The Software Development Life Cycle: An Overview Presented by Maxwell Drew and Dan Kaiser Southwest State University Computer Science Program

Last Time Key Ideas and Terminology of Software Engineering Phases of the Software Development Life Cycle Software Process Models Introduction to the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) Introduction to the Rational Unified Process (RUP)

Session 2: Agenda Project Management Concepts The Schwan’s Information Services Deliverables Guide Initial Statement of Work Project Management Techniques Project Management in MSF and RUP

The Four P’s Effective project management focuses on People Product Process Project In that order!

People Software Development is an intensely human endeavor. The Players Senior Managers Project or Technical Managers Practitioners Customers End Users

The Project Manager Skills needed include Team Building Organization Innovation Problem Solving Discernment Communication Must plan, motivate, organize and control the development team

Where do they come from? The Software Engineering Institute has developed a People Management Capability Model (PM-CMM) “to enhance the readiness of software organizations to undertake increasingly complex applications by helping to attract, grow, motivate, deploy and retain the talent needed to improve software development.” Curtis, B., et al., People Management Capability Model, Software Engineering Institute, 1994

Product At the beginning of a project a manager is faced with developing a plan but has little or no solid information on which to base the plan Analysis takes time Requirements can be fluid The first management activity should always be the determination of software scope.

Scope Context How does it fit in and what are the constraints? Information Objectives What output is required? What input is required? Function and Performance How is the input transformed into output by the software?

Project Failure In 1998, industry data indicated that 26% of software projects failed outright. Another 46% experienced significant cost and schedule overruns. Reel, J.S. “Critical Success Factors in Software Projects”, IEEE Software, May, 1999

Factors Contributing to Failure 10. Team members lack appropriate skills 9. Users are resistant 8. Chosen technology changes 7. Sponsorship is lost 6. Deadlines are unrealistic

Factors (continued) 5. Managers avoid best practices 4. Changes are poorly managed 3. Software people didn’t understand customers needs 2. Project is ill-conceived in the first place 1. The project scope is poorly defined

Process Requirements analysis and definition System design Program design Program Implementation Unit testing Integration testing System testing System delivery Maintenance

Process Activity Organization Activities in a project should be organized to produce tangible outputs by which progress can be measured Milestones are the end-points of process activities Deliverables are project results delivered to customers The waterfall process model allows for the straightforward definition of progress milestones

Initial Statement of Work The objective of the Initial Statement of Work is to bring together information from the Project Scoping Phase and get approval from the customer to proceed with Analysis.