Computing Project

Topic 1:
Introduction

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Scope and Coverage

This topic will cover:
• Appropriate artefacts
• Planning your project
• Appropriate development methods
• Appropriate risk management
• Appropriate configuration management

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Learning Outcomes
By the end of this topic, students will be able to:
• Project manage the analysis, design,
development and deployment of a computing
artefact.

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Key Points
• The content of this lecture is not meant to replicate or
replace concepts and techniques introduced in other
modules associated with this programme.
• It is meant to complement concepts and techniques
introduced in other modules associated with this
programme.
• This lecture should help YOU decide how YOU want
to carry out YOUR project and justify YOUR decision.

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Appropriate Artefacts

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What is an Artefact?
• Something that you produce during the course of your
project. This could include:
- Models
• Use Case diagrams
• Class diagrams
• Sequence diagrams
- Code (the programmes that you write)
- The Working System
- Supporting Documentation (test scripts, Gantt charts,
user guides, etc.)

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Artefacts for Your Project - 1

• Models
- YOU must justify why you have chosen a particular
type of model for YOUR project.

• Code
- What language are YOU going to use to code
YOUR project (Java, PHP, MySQL, etc.)?
- YOU must justify why you have chosen a particular
language to code YOUR project.

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Artefacts for Your Project - 2

• The Working System
- Is YOUR project going to develop a website, a
database system, or something else?
- YOU must justify why YOU are going to develop a
particular type of system for YOUR project.
• Supporting Documentation
- What documentation will support YOUR project?
- Future lectures will help with the definition of this
particular set of artefacts.

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Planning Your Project

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Defining YOUR project

• Aims

• Objectives

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Aims - 1
• The aims of YOUR project are associated with
things that YOU are going to:
- Design
- Develop
- Evaluate
- Investigate

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Aims - 2
• Typical aims for a student project are:
- To develop a database system to achieve
something
- To develop a web-based system to achieve
something
- To investigate the use of a particular tool or
technique in a particular project environment

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Objectives - 1
• Objectives are things that you need complete in
order to achieve the aim(s) of YOUR project.
• If the aim of YOUR project is to develop a database
system for a telephone company – your objectives
might be:
- Complete a literature search about existing
database systems for telephone companies.
- Gather user requirements.

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Objectives - 2
- Develop a model of the database system for YOUR
project.
- Code the model to produce a working system.
- Test the working system.
- Deploy the working system.
- Write YOUR report.

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SMART Objectives - 1
YOUR objectives should be SMART:
• Specific
- Provide enough detail to understand what should
be done.
• Measurable
- Provide enough detail to measure progress of the
objective and know when it is complete.

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SMART Objectives - 2
• Appropriate
- With respect to the aim(s) of the project
• Realistic
- Achievable within the duration of the project
• Time-related
- Provide a statement of how long the objective will
take and by when should it be completed.

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Planning YOUR Project - 1

• Work Breakdown
- Produce a model that shows the tasks that must
be done in order to complete the project.

• Time Estimates
- Produce estimates of the time required to
complete the tasks.

• Milestones
- Significant points in your project that can be used
to give an indication of how well the project is
going

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Planning YOUR Project - 2

• Activities
- Identify the order in which tasks must be
completed.

• Present YOUR Plan

- Use the tasks, time estimates, milestones and
activities to produce a plan, normally in the form of
a Gantt chart.

• Re-plan (if required)

- Sometimes things go wrong – you may need to re-
plan YOUR project.

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Appropriate Development
Methods

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Different Methods
• You have been introduced to several different
software development methods throughout this
course:
- Agile
- Object-oriented
• Both of the above methods are appropriate for
student projects; however, they both have their
strengths and weaknesses for various types of
projects.

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Agile
• An all round method that can be used for most
student projects:
- Can be used with object-oriented techniques
- Good for database development and website
development
- Clearly defined project management approach
- Not good for developing real-time systems

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Object-Oriented
• A method that can be used for most student
projects:
- UML notation can be used to model database
systems.
- Good for database development, website
development and the development of real-time
systems

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The Method for YOUR Project

• YOU are responsible for choosing the method:
- Choose the project
- Choose the method
- Choose the language
• Make sure the method fits the project and the
language fits the method.

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Appropriate Risk Management

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What is Risk Management?

R is k M a n a g e m e n t

R is k P r io r it is a t io n R is k R e d u c tio n R is k P la n n in g R is k C o n tr o l

R is k e x p o s u r e B u y in g in f o r m a t io n R is k ite m p la n n in g R is k r e s o lu tio n

C o m p o u n d r is k s R is k a v o id a n c e R is k p la n in t e g r a t io n R is k m o n ito r in g

R is k t r a n s fe r R is k r e p o r tin g

R is k r e d u c t io n le v e r a g e R is k r e a s s e s s m e n t

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Relax!

You are not required to follow everything on the

previous slide for your student project!

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Risk Management for Student

Projects
• REMINDER – You are not required to use this
approach. It is presented to give you an idea of the
level of detail with which you need to approach risk
in your project!
• Risk Management Approach
- Identify Key Stakeholders
- Identify Critical Success Factors
- Isolate the Baseline Plan
- Analyse and Assign Risks

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Identify Key Stakeholders

• Many people want many things from a software
development project.

• Identify the key stakeholders: the people whose

wants count.

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Identify Critical Success Factors

• Ask the key stakeholders what they require for
success.

• The answers are the critical success factors of

the project and are used to measure the success of
the project.

• A risk is something that could prevent one or more

of the critical success factors being met.

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Isolate the Baseline Plan

• Risks must be associated with a plan before they
can be handled.

• As risks could prevent the achievement of

objectives, plans for achieving the objectives must
be in place before risks can be considered.

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Analyse and Assign Risks

• Identify
- What are the potential risks?
• Assess
- What is the likelihood of the risk occurring?
- What is the impact of the risk?
- What containment and/or contingency is appropriate?
• Allocate
- To whom can I assign the risk? (very likely to be you)

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Containment vs. Contingency

• Containment
- Action taken before the risk occurs
- Might prevent the risk from occurring
- Should reduce the impact if the risk occurs

• Contingency
- Plan of action made before the risk occurs
- Alternative plan triggered by the risk occurring

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Major Sources of Risk

• Contractual/Environmental

• Management/Process

• Personnel

• Technical

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Contractual/Environmental
• There are many factors that cause this type of risk.
The one most relevant to a student project is:
- An unreasonable customer

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Management/Process
• There are many factors that cause this type of risk.
Those most relevant to a student project are:
- Inadequate control of development products
- Problems and errors detected late
- Inadequate technical approaches

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Personnel
• This type of risk is to do with people:
- Wrong grade
- Wrong training
- Wrong expertise
- Too many people
- Too few people
• The above risks are not likely to occur on your project
as YOU are the only team member and you have
been educated on this NCC Education programme.

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Technical
• Requirement Changes
- Genuine changes of mind by the customer
- Hidden implications within requirements
• Failure to Meet Requirement
- Cannot produce a feasible design
- Acceptance test fails
• Problem or Error Detected
- Inconsistent design
- Missing component
- Inadequate time for testing

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How Display Risks

Risk Impact Likelihood Severity Tracker Action/Contingency
Insufficient 3 3 9 Vic (A) Investigate cost &
disk space. lead time for upgrade.
Insufficient 2 2 4 Ian (No action at present)
memory.
Version 2.0 9 3 27 Kami (A) Send Kami on early
of the training course. (C) Use
database is version 1.0.
a bit buggy.
Requirement 8 5 40 Vic (A) Check on progress
s not too and choose best areas
detailed. for phased delivery.
Users not 6 6 36 Ian (A) Check user plans
available for (C) Use external
CAT. testers.

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Appropriate Configuration
Management

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What is Configuration
Management? - 1
• Common problems in software development
projects are in the co-ordination and control
associated with project artefacts.
• Configuration management, for large projects, is
facilitated by the use of expensive software to
enable the following:
- The building of different systems to meet the
requirements of different users

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What is Configuration
Management? - 2
- The preservation of old versions of the system,
e.g. to investigate a fault
- The building of a version of the system that
contains certain fixes but not others
- To allow two or more developers to work on the
same artefact at the same time
- To store artefacts efficiently

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The Good News

• YOU are not required to use a complex and
expensive configuration management system for
your student project.

• A simple directory structure will be appropriate.

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Simple Directory Structure

• A simple directory structure along with supportive
documentation is included in Exercise 1 in your Student Guide.
• The purpose of Exercise 1 is to:
- Show you the type of directory structure that is appropriate for
a student project
- Show you the level of supportive narrative required in a
student project
- Give you an opportunity to develop your own directory
structure and supportive narrative
WARNING – do not copy the directory structure and
supportive narrative into your project; however, you can tailor it
to support the needs of your project.

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Computing Project – Introduction

Any Questions?

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