Software Project Management

1
Software Project Management

• Introduction

"... project management is probably the toughest
single problem in the software industry.
--Capers Jones Jones 1996, p 213
2
Motivation

• Nearly all software is created in the context of
  a project. Projects must be managed.
• Project management is about planning, tracking
  and controlling product development.
• Good project management is just as important to
  project success as the technical activities of
  coding and testing.

3
Projects Old Concept New Approaches

• A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to
  create a unique product or service PMI 2000.
• Projects have been around as long as humans.
• Some notable projects in the history of
  civilization include
• Egyptian Pyramids
• Roman Aqueducts
• Polaris Missile Program

4
Project vs. Operation

• Projects and ongoing operations are two ways of
  organizing work.
• Projects have a definite start and end date.
  Ongoing operations go on forever (To infinity
  and beyond!)
• Projects are the preferred method of organizing
  work that produces a unique product or service.
  Work that is ongoing and routine is better
  performed as an operation using an organization's
  permanent infrastructure.

5
Projects Old Concept New Approaches

• The fundamentals of PM haven't changed in over
  4,000 years, but project managers today have
  access to new tools and techniques.
• New tools include the PC and project management
  software such as MS Project.
• New techniques, invented in the first half of the
  20th century to handle large-scale military and
  civilian construction projects, include
• GANTT Charts
• PERT/CPM
• Earned Value Analysis

6
Project Management Institute (PMI)

• The PMI is the worlds leading project management
  professional association.
• Started in the late 60s, the PMI now has over
  200,000 members worldwide.

• The PMI provides several levels of certification
  related to project management.
• The PMI is the author of the well-known
  reference A Guide to the Project Management
  Body of Knowledge (PMBOK).

7
Project Life Cycle

• Just as the product of software development moves
  through a sequence of phases marked by
  product-oriented milestones, the project as a
  whole moves through its own sequence of phases
  marked by project-oriented milestones.

8
Standard Functions of Project Management

• Planning - deciding in advance what to do.
• Organizing - defining roles and responsibilities
  for the project team.
• Staffing - filling and keeping filled roles
  defined by the organization structure.
• Directing - leading and motivating individuals to
  achieve their potential.
• Tracking and Controlling - periodically assessing
  project status and taking corrective action when
  actual progress deviates significantly from plans.

9
Project Life Cycle

• The project life cycle defines the phases a
  project goes through from inception to
  completion. The four main phases of the project
  life cycle are
• Initiation Phase Define objectives and get
  approval to proceed.
• Planning Phase Decide who does what when.
• Execution Controlling Phase Perform the work
  as described in the project plan. The bulk of the
  project effort will be expended here but other
  than tracking and controlling its not a busy
  time for the PM.
• Closeout Phase Get closure. Customer accepts
  results. Do a project postmortem. What went
  right? What went wrong? Do casual analysis on
  problems in order to identify root causes with
  the intention of improving performance on future
  projects.

10
The Role of Project Manager

• The responsibility for managing a project can be
  distributed among the project members, but more
  commonly is assigned to one individualthe
  project manager.
• Project management is independent of technical
  specialty. The tools and techniques of project
  management are the same whether you are
  fabricating with bits or bricks. The job of
  project manager, however, is industry specific.
  You must know something about software to be a
  good manager of a software project.

11
Project Life CycleTiming and Application
12
Project Management and the Software Development
Life Cycle
13
Project Management Activities
14
The Art and Science ofProject Management

• Art
• Vision
• Leading
• Motivating
• Creative problem solving
• Managing expectations

• Science
• Planning
• Organizing
• Staffing
• Tracking
• Control
• Reporting

15
Special Challenges Managing Software Projects

• Visibility. Because software is intangible,
  additional work is needed to make the process and
  product of software development visible.
• Absence of routine solutions and processes.
• Changing requirements.
• Changing implementation technologies.

16
The Four Variables of a Project

• Every project has to balance the desire for
  features and quality with constraints on cost and
  time.
• There is rarely enough time or money to deliver
  all of the features and quality that the customer
  can use. Its up to the project manager to find a
  balance that is agreeable to all and manage the
  project in a way that keeps these variables
  balanced throughout the project.

17
The Four Variables of a Project cont

• Cost the amount of money available to do a
  project. For software projects most of the cost
  goes toward salaries so effort is a good
  approximation of cost.
• Time is the amount of calendar time available
  to complete a project.
• Features are a measure of functionality. What
  is the software to do?
• Quality a measure of how well the product does
  what it is suppose to do. Defects obviously lower
  the quality of the software.

18
Understanding the Tradeoffs Among the Four
Variables of a Project

• When looking for a balance among these four
  variables, the following conceptual formula
  provides intuition about how a change in one
  variable will affect the others.
• Once the formula is balanced, a change in one
  variable will necessitate an offsetting change in
  one or more of the other variables.
• For example, once the variables are balanced for
  a project adding more features can only be offset
  by one or more of lower quality, higher cost or
  longer project duration.

Cost Time Features Quality
19
Understanding The True Relationship Between
Project Variables

• The formula for project equilibrium is a
  simplification. The true relationship between
  project variables is more complicated than
  mathematical multiplication ()
• There are also limits to the extent that a change
  in one variable can be balanced by a change in
  another.
• The following graphs more accurately represent
  the true relationships between these four
  variables

20
Balancing the four variables of a Project

• The key to finding an acceptable balance is
  knowing at the start of a project which variables
  are fixed and which have a degree of freedom.
• If we don't have these 15 features, we can't be
  competitive in the marketplace. (features are
  fixed)
• The grant authorizes us to spend 50K on the
  software and it has to be ready for review by
  February. (time and cost are fixed)
• "The system is safety-critical so it has to be
  error-free." (quality is fixed)
• If all four variables are fixed, and the
  formula is out of balance, you are in trouble.

21
Ask the customerto prioritize objectives

• At the start of a project after features have
  been decided, there is an old saying that neatly
  summaries the customers options

You can have it fast you can have it
cheap or you can have it good. Pick
two.

• Despite its brevity (and levity), this simple
  statement of options makes three important
  points
• There are tradeoffs among the four variables of a
  project and it's impossible to optimize them all.
• There has to be a degree of freedom with at least
  one variable. The customer can't dictate all
  four.
• It's important to establish the priorities among
  these variables at the start of a project.

22
Productivity addressesthe issue of feasibility

• Taking into account team productivity, the
  formula for project equilibrium becomes

Cost Time Productivity Constant Features
Quality

• Team productivity is an important factor to
  consider when deciding whether or not a
  particular project request is feasible.
• The productivity constant accounts for the
  capabilities of the people doing the work, the
  process they are following and the tools and
  technologies they are using.

23
Project Triple Constraint

• According to the rule of threes, people tend to
  remember and react more favorably to lists of
  three.
• When speaking of the main variables or
  constraints on a project its more convenient to
  refer to them as three variables cost, time, and
  performance, where performance aggregates
  features and quality.

• Taken together the three variables are sometimes
  referred to as the project triple constraint or
  iron triangle.

24
Education over Negotiation

• You can negotiate tradeoffs among the four
  variables but you cant negotiate their
  relationships.
• At the start of a project you have estimates for
  the cost and duration. If you have been recording
  historic data on past project, you also have
  reasonably accurate productivity data.
• You can negotiate how much unpaid overtime you
  will spend, but other than that there isnt
  anything to negotiate.
• The customer might wish estimates for cost and
  duration were lower, but you cant negotiate them
  lower.

25
Education over Negotiation cont

• Just as Ohm's law describes how volts, current
  and resistance are balanced in an electrical
  circuit (V I R), the formula for project
  equilibrium describes the balance of forces
  during a project.
• Electrical engineers cant violate Ohm's law and
  software engineers cant complete a software
  project when these variables are out-of-balance.

26
Keys to Project Success
27
Del Defining Characteristics of a Project?

• The work is temporary.
• The result is a unique product or service.
  Projects are one-time events resulting in a
  unique product or service.

28
Project Characteristics

• Projects are characterized by
• Specific objectives
• Schedule
• Budget
• Team of individuals working together
• Production of a unique product or service