1. CSE 308 Project Management

2. SWE Communication Skills Management: Run a team meeting Presentation: Present aspects of your project during its development phase. Collaboration: Negotiate requirements with the client and with members from your team and other teams. Technical writing: Write specs, user manuals, etc. and document your code In large system development efforts, you will spend more time communicating than coding

3. Losing/Gaining an Accent Strong speaking accents can work against you Can one change ones accent? Should one? Ex: Actors and reporters train to lose New Yawk accents Why? So they may be employed

4. Best Way to Change Ones Accent Pick your favorite movie character accent I'd advise against Gollum Record yourself saying the dialog Playback you saying the dialog and compare to original Repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat

5. Communication Events Type of information exchange that has defined objectives and scope Communication mechanisms – tool or procedure that can be used to transmit information Team environment (e.g., cubicles) E-mail, IM Meetings Bug report system Project documentation Presentations Message board discussions

6. Information to Communicate The info to communicate depends on your audience Categories: Client Management Peers Subcontractors You will report different information depending on your audience. Know your audience

7. Client Communications Client is interested in: Features Cost Schedule Type of client communications Proposal Status review Milestone review Product demo Plus information that supports team credibility

8. Status Reports Typically weekly reports Goal: inform the client on progress and changes Usual format: 1 page with some bulleted lists Typical sections: Completed items (i e progress) Issues (i.e., problems) Plan for next week Sounds like your progress reports

9. Management Communications Management concerns Cost (different from client cost) Schedule Synergy (e.g., contract extensions, reusable code, etc.) Company integrity HR issues Type of communications Face-to-face Status reviews (weekly, monthly, quarterly) Ad hoc meetings E-mail, memos, etc. Honesty and trust is very important

10. Peer Communications Peer concerns Quality (e.g., adherence to standards) Interfaces Egos (?) Type of communications Face-to-face Team meetings Cubicle talk Reviews (e.g., audits, code, documentation and design reviews)

11. Make Meetings Productive Meeting leader Responsible for organizing the meeting and guiding the execution Writes and distributes the agenda Minute taker (often the minute leader) Responsible for recording the meeting. Identifies action items and issues Release them to the participants Meeting issue – high cost Make it brief (be prepared) Stay focused in a meeting – no side conversations

12. Peer Review You'll likely be asked to do this in industry Should be: Thorough Respectful Honest/Constructive Productive suggest positive changes

13. Project Organization Project organization approach depends on: Size of team Quality of team Management philosophy Modularity of system Complexity of system Possible strategies Hierarchal Democratic Hybrid

14. Hierarchal Models

15. Democratic Models

16. Project Planning Select Build Process and Tools Select APIs Select Project Management Tools Identify major milestones Identify discrete tasks (that have a definite end) Construct task dependencies Construct an initial schedule Assign team members to the project tasks

17. Sample Project Plan Tabular Data

18. Project Management Software What can it do for you? Help guide and document Keep track of dependencies, task assignments, open issues, delivery dates, slippage, etc. Make Gantt Charts, Dependency Diagrams, etc. What's out there? Microsoft Project, Project Kickstart, RationalPlan, Endeavour Agile ALM, oh and a million others

19. What do you need to use it for? Document all meetings Who is present? What was agenda? What decisions were made? What action items were assigned to whom and for when? Project planning: Task assignments and delivery dates Full results submitted with final presentation