Software Management Plan part I

1
Software Management Plan(part I)

• Software managements 7 deadly sins
• The 3 Ps of software management
• Why big software projects fail the key 12
  questions

2
Software managements 7 deadly sins

• Conducted fact-finding using email
• Senior managers from 20 organizations responded
  to the questions
• To cope with software crisis, software
  initiatives were pursued
• Most embraced the three-pronged attack
• Standardize the process
• Standardize the product
• Professionalize the workforce

By Donald J. Reifer, Software Management, 7th
Ed., pp. 5-8, 2006
3
Software managements 7 deadly sins
By Donald J. Reifer, Software Management, 7th
Ed., pp. 5-8, 2006
4
Software managements 7 deadly sins

• Sin 1 volatile requirements
• Succeeded only marginally when the organizations
  let requirements change whenever marketing staff,
  customers, and users recommend new features
• Better requirements-management
• Sin 2 poor planning
• Aim to shorten time-to-market interval by
  scheduling tasks in parallel using iterative and
  spiral techniques
• Plans should be living documents, iterating and
  evolving over time

By Donald J. Reifer, Software Management, 7th
Ed., pp. 5-8, 2006
5
Software managements 7 deadly sins

• Sin 3 unrealistic schedules and budgets
• We will try our best instead of No! based on
  our experience, it will take more resources to do
  this job
• Still need better requirements and detailed plans
  to estimate more accurately
• Sin 4 inadequate controls
• Inadequate tracking and measurement techniques
• We cannot properly control what we have not
  properly planned

By Donald J. Reifer, Software Management, 7th
Ed., pp. 5-8, 2006
6
Software managements 7 deadly sins

• Sin 5 undercapitalization
• In the late 1980s, Japanese introduced software
  factory concept
• They designed and built software facilities with
  software development in mind
• Increased budget for software tools, embraced
  process improvement technology
• Most firms are heavily undercapitalized they
  focus on marketing the product with only
  available resources at hand
• Lesson learned put an effort today into the
  developing the necessary infrastructure to build
  products tomorrow

By Donald J. Reifer, Software Management, 7th
Ed., pp. 5-8, 2006
7
Software managements 7 deadly sins

• Sin 6 Were different syndrome
• To get management off the developers back
  especially when schedules are aggressive
• Lessons learned better to focus on explaining
  why software is no different than other technical
  disciplines
• Sin 7 lack of focus on quality
• Nobody wins when the defective products are
  released to the market

By Donald J. Reifer, Software Management, 7th
Ed., pp. 5-8, 2006
8
The 3 Ps of Software management

• The software management must perform the
  following activities
• Planning
• Organizing
• Staffing
• Directing
• Controlling
• Integrating

By Donald J. Reifer, Software Management, 7th
Ed., pp. 15-19, 2006
9
The 3 Ps of Software management

• The 3 Ps of software management
• Processes
• Products
• People

By Donald J. Reifer, Software Management, 7th
Ed., pp. 15-19, 2006
10
The 3 Ps of Software management

• Maturing the process
• Principle 1 recognize that good processes add
  value
• Having either good process or good people is not
  enough
• Getting people use the process is a challenge it
  can be resolved by making your process the
  preferred way of doing business
• Principle 2 use your processes to share your
  lessons learned
• Direct your process-definition efforts to
  institutionalize a preferred approach for doing
  business
• Learn from both positive and negative

By Donald J. Reifer, Software Management, 7th
Ed., pp. 15-19, 2006
11
The 3 Ps of Software management

• Focusing on product issues
• Principle 3 stress continuous process
  improvement
• Ensure that process that you improve is the one
  that your people use
• Be flexible and build on the past in a way that
  allows to address the future
• Include both people and products into account
• Principle 4 recognize that performance is always
  the issue
• Performance is what makes or breaks the product
  from customers view

By Donald J. Reifer, Software Management, 7th
Ed., pp. 15-19, 2006
12
The 3 Ps of Software management

• Focusing on product issues
• Principle 5 realize that quality makes the
  difference
• Quality is the differentiating factor when the
  functionality and price are almost the same
• Principle 6 emphasize that the customer is
  always right
• Involve customer in the process, milestones, tap
  into their knowledge and experience
• Principle 7 avoid gold plating and feature creep
• No matter how much you try, its almost
  impossible to deliver acceptable product on time
  with negotiated price when requirements are
  changing

By Donald J. Reifer, Software Management, 7th
Ed., pp. 15-19, 2006
13
The 3 Ps of Software management

• Addressing people oriented needs
• Principle 8 eliminate unnecessary paperwork
• Understand the needed documentation
• Differentiate between deliverable and
  nondeliverable documents
• Principle 9 reward your top performers
• Know who they are and do everything to keep them
  satisfied
• Nearly 80 of work is done by the 20 of your
  staff
• Do not stretch them too thin
• Principle 10 commit to personal growth
• Help your staff achieve their personal goals
  through work-related training, mentoring, job
  assignments

By Donald J. Reifer, Software Management, 7th
Ed., pp. 15-19, 2006
14
The 3 Ps of Software management

• Addressing people oriented needs
• Principle 11 recognize what motivates
  performance
• Interesting work, growth opportunities, feedback,
  praise, recognition for a job well done, ability
  to excel
• Recognize, respect and respond to peoples needs
• Principle 12 build bridges through open
  communications
• Stimulate a free exchange of information and
  ideas
• Allow your interdisciplinary and integrated
  product teams to work across the organization
• Information flow up, down, and across the
  organization

By Donald J. Reifer, Software Management, 7th
Ed., pp. 15-19, 2006
15
The 3 Ps of Software management

• Addressing people oriented needs
• Principle 13 the equality principle
• Reward competence and incompetence equally
• Help your people set up aggressive but realistic
  goals and hold them responsible for the results
• Do not hesitate to terminate an employee for poor
  performance after trying everything to help
  him/her to succeed

By Donald J. Reifer, Software Management, 7th
Ed., pp. 15-19, 2006
16
Why big software projects failthe key 12
questions

• Question 1 are all large software projects
  unmanageable?
• Question 2 why are large software projects hard
  to manage?
• Question 3 why is autocratic management
  ineffective for software?
• Question 4 why is management visibility a
  problem for software?

By Watts S. Humphrey, Software Management, 7th
Ed., pp. 21-25, 2006
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Why big software projects failthe key 12
questions

• Question 5 why cant managers just ask the
  developers?
• Question 6 why do planned projects fail?
• Question 7 why not just insist on detailed
  plans?
• Question 8 why not tell the developers to plan
  their work?
• Question 9 how can we get developers to make
  good plans?

By Watts S. Humphrey, Software Management, 7th
Ed., pp. 21-25, 2006
18
Why big software projects failthe key 12
questions

• Question 10 how can management trust developers
  to make plans?
• Question 11 what are the risks of changing?
• Question 12 what has been the experience so far?

By Watts S. Humphrey, Software Management, 7th
Ed., pp. 21-25, 2006