Introduction to

Software Project
Management
Lecture 1 & 2

What is a Process?
A series of actions or steps taken in order to
complete a work

What is a Process?
Students Registration Process
Admission Process
Course Enrollment Process

Why Project
Management?
A lot of money is at stake with Information &
Communication Technology (ICT) projects
UK Govt has spend 2.3 Billion pounds in 2002-2003

Not all projects are successful

Study shows one third projects are completed
successfully
82% of the projects were late
43% exceeded their budgets

Mostly projects fail due to lack of Project

Management skills

What is a Project?
A planned activity is called a project
Planning is thinking carefully before you start an
activity
Project characteristics are:

Non-routine tasks are involved

Planning is required
Specific objectives are to be met
It has a predetermined time span
Work is carried out for someone other than yourself
Work involves several kind of specialism
People are formed into temporary work groups
Work is carried out in several phases
Resources are constrained

What is a Project?
Project Examples?
Putting a robot vehicle on Mars to search for signs of
life
Developing an operating system
Amending a financial computer system to deal with
a common European currency
Getting married
Programming assignments given to students

Software Projects
Software Projects vs Other Projects

Software Projects are Invisible

Software Projects are more complex
Conformity
Flexibility Software is easy to change and
keeps on changing

Software Projects Stakeholders

Internal to the Project Team
Business Analysts, Software Engineers, Software
Programmers, Testers, Project Manager etc.

External to the Project Team but within same

organization
System testers, Usability testers

External to the both Project Team & Organization

Customers
Users
3rd Party contractors
Owners, Financers, People set objectives
A Project Board (steers the project)

Software Projects - Objectives

Objectives focus on the desired outcome of the
Project rather than the tasks within it
What will be the desired outcomes for:

A payroll system?
An attendance system?
Inventory management system?
Finance system?
Online banking system?

Software Projects - Objectives

Objectives should be SMART

Specific concrete and well defined

Measurable there should be measures of
effectiveness which tell us how successful the
project has been

Achievable within the power of the individual or

group to achieve objective

Relevant - the objective must relevant to the true

purpose of the project

Time Constrained there should be a defined point

in time

Software Projects - Objectives

Sub-objectives
Often a goal can be allocated to an individual
Individual might have the capability of achieving goal on
their own, but not the overall objective e.g.
Overall objective user satisfaction with software product
Analyst goal accurate requirements
Developer goal reliable software

How do we know that the objective has been achieved?

Measure objective
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

The business case

Benefits
Costs

- Development
- Operation

Benefits

Quantifiable
Non-quantifiable
12

Benefits of delivered
project must outweigh
costs
Costs include:

Project success/failure
Degree to which objectives are met

scope (of deliverables)

cost

In general if, for example, project is running out of time,

this can be recovered for by reducing scope or increasing
costs. Similarly costs and scope can be protected by
adjusting other corners of the project triangle.

13

time

Other success criteria

14

These can relate to longer term, less directly tangible

assets
Improved skill and knowledge
Creation of assets that can be used on future projects
e.g. software libraries
Improved customer relationships that lead to repeat
business

Software project management (5e) - introduction The McGraw-Hill Companies, 2011

Software Projects
Activities covered by Software Project
Management

The software development life-cycle

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

17

What is management?

Project Management
lifecycle

Project Planning
Carried out before development starts.
Important activities:
Estimation
Cost
Duration
Effort

Scheduling
Staffing
Risk management
Miscellaneous plans
19

20

Management control

Traditional versus Modern

Project Management

21

Projects are increasingly being based on either tailoring

some existing product or reusing certain pre-built
libraries.
Facilitating and accommodating client feedbacks
Facilitating customer participation in project development
work
Incremental delivery of the product with evolving
functionalities.