Chapter No.

2 Planning the Project

2.1 INTRODUCTION

Project planning is at the heart of the project life cycle, and tells everyone involved where you’re
going and how you’re going to get there. The planning phase is when the project plans are
documented, the project deliverables and requirements are defined, and the project schedule is
created. It involves creating a set of plans to help guide your team through the implementation
and closure phases of the project. The plans created during this phase will help you manage time,
cost, quality, changes, risk, and related issues. They will also help you control staff and external
suppliers to ensure that you deliver the project on time, within budget, and within schedule.

The project planning phase is often the most challenging phase for a project manager, as you need
to make an educated guess about the staff, resources, and equipment needed to complete your
project. You may also need to plan your communications and procurement activities, as well as
contract any third-party suppliers.

The purpose of the project planning phase is to:

 Establish business requirements

 Establish cost, schedule, list of deliverables, and delivery dates
 Establish resources plans
 Obtain management approval and proceed to the next phase

2.2 METHODOLOGY

Methodology provides us the way to develop the Project. The planning Methodology is
consisting of few steps which are given as below.

1. Developing the solution design and architecture:

We begin the design process with the solution design and architecture and culminate
it with a design document that becomes part of the functional specification.

2. Validating the technology:

The development team also validates technologies to ensure that they meet with
the specific solution.
Chapter No.2 Planning the Project
3. Creating the functional specification:

The project team and Program Management Role create a functional specification.
That describes the solution requirements, the architecture, and the detailed design for
all the features. This represents the contract between the project team and
customer.

4. Developing the project plans:

The Program Management Role and the we make up the project team develop a
collection of plans to define the tasks for all two MSF team roles, and Program
Management consolidates them into a master project plan.

5. Creating the project schedules:

The Program Management Role and the various teams create milestone-driven
schedules for each individual team role, and Program Management consolidates them
into the master project schedule.

6. Setting up the development and test environment:

The development and test teams create development and testing environments that are
independent of the production environment to develop and test the solution.

7. Close the Planning Phase:

The project team completes the Planning Phase with the approval process for the

Project Plans Approved Milestone.

2.3 AVAILABLE METHODOLOGY

Waterfall Model

The waterfall is a universally accepted SDLC model. In this method, the whole process of
software development is divided into various phases.

The waterfall model is a continuous software development model in which development is seen
as flowing steadily downwards (like a waterfall) through the steps of requirements analysis,
design, implementation, testing (validation), integration, and maintenance.
 Chapter No.2 Planning the Project
Linear ordering of activities has some significant consequences. First, to identify the end of a
phase and the beginning of the next, some certification techniques have to be employed at the end
of each step. Some verification and validation usually do this mean that will ensure that the
output of the stage is consistent with its input (which is the output of the previous step), and that
the output of the stage is consistent with the overall requirements of the system.

RAD Model

RAD or Rapid Application Development process is an adoption of the waterfall model; it targets
developing software in a short period. The RAD model is based on the concept that a better
system can be developed in lesser time by using focus groups to gather system requirements.

o Business Modeling
o Data Modeling
o Process Modeling
o Application Generation
o Testing and Turnover

Spiral Model

The spiral model is a risk-driven process model. This SDLC model helps the group to adopt
elements of one or more process models like a waterfall, incremental, waterfall, etc. The spiral
technique is a combination of rapid prototyping and concurrency in design and development
activities.

Each cycle in the spiral begins with the identification of objectives for that cycle, the different
alternatives that are possible for achieving the goals, and the constraints that exist. This is the first
quadrant of the cycle (upper-left quadrant).

The next step in the cycle is to evaluate these different alternatives based on the objectives and
constraints. The focus of evaluation in this step is based on the risk perception for the project.

The next step is to develop strategies that solve uncertainties and risks. This step may involve
activities such as benchmarking, simulation, and prototyping.

V-Model

In this type of SDLC model testing and the development, the step is planned in parallel. So, there
are verification phases on the side and the validation phase on the other side. V-Model joins by
Coding phase.

Incremental Model

The incremental model is not a separate model. It is necessarily a series of waterfall cycles. The
requirements are divided into groups at the start of the project. For each group, the SDLC model
is followed to develop software. The SDLC process is repeated, with each release adding more
functionality until all requirements are met. In this method, each cycle act as the maintenance
phase for the previous software release. Modification to the incremental model allows
 Chapter No.2 Planning the Project
development cycles to overlap. After that subsequent cycle may begin before the previous cycle
is complete.

Agile Model

Agile methodology is a practice which promotes continues interaction of development and testing
during the SDLC process of any project. In the Agile method, the entire project is divided into
small incremental builds. All of these builds are provided in iterations, and each iteration lasts
from one to three weeks.

2.4 CHOSEN METHODOLOGY

I have used Rapid Application Development Methodology in our Project.

2.5 REASON FOR METHODOLOGY

RAD model enables rapid delivery as it reduces the overall development time due to the
reusability of the components and parallel development.
Rapid application development is a software development methodology, which involves iterative
development and the construction of prototypes.
We use RAD Model when Requirements are clear.
Chapter No.2 Planning the Project

Figure 2.1 RAD Model

Figure 2.2 Rapid Application Developments

Chapter No.2
Planning the Project

Figure 2.3 Rapid Application Development Cycle

ADVANTAGES OF THE RAD METHODOLOGY:

 Reduced development time.

 Increases reusability of components
 Quick initial reviews occur
 Encourages customer feedback
 Integration from very beginning solves a lot of integration issues.
 RAD realizes an overall reduction in project risk.