Project Planning

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Project Planning
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Project Planning

• what is a project plan?
• defining a goal and then developing a strategy
  for achieving that goal.
• who is involved?
• all those affected by the project-
• student
• supervisor
• (company??)
• when is a plan produced?
• at the start of the project and then is revised
  at regular intervals.

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Managing your project and yourself

• Personal project management
• Personal time management
• Document management
• Task management

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Personal project planning

• Project Definition
• define what it is you are trying to do, and how
  you propose to do it
• Estimation
• analyze scope and duration of your proposed work
• Scheduling
• set sequences and dates
• Monitoring
• record progress and re-plan

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Project Definition (1)

• setting your aims and objectives
• aim will give direction to your project
• objectives if defined chronologically, will
  assist planning
• work breakdown structure
• a structured, top-down description of your
  project work
• a project framework
• a project checklist

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Project Definition (2)

• technical strategy
• how you will organize your work, in an
  engineering sense
• depends on your project
• incremental build and test, framework
  incremental?
• evolutionary delivery?
• spiral model?
• waterfall, prototyping?
• experimentation
• early evaluation of technical options

Useful starting points Sommerville, Software
Engineering, 8/e, Ch 4 Pressman, Software
Engineering 6/e, Ch 3
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Estimation

• size estimation
• what are my functional requirements?
• how many screens? reports? features? database
  tables? fields/variables? algorithms?
• time estimation
• duration of major project phases
• duration of critical activities
• requirements specification design coding
  testing
• duration of supporting activities
• lit. searching and review documentation.

NB role of WBS in estimating process
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Estimation strategies (1)

• Top down
• size/time of project activities is derived from
  time allocated to higher level project
  activities.
• e.g if 3 weeks allocated to lit. review., then
  constituent activities will be scaled accordingly
• Bottom up
• size/time of low level activities is used to
  determine time allocated to major project
  functions
• e.g. if detailed design 2 weeks, coding 4 weeks,
  testing 2 weeks, then implementation allocated 8
  weeks

NB role of WBS
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Estimation strategies (2)

• Analogy
• reasoning by analogy with your, or someone elses
  experience, on a completed, similar activity, to
  relate actual size/time to estimate for new
  project
• e.g on a placement project, typically 2 days to
  fully build and test a data input screen of
  moderate complexity.
• Expert opinion
• ask someone knowledgeable in the area under
  investigation to advise an estimate
• experimentation
• minimize over-optimistic estimates by trying out
  some (high risk) activities during semester 1

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Estimation strategies - contingency planning

• time is the enemy, everything takes much longer
  than expected
• assess what can go wrong, and plan accordingly
  (risk management)
• dont leave critical activities to the last
  minute, e.g
• evaluating software system
• printing final report
• allow time for troubleshooting
• keep monitoring, prioritizing and re-planning

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Scheduling

• milestones
• module key dates
• technical key dates
• e.g. req. spec complete, risks assessed, design
  complete, prototype ready
• activity sequencing
• in what order must things be done
• look for parallel activities
• e.g. learning new language // literature review
• barcharts
• present schedule in easily readable form, for
  yourself and others
• build in contingency

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Project Planning

• Format
• listing of project activities, with start date,
  end date and duration
• explanation of each activity, if required
• graphical summary of plan in form of bar chart
  (e.g. via MS Project)

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Project Planning
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Project Control

• record progress - the project diary
• important to keep and maintain a tidy, clear
  record of everything that has been undertaken
• makes production of final report easier
• frequency not size is important
• helpful for parallel or future work
• watch your project milestones
• assess progress, prioritize, re-scope if
  necessary
• contingency?

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Personal time management

• Some benefits of effective time management
• achieve better results
• improved quality of work
• work faster
• improved satisfaction with our studies
• improve the quality of our non-working life
• ...

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Self-evaluation - identify timewasters

• common timewasters?
• losing things?
• surfing?
• travelling?
• idle conversation?
• dont know where to start?
• TV?
• perfectionism?
• ...

• my timewasters?

rank them from most significant to least
significant
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Document management

• Organizing your project papers, notes,
  documentation
• use simple file headings
• possibly based on WBS?
• subdivide large folders
• separate frequently used papers from inactive
  documents
• file new papers, notes, as soon as you receive
  them
• always keep a record of where you found something
  
• e.g. URL, journal reference, textbook,
• cross-reference rather than duplicate
• sort out your paperwork regularly, keep it under
  control

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Task management

• maintain monthly, weekly and daily to do lists
• based on content of your project plan
• i.e. keep your eye on the ball

• prioritize your tasks on a regular basis
• project work vs coursework vs revision
• take a break!
• has physiological, social and other benefits !

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Project Management Processes

Status, issues, results of evaluations measures
and analyses
PMC

• What to Monitor
• Schedule
• Budget
• Resources
• Risks
• Actuals Vs Predicted

Corrective action
What To monitor
What To build
PP
What To do
Technical development And support
Commitments
What to do Activities/Tasks
Measurement needs
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Technical Development Processes
PP

Requirements
REQM
Product requirements
Solutions
Productcomponents
Product
Customer
Require-ments
Customer needs
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Pure Waterfall Model
Software Concept
Requirements Analysis
Architectural Design
Detailed Design
Code Debug
System Testing
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The IDEAL Model A Process for Investigating IS
Problems and developing solutions