Executing Processes - Software and Systems Project Management - Lecture Slides, Slides of Software Project Management

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Executing Processes

The MS-Project Process

 Move WBS into a Project outline (in Task Sheet)

 Add resources (team members or roles)

 Add costs for resources

 Assign resources to tasks

 Establish dependencies

 Refine and optimize

 Create baseline

 Track progress (enter actuals, etc.)

Direct and manage project execution

This is the project management integration process that ties together all the diverse activities of actually carrying out a project

 Some representative actions:

 Direct and manage efforts to achieve project objectives  Perform work and spend project funds  Create project deliverables  Choose and manage vendors and contracts  Manage risks and implement risk responses, if needed  Incorporate approved changes into the project scope and various plans  Collect and document lessons learned

Perform quality assurance

This quality process is concerned with ensuring that the project will satisfy the needs of the customer

 Quality assurance is a planned, systematic activity: it is done

throughout the execution of the project

 Continuous process improvement is an iterative approach to

analyzing and improving the effectiveness and efficiency of all project-related processes

 Tools include:

 Quality audits. Independent reviews that identify ineffective or inefficient project processes and confirm that project procedures are being followed ( e.g. change requests)  Process analysis. Tool of continuous process improvement

Sidebar: Virtual teams

 A virtual team is a group of people who work together for a

common goal but who spend little or no time in face-to-face meetings

 Advantages

 Able to utilize people from widespread geographic locations  Provides support for telecommuters  Supports those with mobility challenges  Reduces travel expenses

 Challenges

 Communications methods and schedules  Decision-making  Conflict resolution

Develop project team

Human resource management area process of improving team members in order to improve project performance

 Has two dimensions:

 Personal. Improve skills and enhance ability to complete the project activities  Team. Improve team trust and cohesiveness to increase productivity  Examples: Training, mentoring, sharing information and resources, providing assistance during ‗crunch‘ times

 Most effective when done early in project, but should be on-

going process

 We‘ll discuss team building (and other HR issues) more in

‗People‘ lecture

Sidebar: Lessons learned process

 Question: Why am I emphasizing this in a sidebar?

 Answer: PMI considers this a PM‘s professional obligation for projects with key internal and external stakeholders, especially if the project has/had problems

 Lessons learned sessions should be held throughout the project

lifecycle, typically at the end of each phase

 Focus can be either on technical aspects of process or on PM

process that helped or hindered work

 End-of-phase sessions help team building

 End-of-project sessions help future teams

 Results in improved project processes as well as product and

service improvements

Monitoring, Tracking and

Control

Monitor and control project work

 Monitor and control activities include:

 Compare actual project performance to project management plan  Decide if corrective or preventative actions are needed  Monitor project risks and execute risk response plans when needed  Monitor implementation of approved changes  Track project schedule and update schedule if needed

Project Control

Ongoing effort to keep your project on track

 4 primary activities:

1. Planning performance » A SDP, schedule, and a control process
2. Measuring status of work performed » Actuals
3. Comparing to baseline » Variances
4. Taking corrective action as needed » Response

 Prerequisite to good control is a good plan

Integrated change control

Represents another process within project management integration knowledge area

 Recognizes that projects will often require changes to the

established project plan

 All changes must be carefully controlled to maintain the integrity

and consistency of the project plan

 Integrated change control encompasses all aspects of change to

the project:  Reviewing and approving requested changes  Managing the changes when they actually occur  Controlling elements of the project management plan (scope, cost, budget, schedule, and quality) in response to changes

 More in next lecture

Sidebar: Configuration management

―Configuration management is the process of managing products, facilities and processes by managing the information about them, including changes, and ensuring they are what they are supposed to be in every case.‖  Institute for Configuration Management (www.icmhq.com)

 The latest view of CM, CMII , addresses:

 Overall information integrity of a project  Iterative and incremental development by recognizing that requirements and physical artifact production are not linear and sequential but rather may coexist [See notes].

Scope verification

Scope verification is a process in the project scope management knowledge area

 Concerned with getting stakeholders‘ formal acceptance of

completed project scope and deliverables associated with scope  In practical terms, this means performing product deliverable reviews with stakeholders

 Quality control — ensuring that project deliverables meet

appropriate standards — is usually done before or in parallel with scope verification

 Scope verification is concerned with the boundaries of the

deliverable while quality control is concerned with what is inside those boundaries

Scope control

Scope control is a process in the project scope management knowledge area

 Concerned with control of factors that create project scope

changes and the control of the impact of those changes

 Scope control works hand-in-hand with integrated change

control. Scope control is part of the integrated change control process

 Scope control also oversees the implementation of

approved scope changes

 Scope creep occurs when scope is expanded without

integrating changes and/or without approval