SOFTWARE PROJECT

MANAGEMENT
(KOE-068)
Faculty: KP Singh
Course: B.Tech 6th Semester
Session 2021-22
Department of Computer Science & Engineering
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 University Syllabus
Unit-1: Project Evaluation and Project Planning : :
Importance of Software Project Management – Activities – Methodologies – Categorization of Software Projects – Setting
objectives – Management Principles – Management Control – Project portfolio Management – Cost-benefit evaluation technology
– Risk evaluation – Strategic program Management – Stepwise Project Planning.
Unit-2: Project Life Cycle and Effort Estimation:
Software process and Process Models – Choice of Process models – Rapid Application development – Agile methods – Dynamic
System Development Method – Extreme Programming– Managing interactive processes – Basics of Software estimation – Effort
and Cost estimation techniques – COSMIC Full function points – COCOMO II – a Parametric Productivity Model.
Unit-3: Activity Planning and Risk Management:
Objectives of Activity planning – Project schedules – Activities – Sequencing and scheduling – Network Planning models –
Formulating Network Model – Forward Pass & Backward Pass techniques – Critical path (CRM) method – Risk identification –
Assessment – Risk Planning –Risk Management – – PERT technique – Monte Carlo simulation – Resource Allocation – Creation
of critical paths – Cost schedules.
Unit-4: Project Management and Control:
Framework for Management and control – Collection of data – Visualizing progress – Cost monitoring – Earned Value Analysis –
Prioritizing Monitoring – Project tracking – Change control –Software Configuration Management – Managing contracts – Contract
Management.
Unit-5: Staffing in Software Projects:
Managing people – Organizational behavior – Best methods of staff selection – Motivation – The Oldham – Hackman job
characteristic model – Stress – Health and Safety – Ethical and Professional concerns – Working in teams – Decision making –
Organizational structures – Dispersed and Virtual teams – Communications genres – Communication plans – Leadership.
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Text books:
1. Bob Hughes, Mike Cotterell and Rajib Mall: Software Project Management – Fifth
Edition, McGraw Hill, New Delhi, 2012.
2. Robert K. Wysocki ―Effective Software Project Management – Wiley Publication, 2011.
3. Walker Royce: ―Software Project Management- Addison-Wesley, 1998.
4.Gopalaswamy Ramesh, ―Managing Global Software Projects – McGraw Hill Education
(India), Fourteenth Reprint 2013.

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 LECTURE
Project Evaluation and Project
Planning
Faculty: KP Singh
Department of Computer Science &
Engineering
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 What is a project?
Some dictionary definitions:
“A specific plan or design”
“A planned undertaking”
“A large undertaking e.g. a public works scheme”
Longmans dictionary

Key points above are planning and size of task

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Jobs versus projects

‘Jobs’ – repetition of very well-defined and well understood tasks with

very little uncertainty
‘Exploration’ – e.g. finding a cure for cancer: the outcome is very
uncertain
‘Projects’ – in the middle!
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What is Project?
A complex, nonroutine, one-time effort limited by time, budget ,
resources, and performance specifications designed to meet
customer needs. “ A project is defined as a sequence of tasks
that must be completed to attain a certain outcome. According
to the Project Management Institute (PMI), the term Project
refers to ” to any temporary endeavor with a definite beginning
and end”. Depending on its complexity, it can be managed by a
single person or hundreds.

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 Major Characteristics of projects
A task is more ‘project-like’ if it is:
 Non-routine
 Planned
 Aiming at a specific target
 Has an established objective.
 Work carried out for a customer
 Involving several specialisms
 Has a defined life span with a beginning and an end.
 Made up of several different phases
 Typically requires across-the-organizational participation.
 Involves doing something never been done before.
 Constrained by time and resources
 Large and/or complex
 Has specific time, cost, and performance requirements.
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 Are software projects really different
from other projects?
Not really! …but…
• Invisibility
• Complexity
• Conformity
• Flexibility
make software more problematic to build
than other engineered artefacts.
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Activities Covered by Project Management

The feasibility study/plan/execution cycle

Feasibility study
Is project technically feasible and worthwhile from a business point of view?
Planning
Only done if project is feasible
Execution
Implement plan, but plan may be changed as we go along
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The software development life-cycle (ISO 12207)

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 ISO 12207 life-cycle
Requirements analysis
– Requirements elicitation: what does the client
need?
– Analysis: converting ‘customer-facing’
requirements into equivalents that developers can
understand
– Requirements will cover
• Functions
• Quality
• Resource constraints i.e. costs

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 ISO 12207 life-cycle
• Architecture design
– Based on system requirements
– Defines components of system: hardware,
software, organizational
– Software requirements will come out of this
• Code and test
– Of individual components
• Integration
– Putting the components together

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 ISO12207 continued....
• Qualification testing
– Testing the system (not just the software)
• Installation
– The process of making the system operational
– Includes setting up standing data, setting system
parameters, installing on operational hardware
platforms, user training etc
• Acceptance support
– Including maintenance and enhancement
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 Some ways of categorizing projects
Distinguishing different types of project is
important as different types of task need
different project approaches e.g.
• Information systems versus embedded systems
• Objective-based versus product-based

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 What is management?
This involves the following activities:
• Planning – deciding what is to be done
• Organizing – making arrangements
• Staffing – selecting the right people for the job
• Directing – giving instructions
• Monitoring – checking on progress
• Controlling – taking action to remedy hold-ups
• Innovating – coming up with solutions when problems emerge
• Representing – liaising with clients, users, developers and other
stakeholders

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 Problems with Software Projects
Traditionally, management has been seen as the preserve of a distinct class
within the organization. As technology has made the tasks undertaken by an
organization more sophisticated, many management tasks seem to have
become dispersed throughout the organization: there are management
systems rather than managers.
A survey of managers published by Thayer, Pyster and Wood identified the
following commonly experienced problems:
• poor estimates and plans;
• lack of quality standards and measures;
• lack of guidance about making organizational decisions;
• lack of techniques to make progress visible;
• poor role definition - who does what?
• incorrect success criteria.

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 Problems with Software Projects
The list of the problems identified by a number of students on a degree course in Computing and
Information Systems who had just completed a year's industrial placement:
• inadequate specification of work;
• management ignorance of IT;
• lack of knowledge of application area;
• lack of standards;
• lack of up-to-date documentation;
• preccding activities not completed on time - including late delivery of equipment;
• lack of communication between users and technicians;
• lack of communication leading to duplication of work;
• lack of commitment - especially w hen a project is tied to one person w ho then moves;
• narrow scope of technical expertise;
• changing statutory requirements;
• changing software environment;
• deadline pressure;
• lack of quality control;
• remote management;
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 Setting objectives
• Answering the question ‘What do we have to
do to have a success?’
• Need for a project authority
– Sets the project scope
– Allocates/approves costs

• Could be one person - or a group

– Project Board
– Project Management Board
– Steering committee

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 Objectives should be SMART
S – specific, that is, concrete and well-defined
M – measurable, that is, satisfaction of the objective can be
objectively judged
A – achievable, that is, it is within the power of the individual or
group concerned to meet the target
R – relevant, the objective must relevant to the true purpose of the
project
T – time constrained: there is defined point in time by which the
objective should be achieved

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 Goals/sub-objectives
These are steps along the way to achieving the objective. Informally, these
can be defined by completing the sentence…

Objective X will be achieved

IF the following goals are all achieved
A……………
B……………
C…………… etc

Often a goal can be allocated to an individual. Individual may have the

capability of achieving goal, but not the objective on their own e.g.

Objective – user satisfaction with software product

Analyst goal – accurate requirements
Developer goal – software that is reliable
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 Measures of effectiveness
How do we know that the goal or objective has been
achieved?
By a practical test, that can be objectively assessed.

e.g. for user satisfaction with software product:

• Repeat business – they buy further products from us
• Number of complaints – if low etc

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 Stakeholders
These are people who have a stake or interest in the
project
In general, they could be users/clients or
developers/implementers

They could be:

• Within the project team
• Outside the project team, but within the same
organization
• Outside both the project team and the organization

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 Management control
Data – the raw details
e.g. ‘6,000 documents processed at location X’

Information – the data is processed to produce something that is

meaningful and useful
e.g. ‘productivity is 100 documents a day’

Comparison with objectives/goals

e.g. we will not meet target of processing all documents by 31st March
continued…..

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 Management control - continued
Modelling – working out the probable Outcomes
of various decisions
e.g. if we employ two more staff at location X how
quickly can we get the documents processed?

Implementation – carrying out the remedial

actions that have been decided upon
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 Project Control Cycle

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