Managing Software

Projects
(MSP)
An introduction
 Today
⚫ Expectation from the course
⚫ Course Outline
⚫ Evaluation Pattern
⚫ Introduction
 MSP – Evaluation

Sl. Evaluation Component (%)

No

1 Quiz – 1 10
2 Quiz – 2 10
3 Group Project 30
4 Moodle Discussion board 10
5 Mid-Term Exam / Case 20
6 End Term Exam 20
Total 100
 Required Reading
⚫ Recommended e-book
⚫ Available on IMDKC-Moodle
⚫ Project Management in IT
by Kathy Schwalbe
⚫ Recommended reading
⚫ Software Project Management
by Walker Royce
⚫ Practitioner’s Guide to Software Engineering
by Roger Pressman
 Expectation??

What is it that we will learn?

 How do you define career
success?

Dream Job

Salary
 Creating Value
Deliver value incrementally

Work Clients

Supervisors
& Company
Co-workers Get your work done…fast
Negotiate

What is it in for them?

People close
Life is a series of works
to us
 Latest Trends in Managing
Software Projects
⚫ Artificial Intelligence
⚫ Hybrid Approach - Blending Agile and
Waterfall
⚫ Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Impact of EQ on
Careers
⚫ Project Management Office
⚫ Kanban Boards
⚫ Analytics
⚫ Cybersecurity
⚫ Remote Teams
Software market tiers
 Software Market Trends

⚫ Cloud/Software as a Service (SaaS)

⚫ Merger Mania

⚫ Databases

⚫ Functional Expansion

⚫ Tier 1 Vendors Moving to the Mid-Market

⚫ Tier 3 & 4 Vendors Moving to the Upper-Market

Activity
 Points made….
⚫ What was considered?

⚫ What was important?

⚫ Who were involved?

⚫ What was required?

Project is….
 Top 10 IT service providers of
the year (Source: Everest Group)

⚫ Accenture
⚫ TCS
⚫ Cognizant
⚫ Wipro
⚫ IBM
⚫ HCL
⚫ Infosys
⚫ CapGemini
⚫ DXC Technologies (merger of CSC and HPE)
⚫ NTT Data
What is Onsite / Offshore?
 Some Questions
⚫ Which is the largest consumer of Indian IT
services?
⚫ Govt. of India,
⚫ The Government of India has allocated Rs 10,000 crore (US$ 1.5 billion) for BharatNet
project under which it aims to provide high speed broadband to more than 150,000 Graam
panchayats by 2017-18. Make in India, Digital India Startup India

⚫ US and UK market
⚫ Which is the world’s leading destination for
global ITO and BPO?
⚫ India - world's No.1 sourcing destination, with
a 55 percent share.
⚫ Vietnam

⚫ Philippines
The Business of Software

Software Products
vs.
Software Services
vs.
Hybrid
 Reinventing Business Models
⚫ Delivery approach
⚫ Build offshore model
⚫ Customer-centric approach
⚫ Focus on Key Global Accounts
⚫ Domain Approach
⚫ Build Specific Solution
⚫ Solution Approach
⚫ Develop Intellectual Property for non-linear
revenues
Product?
 How? Where? Whom?
⚫ Services or Products

⚫ Sell to - Individuals or Enterprises ?

⚫ Products - Horizontal or Vertical ?

⚫ Markets – Niche or Mass ?

⚫ Revenue – Recurring or One time

⚫ Co. DNA - Leader or follower or Complementer

 Need to understand Software
Business
⚫ Strategy for the company to succeed.

⚫ Software Project Management

⚫ Software technology
⚫ Platforms, Code, program designs
 Why Indian companies?
Transformational Business Impact

⚫ Vertical solutions

⚫ Technology Enablement

⚫ Process innovation & re-engineering

⚫ Service delivery maturity

⚫ Scalability

⚫ Sustainability
Technology Enablement -
Employing Strategy
 Innovation
⚫ Product

⚫ Process

⚫ Delivery

⚫ Support
 Mature Service Delivery
A large percentage of
organizations are working at
5–Employee
Level 1 in terms of Service Driven Experience
Delivery

Employee Experience & Dept. Efficiency

Complex and Specialized
4 – Self Service Workflows
Providing employees with
Reliance complete end-to-end support

3 – Self Service Removing barriers to provide

an exceptional employee
Standard Service
Workflows experience

2 - Managed Employee Facing Case Bi-directional Integrations Making it easier for

Management with IS and other employees to be productive
Service & Knowledgebase Department systems and innovative
Service Portal
Basic Case Mgmt. Chat & Mobile Empowering employees with Improved engagement and
Tracking Department easy to use support that is business results
Basic Integrations
1 - High Cases
Enabling employees to
timely and accurate

Dependency Department-facing KB manage their basic Service Enabling the department to

needs work strategically with
Adding structure and visibility business partners adding
Email, Spreadsheets to employee support and Departments becoming less value to the bottom line
SharePoint service delivery tactical and more strategic
No business visibility,
transparency or reporting
capabilities
Inconsistent service delivery

Service Delivery Maturity

Why Manage Software Projects?
 3 statements
⚫ Best thing about software is its flexibility
⚫ It can be programmed to do anything

⚫ The worst thing about software is its flexibility

⚫ Almost anything is difficult to plan, monitor and
control

⚫ The success rate of the projects are very low.

 Goal of software
project management
enable a group of qualified people to
work efficiently towards successful
completion of a software project.

29
 What is Project Management?

The discipline of defining and achieving targets

while optimizing the use of resources (time,
money, people, materials, energy, space, etc)
over the course of a project (a set of activities of
finite duration).
 Good Project Management
⚫ People
⚫ Cost
⚫ Scope
⚫ Time
⚫ Quality
⚫ Estimation
⚫ Software processes
⚫ Choice of projects
 What is a Project?
⚫ A planned activity
⚫ Has a predetermined time span
⚫ Carried out in specific phases

Can be defined as
Temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product /
service.
Temporary, since it has an end date
Unique, since it has not been attempted before.
 PMI definition

A set of proven principles, methods and

techniques for effective planning, scheduling,
controlling and tracking of deliverable-
oriented work (results) that help establish a
sound historical basis for future planning of
projects
 Why Project Management?
⚫ Goal is – successful outcomes
⚫ That, requires
⚫ focused effort
⚫ Thorough planning
⚫ Projects
⚫ Planning, financing, designing, building
⚫ Writing books, plays, films
⚫ Software development
⚫ Research and development of new product roll-out
 IT Project vs. Non-IT Project
Project component Non-IT Project IT Project
Project Not integrated with all Usually linked with
business functions business process and
organization systems
Project Structure Often Stand alone Usually project with
interdependencies
Scope Well-defined Less defined and subject
to change
Stakeholders Fewer; easier to identify More; and difficult to
identify
Risk More easily identifiable Not easily identifiable
Metrics Poor To fair Moderately good; but
documentation poorly applied
Lessons learnt Poor to fair Poor
Budget and schedule Good Poor
estimation
 Projects
Activities that merit as a project

⚫ Conversion from one computer application to

another

⚫ Producing an edition of a newspaper

⚫ Writing a OS for a new computer

List goes on and on.....
 Types of Software Projects

Projects that
Meet certain objectives
OR
Produces a product
Example:

⚫ Information Systems

⚫ Embedded Systems
 Merits of Project Management
⚫ Increased understanding of project and its purpose
⚫ Alignment with organizational goals
⚫ Define and control project scope
⚫ Prioritize functional and project activities
⚫ Identify, monitor and track milestones
⚫ Projection of resource requirements
⚫ Measure performance
⚫ Mitigate risks
⚫ Improved communication amongst project
participation, thereby identify problem areas
 Why are Projects Important?

1. Shortened product life cycles

2. Narrow product launch windows
3. Increasingly complex and technical products
4. Emergence of global markets
5. Economic period marked by low inflation
Software Project Management

Management

Project
Management

Software
Project
Management
 Project features
⚫ Objective

⚫ Start and End points

⚫ Uniqueness

⚫ Constraints
 Project Life Cycles
Man Hours

Conceptualization Planning Execution Termination

Time
Processes
 Project features
⚫ Requires multi-disciplinary effort
⚫ Efforts of more than one organization require
integrating
⚫ Work of more than one discipline require
coordinating across organizational
boundaries
⚫ Multiple skills require coordination
⚫ Day-to-day issues to be resolved to avoid
delays
 Project Management
Skills
⚫ Leadership
⚫ Communications
⚫ Problem Solving
⚫ Negotiating
⚫ Influencing the Organization
⚫ Mentoring
⚫ Process and technical expertise
 Interactions /
Stakeholders
⚫ As a PM, who do you interact with?
⚫ Project Stakeholders
⚫ Project sponsor
⚫ Executives
⚫ Team
⚫ Customers
⚫ Contractors
⚫ Functional managers
 Key Players in a Project
⚫ Team Members and project management
specialist
⚫ Group Leaders
⚫ Technical Manager
⚫ Project Manager
⚫ Project Director / Project Sponsor
⚫ Program Manager / Corporate Executive
 Types of PM Software
1. Desktop
⚫ Microsoft Project is a good example for this type.

⚫ You can manage your entire project using MS-Project

⚫ Share the electronic documents with others, when collaboration is

required.
⚫ All the updates done to the same document by relevant parties time to
time. Leads to problems of updated-ness.

2. Web Based
⚫ The users access the web application and read, write or change the
project management-related activities.
⚫ Good solution for distributed projects across departments and
geographies.
⚫ Stakeholders of the project have access to project details at any given
time.
⚫ Model is the best for virtual teams that operate on the Internet.
 Features to look, for
choosing a PM software
⚫ Collaboration

⚫ Scheduling

⚫ Issue Tracking

⚫ Project Portfolio Management

⚫ Document Management

⚫ Resource Management
 PM Tools: Software

⚫ Low-end
⚫ Basic features, tasks management, charting
⚫ MS Excel, Milestones Simplicity
⚫ Mid-market
⚫ Handle larger projects, multiple projects, analysis tools
⚫ MS Project
⚫ High-end
⚫ Very large projects, specialized needs, enterprise
⚫ Primavera Project Manager
Tools: Network Diagram
Tools: Gantt Chart
 PM Tools
⚫ Jira
⚫ Asana
⚫ Liquid Planner
⚫ SmartSheet
⚫ ZOHO
⚫ EasyProjects
⚫ Trello
⚫ Pro workflow
LiquidPlanner
Project Management

Quality

Cost

Resources
 Review
Concept
Exploration
System
Exploration
Require-
ments
Design
Implemen-
tation
Operation &
Support

Mainte-
nance
 Essential Competencies
Managing Software Project
1. Appraise performance 1. Assess process 1. Build Work Breakdown
2. Handling intellectual 2. Awareness of process structure
property standards 2. Documenting plans
3. Hold effective meetings 3. Defining product 3. Estimating Cost
4. Interaction and 4. Evaluate alternate 4. Estimating Effort
communication processes 5. Managing Risks
5. Leadership 5. Manage requirements 6. Monitoring development
6. Managing change 6. Manage subcontractors 7. Scheduling
7. Negotiating successfully 7. Perform initial 8. Selecting Metrics
8. Planning careers assessment 9. Selecting project
9. Presenting effectively 8. Selecting Methods and management tools
10. Recruiting Tools 10. Tracking process
11. Selecting a team 9. Tailoring processes 11. Tracking project
12. Team building 10. Track product quality progress
11. Understand
development activities
 Synthesize to PM knowledge
areas
⚫ Core (lead to achieving objectives)
⚫ Project Scope management
⚫ Project Time Management
⚫ Project Cost Management
⚫ Project Quality Management
⚫ Facilitating (processes through which goals achieved)
⚫ Project HR Management
⚫ Project Communications Management
⚫ Project Risk Management
⚫ Project Procurement Management
 Process Management &
Modeling Tools - Open
⚫ BizAgi - Process Modeler
⚫ Questetra - BPM Suite
⚫ Tibco Business Studio
⚫ Process Maker
⚫ Open ModelSphere
⚫ Taskjuggler.com
⚫ Dotproject.net
 Process Management &
Modeling Tools - Proprietary
⚫ Appian
⚫ BAE Systems
⚫ Cordys
⚫ EMC (ProActivity)
⚫ IBM
⚫ IDS Scheer,
⚫ Lombardi Software