Software project management introduction

1. SOFTWARE PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
Prof. Kanchana Devi V

2. “Software”
 Collection of “Programs”
 Collection of “Instructions”
 Collection of “K,V,C”
 Collection of “Character Set”
2

3. “Project”
 A planned activity
 A Specific plan or design
 A planned undertaking
3

4. “Management”
 Setting objectives for a system and
monitoring the performance of the
system
4

5. Introduction
 The key idea of “Software project
Management” is Planning, Monitoring and
Control of software projects
 A Software project must satisfy real needs
 In order to meet this needs project
stakeholders and their objectives must be
identified
5

6. Importance of SPM
 A survey in USA, 2003 published that
 82% of project were late
 43% exceeded their budget
 Reason is management of project
 Lack of skills and proven approach to project
management and risk management
6

7. What is a Project?
 A dictionary definition: “ A Planned Activity”
 i. e. How to carryout a task before starting.
 “Planning”: Thinking Carefully about something
before doing it.
 Other activities of planning are routine
maintenance performed so many times, and
documented – helps newcomers.
7

8. Characteristics of projects are:
 Non-routine tasks are involved
 Planning is required
 Specific objectives are to be met
 The project has a predetermined time span
 Work is carried out in several phases
 The resources are constrained
 The project is large or complex.
8

9. Software Project VS Other Projects
 Fred Brooks identified some characteristics of
software projects which makes it difficult are
 Invisibility
 Complexity
 Conformity
 Flexibility
9

10. Activities of SPM
Feasibility Study
Plan
Project Execution
Is it worth
doing?
How do we
do it?
Do it!!
10

11.  The Feasibility Study:
 Assesses whether a project is worth starting
 Planning:
 Outline plan for the whole project and a detailed one for the
first stage
 Project Execution:
 The execution of the project often contains design and
implementation sub-phases.
11

12. Software Development Activities-
ISO 12207
 Requirement Analysis
 Architecture Design
 Detailed Design
 Code and Test
 Integration
 Qualification Testing
 Installation
 Acceptance Support
12

13. Plans, Methods and Methodologies
 A plan for an activity must be based on some idea of a
method of a work.
 Analyze the requirements for the software
 Devise and write test cases
 Create test scripts
 Compare the actual results and the expected results
 A Method relates to a type of activity in general, a plan that
takes that method and converts it to real activities
 Its start and end dates
 who will carry out
 What tools and materials
 The output from one method might be the input to another.
Group of methods or techniques are often grouped into
methodologies such as object-oriented design
13

14. Some ways of categorizing
Software Projects
 Compulsory Versus Voluntary users
 Eg. Moodle – Games,Google
 Information systems versus embedded systems
 Eg. Stock Information – Air Conditioning Equipment
 Outsourced projects
 Giving some parts of its work to other companies
 Objective- driven development
 Identifying the need for a new software system
14

15. Stakeholders
 These are people who have a stake or interest
in the project.
 Stakeholders can be categorized as:
 Internal to the project team
 External to the project team but within the same
organization
 External to both the project team and the
organization
15

16. Setting Objectives
 Stakeholders are those who actually own the
project.
 They control the financing of the project.
 They set the objectives of the project.
 The objectives should define what the project
team must achieve for project success.
16

17. Sub-Objectives and Goals
 A more appropriate goal or sub-objective for
the software developers is to keep
development costs within a certain budget.
 SMART:
 Specific
 Measurable
 Achievable
 Relevant
 Time Constrained
17

18. Business case
18
 Development costs should not be
increased
 Features of the system should not be
reduced
 Delivery date of the project should not be
delayed

19. Project Success and Failure
 Success:
Preserving the business case
 Failure:
Stakeholders have different interests
19

20. What is “Management”?
20
 Planning
 Organizing
 Staffing
 Directing
 Monitoring
 Controlling
 Innovating
 representing

21. Project Management Activities
21
Project Planning
Project Monitoring
& Control
Project Plan
Revision Project Closing
Project Initiation Project ClosingProject Execution

22. Project Control Cycle
22

23. Thank you!!!
23