1. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 1 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Software Project Management

2. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 2 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Objectives l To explain the main tasks undertaken by project managers l To introduce software project management and to describe its distinctive characteristics l To discuss project planning and the planning process l To show how graphical schedule representations are used by project management l To discuss the notion of risks and the risk management process

3. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 3 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Topics covered l Management activities l Project planning l Project scheduling l Risk management

4. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 4 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY l Concerned with activities involved in ensuring that software is delivered on time and on schedule and in accordance with the requirements of the organizations developing and procuring the software. l Project management is needed because software development is always subject to budget and schedule constraints that are set by the organization developing the software. Software project management

5. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 5 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY l The product is intangible. l The product is uniquely flexible. l Software engineering is not recognized as an engineering discipline with the sane status as mechanical, electrical engineering, etc. l Many software projects are 'one-off' projects. Software management distinctions

6. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 6 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY l Proposal writing. l Project planning and scheduling. l Project costing. l Project monitoring and reviews. l Personnel selection and evaluation. l Report writing and presentations. Management activities

7. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 7 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY l These activities are not peculiar to software management. l Many techniques of engineering project management are equally applicable to software project management. l Technically complex engineering systems tend to suffer from the same problems as software systems. Management commonalities

8. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 8 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Project staffing l May not be possible to appoint the ideal people to work on a project Project budget may not allow for the use of highly-paid staff; Staff with the appropriate experience may not be available; An organization may wish to develop employee skills on a software project. l Managers have to work within these constraints especially when there are shortages of trained staff.

9. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 9 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Project planning l Probably the most time-consuming project management activity. l Continuous activity from initial concept through to system delivery. Plans must be regularly revised as new information becomes available. l Various different types of plan may be developed to support the main software project plan that is concerned with schedule and budget.

10. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 10 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Types of project plan

11. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 11 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Project planning process Establish the project constraints Make initial assessments of the project parameters Define project milestones and deliverables while project has not been completed or cancelled loop Draw up project schedule Initiate activities according to schedule Wait ( for a while ) Review project progress Revise estimates of project parameters Update the project schedule Re-negotiate project constraints and deliverables if ( problems arise ) then Initiate technical review and possible revision end if end loop

12. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 12 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY The project plan l The project plan sets out: The resources available to the project; The work breakdown; A schedule for the work.

13. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 13 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Project plan structure l Introduction. l Project organization. l Risk analysis. l Hardware and software resource requirements. l Work breakdown. l Project schedule. l Monitoring and reporting mechanisms.

14. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 14 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Activity organization l Activities in a project should be organized to produce tangible outputs for management to judge progress. l Milestones are the end-point of a process activity. l Deliverables are project results delivered to customers. l The waterfall process allows for the straightforward definition of progress milestones.

15. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 15 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Milestones in the RE process

16. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 16 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Project scheduling l Split project into tasks and estimate time and resources required to complete each task. l Organize tasks concurrently to make optimal use of workforce. l Minimize task dependencies to avoid delays caused by one task waiting for another to complete. l Dependent on project managers intuition and experience.

17. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 17 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY The project scheduling process

18. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 18 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Scheduling problems l Estimating the difficulty of problems and hence the cost of developing a solution is hard. l Productivity is not proportional to the number of people working on a task. l Adding people to a late project makes it later because of communication overheads. l The unexpected always happens. Always allow contingency in planning.

19. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 19 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Bar charts and activity networks l Graphical notations used to illustrate the project schedule. l Show project breakdown into tasks. Tasks should not be too small. They should take about a week or two. l Activity charts show task dependencies and the critical path. l Bar charts show schedule against calendar time.

20. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 20 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Task durations and dependencies

21. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 21 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Activity network

22. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 22 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Activity timeline

23. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 23 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Staff allocation

24. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 24 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Risk management l Risk management is concerned with identifying risks and drawing up plans to minimized their effect on a project. l A risk is a probability that some adverse circumstance will occur Project risks affect schedule or resources; Product risks affect the quality or performance of the software being developed; Business risks affect the organization developing or procuring the software.

25. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 25 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Software risks

26. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 26 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY The risk management process l Risk identification Identify project, product and business risks; l Risk analysis Assess the likelihood and consequences of these risks; l Risk planning Draw up plans to avoid or minimise the effects of the risk; l Risk monitoring Monitor the risks throughout the project;

27. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 27 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY The risk management process

28. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 28 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Risk identification l Technology risks. l People risks. l Organizational risks. l Requirements risks. l Estimation risks.

29. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 29 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Risks and risk types

30. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 30 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Risk analysis l Assess probability and seriousness of each risk. l Probability may be very low, low, moderate, high or very high. l Risk effects might be catastrophic, serious, tolerable or insignificant.

31. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 31 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Risk analysis (i)

32. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 32 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Risk analysis (ii)

33. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 33 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Risk planning l Consider each risk and develop a strategy to manage that risk. l Avoidance strategies The probability that the risk will arise is reduced; l Minimization strategies The impact of the risk on the project or product will be reduced; l Contingency plans If the risk arises, contingency plans are plans to deal with that risk;

34. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 34 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Risk management strategies (i)

35. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 35 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Risk management strategies (ii)

36. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 36 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Risk monitoring l Assess each identified risks regularly to decide whether or not it is becoming less or more probable. l Also assess whether the effects of the risk have changed. l Each key risk should be discussed at management progress meetings.

37. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 37 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Risk indicators

38. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 38 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Key points l Good project management is essential for project success. l The intangible nature of software causes problems for management. l Managers have diverse roles but their most significant activities are planning, estimating and scheduling. l Planning and estimating are iterative processes which continue throughout the course of a project.

39. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 39 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY l A project milestone is a predictable state where a formal report of progress is presented to management. l Project scheduling involves preparing various graphical representations showing project activities, their durations and staffing. l Risk management is concerned with identifying risks which may affect the project and planning to ensure that these risks do not develop into major threats. Key points

40. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 40 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY l From your experience and knowledge, what is the most challenging activity in Software Project Management? l Write a 2-page report in the following format: Introduction Body Conclusion Reference Seminar Report 1

41. COOP Seminar – Fall 2008 Slide 41 HOUSTON COMMUNITY COLLEGE SYSTEM SAIGONTECH SAIGON INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Write a program with GUI to solve the following problem: INPUTOUTPUT COURSEPREREQUISITESSTUDY PLAN BCA CAL COM1ESL4 COM2COM1PF1 ESL4 COM1 FMCALCOM2 I2DBBCA, PF1, COM1, CALFM PF1 I2DB PF2COM1, CAL, PF1PF2 TRWCOM1TRW XMLBCAXML Seminar Report 2