Software Project Management

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• UNIT I

Introduction to Software Project Management: Introduction to project management, software project

characteristics, project life cycle models( ch 4), project stakeholders, project constraints, role of
project manager.
• UNIT II

Project Planning and Estimation: Project initiation, scope definition, work breakdown structure (WBS),
(ch 3) estimation techniques (e.g., COCOMO, Function Points),(ch 5) scheduling techniques (e.g.,
PERT, Gantt charts)(ch 3, 7),resource allocation(chp 8 bob), project budgeting(ch 5).
• UNIT III

Project Execution and Control: Project execution methodologies (e.g., Agile, Waterfall), team
organization and roles(ch 12), project tracking and control(bob ch 9), change management(ch 9),
configuration management(ch 9), quality assurance( ch 13), risk identification and mitigation(ch
7).
• UNIT IV

Project Communication and Stakeholder Management(ch 10,13 schwalbe): Effective communication

strategies, stakeholder identification(SHCWLABE 13) and analysis, managing conflicts, negotiation
skills, project reporting, status meetings, customer relationship management.

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Textbooks:

1. Kathy Schwalbe, "Information Technology Project Management", 9th Edition, Cengage Learning,
2020.

2. Bob Hughes and Mike Cotterell, "Software Project Management", 6th Edition, McGraw-Hill
Education, 2018.

References:

1. Roger S. Pressman and Bruce R. Maxim, "Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach", 8th
Edition,McGraw-Hill Education, 2014.

2. Norman F. Schneidewind, "Software Measurement and Estimation: A Practical Approach", Wiley-

IEEE Computer Society Press, 2006.

3. Scott Berkun, "Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management", O'Reilly Media, 2008.

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 Why is Software Project Management
important?

Large amounts of money are spent on ICT

e.g. UK government in 2003-4 spent £2.3 billions on contracts for
ICT and only £1.4 billions on road building.

Project often fail

Standish Group claim only a third of ICT projects are successful,
82% were late and 43% exceeded their budget.
Poor project management a major factor in these failures
 What is a project?
Some dictionary definitions:

• A specific plan or design.

• A planned undertaking
• A large undertaking.
 What is a Project?
• An endeavor with specific objectives:
 Usually consists of multiple tasks
 With defined precedence relationships
 With a specific time period for completion

• Non-Software Examples:
 A wedding
 An MBA degree
 A house construction project
 A political election campaign
 Jobs versus projects

Jobs – repetition of very well-defined and well understood tasks with very
little uncertainty.

Exploration – e.g. finding a cure for cancer: the outcome is very uncertain

Projects – in the middle!

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 Characteristics of projects
A task is more ‘project-like’ if it is:

• Non-routine
• Planned
• Aiming at a specific target
• Carried out for a customer
• Carried out by a temporary work group
• Involving several specialisms
• Made up of several different phases
• Constrained by time and resources
• Large and/or complex

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 Software project versus others
• Invisibility, progress in software project is not immediately visible.
• Complexity.
• Conformity, software system has to conform to the requirement of human
clients.
• Flexibility, one strength of software is its flexible and easy to change.

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 Activities covered by Software Project Management

Feasibility study
Is project technically feasible and worthwhile from a business point of view?

Planning
Only done if project is feasible

Execution
Implement plan, but plan may be changed as we go along

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 What is Project Management?

• Project Management is the discipline of planning, organizing,

motivating, and controlling resources to achieve specific goals

• Project management is a methodical approach to planning and

guiding project processes from start to finish.

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Key project management responsibilities include
 Creating clear and realistic project objectives

 Building project requirements

 Managing the triple constraint for projects, which is cost, time, and scope

•The Triple Constraint

 The scope constraint refers to what must be done to produce the project's
end result

 The time constraint refers to the amount of time available to complete

a project?

 The cost constraint refers to the budgeted amount available for the project

•It is the project manager’s duty to balance these three often competing goals
 Suggested Skills for Project Managers

• Project managers need a wide variety of skills.

 Comfortable with change

 Understand the organizations they work in
 Able to lead teams to accomplish project goals
 Need both “hard” and “soft” skills
• Hard skills - product knowledge, knowing the various PM tools and
techniques
• Soft skills - being able to work with people

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 Suggested Skills for Project Managers

• Suggested Skills:
 Communication skills: Listens, persuades.
 Organizational skills: Plans, sets goals, analyzes.
 Team-building skills: Shows empathy, motivates
 Leadership skills: Sets examples, provides vision (big picture), positive,
energetic.
 Coping skills: Flexible, creative, patient, persistent.
 Technology skills: Experience, project knowledge.

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 The Role of The Project Manager
• The objective of every project manager is to deliver the product on time,
within budget and with the required quality.
• Responsibilities of a project manager will vary from company to company
and from project to project, they should always include planning and
forecasting.
• Three additional areas of management responsibility are:

 Interpersonal responsibilities:
 Leading the project team
 Liaising with initiators, Senior management and suppliers
 Being the 'figurehead' i.e. setting the example to the project team and
 Representing the project on formal occasions.

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Informational responsibilities:
 Monitoring the performance of staff and the implementation of the
project plan
 Disseminating information about tasks to the project team
 Disseminating information about project status to initiators and senior
management
 Acting as the spokesman for the project team.

•Decisional responsibilities:
 Allocating resources according to the project plan, and adjusting those
allocations when circumstances dictate.
 Handling disturbances to the smooth progress of the project such as
equipment failures and personnel problems.

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 Project Manager Job Description
• Project managers are organized, passionate, and goal-oriented individuals
who drive business results by leading projects.

• They are also change agents who work well under pressure and enjoy
challenging work environments.

• Project managers “smoothly link management, clients and staff to keep

projects rolling.

• Responsibilities include business analysis, requirements gathering, project

planning, budget estimating, development, testing, and implementation.

• Responsible for working with various resource providers to ensure

development is completed in a timely, high-quality, and cost-effective
manner.
The software development life-cycle (ISO 12207)

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 ISO 12207 life-cycle

Requirements analysis

 Requirements elicitation: what does the client need?

 Analysis: converting ‘customer-facing’ requirements into equivalents
that developers can understand

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 ISO 12207 life-cycle
• Architecture design
– Based on system requirements
– Defines components of system:

• Code and test

– Of individual components

• Integration
– Putting the components together

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 ISO12207 continued
• Qualification testing
– Testing the system (not just the software)

• Installation
– The process of making the system operational
– Includes setting up standing data, setting system parameters, installing
on operational hardware platforms, user training etc

• Acceptance support
– Including maintenance and enhancement

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 What is Management?
• 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.

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• Project planning is an important responsibility of the project manager.

• During project planning, the project manager needs to perform a few well-
defined activities.

 Estimation The following project attributes are estimated.

 Cost How much is it going to cost to complete the project?
 Duration How long is it going to take to complete the project?
 Effort How much effort would be necessary for completing the project?

 Scheduling Based on estimations of effort and duration, the schedules for

manpower and other resources are developed.
 Staffing Staff organization and staffing plans are made.
 Risk Management This activity includes risk identification, analysis, and
abatement planning.
 Miscellaneous Plans This includes making several other plans such as
quality assurance plan, configuration management plan, etc
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 Project Management Processes

 In the project initiation stage, an initial plan is made.

 As the project starts, the project is executed and controlled to proceed as

planned.

 Finally, the project is closed.

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 Stakeholders
These are people who have a stake or interest in the project

In general, they could be users/clients or developers/implementers

They could be:

 Within the project team

 Outside the project team, but within the same organization

 Outside both the project team and the organization

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 Project Constraints
• Every project is constrained in different ways, by its scope, time, and cost
goals.
• These limitations are referred to as the triple constraint.
• To create a successful project, a project manager must consider scope, time,
and cost and balance these.

Scope:
 What work will be done as part of the project?
 What unique product, service, or result does the customer or sponsor
expect from the project?

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Time:
 How long should it take to complete the project?
 What is the project’s schedule?
 How will the team track actual schedule performance?
 Who can approve changes to the schedule?

Cost:
 What should it cost to complete the project?
 What is the project’s budget?
 How will costs be tracked?
 Who can authorize changes to the budget?

Each area—scope, time, and cost—has a target at the beginning of the project .

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• Managing the triple constraint involves making trade-offs between scope,
time, and cost goals for a project.

• For example, you might need to increase the budget for a project to meet
scope and time goals.

• Alternatively, you might have to reduce the scope of a project to meet time
and cost goals.

• Experienced project managers know that you must decide which aspect of
the triple constraint is most important.

• If time is most important, you must often change the initial scope and cost
goals to meet the schedule. If scope goals are most important, you may need
to adjust time and cost goals.

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• Although the triple constraint describes how the basic elements of a project
interrelate, other elements can also play significant roles.

• Quality is often a key factor in projects, as is customer or sponsor

satisfaction.

• Some people, refer to the quadruple constraint of project management, which

includes quality as well as scope, time, and cost.

• A project team may meet scope, time, and cost goals but might fail to meet
quality standards and satisfy the sponsor.
• Other factors might also be crucial to a particular project.

• On some projects, resources are the main concern.

– For example, the entertainment industry often needs particular actors for
movies or television shows. Project goals must be adjusted based on
when particular people are available.

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