1

Managing a Successful
Computing Project
INTRODUCTION TO PROJECT PLANNING AND MANAGEMENT
 2

In this lecture

 Project
 Definition
 Successful rate
 Successful factors
 Project life cycle
 Project Management
 Concept
 Tripleconstraint
 Project manager
 Stages in PM
 3

PROJECT
 4

What is a project?

 Unique set of coordinated activities, with a definite starting and

finishing points, undertaken by an individual or an organization to
meet specific objectives within defined schedule, cost and
performance parameters (British Standard 60971, 2000:2)
 5

What is a project?
Financial
Legal
Ethical
Environmental
Logic
Time
Quality

Output
Input The project (product/ Customers
resources transformation process service)

People
Knowledge
Expertise
Capital
Tools
Technology
 6

What is a successful project?

 Complete on time or earlier.

 Do not be surpassed the budget.
 Meet the specifications to the contentment of the customer
 7

Project’s successful rate

 1994: 16% of IT projects were successful, 31% cancelled before

completion, and 53% completed badly (CHAOS study)
 2006: 35% successful, 19% failed, and 46% weak
 2010: 47% - 61% successful

http://drdobbs.com/architecture-and-design/226500046
 8

Reasons for failure

 Bad communication
 Incomplete requirements
 Changing requirements and specs
 Lack of / Unsuitable technology
 Incompetence
 Lack of resources
 Unrealistic expectations
 9

Project successful factors

 Stakeholder involvement
 Clear statement of requirements
 Proper planning
 Realistic expectations
 Project milestones
 Competent staff
 Hard working and focused staff
 …
 10

Project attributes

 Goal
 Time
 Ownership
 Resources
 Roles
 Tasks
 Risks
 11

Project life cycle

 The project life cycle defines the life of a project in phases

 Initiation
 Defines the project objectives and grants authority to the project manager.
 Planning
 Refines the project objectives and scope and plans the steps necessary to
meet the project’s objectives.
 Executing
 Puts the project plan into motion
 Measures the performance of the executing activities and compares the
results with the project plan.
 Closing
 Documents the formal acceptance of the project’s product and brings all
aspects of the project to a close.
 12

Project life cyle

Client
Statement Project
of Work Monitoring Revised
Preliminary Project Plan
Project Plan Project
Execution
Internal
Work
Review Client
Authorization
Requested
Proposal Baseline Changes
Project Plan Project Plan
Client Review/
Negotiations
 13

PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
14
 15

What is Project Management?

 A systemized, phased approach to defining, organizing,

planning, monitoring, and controlling projects
 Project management was developed to save time / money by
properly planning a project and considering all relevant factors
which may affect its outcome
 16

What does PM help in a project?

 Plan tasks in project

 Avoid problems
 Reduce risks
 Organize project process and timeline
 Improve stakeholder - staff communication
 Improve management of stakeholders’ expectations
 17

Benefits of Project Management

 You will have goal clarity and measurement

 Your resources will be coordinated
 Your risks will be identified and managed
 You will increase the possibilities of time savings
 You will increase the possibilities of cost savings
 You will increase the possibilities of achieving the
agreed outcome
 You will increase the possibilities to deliver
projects successfully
 18

Triple constraint
 19

Triple constraint
 20

Project Management Framework

 21

Project manager
• Planning
• Communication
• Coordination
• Integration
• Execution
• Tracking
• Budgeting
• Control
• Reporting
 22

Role of a project manager

 Therole of a project manager is affected by the

one-shot nature of the project
 Therole of a project manager is difficult when
team members are still linked to their permanent
work areas
 Members may be assigned to several projects
simultaneously
 Managers must rely on their communication
skills and powers of persuasion
 23

Project manager attributes

 Leader & manager  Flexible

 Facilitator, coordinator  Knowledgeable about the
organization
 Communicator
 Sense
 Credibility: Technical/
Administrative  Confront
 Work under pressure
 Can deal with stress, chaos,
ambiguity
 Goal-oriented
 Planning and follow-through
 Innovator
 24

Project manager duties

 Reports to senior management

 Communicates with users
 Plans and schedules
 Obtains and allocates resources
 Controls risks
 Manages people
 Coordinates
 Implements quality assurance
 Controls the budget
 Delivers results
 25

Project Managements and Project Life Cycle

Managing a project = Managing stages of project life cycle

 26

Project planning

 Project planning involves creating a suite of planning

documents to help guide the team throughout the project
delivery.
 27

Project planning

 A Project Plan sets out the phases, activities

and tasks needed to deliver a project. The
timeframes required to deliver the project,
along with the resources and milestones are
also shown in the Project Plan.
 28

Project planning

 A Resource Plan summarizes the level of

resources needed to complete a project. A
properly documented Resource Plan will
specify the exact quantities of labor, equipment
and materials needed to complete your project.
 29

Project planning

 A Financial Plan identifies the Project Finance needed to meet

specific objectives. The Financial Plan defines all of the various
types of expenses that a project will incur along with an
estimation of the value of each expense.
 The Financial Plan also summarizes the total expense to be
incurred across the project and this total expense becomes the
project budget.
 30

Project planning

 Use Quality Plan to set quality targets by:

 Identifying the customers requirements
 Listing the project deliverables to be produced
 Setting quality criteria for these deliverables
 Defining quality standards for the deliverables
 Gaining your customers agreement with the targets set
 31

Project planning

 Risk Planning will help to:

 Identify risks within project
 Categorize and prioritize each risk
 Determine the likelihood of the risks occurring
 Identify the impact on the project if risk does occur
 32

Project planning

 An Acceptance Plan is a schedule of tasks that

are required to gain the customers acceptance
that what you have produced is satisfactory.
 33

Project planning

 Communication Plan
 Identify the required communications events
 Determine the method and frequency of each event
 Allocate resource to communications events
 Build a communication event schedule
 34

Project planning

 A Procurement Plan defines the products and

services that you will obtain from external
suppliers.
 Define your procurement requirements
 Identify all of the items you need to procure
 35

PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
TECHNIQUES
 36

Work breakdown structure

 A method of breaking down a project into
individual elements ( components,
subcomponents, activities and tasks) in a
hierarchical structure
 It defines tasks that can be completed
independently of other tasks
 37

Work breakdown structure

 It is foundation of project planning

 It is developed before estimation of activity
durations
 It can be used to identity the tasks in the CPM
and PERT
 38

Work breakdown structure

 A unit of work should appear at only one place in the

WBS.
 The work content of a WBS item is the sum of the WBS
items below it.
 A WBS item is the responsibility of only one individual,
even though many people may be working on it.
 Each WBS item must be documented to ensure accurate
understanding of the scope of work included and not
included in that item.
 39

WBS example
 Approaches to Developing WBSs 40

 The top-down approach: Start with the largest items of the project
and break them down
 Mind-mapping approach: Write down tasks in a non-linear format
and then create the WBS structure
The Work Breakdown Structure 41- 3

LEVEL DESCRIPTION
1 Total Program Usually specified by the
2 Project(s) client and managed the
project manager.
3 Task(s)
4 Usually specified Subtask(s)
by the functional
5 manager(s). Work Package(s)
6 Level of Effort
Most common type: Six-Level Indented Structure
 42
WBS example for IT project
 43

Gantt chart

 Henry Gantt, an American engineer, created the Gantt chart in

1917
 Graph or bar chart with a bar for each project activity that
shows passage of time
 Provides visual display of project schedule
 44
Gantt Chart

 Gantt charts provide a standard format for

displaying project schedule information by
listing project activities and their corresponding
start and finish dates in a calendar format
 Symbols include:
 A black diamond: milestones or significant events on a project with
zero duration
 Thick black bars: summary tasks
 Lighter horizontal bars: tasks
 Arrows: dependencies between tasks
 45
Gantt Chart
 46

WBS and Gantt chart

 47
Gantt chart tools

 MS Project:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9uctgUaEic

 Excel:
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oD50HSBBBI

 Online tool:
 https://vizzlo.com/for/project-managers
 Project plan structure

 Introduction.
 Project organisation.
 Risk analysis.
 Hardware and software resource requirements.
 Work breakdown.
 Project schedule.
 Monitoring and reporting mechanisms.
 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.
 Milestones in the RE process

ACTIVITI
ES

Feasibility Requirements Prototype Design Requir ements

stud y anal ysis de velopment stud y specification

Feasibility User Evalua tion Architectural System

report requirements repor t design requirements

MILESTONES
 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.
 The project scheduling process

Identify Identify activity Estimate resources Allocate people Create project

activities dependencies for activities to activities char ts

Software Activity charts

requirements and bar char ts
 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.
 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.
Task durations and dependencies
Activity Duration (days) Dependencies
T1 8
T2 15
T3 15 T1 (M1)
T4 10
T5 10 T2, T4 (M2)
T6 5 T1, T2 (M3)
T7 20 T1 (M1)
T8 25 T4 (M5)
T9 15 T3, T6 (M4)
T10 15 T5, T7 (M7)
T11 7 T9 (M6)
T12 10 T11 (M8)
 Activity network

1 4/7 /03 15 da ys
15 da ys
M1 T3
8 days
T9
T1 5 days 4/8/03 2 5/8/03
2 5/7 /03
4/7 /03 T6 M4 M6
M3
star t 2 0 days 7 days
15 days
T7 T11
T2
25/7 /03 11/8/03 5/9/03
10 da ys 10 days
M2 M7 M8
T4 T5 15 da ys

T10 10 days
1 8/7 /03
T12
M5

2 5 days
T8 Finish
19/9/03
GV: Nguyễn Văn Sơn

57
Exercise

Task name Duration Dependencies

CV1 4
CV2 6
CV3 5 CV1 (M1)
CV4 8 CV2 (M2)
CV5 7 CV2 (M2)
CV6 6 CV3, CV5 (M3)
CV7 5 CV4 (M4)
CV8 10 CV6 (M5)

- Start date: 27/05/2020

 Activity timeline

4/7 11/7 18/7 2 5/7 1/8 8/8 1 5/8 22/8 2 9/8 5/9 12/9 1 9/9

Star t
T4
T1
T2
M1
T7
T3
M5
T8
M3
M2
T6
T5
M4
T9
M7
T10
M6
T11
M8
T12
Finish
 Staff allocation
4/7 1 1/7 18/7 2 5/7 1/8 8/8 15/8 2 2/8 2 9/8 5/9 1 2/9 19/9

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

Jim T7

Mary T5
 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.
Software risks
Risk Affects Description
Staff turnover Project Experienced staff will leave the project before it is finished.
Management change Project There will be a change of organisational management with
different priorities.
Hardware unavailability Project Hardware that is essential for the project will not be
delivered on schedule.
Requirements change Project and There will be a larger number of changes to the
product requirements than anticipated.
Specification delays Project and Specifications of essential interfaces are not available on
product schedule
Size underestimate Project and The size of the system has been underestimated.
product
CASE tool under- Product CASE tools which support the project do not perform as
performance anticipated
Technology change Business The underlying technology on which the system is built is
superseded by new technology.
Product competition Business A competitive product is marketed before the system is
completed.
 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;
 The risk management process

Risk Risk
Risk analysis Risk planning
identification monitoring

Risk avoidance
List of potential Prioritised risk Risk
and contingency
risks list assessment
plans
 Risk identification

 Technology risks.
 People risks.
 Organisational risks.
 Requirements risks.
 Estimation risks.
 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 that should be reused contain defects that 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 that 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.
 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.
 Risk analysis (i)

Risk Probability Effects

Organisational financial problems force reductions in Low Catastrophic
the project budget.
It is impossible to recruit staff with the skills required High Catastrophic
for the project.
Key staff are ill at critical times in the project. Moderate Serious
Software components that should be reused contain Moderate Serious
defects which limit their functionality.
Changes to requirements that require major design Moderate Serious
rework are proposed.
The organisation is restructured so that different High Serious
management are responsible for the project.
Risk analysis (ii)

Risk Probability Effects

The database used in the system cannot process as Moderate Serious
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
 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;
Risk management strategies (i)

Risk Strategy
Organisational Prepare a briefing document for senior management
financial problems showing how the project is making a very important
contribution to the goals of the business.
Recruitment Alert customer of potential difficulties and the
problems possibility of delays, investigate buying-in
components.
Staff illness Reorganise team so that there is more overlap of work
and people therefore understand each other’s jobs.
Defective Replace potentially defective components with bought-
components in components of known reliability.
Risk management strategies (ii)

Risk Strategy
Requirements Derive traceability information to assess requirements
changes change impact, maximise information hiding in the
design.
Organisational Prepare a briefing document for senior management
restructuring showing how the project is making a very important
contribution to the goals of the business.
Database Investigate the possibility of buying a higher-
performance performance database.
Underestimated Investigate buying in components, investigate use of a
development time program generator
Risk monitoring

 Assess each identified risks regularly to decide whether or not it is becoming less
or more probable.
 Also assess whether the effects of the risk have changed.
 Each key risk should be discussed at management progress meetings.
 73

Network analysis

 Network analysis is the general name given to

certain specific techniques which can be used
for the planning, management and control of
projects
 Use of nodes and arrows
 Arrows: Indicate ACTIVITY, a time consuming
effort that is required to perform a part of the work
 Nodes: Indicate EVENT, a point in time where
one or more activities start and/or finish.
 74

Network analysis

 Activity
 A task or a certain amount of work required in the project
 Requires time to complete
 Represented by an arrow
 Dummy Activity
 Indicates only precedence relationships
 Does not require any time of effort
 75

Project network

 Event
 Signals the beginning or ending of an activity
 Designates a point in time
 Represented by a circle (node)
 Network
 Shows the sequential relationships among activities using nodes
and arrow
 Activity-on-node (AON)
 nodes represent activities, and arrows show precedence
relationships
 Activity-on-arrow (AOA)
 arrows represent activities and nodes are events for points in time
 76

Project network

 AOA Project Network for House Project

3
Lay Dummy
foundation
2 0 Build Finish
3 1 house work
1 2 4 6 7
Design house Order and 3 1
and obtain receive Select 1 1 Select
financing materials paint carpet
5
 77

Project network

 AON Project NetworkLay

for foundations
House Project Build house
2 4
Finish work
2 3
7
Start 1 1
3
Design house 6
3
and obtain 5 1
1
financing 1 Select carpet
Order and receive
Select paint
materials
 78

Project network
B
A
A must finish before either B or C can start

C
A
C both A and B must finish before C can start

A
C both A and B must finish before either of C
or D can start
B
A D
B
A must finish before B can start
Dummy both A and C must finish before D can start

C
D
 79

Project network

3
Lay foundation Lay
Dummy
foundation
2 0
2 3
1
Order material 2 4
Order material

(a) Incorrect precedence (b) Correct precedence

relationship relationship
 80

Critical Path Method (CPM)

E I Du Pont de Nemours & Co. (1957) for construction

of new chemical plant and maintenance shut-down
 Deterministic task times
 Activity-on-node network construction
 81

CPM Calculation

 Path
 A connected sequence of activities leading from the starting
event to the ending event
 Critical Path
 The longest path (time); determines the project duration
 Critical Activities
 All of the activities that make up the critical path
 82

CPM Calculation

 Earliest Start Time (ES)

 earliest time an activity can start
 ES = maximum EF of immediate predecessors
 Earliest finish time (EF)
 earliest time an activity can finish
EF= ES + t
 83

CPM Calculation

 Latest Start Time (LS)

 Latest time an activity can start without delaying critical path time
LS= LF - t
 Latest finish time (LF)
 latest time an activity can be completed without delaying critical
path time
 LS = minimum LS of immediate predecessors
 84

CPM example

f, 15

g, 17 h, 9
a, 6
i, 6

b, 8
d, 13 j, 12

c, 5
e, 9
 85

CPM example
f, 15

g, 17 h, 9
a, 6
0 6 i, 6

b, 8

0 8 d, 13 j, 12

c, 5

0 5 e, 9
 86

CPM example

f, 15
6 21
g, 17 h, 9
a, 6
21 30
0 6 6 23 i, 6
23 29
b, 8
0 8 d, 13 j, 12

8 21 21 33
c, 5
0 5 e, 9
Project’s EF = 33
5 14
 87

CPM example

f, 15
6 21
h, 9
21 30
a, 6 g, 17
24 33
0 6 6 23 i, 6
23 29
b, 8 27 33
0 8 d, 13 j, 12
8 21
21 33
c, 5 21 33
0 5 e, 9
5 14
 88

CPM example

f, 15
6 21
3 h, 9
9 24
21 30
a, 6 g, 17 3
24 33
0 6 6 23 i, 6
3 4
3 9 10 27 23 29
4
b, 8 27 33
0 8 d, 13 j, 12
0
0 8 8 21 21 33
0 0
c, 5 8 21 21 33
0 5 e, 9
7
7 12 5 14
7
12 21
 89

CPM example
f, 15

g, 17 h, 9
a, 6

i, 6

b, 8
d, 13
j, 12

c, 5

e, 9
 Activity timeline
4/7 11/7 18/7 2 5/7 1/8 8/8 1 5/8 22/8 2 9/8 5/9 12/9 1 9/9

Star t
T4
T1
T2
M1

T7
T3
M5
T8
M3
M2
T6
T5
M4
T9
M7
T10
M6
T11
M8
T12
Finish
Staff allocation
4/7 1 1/7 18/7 2 5/7 1/8 8/8 15/8 2 2/8 2 9/8 5/9 1 2/9 19/9

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

Jim T7

Mary T5
 92

Project Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)

 U S Navy (1958) for the POLARIS missile program

 Multiple task time estimates (probabilistic nature)
 Activity-on-arrow network construction
 93

PERT chart symbols

Activity Name (or reference)
Initial Event (Activity1)
Earliest Event Time (EET) 5 Activity1
Event Number 3
Latest Event Time (LET) 5
Duration 2
Directed Arc
Terminating Event (Activity1) 7
4
Dummy (Duration always zero) 7

0
Dummy1
 94

PERT example
 95

References

 http://www.method123.com/project-lifecycle.php
 http://www.mpmm.com/project-management-methodology.php