Introduction to

Software Project
Management
Lecture 1

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

Characteristics
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
Time Constrained there should be a defined point
in time

Software Projects
Activities covered by Software Project
Management Processes bring a Project to
life
Feasibility Study: Is it work doing?
Plan: How do we do it?
Project Execution: Do it!

Software Projects
Sequence of software development activities

Requirements Analysis
Architecture Design
Detailed Design
Code
Testing
Integration
Qualification
Installation
Acceptance