Software Project Management

1. Software Project Management Unit – III Presentation

2. Unit – 3 (Activity Planning) Planning • Planning is a continuous process of refinement done during development. • Identifies the goals or objectives to be achieved and formulates strategies to achieve them. • A detailed plan has to include the schedule of the project comprising of the start and the completion time of every activity defined. • Planning also produce a cash flow forecasting that indicates when the expenditure and the income takes place in the process.

3. Objectives • Activity planning aims to achieve a number of objectives, • Feasibility assessment • Resource allocation • Detailed costing • Motivation • Co-ordination • Activity planning & scheduling techniques place an emphasis on completing the project in a minimum time at an acceptable cost.

4. Feasibility assessment – describes whether it is feasible for the project to exist within the specified time constraint. • Resource allocation – allocate resources to the project depends on the availability factor. • Detailed costing – estimating factors involved in the development process. • Motivation – achieve the target without any delay & shorten the time limit, activities can be carried out in parallel. • Co-ordination – effective team management must be established to carry out the activities in a well coordinated manner.

5. 2) Project Schedule • A project schedule is established based on the constraints defined for each activity. • Project schedule comprises four main stages, • Step 1: Producing the plan • What are the activities have to be carried out? • What is the sequence of order in which each activity has to be handled? • Step 2: Ideal activity plan • Can risk occur in this activity? • How does a particular activity handle the risk?

6. Step 3: Resource allocation • How are resources allocated to specific activities? • What is the expected availability of resources? • Step 4: Schedule Production • What are the planned start and end dates for each activity? • What are the resources allocated to each activity? 3) Sequencing and Scheduling Activities • A scheduling is required for every activity that is planned along with the resources and can be represented using a bar chart.

7. A scheduling clearly indicates when each of the project’s activities is planned to occur and what resources it will need. • The scheduling has taken an account of the availability of staff and the ways in which the activities have been allocated to them. • The chart defines two factors, • Sequencing of tasks • Schedule of task • The logical relationship between the activities are grouped together and then scheduled for resources.

9. Two activities • To sequence the tasks according to their logical relationships • To schedule them taking into account resources and other factors. • Combining sequencing – scheduling approach is suitable only for smaller projects and needs to be separated for complex projects as individual process. Approaches • Separation between the logical and the physical use networks to model the project.

10. 4) Network Planning Models • The project scheduling techniques model the project’s activities and their relationships as a network. • In network, the time flows from left to right. • An activity on arrow approach can be used to visualize the project as a network in which activities are shown as arrows joining the circles. • Each node represents either the start or the end of an activity or a set of activities, this network can also be called as precedence network.

11. The techniques were originally developed in the 1950. • Two best techniques used are, • CPM – Critical Path Method • PERT – Program Evaluation Review Technique • Both of these techniques uses an activity-on-arrow approach. • The variation on these techniques called precedence networks. • In activity-on-node networks where activities are represented as nodes and the links between nodes represent precedence requirements.

12. 4.1) Constructing precedence networks • There are some conventions used in the construction of precedence networks. • Only one start node and one end node must be defined for a project network. • Every node must have duration • Links do not have duration • Subsequent preceding activities are precedents • Flow of activities • Loop free network • Dangle free network

16. 5) Forward Pass • The forward pass is carried out to calculate the earliest dates on which each activity may be started and completed. • Steps involved in forward pass are, • Start at the start node • Compute the top pair of numbers • Add the duration to the connecting node’s earliest finish time.

18. 6) Backward Pass • Calculate the latest date at which each activity may be started and finished without delaying the end date of the project. • The project does not start on time it won’t finish on time. • The steps involved in backward pass are, • Start at the end node • Compute the bottom pair of numbers • Subtract the duration from the connecting node’s earliest start time.

20. 7) Activity Float • The critical path is a single path that defines the duration of the project. • The total float is shown for each activity, it really belongs to a path through the networks. • Activity float is a measure which calculates the difference between the activity earliest start and the latest start date. • Types of floats are, • Free float • Interfering float

21. There are number of other measures of activity float, • Free float – The time by which an activity may be delayed without affecting any subsequent activity. • Interfering float – The difference between total float and free float. 8) Shortening Project Duration • To shorten the overall durations of a project we would normally consider attempting to reduce activity durations. • Reduce activity times along the critical path we must continually check for any new critical path emerging and redirect the attention. • Time savings.

22. 9) Activity on Arrow Networks • The CPM and PERT methods both originally used activity-on-arrow networks. • In activity-on-arrow networks activities are represented by links and the nodes represent events of activities.

23. 9.1) Activity-on-arrow network rules and conventions • A project network may have only one start node • A project network may have only one end node • A link has duration • Nodes have no duration • Time moves from left to right • Nodes are numbered sequentially • A network may not contain loops • A network may not contain dangles.

27. 9.2) Using dummy activities • Two paths within a network have a common event. • The problems can be resolve by separating the two independent paths by introducing a dummy activity. • Dummy activities, shown ad dotted lines on the network diagram, have a zero duration and use no resources. Use – Two activities share the same start and end nodes makes it easier to distinguish the activity end points.

29. 9.3) Representing lagged activities • Activity-on-arrow networks are less elegant when it comes to represent lagged parallel activities.

30. 9.4) Activity labelling • The diagram is used to record information about the events rather than the activities. • Divide the node circle into quadrants and use those quadrants to show the event number, the latest and earliest dates by which the event should occur, and the event slack.

31. 9.5) Network analysis 9.5.1) The forward pass • Calculate the earliest date on which each event may be achieved and the earliest dates on which each activity may be started and completed. • Steps involved in forward pass are, • Start at the start node • Compute the top pair of numbers • Add the duration to the connecting node’s earliest finish time.

33. 9.5.2) The backward pass • Calculate the latest date at which each event may be achieved and each activity started and finished, without delaying the end date of the project. • The steps involved in backward pass are, • Start at the end node • Compute the bottom pair of numbers • Subtract the duration from the connecting node’s earliest start time.

34. CPM network after the backward pass

35. 9.5.3) Identifying the critical path • The critical path is identified by using the activity-on-node networks. • Slack is used to identify the path. • Slack is the difference between the earliest date and the latest date of an event.

36. 10) Risk Management • Risk – An uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on a project’s objectives. 11) Nature of Risk • A risk is a potential problem – it might happen and it might not. • Conceptual definition of risk • Risk concerns future happenings. • Risk involves change in mind, opinion, actions, places, etc. • Risk involves choice and the uncertainty that choice entails. • It involves cause and effect.

37. Two characteristics of risk • Uncertainty – the risk may or may not happen. • Loss – the risk becomes a reality and unwanted consequences or losses occur. 12) Types of Risk • Project risks • They threaten the project plan • If they become real, it is likely that the project schedule will slip and that costs will increase

38. Technical risks • They threaten the quality and timeliness of the software to be produced. • If they become real, implementation may become difficult or impossible. • Business risks • They threaten the viability of the software to be built. • The risks that do not affect the project directly. • Risks denote the outside responsibilities of the application team

39. Categories of risks are, • Actors – different groups of people involved in the development like specialist and user groups etc. • Technology – application implementation and embedded delivered products with technology. • Structure – describes the management and the system structures which affect planning and control process. • Tasks – tasks is an assigned piece of work which has to be completed within a specified time.

40. Sub-categories of Business risks • Market risk – building an excellent product or system that no one really wants. • Strategic risk – building a product that no longer fits into the overall business strategy for the company. • Sales risk – building a product that the sales force doesn't understand how to sell. • Management risk – losing the support of senior management due to a change in focus or a change in people. • Budget risk – losing budgetary or personnel commitment.

41. Known risks • Those risks that can be uncovered after careful evaluation of the project plan, the business and technical environment in which the project is being developed, and other reliable information sources (e.g., unrealistic delivery date) • Predictable risks • Those risks that are extrapolated from past project experience (e.g., past turnover) • Unpredictable risks • Those risks that can and do occur, but are extremely difficult to identify in advance.

42. 13) Managing Risk • All projects have risks. • The key to managing a project is not to avoid risks, but to understand them. • A risk is the possibility of an event or condition that would have a negative impact on a project. • Risk management is the process of identifying, mitigating, and controlling the known risks in order to increase the probability of meeting the project objectives. Managing Risk

43. System definition Hazard identification Analysis of accident scenarios Estimation of accident frequencies Consequence analysis and modelling Risk estimation Risk Assessment • Scheme for qualitative and quantitative assessments • At all steps, risk reducing measures need to be considered

44. Risk Analysis Hazard Identification Hazard & Scenario Analysis • Fault tree analysis • Event tree analysis • Bowties • Barrier diagrams • Reliability data • Human reliability • Consequence models Likelihood Consequences Risk Risk Analysis – Main Steps

45. Risk Analysis Hazard Identification Identify Safety Barriers Hazard & Scenario Analysis Likelihood Consequences Risk Risk Analysis – Main Steps

46. 14) Hazard Identification • The process of identifying and listing the hazards and accidents associated with a system. • Process hazard management is vital to keep a working environment safe and productive. • Process hazard analysis checklist will help in analyzing process risks. 14.1) Hazard Management Responsibilities • Develop process hazard analysis action plans and keep track of the implementation.

47. 14.2) Responsibilities of employees • Avoid placing employees at risk of injury. • Report any process risks occurred within the working environment to managers as soon as possible. • Participate in the development of appropriate process hazard analysis methods and risk control measures to eliminate or mitigate risks. • Hazard Identification and Hazard Analysis are parts of the Risk Management process and they are often conducted together or in direct sequence.

48. 15) Hazard Analysis • The process of describing in detail the hazards and accidents associated with a system, and defining accident sequences. • The main goal of both is to provide the best selection of means of controlling or eliminating the risk. 15.1) Hazard Analysis Objectives • Identify hazards • Identify causes  • Determine risks.

49. 15.2) Hazard Analysis Steps • Establish the necessity for process hazard management. • Process hazard management is necessary when some tasks and activities within the working environment are under risks of failure. • Risks should be identified, assessed and controlled. • Major steps of a hazard analysis are, • Identify hazards • Assess hazards • Control hazards • Report hazards.

50. 16) Risk Planning and Control • Risk acceptance • Risk avoidance • Risk reduction and mitigation • Risk transfer.