The Software Project Management Discipline

1. The Software Project Management Discipline Succes software projectsrequirecarefulplanning and gooduse of iterative approaches. Understandingrisks is the counterstone in a project but also the most difficultdiscipline Establishgood milestones

2. The Project Manager • The most importanttask is to manageingexpectations. • They must befamiliar with teambuilding and working with individuals egos in team activities. - peopleare not perfect - peopleare not logical - peopleperceivethingsdifferently - software engineersarepeopletoo - thingshappens

3. Usescontrol management activities. • Evaluatehow far or close the project is from the plan. • Organizing the tasks and leading the project team. • Allocatesresources, shapespriorities, coordianatesinteractionsbetween the development team and the customers and end users. • Generally tries to keep the projectteam at the right trak. • Establishes a set of practicesthatensure the integrity and quality of projectartifacts.

4. Planning Projects Inadequateplanning is considered the most commonreason for projectfailurestherefor: • A plan for eachiteration must bedeveloped and executed- • Topdownplanning(understanding of the projects general requirements and constraints. The manager derives a macro-level budget and schedule and decomposethese elements intolower-level budgets and intermediate milestones.

5. - Bottom-up planning (starts with the end in mind, thendoes an analysis of the micro-level budgets and schedules, and finallyadds all the elements together to arrive at the higherlevel budgets and intermediate milestones). - Rememberthat milestones is estimated on managements optimisticview of plan.

6. Alwaysmake a project plan ( a project plan is a documentedaccount of the planning of the activities. It provides a framework and guidelines for making decisions, ensuresthatstakeholders understand the parameters of the project, and transforms a subjectiveprocessinto a set of objectivegoals). • A proper projectplanis updatedperiodically and is approved by managers and technical team membersalike-

7. A typicalproject plan willcontain information about the workstructure, schedule and budget.

8. Managingiterations • An evolutionary software development plan, whichevolvesthroughiterations as the projectprogresses, is the bestway of structuring a software developmentproject. • An iteration is more or less a complete mini-projectthatprogressesthrough all disciplines and producesdeliverablesthataredefined by milestones or artifacts.

9. Youcan give names to iteration so the team keepfocus on the requireddeliverables. - make the userfacedesign - implement the monitoringmodule. • An iteration starts with planning and requirements, and ends with a release, internal or external. • Iterations provide natural milestones for evaluatingprogress and limitingrisks.

10. The iterationwouldbeconsideredsuccessfulwhen all the risks have beenreduced to the plannedlevel, all functionality has beenimplemented, and all qualityobjectives have beenmet. • Review (all groupmembersmeet and look at the product so far)

11. Managingrisks • A risk is basically the likelihoodthat a specifiedhazardousundesirable event willoccurwithin a specificperiod of time or under certaincircumstances. • Indirectrisks (the team has little or nocontrol) • Direct risks ( the team has a large degree of control) • Occurrence of the riske 0= norisk 1 = bigrisk. Sometimesyou have the scale 1 to 5.

12. Riskstrategies • Riskacceptance – Live with it • Riskavoidance – Reorganize to eliminate the risk • Riskmitigation – Reduce the probability or impact. • Riskcontingency _ Plan Plan B • Risk transfer – Subcontract the riskto others (anotherdepartmentment/firm)