Software Project Planning and Tracking 5.3 Software Project Planning and Tracking Planning consists of establishing the organization , the processes , the technical goals , the overall schedule , and both the component and overall budgets . Planning and tracking occur continually over the life of a software development effort. Most project plan activities are discussed in the management portion of the overall structure. However, some philosophy and thinking outside that structure is in order as is an introductory discussion of risk management . Project Planning has some important lessons learned .
Planning is everything.
The most important thing is to have done the thinking necessary to come up with a plan. Larger, longer, costlier, riskier software projects need more elaborate, more comprehensive, and more formal plans than smaller, shorter, cheaper, routine software projects. The preliminary CWO drives the generation of plans and estimates. The estimating process is called out in the contract between JPL and the contractor. Think of the plan as a comprehensive, living document describing the processes used for the project.