Part I: Starting Your Software Project

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Chapter One
Examining the Big Picture of Project Management
Motivation for Studying Software Project
Management
Software projects had a terrible track record.
Indicators
• Most of software development project failed or
delayed costing billions of $
• Many bugs/1000 lines of codes
• Delivering the system over budget

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Motivation for Studying(cont…)
• Scope creeping(failure to fulfill all the tasks with
TOR)
• Delivering of less quality software
• Higher cost of project than planned
Reason
Lack of structured and organized methodology
Lack of good project management

The need for software project keeps increase

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Advantages of Using Formal
Project Management
Better control of financial, physical, and human
resources-Efficiency
Improved customer relations-communication issue
Shorter development times.
Lower costs.
Higher quality and increased reliability.
Higher profit margins.
Improved productivity.
Better internal coordination.
Higher worker morale (less stress).

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What Is a Project?
A project is “a temporary endeavor undertaken to
create a unique product, service, or result.”*
A project ends when its objectives have been reached,
or the project has been terminated.
Projects can be large or small and take a short or long
time to complete.

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Software project Management
Software project management is a type of project
management that focuses specifically on creating or
updating software.
Project management is “the application of
knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project
activities to meet project requirements.”*
Is the art of organizing, leading, reporting and
completing a project through a people.

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Cont…
Project management actually refers to four activities related to
successfully complete a project:
1. Organizing and showing the individual pieces of a project.
2. Showing the timing of tasks:
the time required to complete tasks
the time tasks start and stop.
3. Identifying and allocating the resources needed to complete a
project.
4. Comparing the planned outcome with the actual
outcome. Comparisons are usually made in three areas:
time spent, resources required, and money spent
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Project Attributes
A project:
Has a unique purpose.
Is temporary.
Requires resources, often from various areas.
Should have a primary customer or sponsor.
 The project sponsor usually provides the direction and
funding for the project.
Involves uncertainty.
They solve problems.

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Comparing Projects and Operations
Operations are the day-to-day activities that your
organization does.
For example, a car manufacturer makes cars. An
airline flies people from one city to another. A help
desk supports technical solutions.
A project at an automobile manufacturer might be to
design a new car.

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Examining project Constraints
A constraint is anything that restricts the project
manager’s options.

Constraints can include:-

Resource constraints such as a team member being
assigned to too many concurrent projects
 Tight deadlines, budgetary limitations, government
regulations, limitations of software, Scope limitation,
such as being required to use a particular existing interface
 Hardware requirements
 Anything else that restricts your options
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The three universal project constraints
Every project is constrained in different ways by its:
1. Scope: This is where you focus. The project scope
is all the required work, and only the required work,
to create the project deliverable.
2. Time: Time constraints are simply deadlines.
3. Cost: Cost constraints are the budgetary
restrictions that you expect .

It is the project manager’s duty to balance these three

often-competing goals.

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Figure 1-1. The Triple Constraint of Project
Management

Successful project
management means
meeting all three goals
(scope, time, and cost) –
and satisfying the
project’s sponsor!

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Figure 1-2. Project Management Framework

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Project Stakeholders
Stakeholders are the people involved in or affected by
project activities.
Stakeholders include:
Project sponsor
Project manager
Project team
Support staff
Customers
Users
Suppliers
Opponents to the project

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Nine Project Management Knowledge Areas
Knowledge areas describe the key competencies that
project managers must develop.
Four core knowledge areas lead to specific project
objectives (scope, time, cost, and quality).
Four facilitating knowledge areas are the means through
which the project objectives are achieved (human
resources, communication, risk, and procurement
management).
One knowledge area (project integration management)
affects and is affected by all of the other knowledge
areas.
All knowledge areas are important!

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Project Management Tools and Techniques
Project management tools and techniques assist
project managers and their teams in various aspects of
project management.
Specific tools and techniques include:
Project charters, scope statements, and WBS (scope).
Gantt charts, network diagrams, critical path analyses,
critical chain scheduling (time).
Cost estimates and earned value management (cost).

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Suggested Skills for Project Managers
Project managers need both “hard” and “soft” skills.

Hard skills include product knowledge and knowing

how to use various project management tools and
techniques.

Soft skills include being able to work with various types

of people.

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Suggested Skills for Project Managers
Communication skills: Listens, persuades.
Organizational skills: Plans, sets goals, analyzes.
Team-building skills: Shows empathy, motivates,
promotes esprit de corps.
Leadership skills: Sets examples, provides vision (big
picture), delegates, positive, energetic.
Coping skills: Flexible, creative, patient, persistent.
Technology skills: Experience, project knowledge.

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Cont…
A project managers are peoples who oversee all the
project activities.
A good project manager
• Takes ownership of the whole project
• Adequately plans for project
• Is authorative (Not authoritarian)
• Is decisive
• Is good communicator
• Is motivator

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