Project Management in Software Engineering

1. Project Management in Software Engineering Project initiation What to do? Why to do?

2. Plan • Preconditions for project initiation • General risks associated with the projects • Identification of needs and objective • Finding and analysis of the project objective • Resource analysis (including finances) • Project charter • Composition of the project team

3. The aim of the project initiation phase Form a clear understanding about the rationality of project planning – answer the question “Would planning of a project be reasonable?”

4. The main tasks for project initiation phase • Make sure that the preconditions for project initiation are fulfilled. • Define the project objective (what to do?) • Make sure about the necessity of the project (why to do?) • Make sure about feasibility of the project (whether the achievement of the project’s objective is realistic?). The main instrument for decision – project charter.

5. Preconditions for project initiation • Existence of a problem (that the project could solve). • Existence of some ideas how the problem could be approached. • The project (that is, solving the problem) supports achieving long-term objectives of the institution (Example: Tempus). • Necessary human resources are available (competence + quantity). Example: N: LeFloweParticipation (Interreg IV A). • Financing probability is big enough (compare with the possible competitors). Example: low success rate of personal research grants. • Requirements and limitations are clear (Example: 1. round of structural funds was announced while regulating documents were not ready). • Risks associated with the projects are bearable.

6. General risks associated with the projects • Unreasonable spending of resources. Example: unsuccessful project application LeFlow: Competency Management and Learning Flows within Mash-up Personal Learning Environments. • Infiltration of ideas to the competitors. Example: school of social sciences. • Damage of reputation. Example: transfer of JEP 11202 management to another university. • Deterioration of the quality of other activities. Example: too many EU FP6 projects were approved. • Poor acceptance/exploitation of the outcome of the project by the custo-mers (bad user friendliness, similar products of the competitors, …). • Damage that is caused by the partners. Example: bankruptcy because of partners’ failure.

7. Possible alternatives • Outsource a Project Plan. Example: Layers (Invent Baltics). • Outsource the intended outcome of the project. Example: TLU web. • Outsource some activities of the project. Example: software engineering for eParticipation project; collecting empirical data for R&D projects. • Becoming a partner of another relevant project (possibly of another institution).

8. Opportunities that may open through projects • Getting resources for development of the Institution. Example: about 50% of the income of the School of Digital Technologies is project based. • Capacity building of the institution. Example: DoRa professors and postdocs, ID lab, HITSA tiger university projects, … • Advancement of organizational culture. Example: following the fixed budgets and deadlines. • Raising the reputation of the institution. • Widening the network of partners.

9. Recommendations 1 (Preconditions for project initiation) • Decision about a project initiation should base on a balanced analysis of risks and opportunities: sometimes it is reasonable to initiate a project even if some risk or even losses are obviously too big. Example: construction of Mare building of Tallinn University (Eesti Ehitus). • For reducing the risks of failure: • Before managing a project, participate on a project as a member • Before managing a big project, manage a small one • Before managing an international project, manage a national • Before managing an international project, participate as a team member

10. Identification of needs Needs: a (desirable) situation or object that supports functioning of a system or achieving a goal. Needs of a project depend on the gap between the current situation and desirable situation. Problem: modeling and estimating/predicting! Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs (1943): NB! Satisfaction of lower level needs should precede to those of the higher level. Problem: (the decision makers) are not always able/willing to recognize the actual needs. Self- actualization Esteem Love and belonging Safety needs Physiological needs

11. Hierarchy of ICT needs – an example Hierarchy of ICT needs (R. Urwiler, M. Frolick, 2008): • Infrastructure needs • Security & stability needs • Integrated information needs • Competitive differentiation needs • Paradigm shift (innovation excellence) NB! Again five levels.

12. General hierarchy of needs • Existential (needs that enable usage of a product or service). • Business continuity (allows the smooth functioning). • Relevance (incl easy of use). • The quality compared to other similar solutions (allows to ensure competitiveness). • Innovation (will ensure sustainability).

13. Fundamental in initiating a project – specification of the main objective

14. Project objective Project objective is the key factor that determines the planning (and execution) of a project. The requirements for objectives – SMART: • Specific – tells exactly what is expected. • Measurable – concrete criteria for measuring progress (E: bank image). • Agreed (attainable) – stakeholders recognize its importance. • Realistic (relevant) – enough resources are available. • Time-bound (timed, timely) – grounding within a time frame. SMART requirements can be applied for sub-goals as well. Finding a good project objective needs discussions involving other stakeholders and is often time consuming.

15. Analysis of project objective – the factors Forward looking! Analysis of possible trends. Taking into account the current and emerging factors, requirements and limitations : • Changes in the market (E: digitalization, open content) • Institutional problems and possible reorganizations • Possible changing of consumer needs • Changes of technological solutions (E: cloud solutions) • Emerging/changing of social demand (E: increase of elderly people) • Legislative constraints (E: role of employers in curriculum development) • Possible activities of the competitors (E: Science School, Student Academy). Image of a sandglass: absorb as much knowledge as possible (upper part) for serving the interests of as many as possible individuals (lower part).

16. Recommendations 2 (specification of the objective) • Discuss the needs and objective with the main stakeholders (including target groups): • Potential users of the expected outcome of the project, • Bosses and colleagues, • Potential donors and contributors, • Project team members. Example: Consultations in the ministry during the preparations of Educational Technology master programme. • Find effective/appealing name and acronym for the project.

17. Exercises – preconditions and objective • Name additional risks (including those of the decision makers). • What are the weaknesses of these formulations of the objective: • “Studying diffusion processes in multiple-component systems”, • “Development of an optimal methodology for medical treatment of cold”. • Name additional factors that can be taken into account by finding the objective of a project. • What SMART principles are not satisfied and why by the following titles of student‘ theses: • Development of a full-featured learning management system for secondary schools; • Finding an optimal route between two arbitrary locations in Kabul; • Development of a web page.

18. Exercises – preconditions and objective • Bring an example of a computer software you need but that is currently not available. • For finding an objective, balanced scorecards can be used. What aspects are assumed to be taken into account (for a definition of balanced scorecards, see, for example www.balancedscorecard.org)? • List services that are needed, but not yet recognised enough in the society. • List services importance of what is recognised, but that are nevertheless not offered enough.

19. Finding sources of financing Ability to get and deploy resources is one of the main quality indicators of project managers. Financing (and the application procedures) depends on the type of the: • applicant – an institution or an individual • application – regulated (form based) or not • context – in house, belonging to a program, sponsored Decisive aspects: • Belonging to priority areas (E: Tempus IT master curricula) • Eligibility ‏of the applicant (E: Tiger University program – public universities) • Fulfilling the formal requirements (if there are any. E: SF first call) • The interests of the sponsor (by sponsored non-regulated projects).

20. Some principles of looking for a sponsor The main aim of a sponsoring institution – improve its image. • Present your application as an offer for investments, not as asking for a charity. • Follow the wishes and suggestions of the potential donor(interests dominate over logic); listen the sponsor (E: ISE; financing doctoral studies). • Compare your institution in relation to the competitors. • Make your case bigger than your institution. • Few will do the most. • Inform about your plans without asking support. • Patience will succeed. • Relations with the donors should be kept after completion of the project.

21. Sponsoring – practicalities Agreements: • How (if at all) will the sponsorship publicly announced (E: Balteco), • How (if at all) the sponsorship can be used by partners in their PR-activities, • What other sponsors (if at all) does the sponsor accept, • ... Ingrid Vuks (some results from the master thesis): • sponsoring is not regulated in ¾ of Estonian enterprises, • Sponsoring principles are not public (only 3 out of 200 had them in the Web), • A decision making body can be very different. The most effective practice in Estonia – personal acquaintance.

22. Recommendations 3 (sources of financing) In finding the sources of financing: • Be informed (E: status of Estonia in EU 5FW e-learning projects)‏ • Evaluate your chances compared to the potential competitors • Trust, but make sure – Lenin: “доверия это хорошо, но контроль лучше” (“Trust is good, but control is better”). Example: Humboldt research grant.‏

23. Exercises – financing projects • In what cases each of the strategies below will work better: • First determine an objective for a project and then search for finances, • First determine a donor and then the objective for a project. • What of the principles of looking for a sponsor are in your opinion more important to follow, and what maybe not so important? Bring examples of cases where these principles (or some of them) are followed and where not. • Place yourself in the role of a sponsor. What arguments would for you be the most decisive for a positive decision?

24. Exercises – financing projects 2 • Choose an institution that finances projects and analyse statistical data of successful projects (distribution by subject areas, amount of support, duration etc). • Find answer to the following questions concerning the objective of the project of your group: • What are success indicators of the project? • What are the strengths of the project team?

25. Resource analysis • Are enough qualified people available? • Uncertainty in a project start (involvement of potential experts; 6FP: 2/8; targeted projects; LeFlow+eParticipation); • organizational type of the institution (functional, project based, matrix type). • Is necessary infrastructure available(workplaces, tools)? • Does the upper management, partners etc accept the project initiation/needs? E: Estonian Educational IS. • In case the project will receive insufficient financing, are there necessary compensation opportunities? 100%/0% model.

26. Recommendations 4 (estimating the work load) • Jobs that require specific competence (which is not available in the project team) is recommended to outsource. • For large and complicated projects, it is recommended to hire a full-time project manager. Examples: Enterprise Estonia SPINNO project – Knowledge Transfer Centre, Centre for Educational Innovation.

27. Project charter Content: short (1-2 pages) description of the basic information of the project (name, objective, needs estimation, novelty, deliverables/activities, partners, resources, duration). The aim: • Get acceptance from decision makers • Finding partners • Agreeing on the role distribution between the partners Possible additional aspects depend on the type of the project: constraints, standards, examples of similar projects, exploitation of project outcome etc. Example: Quality system of ICT vocational schools (Appendix 1 of LN). Instead of one document, there can be two or three. PRINCE2: a) Project Mandate; b) Project Brief; c) Project Initiation Document.

28. Composition of a project team • Most important – motivation of the partners. E: change of a partner in TEMPUS math.curr. project. • Partners having experience in similar projects are preferred. • Leading institutions are preferred (quality, mediated contacts, reputation). • Prefer partners with whom you already have had good cooperation. • Partners’ specific interests should not dominate over project’s objectives. E: covering study costs for master studies. • Partners should complement each other. E (of risks): a person in a partner institution left to another institution (AGETT). • The partners should accept the conditions set by the sponsors. E: a partner demanded double salary (AGETT).

29. Important aspects of partnership Possible problems in becoming a partner: • Your work and competence will not adequately be exploited; • Incompetent co-ordination of the project can harm the reputation of partners; • Different understanding and interpretations. E: prototyping in realisation of innovation vouchers. Insufficient acceptance by partners of the project manager can harm the project. Formal requirements: North-South (EU projects), minimal number of partners, involvement of PhD students, ...

30. Indicators of a risky partner • Focused on getting projects accepted, not so much running them. • Not taking responsibilities. • Dominating “know-it-all” people. • Formalists who are valuing documents, not so much the real activities/outcomes. • Having “fuzzy” tasks. E: different people attend the meetings. • Do not hold agreements. • “Last minute” executors (NB! Quality risk).

31. Recommendations 5 (partners) • Find an optimal number of partners: • Too many partners will make the administration of the project very clumsy, • Too few partners may harm the quality of the project. • For ensuring the quality of the project, most important are the people rather than the institutions these people are working in.

32. Exercises – finding partners • What signs will indicate that a partner is not motivated enough? How the lack of motivation and incompetence can be distinguished? • Assume you have to choose between two partners; one is a top expert but not very interested in the project, the second is almost unknown but very motivated. In what circumstances would you prefer the first (correspondingly, the second) partner? What are the main risks in both cases and how would you deal with these risks? • In what cases is it reasonable to involve a leading institution even if is not motivated enough?

33. Exercises – project charter • Analyze an unsuccessful project and describe the main factors that caused the failure. • Using web search with the keywords “project mandate”, “project brief”, “project charter” and “project initiation document”, study descriptions of at least three projects. • Analyze the charter presented in the Lecture Notes (Appendix 1). What aspects could be described more thoroughly there?

34. Home assignment No 1 • Formulate an objective of a project that can be planned and completed by a group of 3-4 students during 9-10 weeks. • Assess your personal competences according to the elements 6.1 … 11.5 of PMCD Framework. Find (out of 25): • Your five greatest strengths • Your five greatest weaknesses.

35. Next lecture: Friday, September 18Topic:Project planning. Forming project teams

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