project Planning
This is to plan on how best to achieve the set goal as defined above. It includes selecting
and designating people to appropriate roles, allocating resources, develop project time-
line/durations and setting milestones. The project manager should also analyze how
long each task will take to complete and how it will affect the deadline. Additional staff
can be assigned to work at the critical points of the project if this is required.
Project Execution
Here involves implementing the above plan that has been developed by the project
manager and other stakeholders. The project manager has to manage the project
constraints such as the budget, people, schedule, and project scope effectively. Each
team member must start working on the tasks that were assigned to them.
Project Control
To ensure that the project is progressing properly, there must be controls in place. The
project manager must know the details o submit a report of whenever milestones are
completed. This facilitates the effective administration of the project.

Project Completion
If the project meets expectations are m close the project. The project manager will
present the completed work to the client or the Company Executive Management.

No matter the nature of the project, it is crucial to follow the above sequence to ensure
effective project management leveraging on all the basic steps above. This will ensure
the seamless flow of its implementation and control of project activities to stay within
schedule and budget. Now, let us look at the Project Cost Control as it effects Project
Management:
Project Cost Control
Project cost control could be seen as one of the most important project management
activities needed to ensure your project is delivered within the cost expectations laid
down by the project's definition as discussed above. Almost all the projects need to be
guided right throughout in order to achieve the expected management objective(s) at
the end of the project. The Project Manager and his team is fully responsible for the
project; most importantly the project manager needs to be able to carry out effective
time and cost control to stay within budget. Project management would not be effective

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at all if your project manager fails in this respect, as it would essentially determine

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whether or not your organization will save cost even while achieving the project
objectives within the time frame. There are, however, several techniques that can be
used for this purpose. They include:
Project Budget
You would need to ideally make a budget at the beginning of the planning session with
regard to the project you have. It is this budget that you would have to help you for all
payments that need to be made and costs that you will incur during the project life
cycle. The making of this budget therefore entails a lot of research and critical thinking.
Like any other budget, you would always have to leave room for adjustments as the
costs may not remain the same right through the period of the project. Adhering to the
project budget at all times is key to the profit from project.
Cost Tracking
Keeping track of all actual costs is also equally important as any other technique. Here,
it is best to prepare a budget that is time-based. This will help you keep track of the
budget of a project in each of its phases. The actual costs will have to be tracked against
the periodic targets that have been set out in the budget. These targets could be on a
monthly or weekly basis or even yearly if the project will go on for long.
This is much easier to work with rather than having one complete budget for the entire
period of the project. If any new work is required to be carried out, you would need to
make estimations for this and see if it can be accommodated with the final amount in
the budget. If not, you may have to work on necessary arrangements for 'Change
Requests', where the client will pay for the new work or the changes.
Time Management
Another effective technique would be effective time management. Although this
technique does apply to various management areas, it is very important with regard to
project cost control.
Project Change Control
Project change control is yet another crucial technique in cost control. Change control
systems are essential to take into account any potential variations that could occur
during the course of the project. This is due to the fact that each change to the scope of
the project will have an impact on cost and the deadlines of the deliverables, so the
changes may increase project cost by increasing the effort needed for the project.
Collecting Project Cost Control Data
Most organizations have some form of purchasing system for procuring goods and
services in order to function as a business. Such systems are capable of tracking
purchase requisitions, purchase orders, goods received/delivery notes as well as
invoice payment status. Consequently both Committed and Actual Cost information
can be obtained directly from these purchasing systems. Your flow of purchase orders
through the system is likely to coincide with every other purchase order which your
organization generates, so it's imperative that some form of reference or code is used to
differentiate your project commitments from all the other commitments your
organization regularly makes. It just makes collecting the data easier and more accurate.
Simple with today‘ssystem. computeri
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5 Explain the method Earned value Analysis. (Dec 14,18,19, May 15)
EARNED VALUE ANALYSIS
Earned value analysis is based on assig identified in the work breakdown structure
(WBS) based on the original expenditure forecasts.

The assigned value is the original budgeted cost for the item and is known as the
planned value (PV) or budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS). A task that has not
started is assigned the value zero and when it has been completed, it, and hence the
project, is credited with the value of the task. The total value credited to a project at any
point is known as the earned value (EV) or budgeted cost of work performed (BCWP)
and this can be represented as a value or as a percentage of the PV. Where tasks have
been started but are not yet complete, some consistent method of assigning an earned
value must be applied. Common methods in software projects are:

The 0/100 Technique: A task is assigned a value of zero until such
 time that it is
 completed when it is given a value of 100% of the budgeted value

The 50/50 Technique: A task is assigned a value of 50% of its value as soon as it is
 started and then given a value of 100% once it is complete

The Milestone Technique: A task is given a value based on the achievement  of
milestones that have been assigned values as part of the original budget plan
The 0/100 technique is the preferred technique. The 50/50 technique can give a
false sense of security by over-valuing the reporting of activity starts. The milestone
technique might be appropriate for activities with a long duration estimate

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The project is not expected to be credited with any earned value until day 34, when the
activity ‗specify overall system‘ is t
consume 34 person days and it will therefore be credited with 34 person-days of earned
value when it has been completed. The other steps in the baseline budget chart coincide
with the scheduled completion dates of other activities.

Monitoring Earned Value

Once the baseline budget has been created the next task is to monitor earned value as the
project progresses. This is done by monitoring the completion of tasks or activity starts
and milestone achievements. Figure 6.13 illustrates earned value analysis at the start of
week 12 of the project. It can be inferred that the earned value (EV) is clearly lagging
behind the baseline budget, indicating that the project is behind schedule. By analyzing
Figure 6.13 can it can easily be told what has gone wrong with her project

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and what the consequences might be.

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As well as recording EV, the actual cost of each task can be collected as actual cost (AC).
This is also known as the actual cost of work performed (ACWP). The same is
illustrated in Figure 6.14, which, in this case, records the values as percentages of the
total budgeted cost.

Figure 6.14 illustrates the following performance statistics, which can be shown
directly or derived from the earned value chart.
Schedule Variance
The schedule variance is measured in cost terms as EV - PV and indicates the degree to
which the value of completed work differs from that planned. Figure 6.14 also indicates
the schedule variance in time which indicates the degree to which the project is behind
schedule. A negative SV means the project is behind schedule.
Cost Variance
Cost variance as computed as EV- AC and indicates the difference between the
budgeted cost and the actual cost of completed work. It is also an indicator of the
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accuracy of the original cost estimates. A negative CV means the project is over cost.

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Performance Ratios
Two ratios are commonly tracked. They are listed below:
The cost performance index (SPK = EV / AC) the schedule performance index (SPI
= EV / PV). They can be thought of as a ‗va
A value greater than one indicates that work is being completed better than planned,
whereas value of less than one means that work is costing more than and / or
preceding more slowly than planned. CPI can be used to produce a revised cost
estimate for the project or estimate at completion (EAC). EAC is calculated as
BAC/CPI where budget at completion BAC is the current projected budget for the
project. Figure illustrates an earned value chart with revised forecasts.

• Estimate at completion EAC= BAC/CPI (Budget at completion)

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6 Discuss in detail about project termination.
Project termination is one of the most serious decisions a project management team and
its control board have to take. It causes frustration for those stakeholders who sincerely
believed - and in most cases still believe –that the project could produce the results they
expected, or still expect. The project manager and his or her team members, very
important stakeholders of the project as well, will feel that they personally failed. They
also will be scared of negative consequences for their careers; their motivation and
consequently, productivity will decrease significantly.
In contrast to that, we are convinced that conscious project termination at the right
time, based on clear and well communicated criteria, profoundly discussed with the
whole project management team, and finally mutually decided, is one of the boldest
actions the involved or affected members of an organization can take.

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What can we do to avoid those negative consequences? Here, we list what we hear in
our training, consulting, and coaching sessions, together with our own experiences:
 A clearly communicated strategy of the organization 

 Clearly communicated reasons why and how the project supports that strategy,
and under what conditions it does not 

 Clearly set and communicated project success criteria (in terms of scope,
schedule, and budget), if possible clearly set and communicated termination
criteria 

 High level management attention, even for smaller projects, and even then when
everything still seems to be on track 

 Periodical review meetings with the control board 

 Open discussions with the control board about problems and possible solutions
or alternatives, including termination 

 In case the project has to be terminated, a clear commitment of the control board
and high level management towards the project management team in order to
enable the team to follow the project closure procedures 

 Upon successful termination, similar rewards and incentives for the project
manager and his or her team as with regular project closure 
Reasons Why Project Termination Becomes Necessary
 Technical reasons 

 Requirements or specifications of the project result are not clear or unrealistic 

 Requirements or specifications change fundamentally so that the underlying
contract cannot be changed accordingly 

 Lack of project planning, especially risk management 

 The intended result or product of the project becomes obsolete, is not any longer
needed 

 Adequate human resources, tools, or material are not available 

 The project profit becomes significantly lower than expected, due to too high
project cost or too low project revenue 

 The parent organization does not longer exist 

 The parent organization changes its strategy, and the project does not
support the new strategy 

 Force majeure (e.g. earthquake, flooding, etc.) 

 Necessary conditions disappear 

 Lack of management support 

 Lack of customer support 
Whenever along the life cycle of a project it becomes clear that we have to terminate it,
there will be achievements we need to document. The least achievement is new
knowledge and experience about what does not work. We need to document this so
that the organization does not run into a similar situation again. Therefore, we
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emphasize again that it is vital to run the regular project closure procedures for a
project we have to terminate. As such, adequate project termination marks successful
project management.
7 Explain change control.(Nov 18,19,Apr 19)
This is the process of reviewing all change requests, approving changes and managing
changes to the deliverables, project documents and the project plan. It is conducted
from project initiation through completion because no matter how carefully planned a
project has been, changes will need to be made throughout its life cycle. This is one of
the most important areas of the project because the cost of implementing changes goes
up as the project progresses. Therefore, it is best to make essential changes as soon as
possible in the project.
Any stakeholder involved with the project may request changes. For example, end-
users may realize that their requirements have changed or testing of a product may
show that it is inappropriate in some unforeseen way. The business may be affected by
changes in legislation, changes in government policy or changes in business strategy. It
is also possible that project team members may believe that an emerging technology
may offer a better solution to that originally planned or that a product just might not
work the way that it was supposed to.
All of these potential changes need a process to control them and their effect on the
project. This process, called change control, should ensure that proposed changes are
interpreted in terms of their potential effect on project timescales, costs, benefits,
quality and personnel.
This means that although they may be initiated verbally, they should always be
recorded in written form and entered into a change management system as a formal
change request. As such, they will be subject to the process specified in the change
control system and must be either approved or rejected.
If a change request or document update request is raised, then an impact analysis
should be performed. This process looks at the knock-on effects of the change on other
products, and also the effect if the changes are not implemented. This decision is
usually taken by the project manager or a change control board (CCB) responsible for
approving or rejecting change requests. The purpose of the impact analysis is to arrive
at a balanced view of the effect of the proposed change on the projects ability to satisfy
its mandate. This will enable project management to decide whether to proceed with
the change or not.
Approved change requests can require new or revised cost estimates, activity
sequences, schedule dates, resource requirements, and analysis of risk response
alternatives. The applied level of change control is dependent upon the application
area, complexity of the specific project, contract requirements, and the context and
environment in which the project is performed.

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These changes will result from both external influences as well as problems that arise
within the project environment. The four main sources of change are:
1) Environmental: resulting from changes in legislation, government policy, or business
strategy.
2) Organizational: High-level business decisions may change the basic terms of
reference of the project - for example, there may be a change to the overall scope of the
project.
3) End-User: resulting from changes in customer requirements. It is also possible that
feedback gained during the review or testing of a product may show that it is
unsuitable in some unexpected way.
4) Technical: New technology may offer a better solution to that originally planned.
Alternatively, technical problems may prevent a product from working in the way that
it was supposed to.
All of these potential changes need a process to control them and their effect on the
project. This process, called change control, should ensure that proposed changes are
interpreted in terms of their potential effect on project timescales, costs, benefits,
quality, and personnel.

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Where there is a proposed alteration to the project's products, change control should
analyze the change and assess its impact, prioritize and plan the necessary work, and
finally control its implementation.
Any person associated with a project should be able to raise any concern they have at
any time. The concern may involve a perceived problem or a suggestion for an
improvement to some area of the work, documentation, or project organization. These
issues should be reviewed at regular meetings.

There are three possible outcomes when an issue is considered:

1. A change to the design or features of a product may be agreed. This will mean
changing the way the product is specified in the plans and updating any costs and
timescales accordingly. An impact analysis should also be performed. This process
looks at the knock-on effects of the change on other deliverables, and also the effect if
the changes are not implemented. The purpose of the impact analysis is to arrive at a
balanced view of the effect of the proposed change on the project's ability to satisfy its
mandate. This will enable the project manager to decide whether to proceed with the
change or not.
2. The proposed change is rejected because it is not felt to represent a significant
concern.
3. The third option is unusual but it does occasionally happen that a deliverable does
not agree with its specification and changing the specification is a better solution than
changing the deliverable.
Where changing the deliverable is thought to be the best option, the project manager
should use the impact analysis to assess the change in terms of its effect on timescales,
cost, benefit, quality, personnel, and risk and to decide at what level the decision to
proceed should be taken. He or she should then determine whether or not the proposed
change is significant enough to be referred back to the sponsor.
Change control meetings involve the CCB described previously. The roles and
responsibilities of these boards are clearly defined and agreed upon by appropriate
stakeholders and documented in the change management plan. CCB decisions are
documented and communicated to the stakeholders for information and follow-up
actions. These involve people who are responsible for managing the project work
including the project manager, the project sponsor, selected project team members,
selected stakeholders, anyone with responsibility for any of the project management

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processes, and others as needed.

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Collective decision-making is very important area of project management that can
make or break this part of the project. It will involve meetings between the project
manager, the team and other stakeholders in order to make decisions about the activity
definitions and associated estimates. How well these meetings are conducted will have
a major impact on how smoothly the project runs.
8 Explain about software configuration management.(Nov/Dec 18,19)
Throughout development, software consists of a collection of items (such as programs,
data and documents) that can easily be changed. During software development, the
design, code, and even requirements are often changed, and the changes occur at any
time during the development. This easily changeable nature of software and the fact
that changes often take place require that changes be done in a controlled manner.
Software configuration management (SCM) is the discipline for systematically
controlling the changes that take place during development. Software configuration
management is a process independent of the development process largely because most
development models cannot accommodate change at any time during development.
SCM can be considered as having three major components:

  Software configuration identification 

 Change control 

 Status accounting and auditing 
Configuration identification:
The first requirement for any change management is to have clearly agreed-on basis for
change. That is, when a change is done, it should be clear to what changes has been
applied. This requires baselines to be established. A baseline change is the changing of
the established baseline, which is controlled by SCM.
After baseline changes the state of the software is defined by the most recent baseline
and the changes that were made. Some of the common baselines are functional or
requirements baseline, design baseline, and product or system baseline. Functional or
requirement baseline is generally the requirements document that specifies the
functional requirements for the software. Design baseline consists of the different
components in the software and their designs. Product or system baseline represents
the developed system.
It should be clear that a baseline is established only after the product is relatively stable.
Though the goal of SCM is to control the establishment and changes to these baselines,
treating each baseline as a single unit for the purpose of change is undesirable, as the
change may be limited to a very small portion of the baseline.
Change control:
Most of the decisions regarding the change are generally taken by the configuration
control board (CCB), which is a group of people responsible for configuration
management, headed by the configuration manager. For smaller projects, the CCB
might consist of just one person. A change is initiated by a change request.
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The reason for change can be anything. However, the most common reasons are
requirement changes, changes due to bugs, platform changes, and enhancement
changes. The CR for change generally consists of three parts. The first part describes the
change, reason for change, the SCIs that are affected, the priority of the change, etc.
The second part, filled by the CM, describes the decision taken by the CCB on this CR,
the action the CM feels need to be done to implement this change and any other
comments the CM may have. The third part is filled by the implementer, which later
implements the change.
Status accounting and auditing:
For status accounting, the main source of information is the CRs and FRs themselves.
Generally, a field in the CR/FR is added that specifies its current status. The status
could be active, complete, or not scheduled. Information about dates and efforts can
also be added to the CR, the information from the CRs/FRs can be used to prepare a
summary, which can be used by the project manager and the CCB to track all the
changes.
9 Discuss the steps in managing the contracts.(May 13)
A contract is an agreement between two parties that creates an obligation to perform
(or not perform) a particular duty.
A legally enforceable contract requires.

Where equipment is being supplied  then, in English law, this may be regarded as a
 contract for the supply of goods.

In the case of the supply of software this may be regarded as supplying
 service or
the granting of a license to use the software, which remains in the
ownership of the supplier.
IS2207 approach to the acquisition and supply of software
  
Major process relating to software
  
Acquisition
  
supply
  
Operation
  
Maintenance
  
development
  
Acquisition process

It is the set of procedures that a customer for software should follow in order to
obtain that software from an external source.

Supply process
It is the set of procedures that the supplier should adopt in order to satisfy
the acquirer‘s needs.
10 What are the stages in contract management?(Dec 11,13,Apr 19)
Stages in contract Management
  
Requirement analysis
  
External consultant can draw up a requirements document.
 
Check requirements reflects their needs.
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  
Functional requirements ,quality requirements
  
Evaluation plan
  
Check mandatory requirement
  
Consider desirable requirement
  
Calculate the cost for the whole life time of the proposed system
  
Increase in quality-increase in cost
 
Invitation to tender

It contains the requirement document with supporting letter which specifies how to
prepare the response
  
Deadline specified
  
Evaluation of proposal
  
Scrutiny of the proposal document
  
Interviewing suppliers representatives
  
Demonstration
  
Site visit
  
Practical test

Typical terms in contract management
  
Form of agreement
  
Goods and services to be supplied
  
Environment
  
Customer commitment
  
Standards
  
Timetable
 
Price and payment methods

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11 Discuss the types of contract with example. (Dec 12,May 12,13,15,18,19)
A contract is an agreement between two parties that creates an obligation to
perform (or not perform) a particular duty.
Types of contract
  
Fixed price contracts
  
Time and materials contract
 
Fixed price per delivered unit contracts
Fixed price contracts
As the name implies, in this situation a price is fixed when the contract is
signed. In other words when the contract is to construct a s/w system, the
detailed requirements analysis must already have been carried out.
Advantages

If there are few subsequent
 changes to the original requirements, the customers
 will have a known outlay

the supplier has 
a motivation to manage the delivery of the system in a cost-
effective manner
Disadvantages
  
Higher prices to allow for contingency:
  
Difficulties in modifying requirements
 
Upward presence on the cost of changes

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
Threat to system quality
Time and materials contracts
In type of contract, the customer is charged at a fixed rate per unit of
effort. Advantages
 
 Ease of changing requirements

Changes to requirements are dealt with easily, where a project has a research
 orientation and the direction of the project changes as options
 are explored, then
this can be an appropriate method of calculating payment.
 
 Lack of price pressure

The lack
of price pressure can allow better quality software to be produced.
Disadvantages
  
Customer liability

The customer absorbs all the risks associated with poorly defined or changing
requirements.
 
Lack of incentives for supplier: the supplier has no incentive to work in a cost-
effective manner or to control the scope of the system to be delivered.
Fixed price per unit delivered

 This is often associated with function point (FP) counting. The  size of the system to be
delivered is calculated or estimated at the outset of the project.
  
The size of the system to be delivered might be estimated in lines of code.
 
 A price per unit is also quoted.

The final price is then
 the unit price multiplied by the number of unit sit
delivered contracts
Advantages

 Customer understanding: the customer can see how the price is calculated and
how it will vary with changed requirements
  
Comparability : pricing schedules can be completed

Emerging functionality:
 the supplier does not bear the risk of increasing
 functionality

Supplier efficiency:- the supplier stillhas an incentive to deliver the required
 functionality in a cost-effective manner

Life-cycle range: - the requirements do not have to be definitively specified at the
outset. Thus the development
 contract can cover both the analysis and design
stages of the project.
Disadvantages
 
Difficulties with software size measurements
Changing requirements
Another way to categorize contract

Open

Restricted

Negotiated
Open tendering process

Any supplier can bid to supply the goods and services
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
Invitation to tender must be considered and evaluated in the same way as all

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others
Restricted tendering process

In this case
, there are bids only from suppliers who have been invited by the
customer
 
Reduce the number of suppliers
Negotiated procedure

Single supplier might be justified
UNIT V STAFFING IN SOFTWARE PROJECTS
Managing people –Organizational behavior –Best methods of staff selection –Motivation –
The Oldham-Hackman job characteristic model –Ethical and Programmed concerns –
Working in teams –Decision making –Team structures –Virtual teams –Communications
genres –Communication plans.
PART-A
1 What are the concerns in Managing People In Software Environments?
  
Staff Selection
 
 Staff Development
 
 Staff Motivation
 
 Well-being Staff during course of project
2 What are the three basic objectives of organizational behavior? (May 14)
  
To select the best people for the job.
 
 To instruct them in the best methods.
 
 To give instructions in the form of higher wages to the best workers.
3 How do you select the right persons for the job? (Dec 12)
There is no perfect answer, but the interview process can be a tremendous help if you
use it effectively. In order, the key steps to finding the right person to fill a position in
your company include:
  
Determining your need to hire a new employee.
 
 Conducting a thorough job analysis.

 Writing a job description and job specification for the position based on the job
analysis.
  
Determining the salary for the position, based on internal and external equity.
 
 Deciding where and how to find qualified applicants.

 Collecting and reviewing a fair amount of applications and  resumes and then
selecting the most qualified candidates for further consideration.
 
Interviewing the most qualified candidates for the position, based on the
job‘sdescription and specification.

Checking references and Hiring the best person for the job.

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4 Write the general approach might be followed in the recruitment process.
  
Create a job specification
  
Create a job holder profile
  
Obtain applicants
  
Examine CVs
 
Interviews and Other procedures.

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5 List the various models of motivation are:
  
The Taylorist model
  
Maslow‘shierarchy of needs
  
Herzberg‘s-factortheorytwo
  
The expectancy theory of motivation
6 What is Taylorist model?
Taylor had a simple view about what motivated people at work –money. He felt that
workers should get a fair day‘s pay for to the amount produced (e.g. piece-rates).
Workers who did n work would be paid less (or nothing). W

(e.g. exceeded the target) would be paid more.

7 What is “Maslow’sneeds? hierarchy(May12,15) of
  
Physiological Needs –attention turns to safety and security
  
Security or Safety Needs- Calculation, Domain, Consulting,
  
Affiliation or Social Needs –Developing New Programs
  
Esteem Needs- needs for esteem can become dominant
 
Self-actualization Needs –include symmetry
8 State Herzberg’s (Dectwo14) factor theory.
Job satisfaction by Herzberg and his associates found two sets of factors about a job

Hygiene or maintenance factors –which can make you dissatisfied
 if they are not
 right for example the level of pay or the working conditions

 Motivators –which make you, feel that the job  is worthwhile, like a sense of
achievement or the challenge of the work itself.
9 What is expectancy theory of motivation?
It identifies three influences on motivation
  
Expectancy: the belief that working harder will lead to a better performances
  
Instrumentality: the belief that better performance will be rewarded
 
 Valence: of the resulting reward
10 What are the factors to be considered in the Oldham-Hackman
job characteristic model?
  
Skill variety- one or more of the offerings available from a variety of organizations
  
Task variety- enhance Key words
  
Task significance- autonomy, and feedback from the job
  
Autonomy- for Consulting & Software Companies
  
Feedback- submit your comments and suggestions
11 Mention the methods of improving motivation.
To improve motivation the manager might do the following
  
Set specific goals
  
Provide feedback
 
Consider job design.

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12 What are the measures used to enhance job design?
  
Job Enlargement
 
Job Enrichment

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13 Define Job Enlargement.
Job enlargement expands job horizontally. It increases job scope; that is, it increases the
number of different operations required in a job and the frequency with which the job
cycle is repeated. By increasing the number of tasks an individual performs, job
Enlargement, increases the job scope, or job diversity.
14 Define Job Enrichment.
The job holder carries out that are normally done at a managerial or supervisory level.
With programmers in a maintenance team they might be given authority to accept
requests for changes that involve then manager‘s approval.

15 What are the measures to reduce the disadvantages of group decision making?
  
The cooperation of a number of experts.
  
The problem is presented to the experts.
  
The experts record their recommendations.
  
These recommendations are collated and reproduced.
  
The collect responses are recirculated.
16 What are the various stages of development of a team?

Forming: The members are the  group get to know each other and try to set up some
 ground rules about behavior.

Storming: Conflicts arise as various members of the
group try to exert leadership and
the group‘sofoperationmethodsarebeingestablished
  
Norming: conflicts are largely settled and feeling of group identity emerges
  
Performing: The emphasis is now on the tasks at hand.
  
Adjourning: the group disbands
  
Storming: The Second Stage of Group Development.
17 Define team worker.
Skilled at creating a good working environment to manage all the people who
are developing Projects, team proposed to extend these concepts.
18 What are the two categorized for decision making?

Structured- generally
 relatively simple, routine Decisions where rules can be
 applied in a

fairly straightforward way
  
Unstructured- more complex and often requiring a degree of creativity.
19 Mention some mental obstacles to good decision making.(May 13)
  
Faulty heuristics- is an innovative effort by students and members of staff
  
Escalation of commitment-119 behavior, sunk cost, risk propensity, risk perception,
 
Information overhead- developers analyze, design, and develop software.

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20 Define team structure/Define Formal Structure.(Apr 19,Dec 19)
Team structure denotes the reporting, responsibility and communication structures
in individual project teams. There are mainly three formal team structures:
  
Chief programmer,
  
Democratic, and
 
The mixed control team organizations

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23 Define Chief Programmer Team.

In this team organization, a senior engineer
 provides the technical leadership and is
 designated as the chief programmer.

The chief programmer partitions the task into small activities and assigns them
to the team members. Healso verifies and integrates the products developed by
 different team members.
24 Define Democratic Team.

The democratic team structure, as the name implies, does not enforce any
formal team hierarchy. Decisions are taken based  on discussions, where any
 member is free to discuss with any other matters.

Typically, a manager provides the administrative leadership. At different times,
 different members of the group provide technical leadership.
25 Define the mixed control team organizations.
The mixed team organization, as the name implies, draws upon the ideas from both the
democratic organization and the chief-programmer organization. This team
organization incorporates both hierarchical reporting and democratic set up. The
democratic arrangement at the senior e problem into small parts. Each democratic
setup at the programmer level attempts solution to a single part. Thus, this team
organization is eminently suited to handle large and complex programs. This team
structure is extremely popular and is being used in many software development
companies.
26 What do you understand by virtual teams? (Dec 14,18, Apr 18)
A virtual team (also known as a geographically dispersed team, distributed team, or
remote team) is a group of individuals who work across time, space and organizational
boundaries with links strengthened by webs of communication technology.
27 Draw the chief programmer team structure.

Chief programmer

Librarian Programmers Specialists

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26 Draw the mixed control team structure.
P ro je ct ma nag er

Seni or eng ineers

Ju ni or e ngi ne ers

(28) (b)

Management structure Communication path

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27 What is a communication genre?
Communication genres refer to methods of communication. This goes beyond
technologies used and includes the organizational conventions involved in the
communication. It can be selected and developed to deal with particular need for
project coordination.
28 What is the role of ethics in project management? (Apr 18, Dec 18,19)
Honesty, responsibility, respect and fairness are the values that drive ethical
conduct for the project management profession. A code of ethics is to ensure decisions and
actions are always honorable and in the best interest of stakeholders.
29 Write the uses of formal structure (Apr 19)
 The formal organisation structure concentrates on the jobs to be performed.
 It, therefore, makes everybody responsible for a given task. 
 A formal organisation is bound by rules, regulations and procedures. It thus
 ensures law and order in the organisation. 
 The organisation structure enables the people of the organisation to work together
for accomplishing the common objectives of the enterprise. 

30 Define terms Storming and Forming. (Apr
19) Forming:
The initial stage is the forming stage. At this point, team members are generally
concerned about their role in the team and who calls the shots. As a project manager, you will
have a dominant role in team building and people will be looking to you for guidance and
reassurance. This stage can be relatively short in comparison to the other stages and may only
last a meeting or two.

Storming:
At this stage, the team addresses the problems they are going to solve and how they
are going to function as a unit. Team members will become more open with each other as they
express their own ideas and thoughts and will often confront the project manager about
certain aspects of the project.
PART-B

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1 Discuss the organizational behavior with example. (Dec 2012)
 The management's action of motivating human beings in the organization,
according to Douglas McGregor, involves certain assumptions, generalizations
 and hypotheses relating to human behavior and human nature 
 McGregor has characterized these assumptions in two opposite views, termed 
Theory X and Theory Y.
Theory X
This is the traditional theory of human behavior, In this theory, McGregor has
certain assumptions about human behavior. These assumptions are as follows
1. Management is a process of directing employees‘ efforts, m controlling their actions,
modifying their behavior to fit the needs of the organization.
2. Without this active intervention by management, people would be passive— even
resistant—to organizational needs. They must be persuaded, rewarded, punished,
controlled, and their activities must be directed.
3. The average man is by nature indolent—he works as little as possible.
4. He lacks ambition, dislikes responsibility, prefers to be led.
5. He is inherently self-centered, indifferent to organizational needs.
6. He is, by nature, resistant to change.
7. He is gullible, not very bright, the ready dupe of the charlatan and the demagogue.
These assumptions about human nature are negative in their approach,
however much organizational processes have developed on these assumptions.
Theory Y
The assumptions of Theory Y are described by McGregor in the following words:
1. The expenditure of physical and mental effort in work is as natural as play or rest.
The average human being does not inherently dislike work. Depending upon
controllable conditions, work may be a source of satisfaction or a source of
punishment.
2. External control and the threat of punishment are not the only means for bringing
about effort towards organizational objectives. Man will exercise self-direction and self-
control in the service of objectives to which he is committed.
3. Commitment to objectives is a function of the reward associated with their
achievement. The most significant of such awards, e.g. the satisfaction of ego and self-
actualization needs, can be a direct product of effort directed towards organizational
objectives.
4. The average human being learns under proper conditions not only to accept, but to
seek responsibility. Avoidance of responsibility, lack of ambition, and emphasis on
security are generally consequences of experience, not inherent human characteristics.
5. The capacity to exercise a relatively high degree of imagination, ingenuity, and

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creativity in the solution of organizational problems is widely, not narrowly,
distributed in the population.
The assumptions of Theory Y suggest a new approach in management. It emphasises
on the cooperative endeavour of management and employees.

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2 Explain the recruitment process (or) Describe the recruitment process for choosing
the right person for a job (or) Explain how new staff can be selected and induced
into a project/do staff selection relate to quality of product? Justify with appropriate
answer.(May 13,14,19,Dec 18)
THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS
It must be stressed that often project leader have little choice about the people who will
make up their team.
A GENERAL APPROACH

Create a job specification: advice is often
 needed as there could be legal
 implications in an official document.

Create a job holderprofile: it is used to construct a profile of the person needed to
 carry out the job.

Obtain applicants: an advertisement
 would be placed, either within the
 organization in the trade.

By giving the salary, location, job scope and any essential  qualification, the
applicants will be limited to the more realistic candidates.
Examine cvs: these should be read carefully and compared to the job holder profile-
nothing is more annoying for all concerned than when people have cvs which indicate
clearly that they are not eligible for the job and yet are called for interview.
Selection techniques are aptitude, personality test and the examination of sample of
previous work. Any method must test specific qualities detailed in the job holder
profile .interviews are the most commonly used method. An interview might be of a
technical nature where the practical expertise of the candidate is assessed.
Other procedures: references will need to be taken up where necessary and a medical
examination might be needed.
Steps:
Initial Contact from the Client - Based on the requirement, we assign the right
recruitment consultant from day one that runs with the job until completion.
1. Job Specification –First steps are all about information gathering and ensuring
we receive a detailed job specification - if there is no job description available
your recruitment consultant will work with you to understand the role profile
and selection criteria.
2. Detailed brief - Arras then understands the finer details of a job - the key
drivers, ways of working and organizational ethos, the personality and softer
skills needed for the job. All these details are shared with the candidate at
shortlist stage to give them a fuller picture of the job.
3. Timescales and Process –By outlining the recruitment timescales and preferred
interview process with you; 1st, 2nd, 3rd interviews or assessment Centre, we
can plan and manage expectations throughout the process with the shortlisted
candidates. We aim to try and avoid those recruitment frustrations like waiting

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ages for feedback and interview short listing.

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4. Search and selection –The term used is essentially the activities we perform to
find the ideal candidates for the job. We encourage candidates to register with
us - this is where most of our placed project management candidates originate
from. The next step is to advertise on the project management job board. We
then use a selection of methods both online (job boards, social media etc.) and
offline (networking groups, press etc).
5. Arras One-to-One interview –There is an initial screening project management
interview with the recruitment consultant for each candidate for each role we
recruit for. We have never shortlisted a candidate for a client without carrying
out this interview - this works for both parties; we understand more about a
candidates skills, experiences and suitably for the job whilst informing about the
company and the opportunity they are being interviewed for.
6. Short listing –Following the project management interview candidates are
asked if the role is something that they would like to pursue. Arras People only
forward details of candidates to our clients when given expressed permission to
do so. When in agreement, the consultant will send the candidate CV and an
individual profile of skills, experience and capability for the job.
7. Interview management –Once the client has reviewed the CV and profile
candidates are notified when feedback is available. If a candidate is unsuccessful
at this stage, the consultant will give feedback. Feedback obviously comes back
in varying degrees of detail but we share everything we know. All candidates
selected to attend an interview will be contacted by the consultant straight away
with the details. With each interview, the consultant will arrange for an
interview preparation session, helping candidates get ready for the interview
by sharing details about the type of interview, who will be interviewing and any
hints and tips which will be useful for that particular job and client. Interview
preparation sessions are carried out for each interview - regardless of how many
stages. If interviews include a presentation - the consultant will walk through
and review that.
8. Offers –Each consultant at Arras is here to represent candidates through to the
offer and negotiation stage. Following the successful interview candidates are
contacted with feedback and the pending offer. By working closely with the
Arras consultant, candidates can be assured that the offer stage is managed
effectively and smoothly to completion.
9. Start –When details of offers and start dates are finalized, the Arras consultant
remains in touch throughout. Arras will follow up with brief calls to make sure
you are happy in your new job.

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3 Discuss about the different models of Motivation. (May 19,15,14,13,Dec 14 )
The various models of motivation are:
  
The Taylorist model
  
Maslow‘s hierarchy of needs
  
Herzberg‘s-factortheorytwo
 
The expectancy theory of motivation

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The Taylorist model:
Taylor had a simple view about what motivated people at work - money. He felt
that workers should get a fair day's pay for a fair day's work, and that pay should be
linked to the amount produced (e.g. piece-rates). Workers who did not deliver a fair
day's work would be paid less (or nothing). Workers who did more than a fair day's
work (e.g. exceeded the target) would be paid more.
The implications of Taylor's theory for managing behavior at work were:
  
The main form of motivation is high wages, linked to output
 
 A manager's job is to tell employees what to do

A worker's job is to do whatthey are told and get paid accordingly
 Weaknesses in Taylor's Approach:

The most obvious weakness in Taylor's approach is that it ignores the many
differencesbetween people. There is no guarantee that a "best way" will suit
 everyone.

Secondly, whilst money is an important motivation at work for many people, it
isn't for everyone. Taylor
 overlooked the fact that people work for reasons other
than financial reward.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

The basic human needs placed by Maslow in an ascending order of importance are:
1. Physiological Needs These are the basic needs for sustaining human life itself, such
as food, water, warmth, shelter, and sleep. Maslow felt that until these needs are
satisfied to the degree necessary to maintain life, other needs will not motivate people.
2. Security or Safety Needs These are the needs to be free of physical danger and of the
fear of losing a job property, food, or shelter.

3. Affiliation or Social Needs Since people are social beings; they need to belong, to be
accepted by others. It includes friendship, the need to love and be loved, socializing,
etc.

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4. Esteem Needs Once people begin to satisfy their need to belong; they tend to want to

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be held in esteem both by themselves and by others. This kind of need produces such
satisfactions as respect, power, prestige, status, and self-confidence.
5. Self-actualization Needs This as the highest need in the hierarchy. It is the desire to
become what one is capable of becoming—to fully realizes one's potential and to
accomplish what one is capable of achieving.

Herzberg’s-factor theory:two
Job satisfaction by Herzberg and his associates found two sets of factors about a job:
 Hygiene or maintenance factors, which can make you dissatisfied if they
are not right for example the level of pay or the working conditions 

 Motivators, which make you, feel that the job is worthwhile, like a sense
of achievement or the challenge of the work itself. 

The expectancy theory of motivation

It identifies three influences on motivation

  Expectancy: the belief that working harder will lead to a better performances 
 Instrumentality: the belief that better performance will be rewarded 

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 Valence: of the resulting reward.

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4 Explain the expectancy theory of motivation.
Expectancy theory proposes that an individual will decide to behave or act in a certain
way because they are motivated to select a specific behavior over other behaviors due
to what they expect the result of that selected behavior will be.
The Expectancy Theory of Motivation explains the behavioral process of why
individuals choose one behavioral option over another. It also explains how they make
decisions to achieve the end they value. Vroom introduces three variables within the
expectancy theory which are valence (V), expectancy (E) and instrumentality (I). The
three elements are important behind choosing one element over another because they
are clearly defined: effort-performance expectancy (E>P expectancy), performance-
outcome expectancy (P>O expectancy).
Three components of Expectancy theory: Expectancy, Instrumentality, and Valence
1. Expectancy: Effort(E→P) Performance
2. Instrumentality: Performance(P→O) → Outcome
3. Valence: V(R)
Expectancy: Effort → Performance (E→P)
Expectancy is the belief that one's effort (E) will result in attainment of
desired performance (P) goals.
1. Self-efficacy- the person‘s belief about their particular behavior. The individual will
assess whether they have the required skills or knowledge desired to achieve their
goals.
2. Goal difficulty- when goals are set too high or performance expectations that are
made too difficult. This will most likely lead to low expectancy. This occurs when
the individual believes that their desired results are unattainable.
3. Perceived control - Individuals must believe that some degree of control over the
expected outcome. When individuals perceive that the outcome is beyond their
ability to influence, expectancy, and thus motivation, is low.
Instrumentality:OutcomePerformance(P→O) →
Instrumentality is the belief that a person will receive a reward if the performance
expectation is met. This reward may present itself in the form of a pay increase,
promotion, recognition or sense of accomplishment. Instrumentality is low when the
reward is the same for all performances given.
Factors associated with the individual's instrumentality for outcomes are trust, control
and policies.
Valence V(R)
The value an individual places on the rewards of an outcome, which is based on their
needs, goals, values and Sources of Motivation. Influential factors include one's values,
needs, goals, preferences and sources that strengthen their motivation for a particular
outcome. Valence is characterized by the extent to which a person values a given
outcome or reward. This is not an actual level of satisfaction rather the expected
satisfaction of a particular outcome.
The valence refers to the value the individual personally places on the rewards.

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-1 →0→ +1

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-1= avoiding the outcome 0 = indifferent to the outcome +1 = welcomes the outcome
In order for the valence to be positive, the person must prefer attaining the outcome to
not attaining it.
Motivational Force (MF) = Expectancy x Instrumentality x Valence
When deciding among behavioral options, individuals select the option with the
greatest amount of motivational force (MF).
Expectancy and instrumentality are attitudes (cognitions), whereas valence is rooted
in an individual‘s value system. Examples pay increases and bonuses, promotions, time
off, new assignments, recognition, etc. If management can effectively determine what
their employee values, this will allow the manager to motivate employees in order to
get the highest result and effectiveness out of the workplace.

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5 Explain the Oldham-Hackman job characteristics model in detail. (May 12,15,Dec
14,19,Apr 18)
The job characteristics model, designed by Hackman and Oldham, is based on the idea
that the task itself is key to employee motivation. Specifically, a boring and
monotonous job stifles motivation to perform well, whereas a challenging job enhances
motivation. Variety, autonomy and decision authority are three ways of adding
challenge to a job. Job enrichment and job rotation are the two ways of adding variety
and challenge.
It states that there are five core job characteristics (skill variety, task identity,
task significance, autonomy, and feedback) which impact three critical psychological
states (experienced meaningfulness, experienced responsibility for outcomes, and
knowledge of the actual results), in turn influencing work outcomes (job satisfaction,
absenteeism, work motivation, etc.). The five core job characteristics can be combined
to form a motivating potential score (MPS) for a job, which can be used as an index of
how likely a job is to affect an employee's attitudes and behaviors.
Hackman and Oldham‘s job characteristic related to experiencing three psychological
states whilst working:
Meaningfulness of work: That labor has meaning to you, something that you can
relate to, and does not occur just as a set of movements to be repeated. This is
fundamental to intrinsic motivation, i.e. that work is motivating of itself (as opposed to
motivating only as a means to an end).
Responsibility: That you have been given the opportunity to be a success or failure at
your job because sufficient freedom of action has given you. This would include the
ability to make changes and incorporate the learning you gain whilst doing the job.
Knowledge of outcomes: This is important for two reasons. Firstly to provide the
person knowledge on how successful their work has been which in turn enables them
to learn from mistakes. The second is to connect them emotionally to the customer of
their outputs, thus giving further purpose to the work (e.g. I may only work on a
production line, but I know that the food rations I produce are used to help people in
disaster areas, saving many lives).
Oldham and Hackman suggest that the satisfaction that the job gives is based on
5 factors. They are

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
Skill variety: - the number of different skills that the job holder has the

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opportunity to exercise.

Task identity: - the degree to which your work and its results are identifiable as
belonging to you.

Task significance: - the degree to which your job has an influence on others

Autonomy: - the discretion you have about the way you to the job.

Feedback: - the information you get back about results of your work.

Methods of improving motivation

 Set specific goal: These goals need to be demanding and yet acceptable to
staff. Involving staff in the setting goal helps to gain acceptance for them 

 Provide feedback :Not only do goals have to be set but staff need
 regular feedback about how they are progressing 
 Consider job design: Jobs can be altered to make them more interesting and give 
staff more feeling of responsibility.
Various measurements of job
design: Simplification of Job:
In job simplification jobs are broken in to very small parts as in assembly line
operations and work can be done by same individual repeatedly and it will increase
productivity and proficiency of individual.
Job Enlargement:
Job enlargement expands job horizontally. It increases job scope; that is, it increases
the number of different operations required in a job and the frequency with which the
job cycle is repeated. By increasing the number of tasks an individual performs, job
enlargement, increases the job scope, or job diversity.
Job Rotation:
Job rotation is the systematic and planned rotation of individuals in pre-determined
jobs (other than their own) so they can gain additional knowledge or skills. It is done
quite a bit for developing managers (because they need to be familiar with operations
overall) and also used with others who want to advance to a new role or become more
knowledgeable in their current job role.
Job Enrichment:
The job holder carries out that are normally done at a managerial or supervisory level.
With programmers in a maintenance team they may given authority to accept requests
for changes that involve then five day‘s work approval. It is different from job
enlargement (which focuses on increasing the number

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of tasks a job holder is responsible for performing more work /tasks to do).

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6 Explain in detail the term decision making in the process of managing people
and organizing teams. (Dec 12,18, May 13,14)
Decisions can be categorized as being,
  
Structured: simple, routine decisions where rules can be applied in a fairly way.
 
Unstructured: more complex and often requiring a degree of creativity.
Some mental obstacles to good decisions making:
  
Faulty heuristics: it can be useful but there are dangers.
  
They are based on information, stereotypes.
  
Escalation of commitment
 
Information overloaded
Group decision making:
With a project team different specialists and points of view can be brought together.
Decisions made by the team as a whole are more likely to be accepted than those that
are imposed. Assuming that the meetings are genuinely collectively responsible and
have been properly briefed, research would seem to show that groups are better at
solving complex problems when the members of the group have complementary skills
and expertise. The meeting allows them to communicate freely and to get ideas
accepted. Groups deal less effectively with poorly structured problems needing
creative solutions. Brainstorming techniques can help groups in this situation but
research shows that people often come up with more ideas individually than in a
group. Where the aim is to get the involvement of end users of a computer system,
then prototyping and participatory approaches such as Joint Application
Development might be adopted.
Obstacles to good group decision making:
It is time consuming
  
It can stir up conflicts within the group
 
Decisions can be unduly influenced by dominant personalities
Conflict can, in fact, be less than might be expected. People will modify their
personal judgments to conform to group norms, common attitudes developed by a
group over time. In fact, people in groups sometimes make decisions that carry more
risk than where they make the decision on their own. This is known as the risky shift.
Measures to Reduce the Disadvantages of Group Decision Making:
One method of making group decision making more efficient and effective is by
training members to follow a set procedure. The Delphi technique endeavors to
collate the judgments of a number of experts without actually bringing them face to
face. Given a problem, the following procedure is carried out:
The cooperation of a number of experts is enlisted
  
The problem is presented to the experts
  
The experts record their recommendations
  
These recommendations are collated and reproduced
 
 The collected responses are re-circulated

The experts comment on the ideas of others and modify their recommendations  if so
moved. If the leader detects a consensus then the process is stopped, otherwise

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the comments are re-circulated to the experts.

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7 Write a short note on ethical and professional concerns / How to deal with ethical
and programming concerns in software project management. (Apr 18)
Ethics relates to the moral obligation to respect the rights and interests of others –goes
beyond strictly legal responsibilities
Three groups of responsibilities:
√ Responsibilities that everyone has
√ Responsibilities that people in organizations have
√ Responsibilities relating to your profession or calling
Organizational ethics
There are some who argue that ethical organizational ethics are limited:
√Stockholder theory (e.g. Milton Friedmof the business (which often means the
stakeholders) above all others –although legal requirements must be met.

√Competitive relationships between businesses.

√Competition may cause you to do things that could have a negative impact on the
owners or employees of competitive businesses
Uniform Treatment
One example of organizational ethics is the uniform treatment of all employees. Small
business owners should treat all employees with the same respect, regardless of their
race, religion, cultures or lifestyles. Everyone should also have equal chances for
promotions. One way to promote uniform treatment in organizations is through
sensitivity training. Some companies hold one-day seminars on various discrimination
issues. They then invite outside experts in to discuss these topics. Similarly, small
company managers must also avoid favoring one employee over others. This practice
may also lead to lawsuits from disgruntled employees. It is also counterproductive.
Social Responsibility
Small companies also have an obligation to protect the community. For example, the
owner of a small chemical company needs to communicate certain dangers to the
community when explosions or other disasters occur. The owner must also maintain
certain safety standards for protecting nearby residents from leaks that affect the water
or air quality. There are state and federal laws that protect people from unethical
environmental practices. Business owners who violate these laws may face stiff
penalties. They may also be shut down.
Financial Ethics
Business owners must run clean operations with respect to finances, investing and
expanding their companies. For example, organizations must not bribe state legislators
for tax credits or special privileges. Insider trading is also prohibited. Insider trading is
when managers or executives illegally apprise investors or outside parties of privileged
information affecting publicly traded stocks, according to the Securities and Exchange
Commission. The information helps some investors achieve greater returns on their
investments at the expense of others. Executives in small companies must strive to help
all shareholders earn better returns on their money. They must also avoid collusive
arrangements with other companies to deliberately harm other competitors.

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Considerations

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A small company's organizational ethics can also include taking care of employees

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with mental illnesses or substance abuse problems, such as drug and alcohol
dependency. Ethical business owners help their employees overcome these types of
problems when possible. They often put them through employee advisor programs,
which involves getting them the treatment they need. Employees may have issues that
lead to these types of problems. Therefore, they deserve a chance to explain their
situations and get the help they need.
Professional ethics
Professionals have knowledge about the technical domain that the general public does
not. Ethical duty of the expert to warn lay people of the risks involved in a particular
course of action. Many professions, or would be professions, have codes of conduct for
their members.
8 Explain in detail about team structure.
Team structures
Team structure addresses the issue of organization of the individual project
teams. There are mainly three formal team structures:
  
Chief programmer,
  
Democratic, and
 
The mixed control team organizations

Chief Programmer Team

Chief programmer

Librarian Programmers Specialists


In this team organization, a senior engineer
 provides the technical leadership and is
 designated as the chief programmer.

The chief programmer
 partitions the task into small activities and assigns them to the
 team members.

He also verifies
 and integrates the products developed by different team
members.
Advantage

The chief programmer provides an authority, and this structure is arguably more
efficient than the democratic team for well-understood problems.
Disadvantage

 However, the chief programmer team leads to lower team morale,
 since team-members
work under the constant supervision of the chief programmer.
  
This also inhibits collective and their original thinking.

The chief programmer team is subject to single point failure  since too much
 responsibility and authority is assigned to the chief programmer.

Since the chief programmer carries out many tasks
 individually, there is a danger of
information overload on the chief programmer
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Democratic Team

(a)
(b)
Management structure Communication path

The democratic team structure, as the name implies, does not enforce any formal
 team hierarchy. Decisions are taken based
 on discussions, where any member is
free to discuss with any other matters.
 
Typically, a manager provides the administrative leadership. At different times,
different members of the group provide technical
leadership. Advantages:
  
The democratic organization leads to higher morale and job satisfaction.

Democratic team structure is appropriate for less understood problems, since a
group of engineers can invent
 better solutions than a single individual as in a
 chief programmer team.

A democratic team structure is suitable for projects requiring less than five or six
engineers and for research-oriented projects. For large sized projects, a pure
 democratic organization tends to become chaotic.

The democratic team organization
 encourages egoless programming as programmers can
share and review one
Disadvantages:

Consequently, it suffers from less man-power turnover
The mixed control team organizations

P ro ject manager

Senior engineers

Junior engineers

(a) (b)
Management structure Communication path
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
The mixed team organization, as the name implies, draws upon the ideas from
both the democratic organization and the chief-programmer organization. This
teamorganization incorporates both hierarchical reporting and democratic set
 up.

 The democratic connections
 are shown as dashed lines and the reporting structure is shown
using solid arrows.
  
The mixed control team organization is suitable for large team sizes.

The democratic arrangement at the se the problem into small parts. Each
democratic setup at the programmer level attempts solution to a single part.
Thus, this team
 organization is eminently suited to handle large and complex
programs.
This team structure is extremely popular and is being used in many software
development companies.
9 Explain in detail about communication genres.

  
The nature of the information to be conveyed:
  
What is the extent and complexity of the information to be conveyed?
 
 A phone conversation if message is simple

Is it easy to understand?
 Is the context well known to both the sender and
the recipient?
  
Two way communication
  
Where the communication is personally sensitive
 
 Face-to-face contacts

At different
 stages of a project –different communication genres will be
preferred
 
 Early stages –meeting(s)

 Team members
 need to build up their trust and confidence in their co-
workers
  
Decision making
  
Intermediate stages (design) –teleconferencing
  
Activities executed in parallel
  
Some points needs to be clarified
  
Implementation stages - emails
 
Everyone knows his role, work can progress
Face to face meetings –helps coordination and maintain motivation

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10 Write a short note on i) communication plans and ii) virtual teams.
i) communication plans
A communications plan, in project management, is a policy-driven approach to
providing stakeholders with information about a project. The plan formally defines
who should be given specific information, when that information should be delivered

Same place Different places

Same time Meetings, Interviews Telephone, instant messaging

Different times Noticeboards, pigeon-boards E-mail, voicemail, documents

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and what communication channels will be used to deliver the information.
An effective communications management plan anticipates what information will need
to be communicated to specific audience segments. The plan should also address who
has the authority to communicate confidential or sensitive information and how
information should be disseminated (email, web sites, printed reports, and/or
presentations). Finally, the plan should define what communication channels
stakeholders should use to provide feedback and how communication documentation
will be archived as part of the project records.
In some organizations the communications management plan may also include a
glossary of common project terminology that will be used within the project. This
glossary may define and include samples of templates, reports and forms that
the project manager will use to communicate information.
Audience
The project team must identify all audiences that will receive communications. In a
large company, information technology project communications delivered to technical
and development teams would vary widely from information provided to senior
management, middle management or administrative staff. Other examples of various
audiences within a large organization would be staff appointed to conduct end user
testing or to write end user documentation.
Information Needs
Whether communications are distributed only to technical or functional teams, or
address a wider audience, each message delivered should be prepared for a specific
target audience. If a number of different audiences with different needs exist, the
content of each message should also be varied for the intended recipients. An example
in information technology would be communications of technical specifications that
would be delivered to developers. This same information would not be delivered to all
end user systems testers, only those responsible for documentation.
Media
Though electronic communications such as email may be the most efficient means of
communication, it is not always the most effective in communications of project
information or to deliver training. The project team should also consider newsletters,
video feeds or webinars. Group presentations and town hall meetings to provide for
question-and-answer sessions can also be provided to communicate project goals, user
training or project results.
Timing
Communications for any project should start in the planning stages. Though the initial
phases of communication will not be as robust as those near the end of a project, the
initial step of broadcasting planned changes to any infrastructure or process is critical
to receive buy-in from all parties. Information flow should be handled by the project
team in coordination with senior management of an organization. This coordination is
to define what information is to be delivered at various points during project
progression.
Responsibilities
The project team may be responsible for all project communications, or a corporate
communications unit could be called upon to provide assistance. However
communications are handled, specific communications tasks should be assigned

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starting in the planning phase of a project. Though roles may change during the life of

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a project, a plan for delegating communications duties must be crafted in advance.
ii) Virtual Team
A Virtual Team –also known as a Geographically Dispersed Team (GDT) –is a group of
individuals who work across time, space, and organizational boundaries with links
strengthened by webs of communication technology. They have complementary skills
and are committed to a common purpose, have interdependent performance goals, and
share an approach to work for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.
Geographically dispersed teams allow organizations to hire and retain the best people
regardless of location. A virtual team does not always mean teleworkers. Teleworkers
are defined as individuals who work f organizations consist of employees both
working at home and small groups in the office but in different geographic locations.

Why Virtual Teams?

  
Best employees may be located anywhere in the world.
 
 Workers demand personal flexibility.
 
 Workers demand increasing technological sophistication.
 
 A flexible organization is more competitive and responsive to the marketplace.
 
 Workers tend to be more productive –less commuting and travel time.
 
 The increasing globalization of trade and corporate activity.
 
 The global workday is 24 vs. 8 hours.

 The emergence of environments
 which require inter-organizational cooperation as
well as competition.
  
Changes in workers‘ expectationsparticipation. of
 
 A continued shift from production to service/knowledge work environments.

Increasing horizontal organization structures
 characterized by structurally and
geographically distributed human resources.

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