project management in software engineering

1
CS 425/625 Software Engineering
Project Management
Based on Chapter 5 of the textbook [SE-8]
Ian Sommerville, Software Engineering, 8th
Ed., Addison-Wesley, 2006
and on Ch5 PPT presentation from http://www.software-engin.com/
September 17, 2007
September 17, 2007

2
Outline
 Introduction
 Project Planning
 Project Scheduling
 Risk Management

3
Introduction.
 Software project management is aimed to ensure that the
software is delivered on time, within budget and schedule
constraints, and satisfies the requirements of the client
 Management of software projects is different from other
types of management because:
● Software is not tangible
● Software processes are relatively new and still “under trial”
● Larger software projects are usually “one-off” projects
● Computer technology evolves very rapidly

4
.Introduction
.Introduction
 Management activities:
Management activities:
● Writing proposals
Writing proposals
● Planning the project
Planning the project
● Scheduling the project
Scheduling the project
● Estimating the cost of the project
Estimating the cost of the project
● Monitoring and reviewing the project’s progress
Monitoring and reviewing the project’s progress
● Selecting, hiring, and evaluating personnel
Selecting, hiring, and evaluating personnel
● Writing reports and giving presentations
Writing reports and giving presentations

5
Project Planning…
 A project plan should be drawn at the start of the project. This plan
drives the project and needs to be continuously adjusted
 The role of the project manager is to anticipate possible problems
and be prepared with solutions for these problems
 Other plans that need be developed:
● Quality plan
● Validation and verification plan
● Configuration management plan
● Maintenance plan
● Staff development plan

6
.Project Planning..
.Project Planning..
 The planning process [Fig 5.2, SE-8]
The planning process [Fig 5.2, SE-8]
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

7
..Project Planning.
 The structure of the project plan:
● Introduction (objectives, constraints)
● Project organization (team structure, personnel involved, roles)
● Risk analysis (types of risk, probabilities, solutions to prevent or
reduce the risk)
● Hardware and software resources needed (prices, delivery schedule)
● Work breakdown (activities, milestones, deliverables)
● Project schedule (dependencies between activities/tasks, work
assignments, time allocated per task)
● Monitoring and reporting mechanisms (reports, dates)

8
…Project Planning
 Milestone = end-point of a specific, distinct software process
activity or task (for each milestone a report should be presented
to the management)
 Deliverable = project result delivered to the client
 In order to establish milestones the phases of the software
process need be divided in basic activities/tasks. Example for
requirements engineering [Fig. 5.3, SE-8]
Evaluation
report
Prototype
development
Requirements
definition
Requirements
analysis
Feasibility
report
Feasibility
study
Architectural
design
Design
study
Requirements
specification
Requirements
specification
ACTIVITIES
MILESTONES

9
Project Scheduling……
 Software managers:
● Divide the project in activities/tasks
● Estimate time and resources needed to finish the project
● Allocate resources to tasks
● Try to employ efficiently all the project personnel
● Minimize dependencies between tasks and teams
● Prepare contingency plans
● Rely on experience and intuition

10
.Project Scheduling…..
.Project Scheduling…..
 The scheduling process [Fig. 5.4, SE-8]
The scheduling process [Fig. 5.4, SE-8]
Estimate resources
for activities
Identify activity
dependencies
Identify
activities
Allocate people
toactivities
Create project
charts
Software
requirements
Activity charts
and bar charts

11
..Project Scheduling….
 Graphical notations used in software
project scheduling:
● Tables: summary description of tasks
● Bar charts: show schedule against the time
● Activity charts: graphs that depict dependencies
between tasks and indicate the critical path (the
longest path in the activity graph)

12
…Project Scheduling…
 Example of tabular description [Fig. 5.5, SE-8]:
Task Duration (days) Dependencies
T1 8
T2 15
T3 15 T1 (M1)
T4 10
T5 10 T2, T4 (M2)
T6 5 T1, T2 (M3)
T7 20 T1 (M1)
T8 25 T4 (M5)
T9 15 T3, T6 (M4)
T10 15 T5, T7 (M7)
T11 7 T9 (M6)
T12 10 T11 (M8)

13
….Project Scheduling..
 Example of activity chart [Fig. 5.6, SE-8]
start
T2
M3
T6
Finish
T10
M7
T5
T7
M2
T4
M5
T8
4/7/03
8 da
ys
14/7/03 15 days
4/8/03
15 days
25/8/03
7 da
ys
5/9/03
10 da
ys
19/9/03
15 days
11/8/03
25 da
ys
10 da
ys
20 da
ys
5 da
ys
25/7/03
15 da
ys
25/7/03
18/7/03
10 days
T1
M1 T3
T9
M6
T11
M8
T12
M4

14
…..Project Scheduling.
 Example of bar chart [Fig. 5.7, SE-8]
4/7 11/7 18/7 25/7 1/8 8/8 15/8 22/8 29/8 5/9 12/9 19/9
T4
T1
T2
M1
T7
T3
M5
T8
M3
M2
T6
T5
M4
T9
M7
T10
M6
T11
M8
T12
Start
Finish

15
……Project Scheduling
 Staff allocation chart [Fig. 5.8, SE-8]
4/7 11/7 18/7 25/ 1/8 8/8 15/8 22/8 29/8 5/9 12/9 19/9
T4
T8 T11
T12
T1
T3
T9
T2
T6 T10
T7
T5
Fred
Jane
Anne
Mary
Jim

16
Risk Management…….
 Risk = some adverse circumstance that may
happen and affect negatively the project, the
product, and/or the business
 Categories of risk:
● Project risks
● Product risks
● Business risks
 Risk management means anticipating risks and
preparing plans to reduce their effect

17
.Risk Management……
 Examples of risks in the software process [Fig. 5.9, SE-8]
Risk Affects Description
Staff turnover Project Experienced staff will leave the project before it is finished.
Management change Project There will be a change of organisational management with
different priorities.
Hardware unavailability Project Hardware that is essential for the project will not be
delivered on schedule.
Requirements change Project and
product
There will be a larger number of changes to the
requirements than anticipated.
Specification delays Project and
product
Specifications of essential interfaces are not available on
schedule
Size underestimate Project and
product
The size of the system has been underestimated.
CASE tool under-
performance
Product CASE tools which support the project do not perform as
anticipated
Technology change Business The underlying technology on which the system is built is
superseded by new technology.
Product competition Business A competitive product is marketed before the system is
completed.

18
..Risk Management…..
 The risk management activities [Fig. 5.10, SE-8]
Risk avoidance
and contingency
plans
Risk planning
Prioritised risk
list
Risk analysis
List of potential
risks
Risk
identification
Risk
assessment
Risk
monitoring

19
…
…Risk Management….
Risk Management….
 Types of risk in
Types of risk in risk identification
risk identification [Fig. 5.11, SE-8]
[Fig. 5.11, SE-8]
Risk type Potential indicators
Technology Late delivery of hardware or support software, many reported
technology problems
People Poor staff morale, poor relationships amongst team member,
job availability
Organisational Organisational gossip, lack of action by senior management
Tools Reluctance by team members to use tools, complaints about
CASE tools, demands for higher-powered workstations
Requirements Many requirements change requests, customer complaints
Estimation Failure to meet agreed schedule, failure to clear reported
defects

20
….Risk Management…
 Risk analysis:
● Estimate risk probability:
 Very low (< 10%)
 Low (10-25%)
 Moderate (25-50%)
 High (50-75%)
 Very high (> 75%)
● Establish risk seriousness:
 Insignificant
 Tolerable
 Serious
 Catastrophic

21
…..Risk Management..
 Risk planning means preparing a strategy
to deal with each of the risks identified
 Classes of strategies:
● Avoidance strategies: the probability of the risk
will be diminished
● Minimization strategies: the effect of the risk will
be reduced
● Contingency strategies: plans for the worst case
scenarios

22
……Risk Management.
 Examples of risk management strategies [Fig. 5.13, SE-8]
Examples of risk management strategies [Fig. 5.13, SE-8]
Risk Strategy
Organisational
financial problems
Prepare a briefing document for senior management
showing how the project is making a very important
contribution to the goals of the business.
Recruitment
problems
Alert customer of potential difficulties and the
possibility of delays, investigate buying-in
components.
Staff illness Reorganise team so that there is more overlap of work
and people therefore understand each other’s jobs.
Defective
components
Replace potentially defective components with bought-
in components of known reliability.
Risk Strategy
Requirements
changes
Derive traceability information to assess requirements
change impact, maximise information hiding in the
design.
Organisational
restructuring
Prepare a briefing document for senior management
showing how the project is making a very important
contribution to the goals of the business.
Database
performance
Investigate the possibility of buying a higher-
performance database.
Underestimated
development time
Investigate buying in components, investigate use of a
program generator

23
…….Risk Management
 Risk monitoring:
● Frequently re-assess the risks
 Changes in risk probability?
 Changes in risk gravity?
● Take into consideration risk factors
● Discuss key risks at each management project
progress meeting

project management in software engineering

More Related Content

Similar to project management in software engineering (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

project management in software engineering