Chapter 1- Introduction to Software Project Management Chapter 1 Software project Management 1

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Chapter 1- Introduction to Software Project

Management

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What is a project?

Some dictionary definitions:

“A specific plan or design” “A planned undertaking”

“A large undertaking e.g. a public works scheme”

Longmans dictionary

Key points above are planning and size of

task

Chapter 1 Software project Management 2

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Jobs versus projects

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

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Characteristics of projects

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

⚫ Non-routine

⚫ Planned

⚫ Aiming at a specific target

⚫ Work carried out for a customer

⚫ Involving several specialisms

⚫ Made up of several different phases

⚫ Constrained by time and resources

⚫ Large and/or complex

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Why do software projects fail?

⚫ People begin programming before they understand the problem

◦ Everyone likes to feel that they’re making progress

◦ When the team starts to code as soon as the project begins, they see immediate gains

◦ When problems become more complex (as they always do!), the work gets bogged down

◦ In the best case, a team that begins programming too soon will end up writing good software that solves the wrong problem

⚫ The team has an unrealistic idea about how much work is involved.

◦ From far away, most complex problems seem simple to solve

◦ Teams can commit to impossible deadlines by being overly optimistic and not thinking through the work

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⚫ Defects are injected early but discovered late.

◦ Projects can address the wrong needs

◦ Requirements can specify incorrect behavior

◦ Design, architecture and code can be technically flawed

◦ Test plans can miss functionality

◦ The later these problems are found, the more likely they are to cause the project to fail

⚫ Programmers have poor habits – and they don’t feel accountable for their work.

◦ Programmers don’t have good control of their source code

◦ Code written by one person is often difficult for another person to understand

◦ Programmers don’t test their code, which makes diagnosing and fixing bugs more expensive

◦ The team does not have a good sense of the overall health of the project.

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⚫ Managers try to test quality into the software.

◦ Everyone assumes that the testers will catch all of the defects that were injected throughout the project.

◦ When testers look for defects, managers tell them they are wasting time.

◦ When testers find defects, programmers are antagonized because they feel that they are being personally criticized.

◦ When testers miss defects, everyone blames them for not being perfect.

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How can we make sure that our projects succeed?

⚫ Make sure all decisions are based on openly shared information

◦ It’s important to create a culture of transparency, where everyone who needs information knows where to find it and is comfortable looking at it.

◦ All project documents, schedules, estimates, plans and other work products should be shared with the entire team, managers, stakeholders, users and anyone else in the organization who wants them.

◦ Major decisions that are made about the project should be well-supported and explained.

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⚫ Don’t second-guess your team members’ expertise

◦ Managers need to trust team members.

◦ Just because a manager has responsibility for a project’s success, it doesn’t mean that he’s more qualified to make decisions than the team members.

◦ If you don’t have a good reason to veto an idea, don’t.

⚫ Introduce software quality from the very beginning of the project

◦ Review everything, test everything.

◦ Use reviews to find defects – but don’t expect the review to be perfect.

◦ Use reviews to gain a real commitment from the team.

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⚫ Don’t impose an artificial hierarchy on the project team

◦ All software engineers were created equal.

◦ A manager should not assume that programming is more difficult or technical than design, testing or requirements engineering.

◦ Managers should definitely not assume that the programmer is always right, or the tester is always raising false alarms.

⚫ Remember that the fastest way through the project is to use good engineering practices

◦ Managers and teams often want to cut important tasks – especially estimation, reviews, requirements gathering and testing.

◦ If it were faster to build the software without these practices, we would never use them.

◦ Every one of these practices is about saving time and increasing quality by planning well and finding defects early. Cutting them out will cost time and reduce quality.

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Are software projects really different

from other projects?

Not really! …but…

⚫ Invisibility

⚫ Complexity

⚫ Conformity

⚫ Flexibility

make software more problematic to build

than other engineered artefacts.

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Activities covered by 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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ISO 12207 life-cycle

Requirements analysis

◦ Requirements elicitation: what does the client need?

◦ Analysis: converting ‘customer-facing’

requirements into equivalents that developers can understand

◦ Requirements will cover ● Functions

● Quality

● Resource constraints i.e. costs

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ISO 12207 life-cycle

⚫

Architecture design

◦ Based on system requirements

◦ Defines components of system: hardware, software, organizational

◦ Software requirements will come out of this

⚫

Code and test

◦ Of individual components

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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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Some ways of categorizing projects

Distinguishing different types of project is

important as different types of task need

different project approaches e.g.

⚫

Information systems versus embedded

systems

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What is management?

This involves the following activities:

⚫

Planning – deciding what is to be done

⚫

Organizing – making arrangements

⚫

Staffing – selecting the right people for the

job

⚫

Directing – giving instructions

continued…

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What is management?(continued)

⚫ Monitoring – checking on progress

⚫ Controlling – taking action to remedy hold-ups

⚫ Innovating – coming up with solutions when problems emerge

⚫ Representing – liaising with clients, users, developers and other stakeholders

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Setting objectives

⚫

Answering the question ‘What do we have

to do to have a success?’

⚫

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

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Objectives should be 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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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………

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Goals/sub-objectives continued

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

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

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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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The business case

Benefits of delivered project must outweigh costs Costs include: - Development - Operation Benefits - Quantifiable

£

Benefits Costs

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Management control

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Management control

Data – the raw details

e.g. ‘6,000 documents processed at location X’

Information – the data is processed to produce something that is meaningful and useful

e.g. ‘productivity is 100 documents a day’

Comparison with objectives/goals

e.g. we will not meet target of processing all documents by 31st

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Management control - continued

Modelling – working out the probable

outcomes of various decisions

e.g. if we employ two more staff at location X how quickly can we get the documents processed?

Chapter 1- Introduction to Software Project Management Chapter 1 Software project Management 1