Software Project Management

Lecture 11

Outline

Brain Storming session Some simple discussion on questions and their

answers Case studies related to project management

Before the Brain Storming begins… Recap of what we have learnt so far in SPM

course What is Project, Project management, Software

project management, stakeholders, team structures, 4Ps

Software Metrics Estimation Project Scheduling Risk Management

Reason out …

You are required to use your knowledge gained in SPM course and give reasoning based answers to the following questions…

Question

Are there any differences between software project and software development?

Answer

Software project includes the following three typical activities: Feasibility study - the preliminary investigation to decide

whether a potential project is worth pursuing. Planning - the initial planning of a project to pursue.

Detailed planning is necessary at later stages of the development.

Project execution - the execution of the development of the software product.

Software project includes software development as part of its activities.

Question

Which Software Process Model will be more suitable when requirements for a project are not completely defined OR not well defined? Spiral Waterfall Prototyping

Answer

Prototyping It models the development process as prototype building to

the satisfaction of the users. promotes early understanding of the proposed system;

involves user as part of the team; reduces uncertainty and risk

the system developed is usually not well-structured; lack of control of the project for developers

Well suited for those projects that do not have a clear or well-defined requirements, e.g., web-based projects

Question

Spiral model: It views software development effort in the light of the risks

involved. It combines development activities with risk management to minimize and control risk of software development.

Benefits monitor and control risk; can incorporate other process models such

as prototyping Drawback

overhead in risk assessment For uncertain and changing requirements, it can initiate a small

prototyping process for clarification and understanding. Well suited for high risk projects and projects with uncertainties

Continued on Next slide

Question

For which of the following projects is the spiral model best suited? A system to control an X-ray machine for taking medical

images from human body The payroll system of a company A Web-based transaction system

Answer

X-ray machine system as it is a safety critical system

Question

What are the various resources for a software project?

Answer

Human resources Equipment (H/W) resources Software resources

Reusable / COTS / others.

Question

Who manages resource allocation in a project?

Answer

Project Manager

Question

Context (Risk management) You are in charge of a software project. However,

your company does not have a hazard checklist or questionnaire. You decide to produce your own checklist. List at least one question that you might include under each of the following categories. Application factors (how it fits in the big picture) Supplier factors HR / Staff factors

Answer

Application factor Will the product need to interface with existing applications? Is the product an application or an operating system?

Supplier factor What is the creditability of the suppliers? How well established are the suppliers? How often did the supplier deliver their products on time?

Staff factor Do the staffs have expertise in evaluating such a product? Do the staffs have expertise in developing such a product? Do the staffs have expertise in the development tools or

environment?

Question

Consider the following situation. The following table is extracted from a project plan that shows the number of activities, their durations and dependencies. Create a task network for it.

Answer

Question

The arrows highlighted (bold) in last answer show the ‘Critical Path’. What is the significance of critical path?

Answer

The critical path is simply all the tasks that drive the end date of your project schedule. If one of those tasks is late by one day, then your project end date will be extended by one day.

If your project schedule has multiple critical paths, then your project schedule is considered sensitive.

The critical path methodology is simply a technique to identify all the tasks that will directly impact the project end date.

Now some Case Studies…