1. Software Project Management
Review
INFO 638
Glenn Booker
INFO 638
Lecture #10

2. Project Limits
Projects are limited in scope, as defined by one of these:
A functional specification
A Software Requirements Specification
Use cases and their documentation
A Statement of Work (SOW)
A Mission Needs Statement (MNS) (government term)
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Lecture #10

3. The Triangle Projects generally get stuck facing a triangle
Cost
Time (schedule)
Features and/or quality
At most, two of these points can be controlled
Which one can you tolerate flexibility?
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Lecture #10

4. TPM Life Cycle Wysocki has five major phases in the TPM life cycle
Scope the project
Develop the project plan
Launch the plan
Monitor/control project progress
Close out the project
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Lecture #10

5. Risk Management Guide Need to create a list of possible risks
Describe each risk briefly
Estimate the probability of the risk happening
Should be between 0 and 100%
Estimate the loss if the risk occurs
How much effort will it take to recover from the risk?
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6. Risk Management Guide
Multiply probability times loss to get the impact of each risk
Impact = probability * loss
Sort risks in descending order of impact; keep the top 10 (typically)
This is prioritizing the risks
For each significant risk, assign a risk owner to look for the risk occurring
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Lecture #10

7. Procurement Management
Procurement has its own life cycle, which runs parallel to part or all of the project life cycle
Solicit RFI (optional; and not in text)
Solicit RFPs
Get responses
Select Vendors
Manage contracts
Close out contracts
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Lecture #10

8. Role of the POS
The POS is a communications tool among the project manager, their development team, the customer, and the project manager’s boss (upper or senior management)
The POS is a concise statement of the project, and a summary of its justification to continue
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9. Parts of a POS The POS has five major sections
Problem/opportunity
Goal
Objectives
Success criteria
Assumptions, risks, obstacles
Each is typically a few paragraphs long
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10. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
The WBS gives structure to the set of activities in a project
It expands on the POS by describing activities in more and more detail, until you get down to the smallest level of task you need to define for your project
The WBS is a really big ‘to-do’ list
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Lecture #10

11. WBS Approaches There are three major approaches to structuring a WBS
Noun-type approaches (subsystems)
Verb-type approaches (life cycle phases)
Organizational approaches (who or where performs work)
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12. WBS Numbering
Tasks and activities are often given unique identification numbers to help do cost accounting and generate status summaries
In Microsoft Project, you can add a column called WBS which will automatically follow this numbering
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Lecture #10

13. After the WBS
Once the rough scope of tasks has been defined in the WBS, we need to estimate each task in terms of duration and effort
From effort we’ll get the cost of each task, and eventually the project
After estimation, can start to organize the project schedule
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14. Creating a Good Estimate
There are six techniques for estimating the duration and effort of a task
Similar activities
Historical data
Expert advice
Delphi technique
Three-point technique
Wide-band Delphi technique
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15. Estimating Resources
While ‘resources’ often refers to people on a project, it may refer to
People
Facilities
Equipment
Money
Materials
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16. Organization Chart
Since we need to define the types of staff needed to perform each task, this feeds into developing the organization chart of the project
The roles needed for performing tasks should all appear on the org chart
It’s called a Resource Breakdown Structure in the text (p. 108)
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Lecture #10

17. Project Network Diagram
Can present the project schedule in three major forms
Gantt chart, showing bars for each task under a timeline
Pert chart, with activity on arrow (AOA) notation
CPM chart, with activity on node (AON) notation
The latter two can show critical path
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Lecture #10

18. Critical Path
A key output is the critical path, which can be defined as
The longest duration path in the network diagram, or
The series of tasks whose early and late schedules are the same dates, or
The set of activities with zero slack
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19. Management Reserve
At the project level, try to keep a little reserve of time (padding) to allow for likely schedule slips
Don’t do this on individual tasks – tends to bloat the schedule
5-10% is a good schedule reserve
So a 6-month project might try to finish 6-13 work days early
6 months = 26 weeks = 130 work days
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20. Leveling Resources
Then need to add up the planned resources and look for potential problems
Over committing people
Resources inconsistent with project priorities
Lack of management to monitor the project resources
Lack of accounting for employee turnover
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Lecture #10

21. Work Packages
Earlier we defined a project as having activities, which are broken into tasks
A way to describe and manage the tasks within an activity are work packages
The work package describes the tasks to be accomplished, relevant dates, and who will do the work
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22. Critical chain vs. critical path
The critical path is the longest duration through the project
Doesn’t consider the resources needed for tasks along the critical path
Critical chain is the longest path through the project, considering both task dependencies and resource constraints
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23. Joint Project Planning
Joint Project Planning (JPP) uses a goldfish-bowl approach to conducting early analysis of a project
Its scope is typically to define the POS and/or PDS
For software, this might include defining the system scope and key requirements, and/or developing high level system design
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24. JPP All significant stakeholders in a project need to attend JPP
JPP sessions are typically held off-site to avoid distractions
JPP follows a specific agenda to reach specific goals for the session, e.g. develop a POS, describe the WBS, etc.
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25. Monitoring Progress
By now you have been able to create a detailed project plan, including task definitions, estimates of duration, & assignment and leveling of resources
Then the project actually starts
Now you need to monitor what really happens, and control the future of the project
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26. Control and Risk
Controlling a project is closely linked to risk management
You want to minimize the risk that the project won’t finish successfully
Successfully generally means “on time and within budget”
To do so, you need measurements to help decide if the project is on track
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27. Controls
Without good controls, a project will wander like a 6-year-old on summer vacation
Controls allow us to
Track progress – what has been accomplished?
Detect variance – have we departed from the plan?
Take corrective action – fix it!
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28. Progress Reporting System
Some form of progress reporting system needs to be established
Want timely, complete, clear, and accurate status reported
Avoid adding too much to overhead to create the status reports
Results are readily available
Warns of problems with time to fix them
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29. Variances
Variances are the difference between actual events and the project plan
Positive variances are often good
They mean you are ahead of schedule or under budget
But could mean the schedule has slipped, and little has been accomplished
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30. Displaying Status
There are three major ways to display the status of a project graphically
Gantt chart
Milestone trend chart
Cost schedule control chart
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31. Cost Schedule Control
Cost schedule control refers to the system used by the many agencies called earned value or C/SCSC
We have already defined a project plan with tasks and resources
Each task therefore has some defined dollar value (its resources times their hourly rate)
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32. Cost Schedule Control
To use Cost Schedule Control, we need to define when we get ‘credit’ for accomplishing each task
Only when the task is done
Half at the task start, and half at finish
Etc.
The total planned value of work done on the project typically forms a long S curve over time
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33. Change Control
A change control process is needed to manage changes to the scope of a project
Describes the activities needed to analyze a problem, estimate how much work it is to resolve, determine its priority, fix it, and incorporate it into a system change with other problem fixes
The names of the organizations which perform each of the steps may vary
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34. Escalation Escalation here means how a problem can be resolved
Little problems might be resolved by the project manager
Bigger problems might be resolved by getting additional resources from your organization
Huge problems might need cooperation from your customer to resolve
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35. Motivation
Key for a good manager to recognize is that different things motivate different people
And what motivates one person might change over time
One person might be thrilled to get an award for their contribution to a project, another might prefer a check, and a third might want an extra two days vacation
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36. Motivation The big motivational factors for most people are:
Opportunity for achievement
Opportunity for advancement
Might include technical supervision
Recognition
Increased responsibility
The work itself
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37. Management and Motivation
Many of the motivational factors can’t be controlled by a first line manager
Key for managers to focus on are
Provide challenging work
Recognize your people’s work
Design their job to provide a variety of skills needed, clearly identifiable and significant tasks, allow autonomy, and provide feedback
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38. Contract Issues Many management issues involve contractual concerns
A good resource with more detail is
On Time Within Budget, E.M. Bennatan, 3rd ed., ISBN , Wiley, 2000.
The key contractual vehicles are RFI, RFP, and RFQ
For zillions of examples, go to and search on those acronyms
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39. Contract Terms
The terms of payment are clearly defined in any contract
Often payments are based on meeting specific milestones in the project
Rules for handling contract early termination, and normal closeout of the contract are also defined
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40. Team Rules Any team needs some rules to function effectively
How will decisions be made?
How do you solve problems?
How do you resolve conflicts?
How & when does the team meet?
How does the team interact with other projects? The customer?
Who defines the answers to these?
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41. Closeout Normal closeout of a project typically involves six steps
Get client acceptance
Ensure system installed
Ensure documentation delivered
Get client signoff
Post-implementation Audit
Party!
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42. Adaptive Project Framework
Adaptive Project Framework (APF) uses selected portions of traditional project management (TPM)
Focus is on planning just-in-time, rather than planning the entire project from the start
APF is client-focused, and expects constant change
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43. APF Structure APF uses five phases
Version Scope
Cycle Plan
Cycle Build
Client Checkpoint
Post-Version Review
Planning is based on functionality, and is kept high level until each cycle
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44. APF Core Values
APF is based on six core values, which help define how APF thinks
Client-focused
Client-driven
Incremental results
Continuous questioning
Change is progress
Don’t speculate
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45. Version Scope This phase sets the stage for the project
Prepare the POS, much like done in TPM
Define the vision of what the product will be
Define the overall budget and schedule (timebox) of the project
Define the WBS to the 2nd or 3rd level
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46. Number of Cycles
Once we have a handle on the project objectives and scope, need to establish the preliminary number of time boxes, and how long they are
Try fixed duration for all time boxes; may tweak later
Might use development time of the most complex cycle to set the time box size
Consider client attention span too
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47. Cycle Objectives
Finally, prepare objective statements for the first few cycles
Tell customer what they should expect from each cycle (deliverables)
Keep focus on business functions and value to the customer
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48. Cycle Planning
Cycle planning is performed like in traditional project management (TPM), but there are key differences
In APF, the planning is done in detail only for the next cycle – not the entire project at once
APF planning may or may not use project software; it could be done with more informal tools
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49. Cycle Build
It is assumed that Cycle Plan is done by one person or part of the team
Cycle Build requires the whole team’s presence to refine the schedule if needed
Identify specific resources for each task, and ensure conflicts are resolved and workload is balanced
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50. Build Cycle Functionality
Start building the functionality promised for this cycle, following the plan just developed
During the cycle, daily stand-up meetings are used for status
Stand up so it doesn’t drag on forever
Monitor the system scope & their priorities, and issues identified
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51. Build Cycle
Use a Scope Bank to keep track of requirements, and an Issues Log to record and track significant problems
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52. Client Checkpoint
The Client Checkpoint focuses on two major activities
Review of the quality of work done in the existing cycle
Need planned and actual functionality added to the system in this cycle
Adjust schedule for the next cycle accordingly
Need the Scope Bank
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53. Go back to Cycle Plan phase
After the client checkpoint, loop back to the cycle plan phase, until this version of the product has been completed
Notice that we didn’t do detailed planning during the client checkpoint for this reason – it’s followed by the planning phase
Stop loop when done with Version
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54. Post-Version Review
There are three activities in the Post-Version Review
Determine if the project has met its business objectives
Review lessons learned
Look for APF process improvements
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55. APF Variations APF can be used for quick proof-of-concept projects
Sometimes an APF project will reveal major scope problems; have to adjust severely, or kill the project
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56. Extreme Project Management
Extreme Project Management (xPM) is similar to APF, but is better suited to projects with poorly defined goals
You don’t know what the objective is
It isn’t the same as Extreme Programming (XP), which is part of the Agile family of development methods
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57. Extreme Projects
Extreme projects are generally fast, innovative, and ill defined
High speed – must be developed quickly
High change – must respond to fast changes in the project requirements
High uncertainty – must be able to handle rapid and unexpected changes in project direction and focus
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58. xPM vs. APF xPM and APF have a lot in common The main differences are
xPM has unknown project goals
xPM has more variability in project scope, budget, and time
xPM has more variability in cycle duration and number of cycles
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