Software Project Management

Project Management Project Planning

Agenda
Deliverables
Friday, May 24 @ 5 PM Status Report #2 Friday, May 31 @ 5 PM Status Report #3 Friday, May 31 @ noon
Requirements Document Project Plan

Grading Policy Clarifications

Document Regrades
Average

Missed Presentations
-5 points on final average for each

Faculty Advisors
Assignments Next Week

Lecture: Project Management

Project Management
Goals
Software delivered within budget Software delivered within schedule Software is built according to requirements

Why?
Well-managed projects sometimes fail Badly managed projects inevitably fail Software development process is not standardized

Project Manager Responsibilities

Sommerville, 1995

Proposal Writing Project Costing Project Planning & Scheduling Project Monitoring & Reviews Personnel Selection & Evaluation Report Writing & Presentations

Project Planning Process

Sommerville, 1995 Establish the project constraints Make initial assessments of the project parameters Define project milestones and deliverables while project has not been completed or cancelled loop Draw up project schedule Initiate activities according to schedule Wait ( for a while ) Review project progress Revise estimates of project parameters Update the project schedule Re-negotiate project constraints and deliverables if ( problems arise ) then Initiate technical review and possible revision end if end loop

So how do we do this?
Spend time understanding the problem Estimate amount of effort required
Number of major functions Difficulty of each function

Develop schedule with built in safety nets

Increase estimates by some factor Have a backup plan for worst case Make sure schedule is realistic

Revise schedule as project understanding increases

Estimation Overview
Difficult & error prone Estimation Process Estimate the size of the Gradual refinement
At beginning of project, have a fuzzy idea of problem, therefore estimate of time and effort will be fuzzy too Only as the project develops and the problem and solution become clearer, will the estimates increase in accuracy

product
Lines of code (LOC) Function Points Number of functions

Estimate the effort

Person-months

Estimate the schedule

Calendar time

From Estimation to Scheduling

Refinement
Initial problem statement Requirements Specification High Level Design Detailed Design Specification Implementation

Cases
Best Case Most Likely Case Current Case Worst Case

Scheduling
Activities
Split project into tasks
Estimate time & resources required

Problems
Estimating is difficult Productivity is not proportional to the number of people Adding people to a late project makes it later The unexpected always happens - allow contingency

Organize tasks concurrently to make optimal use of workforce Minimize task dependencies to avoid delays

Scheduling
Derived from estimated level of effort required Build in mid-project checkpoints Dont forget testing & integration take time too Be realistic
Other classes Outside work/activities Eat & sleep

Build in safety nets & backup plans

Project Plan

Sommerville, 1995

Introduction Project organization Risk analysis Hardware and software resource requirements Work breakdown
Milestones - end of process activity Deliverables - project results delivered to customer

Project schedule Monitoring and reporting mechanisms

Risk Analysis
Risk
Something that can go wrong Usually a result of inadequate information

Analysis
Identify Risks Resolution
Strategies used to reduce the risks Alternatives

Project Schedules
Sommerville, 1995

Task T1 T2 T3 T4 T5 T6 T7 T8

Days 8 15 15 10 10 5 20 25

Dependencies

T1 T2, T4 T1, T2 T1 T4

Sommerville, 1995

Project Schedules
4/7 11/7 Start 18/7 25/7 1/8 8/8 15/8 22/8 29/8 5/9 12/9 19/9

T4 T1 T2
M1 T7 T3 M5 T8 M3 M2 T6 T5

M4 T9

M7 T10
M6 T11 M8 T12
Finish

In Summary...
Sommerville, 1995

Good project management is essential for project success Managers have diverse roles, but focus on
Planning Estimating Scheduling

Planning and estimating are iterative processes