Applied Software Project Management

Introduction
Applied Software Project Management
04/13/23 1
Why is SPM important?
 United Kingdom 2002-2003: 2.3

billion vs 1.4 billion
 2003: 13,522 projects: 1/3 were
successful: 82% were late and 43%
exceeded their budget.
2 04/13/23
Why do software projects fail?
People begin programming before they

understand the problem
 Everyone likes to feel that they’re making progress
 When the team starts to code as soon as the project
begins, they see immediate gains
 When problems become more complex (as they always
do!), the work gets bogged down
 In the best case, a team that begins programming too soon
will end up writing good software that solves the wrong
problem
3 04/13/23

 The team has an unrealistic idea about how
much work is involved.
 From far away, most complex problems seem simple
to solve
 Teams can commit to impossible deadlines by being
overly optimistic and not thinking through the work
 Few people realize the deadline is optimistic until it’s
blown
4 04/13/23
 Defects are injected early but discovered

late.
 Projects can address the wrong needs
 Requirements can specify incorrect behavior
 Design, architecture and code can be technically flawed
 Test plans can miss functionality
 The later these problems are found, the more likely they are to
cause the project to fail
5 04/13/23
Programmers have poor habits – and they

don’t feel accountable for their work.
 Programmers don’t have good control of their source code
 Code written by one person is often difficult for another person to
understand
 Programmers don’t test their code, which makes diagnosing and
fixing bugs more expensive
 The team does not have a good sense of the overall health of
the project.
6 04/13/23
Managers try to test quality into the

software.
 Everyone assumes that the testers will catch all of the
defects that were injected throughout the project.
 When testers look for defects, managers tell them they are
wasting time.
 When testers find defects, programmers are antagonized
because they feel that they are being personally criticized.
 When testers miss defects, everyone blames them for not
being perfect.
7 04/13/23
How can we make sure that our projects succeed?
Make sure all decisions are based on openly
shared information
 It’s important to create a culture of transparency, where everyone who
needs information knows where to find it and is comfortable looking at it.
 All project documents, schedules, estimates, plans and other work
products should be shared with the entire team, managers, stakeholders,
users and anyone else in the organization who wants them.
 Major decisions that are made about the project should be well-supported
and explained.
8 04/13/23
 Don’t second-guess your team members’

expertise
 Managers need to trust team members.
 Just because a manager has responsibility for a

project’s success, it doesn’t mean that he’s more
qualified to make decisions than the team members.
 If you don’t have a good reason to veto an idea, don’t.
9 04/13/23
 Introduce software quality from the very

beginning of the project
 Review everything, test everything.
 Use reviews to find defects – but don’t expect the

review to be perfect.
 Use reviews to gain a real commitment from the team.
 It’s always faster in the long run to hold a review than

it is to skip it.
10 04/13/23
Don’t impose an artificial hierarchy on

the project team
 All software engineers were created equal.
 A manager should not assume that programming is more
difficult or technical than design, testing or requirements
engineering.
 Managers should definitely not assume that the
programmer is always right, or the tester is always raising
false alarms.
11 04/13/23
Remember that the fastest way through the

project is to use good engineering practices
 Managers and teams often want to cut important tasks –
especially estimation, reviews, requirements gathering and
testing.
 If it were faster to build the software without these practices, we
would never use them.
 Every one of these practices is about saving time and increasing
quality by planning well and finding defects early. Cutting them
out will cost time and reduce quality.
12 04/13/23
What is Management?
 Basically, the management involves the following activities:

1. Planning- deciding what is to be done
2. Organizing- making arrangements
3. Staffing- selecting the right people for the job
4. Directing- giving instructions
5. Monitoring- checking on progress
6. Controlling- taking action to remedy hold-ups
7. Innovating- coming up with new solutions
8. Representing- liaising with users, etc.
13
What is a Project?
 A project is an activity with specific goals which takes place

over a finite period of time
 Temporary means that every project has a definite beginning
and a definite end.
Unique means that the product or service is different in some
distinguishing way from all other products or services
14
What is Project Management?
 Project management can be broadly defined as

starting an activity to achieve some stated goals
using limited resources, budget, and time.
15
What is Project Management?
After the project is finished, the

unconsumed resources and budget
should be released.
Since each project is started for a
customer, a fourth dimension in the
project is also added.
16
17
IT projects
 IT is a field where an IT system refers to a

complete system comprising many parts
like hardware systems, software systems,
and any other components from some
other fields.
18
19
What is Software Project?
A software development project on

the other hand is making software
design based on customer
requirements and implementing it
into source code.
20
What is Software Project Management?
 Software projects demand not only general project management

skills but also good software engineering skills.

21
 software project management can be defined as

applying project management and software
engineering methods to develop/maintain a software
product so that the goal of developing/maintaining a
software product can be achieved using
minimum possible resources and money and within
the minimum time possible.

22
What is a project
 A specific plan or design
 Non-routine tasks are involved
 Planning is required
 Specific objectives are to be met or a specified product is to be created
 The project has a predetermined time span;
 Work is carried out for someone other than yourself;
 Work involves several specialisms;
 People are formed into a temporary work group to carry out the task;
 Work is carried out in several phases;
 The resources that are available for use on the project are constrained
 The project is large or complex.
23 04/13/23
Software projects versus other types of project
 Invisibility: SPM ~ the process of

making the invisible visible
 Complexity: per $, pound, euro spent
 Conformity:
 Flexibility: that software is easy to

change is seen as a strength
24 04/13/23
Activities covered by SPM
 The feasibility study
 Planning
 Project execution
25 04/13/23

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Introduction

Applied Software Project Management

Why is SPM important?

 United Kingdom 2002-2003: 2.3

Why do software projects fail?

People begin programming before they

Why do software projects fail?

Why do software projects fail?

 Defects are injected early but discovered

 Requirements can specify incorrect behavior

 Design, architecture and code can be technically flawed

 Test plans can miss functionality

Why do software projects fail?

Programmers have poor habits – and they

Why do software projects fail?

Managers try to test quality into the

How can we make sure that our projects succeed?

Make sure all decisions are based on openly

needs information knows where to find it and is comfortable looking at it.

 All project documents, schedules, estimates, plans and other work

products should be shared with the entire team, managers, stakeholders,

users and anyone else in the organization who wants them.

 Don’t second-guess your team members’

 Just because a manager has responsibility for a

 Introduce software quality from the very

 Use reviews to find defects – but don’t expect the

 It’s always faster in the long run to hold a review than

Don’t impose an artificial hierarchy on

Remember that the fastest way through the

 Basically, the management involves the following activities:

 A project is an activity with specific goals which takes place

What is Project Management?

 Project management can be broadly defined as

What is Project Management?

After the project is finished, the

 IT is a field where an IT system refers to a

What is Software Project?

A software development project on

What is Software Project Management?

 Software projects demand not only general project management

 software project management can be defined as

Software projects versus other types of project

 Invisibility: SPM ~ the process of

 Flexibility: that software is easy to

Activities covered by SPM

 The feasibility study

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