Project Management in Software Development, Slides of Introduction to Software Engineering

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Lecture 05

Project Management

Project Management

• (^) Project management involves the planning, monitoring,

and control of the people, process, and events that

occur as software evolves from a preliminary concept to

full operational deployment.

• (^) A system of management procedures, practices,

technologies, skills, and experience necessary to

successfully manage an engineering project.

Why is it important

• (^) Building computer software is a complex undertaking,

particularly if it involves many people working over a

relatively long time. That’s why software projects need

to be managed.

Good Project Management Basic

Principles

• (^) Make sure all decisions are based on openly shared

information.

• (^) Don't second-guess your team members' expertise.
• (^) Introduce software quality from the very beginning of

the project.

Don't impose an artificial hierarchy on the project team.

• (^) Remember that the fastest way through the project is to

use good engineering practices.

Why do software projects fail?

• (^) People begin programming before they understand the

problem

 Everyone likes to feel that they’re making progress

 When the team starts to code as soon as the project begins,

they see immediate gains

 When problems become more complex (as they always do!),

the work gets bogged(sink) down

 In the best case, a team that begins programming too soon

will end up writing good software that solves the wrong

problem

Why do software projects fail?

(Cont…)

• (^) The team has an unrealistic idea about how much work

is involved.

From far away, most complex problems seem simple

to solve

Teams can commit to impossible deadlines by being

overly optimistic and not thinking through the work

Few people realize the deadline is optimistic until it’s

blown

Why do software projects fail?

(Cont…)

• (^) Programmers have poor habits – and they don’t feel

accountable for their work.

Programmers don’t have good control of their source

code

Code written by one person is often difficult for

another person to understand

Programmers don’t test their code, which makes

diagnosing and fixing bugs more expensive

The team does not have a good sense of the overall

health of the project.

Why do software projects fail?

(Cont…)

• (^) Managers try to test quality into the software.

Everyone assumes that the testers will catch all of

the defects that were injected throughout the project.

When testers look for defects, managers tell them

they are wasting time.

When testers find defects, programmers are irritated

because they feel that they are being personally

criticized.

When testers miss defects, everyone blames them

for not being perfect.

1. The People

• (^) Identifying the roles people play in almost any given

project is the first step to a successful project. People

are the primary resource on every project, and a well-

managed team can greatly increase the chances for

success. Some of the different roles people play in

project management includes project manager, project

team members, sponsors, stakeholders, business

analysts and information technology developers.

2. Product

• (^) As the name implies, this is the deliverable of the

project. The project manager should define the product

scope to ensure a successful outcome.

4. Project

• (^) The fourth and final P of project management is Project.

This is where the project manager’s roles and

responsibilities come into play. He or she must guide

team members to achieve the project’s goals and

objectives. The project manager must delegate tasks,

help team members when needed, and ultimately strive

to accomplish all requirements set forth in the project

scope.

The Stakeholders

The software process (and every software project) is populated by

stakeholders who can be categorized into one of five constituencies:

• (^) Senior managers who define the business issues that often have

significant influence on the project.

• (^) Project (technical) managers who must plan, motivate, organize,

and control the practitioners who do software work.

• Practitioners who deliver the technical skills that are necessary

to engineer a product or application.

• (^) Customers who specify the requirements for the software to be

engineered and other stakeholders who have a peripheral

interest in the outcome.

• (^) End-users who interact with the software once it is released for

production use