COMP201

Project Management

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 1

Project management

 Organising, planning and scheduling

software projects

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 2

Objectives
 To introduce software project management and
to describe its distinctive characteristics
 To discuss project planning and the planning
process
 To show how graphical schedule representations
are used by project management
 To discuss the notion of risks and the risk
management process

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 3

Topics covered
 Management activities
 Project planning
 Project scheduling
 Risk management

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 4

Software project management
 Concerned with activities involved in ensuring
that software is delivered on time and on
schedule and in accordance with the
requirements of the organisations developing
and procuring the software
 Project management is needed because
software development is always subject to
budget and schedule constraints that are set by
the organisation developing the software

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 5

Software management distinctions
 The product is intangible
• (cannot be seen or touched)

 Software engineering is not recognized as an

engineering discipline with the sane status as
mechanical, electrical engineering, etc.
 The software development process is not
standardised
 Many software projects are 'one-off' projects

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 6

Management activities
 Proposal writing
 Project planning and scheduling
 Project costing
 Project monitoring and reviews
 Personnel selection and evaluation
 Report writing and presentations

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 7

Management commonalities
 These activities are not peculiar to software
management
 Many techniques of engineering project
management are equally applicable to software
project management
 Technically complex engineering systems tend to
suffer from the same problems as software
systems

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 8

Project staffing
 May not be possible to appoint the ideal people
to work on a project
• Project budget may not allow for the use of highly-paid staff
• Staff with the appropriate experience may not be available
• An organisation may wish to develop employee skills on a
software project
 Managers have to work within these constraints
especially when (as is currently the case) there
is an international shortage of skilled IT staff

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 9

Project planning
 Probably the most time-consuming project
management activity
 Continuous activity from initial concept through
to system delivery. Plans must be regularly
revised as new information becomes available
 Various different types of plan may be developed
to support the main software project plan that is
concerned with schedule and budget

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 10

Types of project plan
Plan Des cription
Quality plan Des cribes the quality procedures and
s tandards that will be us ed in a project.
Validation plan Des cribes the approach, resources and
s chedule used for sys tem validation.
Configuration Des cribes the configuration management
management plan procedures and structures to be us ed.
Maintenance plan Predicts the maintenance requirements of
the s ystem, maintenance cos ts and effort
required.
Staff development plan. Des cribes how the skills and experience of
the project team members will be
developed.

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 11

Project plan structure
 Introduction
 Project organisation
 Risk analysis
 Hardware and software resource requirements
 Work breakdown
 Project schedule
 Monitoring and reporting mechanisms

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 12

Activity organization
 Activities in a project should be organised to
produce tangible outputs for management to
judge progress
 Milestones are the end-point of a process activity
 Deliverables are project results delivered to
customers
 The waterfall process allows for the
straightforward definition of progress milestones

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 13

Milestones in the RE process

ACT IVITIES

Feasibility Requir ements Prototype Design Requir ements

study analysis development study specification

Feasibility Requir ements Evaluation Architectural Requir ements

report definition report design specification

MILESTONES

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 14

Project scheduling
 Split project into tasks and estimate time and
resources required to complete each task
 Organize tasks concurrently to make optimal
use of workforce
 Minimize task dependencies to avoid delays
caused by one task waiting for another to
complete
 Dependent on project managers intuition and
experience

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 15

Scheduling problems
 Estimating the difficulty of problems and hence
the cost of developing a solution is hard
 Productivity is not proportional to the number of
people working on a task
 Adding people to a late project makes it later
because of communication overheads
 The unexpected always happens. Always allow
contingency in planning

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 16

Bar charts and activity
networks
 Graphical notations used to illustrate the project
schedule
 Show project breakdown into tasks. Tasks
should not be too small. They should take about
a week or two
 Activity charts show task dependencies and the
the critical path
 Bar charts show schedule against calendar time

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 17

Task durations and
dependencies
Task Duration (da ys) Dependenci es
T1 8
T2 15
T3 15 T1 M
( 1)
T4 10
T5 10 T2, 4T(M2)
T6 5 T1, 2T(M3)
T7 20 T1 M( 1)
T8 25 T4 M( 5)
T9 15 T3, 6T(M4)
T10 15 T5, 7T(M7)
T11 7 T9 M( 6)
T12 10 T11 (M8)
©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 18
Activity network
14/7/99 15 days
15 days
M1 T3
8 days T9
T1 5 days 4/8/99 25/8/99
25/7/99
T6 M4 M6
4/7/99 M3
start 20 days 7 days
15 days
T7 T11
T2

25/7/99 10 days 11/8/99 5/9/99

10 days
M2 M7 M8
T4 T5 15 days
T10 10 days
18/7/99
T12
M5
25 days
T8 Finish
19/9/99

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 19

Activity timeline
4 /7 11 /7 1 8/7 2 5/7 1 /8 8 /8 1 5/8 2 2/8 2 9/8 5 /9 1 2/9 1 9/9
St art
T4
T1
T2
M1
T7
T3
M5
T8
M3
M2
T6
T5
M4
T9
M7
T10
M6
T 11
M8
T12
Fini sh

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 20

Staff allocation
4/7 11/7 18/7 25/ 1/8 8/8 15/8 22/8 29/8 5/9 12/9 19/9

Fred T4
T8 T11
T12
Jane T1
T3
T9
Anne T2
T6 T10

Jim T7

M ary T5

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 21

Risk management
 Risk management is concerned with identifying
risks and drawing up plans to minimise their
effect on a project.
 A risk is a probability that some adverse
circumstance will occur.
• Project risks affect schedule or resources
• Product risks affect the quality or performance of the software
being developed
• Business risks affect the organisation developing or procuring
the software

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 22

The risk management process
 Risk identification
• Identify project, product and business risks
 Risk analysis
• Assess the likelihood and consequences of these risks
 Risk planning
• Draw up plans to avoid or minimise the effects of the risk
 Risk monitoring
• Monitor the risks throughout the project

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 23

Risk identification
 Technology risks
 People risks
 Organisational risks
 Requirements risks
 Estimation risks

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 24

Risks and risk types
Risk type Possible risks
Technology The database used in the system cannot process as
many transactions per second as expected.
Software components which should be reused contain
defects which limit their functionality.
People It is impossible to recruit staff with the skills required.
Key staff are ill and unavailable at critical times.
Required training for staff is not available.
Organisational The organisation is restructured so that different
management are responsible for the project.
Organisational financial problems force reductions in the
project budget.
Tools The code generated by CASE tools is inefficient.
CASE tools cannot be integrated.
Requirements Changes to requirements which require major design
rework are proposed.
Customers fail to understand the impact of requirements
changes.
Estimation The time required to develop the software is
underestimated.
The rate of defect repair is underestimated.
The size of the software is underestimated.

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 25

Risk analysis
 Assess probability and seriousness of each risk
 Probability may be very low, low, moderate, high
or very high
 Risk effects might be catastrophic, serious,
tolerable or insignificant

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 26

Risk analysis
Risk Probability Effects
Organisational financial problems force Low Catastrophic
reductions in the project budget.
It is impossible to recruit staff with the skills High Catastrophic
required for the project.
Key staff are ill at critical times in the project. Moderate Serious
Software components which should be reused Moderate Serious
contain defects which limit their functionality.
Changes to requirements which require major Moderate Serious
design rework are proposed.
The organisation is restructured so that different High Serious
management are responsible for the project.
The database used in the system cannot process Moderate Serious
as many transactions per second as expected.
The time required to develop the software is High Serious
underestimated.
CASE tools cannot be integrated. High Tolerable
Customers fail to understand the impact of Moderate Tolerable
requirements changes.
Required training for staff is not available. Moderate Tolerable
The rate of defect repair is underestimated. Moderate Tolerable
The size of the software is underestimated. High Tolerable
The code generated by CASE tools is inefficient. Moderate Insignificant

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 27

Risk planning
 Consider each risk and develop a strategy to
manage that risk
 Avoidance strategies
• The probability that the risk will arise is reduced
 Minimisation strategies
• The impact of the risk on the project or product will be reduced
 Contingency plans
• If the risk arises, contingency plans are plans to deal with that
risk

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 28

Risk factors

Risk type Potential indicators

Technology Late delivery of hardware or support software, many reported
technology problems
People Poor staff morale, poor relationships amongst team member,
job availability
Organisational organisational gossip, lack of action by senior management
Tools reluctance by team members to use tools, complaints about
CASE tools, demands for higher-powered workstations
Requirements many requirements change requests, customer complaints
Estimation failure to meet agreed schedule, failure to clear reported
defects

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 29

Key points
 Good project management is essential for project
success
 The intangible nature of software causes problems for
management
 Managers have diverse roles but their most significant
activities are planning, estimating and scheduling
 Planning and estimating are iterative processes
which continue throughout the course of a
project

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 30

Key points
 A project milestone is a predictable state where
some formal report of progress is presented to
management.
 Risks may be project risks, product risks or
business risks
 Risk management is concerned with identifying
risks which may affect the project and planning
to ensure that these risks do not develop into
major threats

©Ian Sommerville 2000 Software Engineering, 6th edition. Chapter 4 Slide 31