# Presentation: 922009

## Learning Objective...to give an appreciation for and to introduce project management and to place it into context and give some of the fundamentals to project management including organizing, planning and scheduling software projects.

Frederick T Sheldon
Assistant Professor of Computer Science
Washington State University

**Learning Objective****...to** **give an **_**appreciation**_** for and to introduce *****project****** ******management***** and to place it into context and give **_**some of **__**the **__**fundamentals**_** to ****project management**** including ****organizing****, ****planning**** ****and ****scheduling**** software projects.**
**Frederick T Sheldon**
**Assistant Professor of Computer Science**
***Washington State University***

**Project Management**

## Project management

**Organizing, planning and scheduling software projects**
**Patently!**

## Objectives

**To introduce software project management and to describe its *****distinctive characteristics***
***To discuss project planning and the planning process***
**To show how graphical schedule representations are used by project management**

## Topics covered

**Management activities**
**Project planning**
**Activity organization**
**Project scheduling**

## Concerned with activities involved in ensuring that software is delivered on time (according to schedule)...
...And in accordance with the requirements of the organizations developing and procuring the software

**...****And in accordance with the requirements of the organizations developing and procuring the software**

**Soft****ware project management**

## Software engineering is an economic activity and therefore is subject to economic, non-technical constraints
Well-managed projects sometimes fail. Badly managed projects inevitably fail
The objective of the course is to introduce  management activities rather than teach you to be managers. You can only learn to manage by managing (experiential learning)

**Well-managed projects sometimes fail. Badly ****managed projects **_***inevitably***_** fail**
**The objective of the course is to introduce  management activities rather than teach you to be managers. You can only learn to manage by managing ****(****experiential learning****)**

**Why**** is management important?**

## The product is intangible
The product is uniquely flexible
Software engineering is not recognized as an engineering discipline (as much as others) with the same status as mechanical, electrical engineering, etc.
The software development process is not standardized
Most software projects are  one-off  projects

**The product is *****uniquely***** flexible**
**Software engineering is not recognized as an ****engineering discipline (as much as others) with the same status as **_**mechanical**_**, *****electrical engineering*****, etc.**
***The software development process is not ******standardized***
**Most software projects are **_*** one-off ***_** projects**

**Soft****ware management distinctions**

## Proposal writing
Project costing
Project planning and scheduling
Project monitoring and reviews
Personnel selection and evaluation
Report writing and presentations

**Project costing**
**Project planning and scheduling**
**Project monitoring and reviews**
**Personnel selection and evaluation**
**Report writing and presentations**

**Man****agement activities**

## These activities are not peculiar to software management
Many techniques of engineering project management are equally applicable to software project management
Technically complex engineering systems tend to suffer from the same problems as software systems

**Many techniques of engineering project ****management are equally applicable to software project management**
**Technically complex engineering systems tend ****to *****suffer from the same problems***** as software ****systems**

**Man****agement commonalties**

## Project staffing

**May not be possible to appoint the *****ideal people***** to work on a project**
**Project ****budget may not allow**** for the use of highly-paid staff**
**Staff with the appropriate experience may not be ****available**
**An organization may wish to ****develop employee skills**** (...*****welcome to the farm team*****) on a software project**
***...And there are many other gotcha’s!***

## Project planning

***Probably the most time-consuming  project management activity***
_**Continuous activity**_** from initial concept through to system delivery.**
**Plans must be *****regularly***** revised as new information becomes available**

## Types of project plan

## Project planning process

## Project plan structure

***Introduction***
***Project organization***
***Risk analysis***
***Hardware and software resource requirements***
***Work breakdown***
***Project schedule***
**Monitoring and reporting mechanisms (e.g., status reports and meetings)**

## Activity organization

**Activities in a project should be organized to *****produce tangible outputs for management to judge***** **_**progress!**_
***Milestones***** are the end-point of a process activity**
***Deliverables***** are project results delivered to customers**
***The waterfall process allows for the straightforward definition of progress milestones***

## Milestones and deliverables

## Project scheduling

***Split project into tasks and estimate time and resources required to complete each task***
**Organize tasks *****concurrently***** to make optimal ****use of workforce**
***Minimize task dependencies to avoid delays***** ****caused by one task waiting for another to complete**
**Dependent on project managers **_**intuition**_** and **_**experience**_** (oh – oh . . .)**

## Scheduling problems

***Estimating the difficulty of problems and hence the cost of developing a solution is hard***
**Productivity is **_**not**_** proportional to the number of people working on a task**
**Adding people to a late project makes it later because of communication overheads**
**The unexpected **_**always**_** happens. *****Always allow contingency in planning***

## Bar charts and activity networks

***Graphical notations***** used to illustrate the project schedule**
***Show project breakdown into tasks.***** Tasks should not be **_**too small**_**. They should take about a week or two (*****there is some overhead / task*****)**
**Activity charts show task dependencies and the the critical path**
***Bar charts show schedule against calendar time***

## Task durations and dependencies

## Activity network

## Activity timeline

## Staff allocation

**What about hiring**

## Key points

***Good project management***** is essential for project success**
**The intangible nature of software causes problems for management**
***Managers have diverse roles but their most significant activities are planning, estimating and scheduling***
**Planning and estimating are *****iterative processes***** ****which continue throughout the course of a project**

## A project milestone is a predictable state where some formal report of progress is presented to management. 
Activity charts and bar charts are graphical representations of a project schedule (...how do they differ?)

***Activity charts and bar charts are graphical representations of a project schedule (...how do they differ?)***

**Key**** ****points**