Project Management

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Project Management

• Muhammad Ali Babar
• malibaba_at_cse.unsw.edu.au
• www.cse.unsw.eduau/malibaba

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Tears CheersRelating the theories with real
life experiences
There are lessons to be learned from failure,
if only we are willing to find and examine them.
Jeffrey K. Pinto Om P. Kharbanda

• A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to
  achieve a particular aim and to which project
  management can be applied, regardless of the
  projects size, budget, or timeline.
• PMBOK Guide 2000 Ed.

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Project management is application of knowledge,
skills, tools, and techniques to a broad range of
activities in order to meet the requirements of a
particular project. PMBOK Guide 2000 Ed.
What is Project Management?

To be successful, managers must control the
processes, product, and people that populate
software-intensive project-and manage them
concurrently, constantly reconciling conflicts
that occur Donald J. Reifer
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Software managers mainly perform five primary
functions to get their jobs done
Primary functions of Project Manager

• Planning. Plan the projects thoroughly to create
  a roadmap to set expectations. Use the plan as a
  baseline to monitor and measure the progress.
• Organizing. Create organizations to get the work
  done efficiently and effectively by assigning
  responsibilities, delegating authority, and
  holding people accountable for results.
• Staffing. Recruit, train, appraise, retain the
  right people by recognizing talent, breeding
  competence, and weeding out deadwood.
• Directing. Get things done through the actions of
  people by building a synergistic teams and
  motivating them to perform at their fullest
  capability.
• Controlling. Put appropriate control mechanism in
  place to assess status

Donald J. Reifer, Software Management, 5th Ed.
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Common Reasons for Project Failure
Gartner Group, July 1998.
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Setting the Scene for project 1

• Company Profile
• Second largest News Paper
• Simultaneously published from three cities
• More than 500 staff in publishing busines
• Project Summary
• Computerising News room to streamline processes
• Centralising News selection publication
  decisions
• Educating editorial staff to use computers for
  productivity

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Process Model of News Room
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Stakeholder totally ignored
Project Sponsors Stakeholders
Project Sponsors
Politically aligned

• Editors and sub-Editors
• News Reporters
• Computer section staff
• Proof readers and other support staff

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We were doomed to fail because

• Ignored the important stakeholders
• Couldnt manage required cultural changes
• No systematic formal risk management process
• Too much emphasis on adding value, but nothing
  for people and relationship management
• Black box PM approach, intuitive unilateral
  decision making

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Setting the Scene for project 2

• Company Profile
• Hardware specialist transforming into software
  house
• ISO 9002 certified for hardware supply and
  support
• Offices in 5 Australian cities, A70-80 Millions
  in sales
• Project Summary
• Developing an open interoperable architecture for
  E-Business systems
• Formalising software development process to get
  certified
• Identifying required activities, tasks and
  deliverable for certification

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ITS ALL IN MY HEAD
Its rare to meet any team whose members cant
tell about the project and the process as its
all in their heads. However, each one of them
would have a slightly different version, scope
and objectives of the project and process
ITS ALL IN MS PROJECT!
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Capability Maturity Model
Continuously Improving Process
Predictable Process
Standard, Consistent Process
Disciplined Process
SEI, Carnegie Mellon University, USA.
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Structure of CMM
Maturity Levels
indicate
Process Capability
contain
Key Process Areas
achieve
organized by
Goals
Common Features
address
Implementation or Institutionalization
contain
Key Practices
describe
Infrastructure or Activities
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Key Process Areas

• Key process areas identify where an organization
  must focus to raise to achieve a certain level
• Organization needs to perform the activities to
  achieve the goals considered important for each
  KPAs required for a particular maturity level.

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Common Features
Common features are used to organize the key
practices in each key process area.

• Commitment to perform. Actions that must be taken
  to ensure that process is established, i.g.,
  policies, leadership etc.
• Ability to perform. Preconditions that must exist
  to implement process competently, i.g.,
  resources, training, orientation, etc.
• Activities performed. Describes the roles and
  procedures necessary to implement a key process
  area, i.g., performing work, tracking, etc.
• Measurement and analysis. Describes the need to
  measure the process and analyse the measurements.
• Verifying implementation. Describes the steps to
  ensure that activities are performed in with the
  process that has been established..

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Key Practices

• STATE THE FUNDAMENTAL POLICIES, PROCEDURES,
  AND ACTIVITIES FOR A KEY PROCESS AREA
• DESCRIBE WHAT IS TO BE DONE, BUT THEY
  SHOULD NOT BE INTERPRETED AS MANDATING
  HOW
• ARE ORGANIZED BY COMMON FEATURE
• 316 KEY PRACTICES IN CMM

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Why project didnt succeed?
To manage a project without an effective
executive sponsor is to visit hell on Earth. Rob
thomsett

• Poor sponsorship
• Ill-defined scope and objects
• No realization of Added-Value requirements
• No process change control mechanism
• Lack of stakeholder buy-in

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Setting the Scene for project 3

• Company Profile
• System engineering RD centre
• Project Summary
• Analysing available CASE tool for early stages of
  the software development lifecycle
• Developing an integrated CASE environment by
  reengineering existing and freely available CASE
  tools and components.

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Success with hiccups

• Major drawbacks
• Inappropriate resources (staff skills)
• Lack of commitment on the part of sponsors
• Ambiguously defined authority and responsibility
• Black box style project management approach
• Ineffective communication (email wars)
• Political expediency infighting

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How We succeeded
When software projects fail, it is generally
because of teamwork problems and not technical
issues. Watts S. Humphrey

• Redefined the project scope and objects
• Project sponsors agreed to compromise less
  important requirements.
• Management agreed to staff the project with
  appropriate resources (Skills)
• Clearly assigned responsibilities and tasks
• Team members had high stakes in project success

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Human side of Management
Maslows theory of motivation
Try to identify the needs which have not been
satisfied as only those needs work as true
motivators
http//departments.weber.edu/chfam/1500.Bird/Maslo
w.html
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THANK YOU !!