Software Project Management

1. Software Project Management Unit – IV Presentation

2. Unit – 4 (Monitoring and Control) • Creating Framework • Exercising control over a project and ensuring that targets are met is a matter of regular monitoring. • Finding out what is happening and comparing it with current targets. • The projects starts its execution, the project must be carefully monitored to ensure the project’s progress. • Expected outcomes are compared with the actual ones.

3. Project control is a continuous process of monitoring the progress of the project plan and is also includes re-planning of activities. Revising the planning strategy is due to, • Delay in completion of the project within the target time • Quality factors • Inadequate functionality in adopting newer techniques • Actual estimation

6. 1.1) Responsibility • The overall responsibility for ensuring satisfactory progress on a project is often the role of the project steering committee or project board. • Categories of reporting are classified as, Formal and Informal. • Formal regular types can be oral or written.

7. Standard oral communication of minutes are kept where as written type gets the reporting issues in a separate written format. • Formal ad hoc are mostly received information of different levels towards the end of the project and generate written reports. • Informal, oral and ad hoc provides early warning to the system and must be backed up by formal reporting procedures.

9. 1.2) Assessing progress • The basis of information collected and collated at regular intervals or when specific events occur. • Information will be objective and tangible. • The information can however, measure the project’s objectives in determining whether the project can produce deliverables or not.

10. Single activity will not yield a deliverable work product but a group of activities can achieve the specified tangible product. • The development of the project measures the progress assessment. • It is carried out by the team members who are associated with the project activities. 1.3) Setting checkpoints • Regular • Tied to specific events such as the production of a report.

11. 1.4) Taking snapshots • Manager needs to receive information about progress will depend upon the size and degree of risk of the project. • Progress reviews will generally take place at particular points during the life of a project it is known as review points or control points. 2) Collecting the data • Gather information about partially completed activities. • Difficult to make the forecasts accurately.

12. 2.1) Partial completion reporting • Organizations use standard accounting systems with weekly timesheets to charge staff time to individual jobs. 2.2) Risk reporting • Reporting is to avoid asking for estimated completion dates. • Traffic-light methods. • Steps are, • Identify the first level elements for assessment • Break the first level elements in to second level elements • Asses the second level elements and mark the colors.

13. Traffic-light methods, • Green – on target • Amber – not on target but recoverable • Red – not on target and difficult to recover • Review all second level elements to reach the first level assessments. • Review both first and the second level assessments to produce an overall assessments. • Focus on non achievement factors. • Assessment forms can be used to evaluate the overall status of the project. • Critical activities denoted by red color.

14. 3) Visualizing progress • A manager needs some way of presenting that data to greatest effect. • Some methods of presenting picture are, • Gantt chart – tracking project progress • It is the simple and the oldest form of representing the progress of the project. • It consists of activity bar that indicates the scheduled activity dates and the duration along with the activity floats.

16. Slip chart – visual indication of activities that are not progressing to schedule. • An alternative view of Gantt chart by providing a visual indication of those activities which are not on schedule. • The more bend in the greater the variation in the project plan. • If the slip line deviates more towards the non achievement of project objectives then it has to be reconsidered • Additional slip lines can be included at regular intervals.

17. Ball charts – way of showing or not targets have been met or not. • It is represented in the form of circles that indicate the start and the end point completion of activities. • Circles of the ball chart mostly contain only two dates the original and the revised one. • An activity is denoted by a red circle and green color denotes that the activity is ahead of its schedule. • Slippage in the project completion date but it is overcome by the timeline charts.

19. The Timeline – recording and displaying the way in which targets have changed. • The chart represents the planned time along the horizontal axis and the actual time along the vertical axis. • A line down the horizontal axis represents the scheduled activity completion dates and the slip in the line indicates a delay in the respective activities. • It is used to calculate the duration of execution of the project.

21. 4) Cost monitoring • It provides an indication of the effort. • It provides a simple method of comparing actual and planned expenditure. • The more cost is incurred to complete the activities to keep the project on schedule. • The chart does a comparison between the actual and the planned expenditure. • Cost charts become much more useful to calculate the future costs.

23. 5) Earned Value • The total value credited to a project at any point is known as the earned value. • The assigned value is the original budgeted cost value and termed as a planned value or budgeted cost of work schedule. • Common methods used in assigning an earned value are, • 0/100 technique • 50/50 technique • Milestone technique • 0/100 technique is suitable for longer duration cost estimation.

24. Earned value denotes the total value credited to a project at any point and it is termed as budgeted cost of work performed(BCWP). • Budgeted cost of work performed(BCWP). • The baseline budget • Monitoring earned value • Schedule variance • Cost variance • Performance ratios.

25. 5.1) Baseline Budgets • To setup an earned value analysis, the first step is to create a baseline budget. • Common ways of measuring earned value in software development process is persons –hours or work days. • The 0/100 technique can be used to get the creditability of earned value.

26. 5.2) Monitoring Earned value • The earned value analysis is to monitor the project progress. • Monitoring process indicates the completion of tasks and includes the activity start and milestone achievement of the project. • The actual cost is calculated by the actual cost of each task and is also called as actual cost of work performed.

27. Types of variance are, • Schedule variance – difference between the earned value and the planned value indicates the degree of the completed work . • Cost variance – difference between the earned value and the actual cost of a completed work results in cost variance. • Positive cost variance – project under control • Negative cost variance – actual cost incurred is much more than the planned one.

29. 5.3) performance ratios • Performance ratios defines two index values namely cost performance index and schedule performance index. • Formulas, • CPI = Earned value/Actual costs • SPI = Earned value/ Planned value • Greater value – work is completed better than planned • Lesser value – work is more costlier than planned.

30. 6) Prioritizing Monitoring • Levels of monitoring are, • Critical path activities – activities in the critical path are delayed in project completion date. • Activities with no free float – activities can have a serious effect on the resource schedule. • Activities with less than a specified float – activities must be monitored very closely. • High risk activities – risks are identified • Activities using critical resources – activities are very expensive and require high level of monitoring.

31. 7) Getting Project Back to Target • Projects are subjected to delays and unexpected events. • Two main strategies are, • Shorten the critical path – it is determine by the overall duration of the project. • The resource used must be effectively allocated to all the activities so that no resources are idle at any point of time. • Swapping of critical and non-critical activities can also be used to shorten the time limit and bring the project back to target.

32. Disadvantage – It produce more paths while shortening which can become critical. • Reconsider the precedence requirements – activities can be sub divided into component and that can start immediately. • The project can be brought back to target by defining constraints to certain activities that effect the other activities for its completion. • Constraints would have a major impact on the quality factors, the risk involved which can cause a delay in carrying out the activities.

33. 8) Change Control • Change control implies the authority to approve and rank the changes. • It combines the automated tool with human to provide a mechanism for control of change. • It is evaluated to assess the technical aspect of configuration items and the budget. 8.1) Configuration librarian’s role • Identification of configuration items are subjected to change control. • Project documentation and software products must be maintained in central repository.

34. A formal set of procedures have to be setup to have control over changes. 8.2) Change control procedures • Makes the final decision on the status and the priority of the change based on the change report. 8.3) Changes in scope of a system • Changes done leads to changes in the size of the system. • Changes can be either from management or from user. • The changes made should not make the system to be inconsistent by effecting the estimating factors.

35. 9) Managing Contracts 9.1) Introduction • The acquisition and supply process are depicted for pre-contract and post-contract. • Five major processes are, • Acquisition • Supply • Operation • Maintenance • Development

37. 9.2) The supply process • The supplier process activities will need to undertake in response to the request of supplier. • Initiation • Preparation of a response • Contract • Planning • Execution and control • Review and evaluation • Delivery and completion

38. 10) Types of Contract • The external resources required could be in the form of services. • Completed software package are classified as, • Bespoke system – Kind of system is developed for an individual that is created from scratch. • Off the shelf – denotes what the user buys as it as and called as shrink wrapped software. • Customized off the shelf – represents a basic core system that is modified based on the requirements of the client.

39. 10.1) Fixed price contracts • The price is fixed when the contracts is signed. • There will be no changes in the contract terms. Advantages, • Known customer expenditure • Supplier motivation Disadvantages, • Higher prices to allow for contingency • Difficulties in modifying requirements • Upward pressure on the cost of changes • Threat to system quality

40. 10.2) Time and materials contracts • Estimates the overall cost based on the customer’s requirements and it is not based on the final payment. Advantages, • Ease of changing requirements • Lack of price pressure Disadvantages, • Customer liability • Lack of incentives for supplier

41. 10.3) Fixed price per unit delivered contracts • Contract is based on function point counting. • Size of the system which includes LOC, a price per unit is also quoted. • Scope grows during the development process. Advantages, • Customer understanding • Comparability • Emerging functionality • Supplier efficiency • Life cycle range

42. Disadvantages, • Difficulties with software size measurement • Changing requirements Based on the approach used in contractor selection the contracts can be classified as, 1) Open tendering process 2) Restricted tendering process 3) Negotiated procedure

43. 10.4) Open tendering process – evaluation process can be time consuming and also expensive in open tendering process. 10.5) Restricted tendering process – bids can be made only by suppliers who have been invited by the customer. 10.6) Negotiated procedure – the restricted tendering process fails because of the defects which lead to additional payment towards the completion of the project.

44. 11) Stages in Contract Placement 11.1) Requirements analysis • Preparation of an requirement document • Introduction • Description of the existing system • Current environment of the system • Customer’s future plans • System requirements based on either mandatory or desirable • Deadlines have to be defined • Additional information requires from the potential suppliers.

45. 11.2) Evaluation plan • Preparing a plan to evaluate the submitted proposals. • Evaluating the desirable requirements • Validating the quality of the software system • Cost incurred for the life time of the proposed system. 11.3) Invitation to tender • Invitation to tender is not an offer itself but an invitation for prospective suppliers to make an offer. • System requirements • Defining the scope of the system • Instruction to the bidders

46. Instruction to the bidders • List of the software products • Technical constraints 11.4) Evaluation of proposals • Evaluation has to be done in a planned manner • Questioning supplier representatives • Visiting the site of the development process • Conducting practical tests • Reduces risk of requirements.

47. 12) Typical Terms of a Contract • The contents of a typical terms of contract are, • Definitions • Form of agreement • Goods and services to be supplied • Ownership of the software • Environment • Customer commitments • Acceptance procedures

48. Standards • Project and quality management • Timetable • Price and payment method • Miscellaneous legal requirements. 13) Contract management • It monitors the conversation between the supplier and the customer while the concentrated work is being carried out. • Customer can make changes to the future direction of the project and make decisions.

49. The entire project will require representative of the supplier and the customer to interact with each other at different points in the development process. • Activities involved in contract management includes, • Identifying customer approval • Negotiating successfully • Project deliverables • Managing change • Decision making • Legal obligations • Business laws.

50. 14) Acceptance • Customer has to undergo acceptance testing towards the end of the process. • Every contract would have defined a time limit for the acceptance testing and the result has to be produced before the time expires. • All the payment to the supplier depends on the acceptance testing. • Every bug that is raised must be fixed within the period of warranty.