The Software Project Management Discipline Succes software projects require careful planning and good use of iterative approaches. Understanding risks is the counterstone in a project but also the most difficult discipline Establish good milestones

The Project Manager The most important task is to manageing expectations. They must be familiar with teambuilding and working with individuals egos in team activities. - people are not perfect - people are not logical - people perceive things differently - software engineers are people too - things happens

Uses control management activities. Evaluate how far or close the project is from the plan. Organizing the tasks and leading the project team. Allocates resources, shapes priorities, coordianates interactions between the development team and the customers and end users. Generally tries to keep the projectteam at the right trak. Establishes a set of practices that ensure the integrity and quality of project artifacts.

Planning Projects Inadequate planning is considered the most common reason for project failures therefor: - A plan for each iteration must be developed and executed- - Topdownplanning(understanding of the projects general requirements and constraints. The manager derives a macro- level budget and schedule and decompose these elements into lower-level budgets and intermediate milestones.

- Bottom-up planning (starts with the end in mind, then does an analysis of the micro-level budgets and schedules, and finally adds all the elements together to arrive at the higher level budgets and intermediate milestones). - Remember that milestones is estimated on managements optimistic view of plan.

Always make a project plan ( a project plan is a documented account of the planning of the activities. It provides a framework and guidelines for making decisions, ensures that stakeholders understand the parameters of the project, and transforms a subjective process into a set of objective goals). A proper projectplan is updated periodically and is approved by managers and technical team members alike-

A typical project plan will contain information about the work structure, schedule and budget.

Managing iterations An evolutionary software development plan, which evolves through iterations as the project progresses, is the best way of structuring a software development project. An iteration is more or less a complete mini-project that progresses through all disciplines and produces deliverables that are defined by milestones or artifacts.

You can give names to iteration so the team keep focus on the required deliverables. - make the userfacedesign - implement the monitoring module. An iteration starts with planning and requirements, and ends with a release, internal or external. Iterations provide natural milestones for evaluating progress and limiting risks.

The iteration would be considered successful when all the risks have been reduced to the planned level, all functionality has been implemented, and all quality objectives have been met. Review (all groupmembers meet and look at the product so far)

Managing risks A risk is basically the likelihood that a specified hazardous undesirable event will occur within a specific period of time or under certain circumstances. Indirect risks (the team has little or no control) Direct risks ( the team has a large degree of control) Occurrence of the riske 0= no risk 1 = big risk. Sometimes you have the scale 1 to 5.

Risk strategies Risk acceptance – Live with it Risk avoidance – Reorganize to eliminate the risk Risk mitigation – Reduce the probability or impact. Risk contingency _ Plan Plan B Risk transfer – Subcontract the risk to others (another departmentment/firm)