Project management

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 1

 Objectives
To explain the main tasks undertaken by project
managers
To introduce software project management and to
describe its distinctive characteristics
To discuss project planning and the planning process
To show how graphical schedule representations are
used by project management
To discuss the notion of risks and the risk management
process

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 2

 Topics covered

Management activities
Project planning
Project scheduling
Risk management

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 3

 Software project management

Concerned with activities involved in ensuring

that software is delivered on time and on
schedule and in accordance with the
requirements of the organisations developing
and procuring the software.
Project management is needed because
software development is always subject to
budget and schedule constraints that are set
by the organisation developing the software.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 4

 Software management distinctions
The product is intangible.
The product is uniquely flexible.
Software engineering is not recognized as an
engineering discipline with the sane status as
mechanical, electrical engineering, etc.
The software development process is not
standardised.
Many software projects are 'one-off' projects.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 5

 Management activities

Proposal writing.
Project planning and scheduling.
Project costing.
Project monitoring and reviews.
Personnel selection and evaluation.
Report writing and presentations.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 6

 Management commonalities

These activities are not peculiar to software

management.
Many techniques of engineering project
management are equally applicable to
software project management.
Technically complex engineering systems tend
to suffer from the same problems as software
systems.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 7

 Project staffing
May not be possible to appoint the ideal people to work
on a project
Project budget may not allow for the use of highly-paid
staff;
Staff with the appropriate experience may not be
available;
An organisation may wish to develop employee skills
on a software project.
Managers have to work within these constraints
especially when there are shortages of trained staff.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 8

 Project planning

Probably the most time-consuming project

management activity.
Continuous activity from initial concept through
to system delivery. Plans must be regularly
revised as new information becomes available.
Various different types of plan may be
developed to support the main software project
plan that is concerned with schedule and
budget.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 9

 Types of project plan

Plan Description
Quality plan Describes the quality procedures and standards that will be
used in a project. See Chapter 27.
Validation plan Describes the approach, resources and schedule used for
system validation. See Chapter 22.
Configuration Describes the configuration management procedures and
manageme nt plan structures to be used. See Chapter 29.
Maintenance plan Predicts the maintenance requirements of the system,
maintenance costs and effort required. See Chapter 21.
Staff development Describes how the skills and experience of the project team
plan. members will be developed. See Chapter 25.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 10

 Project planning process
Establish the project constraints
Make initial assessments of the project parameters
Define project milestones and deliverables
while project has not been completed or cancelled loop
Draw up project schedule
Initiate activities according to schedule
Wait ( for a while )
Review project progress
Revise estimates of project parameters
Update the project schedule
Re-negotiate project constraints and deliverables
if ( problems arise ) then
Initiate technical review and possible revision
end if
end loop

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 11

 The project plan

The project plan sets out:

The resources available to the project;
The work breakdown;
A schedule for the work.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 12

 Project plan structure

Introduction.
Project organisation.
Risk analysis.
Hardware and software resource
requirements.
Work breakdown.
Project schedule.
Monitoring and reporting mechanisms.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 13

 Activity organization
Activities in a project should be organised to
produce tangible outputs for management to
judge progress.
Milestones are the end-point of a process
activity.
Deliverables are project results delivered to
customers.
The waterfall process allows for the
straightforward definition of progress
milestones.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 14

 Milestones in the RE process

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 15

 Project scheduling

Split project into tasks and estimate time and

resources required to complete each task.
Organize tasks concurrently to make optimal
use of workforce.
Minimize task dependencies to avoid delays
caused by one task waiting for another to
complete.
Dependent on project managers intuition and
experience.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 16

 The project scheduling process

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 17

 Scheduling problems

Estimating the difficulty of problems and hence

the cost of developing a solution is hard.
Productivity is not proportional to the number
of people working on a task.
Adding people to a late project makes it later
because of communication overheads.
The unexpected always happens. Always
allow contingency in planning.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 18

 Bar charts and activity networks

Graphical notations used to illustrate the

project schedule.
Show project breakdown into tasks. Tasks
should not be too small. They should take
about a week or two.
Activity charts show task dependencies and
the the critical path.
Bar charts show schedule against calendar
time.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 19

 Task durations and dependencies

Activity Duration (da ys) Dependencies

T1 8
T2 15
T3 15 T1 (M1)
T4 10
T5 10 T2, T4 (M2)
T6 5 T1, T2 (M3)
T7 20 T1 (M1)
T8 25 T4 (M5)
T9 15 T3, T6 (M4)
T10 15 T5, T7 (M7)
T11 7 T9 (M6)
T12 10 T11 (M8)

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 20

 Activity network
1 4 /7 /0 3 15 da y s
15 da y s
M1 T3
8 day s T9
T1 5 day s 4 /8/03 2 5 /8/03
2 5 /7 /0 3
4 /7 /0 3 T6 M4 M6
M3
start 2 0 day s 7 day s
15 day s
T7 T 11
T2
25 /7 /0 3 11 /8/03 5 /9/03
10 da y s 10 day s
M2 M7 M8
T4 T5 15 da y s

T 10 10 da ys
1 8 /7 /0 3
T 12
M5
2 5 day s
T8 Finish
19 /9/03

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 21

 Activity timeline
4 /7 11 /7 18 /7 2 5 /7 1 /8 8 /8 1 5 /8 22 /8 2 9 /8 5 /9 12 /9 1 9 /9

Start
T4
T1
T2
M1

T7
T3
M5
T8
M3
M2
T6
T5
M4
T9
M7
T 10
M6
T 11
M8
T 12
Finish

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 22

 Staff allocation
4 /7 1 1 /7 18 /7 2 5 /7 1 /8 8 /8 15 /8 2 2 /8 2 9 /8 5 /9 1 2 /9 19 /9

Fred T4
T8 T 11
T 12
Jane T1
T3
T9
An ne T2
T6 T 10

Jim T7

M ary T5

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 23

 Risk management
Risk management is concerned with
identifying risks and drawing up plans to
minimise their effect on a project.
A risk is a probability that some adverse
circumstance will occur
Project risks affect schedule or resources;
Product risks affect the quality or performance of
the software being developed;
Business risks affect the organisation developing
or procuring the software.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 24

 Software risks
Risk Affects Description
Staff turnover Project Experienced staff will leave the project before it is finished.
Management change Project There will be a change of organisational management with
different priorities.
Hardware unavailability Project Hardware that is essential for the project will not be
delivered on schedule.
Requirements change Project and There will be a larger numb er of changes to the
product requirements than anticipated.
Specification delays Project and Specifications of essential interfaces are not available on
product schedule
Size underestimate Project and The size of the system has been underestimated.
product
CASE t ool under- Product CASE t ools which support the project do not perform as
performance anticipated
Technology change Business The underlying technology on which the system is b uilt is
superseded by new technology.
Product comp etition Business A competitive product is marketed before the system is
completed.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 25

 The risk management process
Risk identification
Identify project, product and business risks;
Risk analysis
Assess the likelihood and consequences of these
risks;
Risk planning
Draw up plans to avoid or minimise the effects of
the risk;
Risk monitoring
Monitor the risks throughout the project;

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 26

 The risk management process

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 27

 Risk identification

Technology risks.
People risks.
Organisational risks.
Requirements risks.
Estimation risks.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 28

 Risks and risk types
Risk type Possible risks
Techno logy The da tabase used in the system canno t process as many transactions per second
as exp ected.
Software componen ts that shou ld be reus ed contain defects that limit their
func tiona li ty.
People It is im possible to recruit staff wit h the skill s required.
Key staff are ill and unava il able at criti cal tim es.
Requi red training for staff is not availa ble.
Organ isationa l The o rgan isation is restructured so that diff erent manag ement are respons ible for
the project.
Organ isationa l f inancial problems force reduc tions in the project budge t.
Tools The cod e gen erated by CASE tools is i neffi cient.
CASE tools canno t be integrated.
Requi rements Changes to requirements that require major design rewo rk are proposed .
Customers fail to unde rstand the im pact of requirements change s.
Estim ation The tim e requir ed to deve lop the software is unde restim ated.
The rate of defect repair is und erestim ated.
The size o f t he software is unde restim ated.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 29

 Risk analysis

Assess probability and seriousness of each

risk.
Probability may be very low, low, moderate,
high or very high.
Risk effects might be catastrophic, serious,
tolerable or insignificant.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 30

 Risk analysis (i)

Risk Probability Effects

Organ isationa l f inancial problems force reduc tions in Low Catastrophic
the project budge t.
It is impossible to recruit staff with the skill s required High Catastrophic
for the p roject.
Key staff are ill at crit ical tim es in the project. Moderate Serious
Software componen ts that shou ld be reus ed contain Moderate Serious
defects which li mit their func tion ality.
Changes to requirements that require major design Moderate Serious
rework are proposed.
The o rgan isation is restructured so that diff erent High Serious
manage me nt are respons ible for the project.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 31

 Risk analysis (ii)

Risk Probability Effects

The da tabase used in the system canno t process as Moderate Serious
many transactions per second as expec ted.
The tim e requir ed to deve lop the software is High Serious
unde restim ated.
CASE tools canno t be integrated. High Tolerable
Customers fail to unde rstand the impact of Moderate Tolerable
requirements change s.
Requi red training for staff is not availa ble. Moderate Tolerable
The rate of defect repair is und erestim ated. Moderate Tolerable
The size o f t he software is unde restim ated. High Tolerable
The cod e gen erated by CASE tools is i neffi cient. Moderate Insignif icant

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 32

 Risk planning
Consider each risk and develop a strategy to
manage that risk.
Avoidance strategies
The probability that the risk will arise is reduced;
Minimisation strategies
The impact of the risk on the project or product will
be reduced;
Contingency plans
If the risk arises, contingency plans are plans to
deal with that risk;

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 33

 Risk management strategies (i)

Risk Strategy
Organ isationa l Prepare a briefing document for senior manage ment
financ ial problems sho wing how th e project is making a very im portant
contribution to the goa ls of the bus iness.
Recruitm ent Alert customer of potential difficulti es and the
problems possibil ity of delays, inves tigate buying- in
componen ts.
Staff illness Reorgan is e team so that there is more ove rlap of work
and people therefore und erstand e ach others jobs.
Defective Replace pot entia lly defective componen ts wit h bough t-
componen ts in compon ents of known reli abilit y.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 34

 Risk management strategies (ii)

Risk Strategy
Requirements Derive traceabili ty info rmation to assess requ ir ements
chang es chang e im pact, maximi se information hid ing in the
design.
Organ isationa l Prepare a briefing document for senior manage ment
restructuring sho wing how th e project is making a very im portant
contribution to the goa ls of the bus iness.
Database Inves tigate the po ssibilit y o f buy ing a high er-
performanc e performanc e database.
Unde restim ated Inves tigate buying in componen ts, inve stigate use of a
deve lopment time progra m gene rator

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 35

 Risk monitoring

Assess each identified risks regularly to decide

whether or not it is becoming less or more
probable.
Also assess whether the effects of the risk
have changed.
Each key risk should be discussed at
management progress meetings.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 36

 Risk indicators

Risk type Potential indi cators

Techno logy Late delivery of hardware or support software, many reported
techno logy problems
People Poor staff morale, poor relationsh ips amongst team m ember,
job avail abil ity
Organ isationa l Organ isationa l gos sip, lack of action by senior ma nage ment
Tools Reluctance by team m embers to use tools, comp laints about
CASE tools , demands for high er-powered workstations
Requi rements Many requir ements change reques ts, cus tomer comp la ints
Estim ation Fail ure to meet agreed schedu le, failure to clear reported
defects

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 37

 Key points
Good project management is essential for project
success.
The intangible nature of software causes problems for
management.
Managers have diverse roles but their most significant
activities are planning, estimating and scheduling.
Planning and estimating are iterative processes
which continue throughout the course of a
project.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 38

 Key points
A project milestone is a predictable state
where a formal report of progress is presented
to management.
Project scheduling involves preparing various
graphical representations showing project
activities, their durations and staffing.
Risk management is concerned with
identifying risks which may affect the project
and planning to ensure that these risks do not
develop into major threats.

Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 39