Unit-1 Introduction to

Software Project Management

Content
• Project Definition
• Project vs Flow type work
• Project life cycle
• Processes and Knowledge areas in Project Management
• Build and buy decision
• Work Breakdown Structure [WBS] and its types
• Introduction to PMBOK
• Program and portfolio management
• Analysis of project using PMBOK concepts
Learning Objectives
• Understand the growing need for better project
management, especially for information technology
projects
• Explain what a project is and provide examples of
information technology projects
• Describe what project management is and discuss key
elements of the project management framework

3
Learning Objectives

• Discuss how project management relates to other disciplines

• Understand the history of project management
• Describe the project management profession, including recent trends
in project management research, certification, and software products

4
Project Definition
• A project can be defined in many ways :
• A project is “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique
product, service, or result.” Operations, on the other hand, is work
done in organizations to sustain the business.
• Projects are different from operations in that they end when their
objectives have been reached or the project has been terminated.
• A project is temporary. A project’s duration might be just one week or
it might go on for years, but every project has an end date.
• You might not know that end date when the project begins, but it’s
there somewhere in the future.
• Projects are not the same as ongoing operations, although the two have
a great deal in common.
• A project is an endeavor. Resources, such as people and equipment, need
to do work. The endeavor is undertaken by a team or an organization,
and therefore projects have a sense of being intentional, planned events.
• Successful projects do not happen spontaneously; some amount of
preparation and planning happens first.
• Finally, every project creates a unique productor service. This is the
deliverable for the project and the reason, why that project was
undertaken
Project Attributes
• Projects come in all shapes and sizes. The following attributes help us to define a
project further:
• A project has a unique purpose. Every project should have a well-defined
objective. For example, many people hire firms to design and build a new house,
but each house, like each person, is unique.
• A project is temporary. A project has a definite beginning and a definite end. For a
home construction project, owners usually have a date in mind when they’d like
to move into their new homes.
• -A project is developed using progressive elaboration or in an iterative fashion.
Projects are often defined broadly when they begin, and as time passes, the
specific details of the project become clearer. For example, there are many
decisions that must be made in planning and building a new house. It works best
to draft preliminary plans for owners to approve before more detailed plans are
developed
• A project requires resources, often from various areas. Resources include
people, hardware, software, or other assets. Many different types of
people, skill sets, and resources are needed to build a home.
• A project should have a primary customer or sponsor. Most projects have
many interested parties or stakeholders, but someone must take the
primary role of sponsorship. The project sponsor usually provides the
direction and funding for the project.
• A project involves uncertainty. Because every project is unique, it is
sometimes difficult to define the project’s objectives clearly, estimate
exactly how long it will take to complete, or determine how much it will
cost. External factors also cause uncertainty, such as a supplier going out
of business or a project team member needing unplanned time off. This
uncertainty is one of the main reasons project management is so
challenging.
The Triple Constraint
• Every project is constrained in different ways by its
• Scope goals: What is the project trying to accomplish?
• Time goals: How long should it take to complete?
• Cost goals: What should it cost?
• It is the project manager’s duty to balance these three
often competing goals

9
Figure 1-1. The Triple Constraint of Project
Management

10
What is Project Management?

Project management is “the application of knowledge,

skills, tools, and techniques to project activities in order
to meet project requirements” (PMI*, Project
Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide),
2000, p. 6)

*The Project Management Institute (PMI) is an international

professional society. Their web site is www.pmi.org.

11
Figure 1-2. Project Management Framework

12
9 Project Management Knowledge Areas
• Knowledge areas describe the key competencies that
project managers must develop
• 4 core knowledge areas lead to specific project objectives
(scope, time, cost, and quality)
• 4 facilitating knowledge areas are the means through which
the project objectives are achieved (human resources,
communication, risk, and procurement management)
• 1 knowledge area (project integration management) affects
and is affected by all of the other knowledge areas

13
Project Stakeholders
• Stakeholders are the people involved in or affected by
project activities
• Stakeholders include
• the project sponsor and project team
• support staff
• customers
• users
• suppliers
• opponents to the project

14
Project Management Tools and Techniques

• Project management tools and techniques assist project managers

and their teams in various aspects of project management
• Some specific ones include
• Project Charter, scope statement, and WBS (work breakdown structure)
(scope)
• Gantt charts, network diagrams, critical path analysis, critical chain scheduling
(time)
• Cost estimates and earned value management (cost)
• See Table 1-1 on p. 11 for many more

15
How Project Management Relates to Other
Disciplines
• Much of the knowledge needed to manage projects is unique to the
discipline of project management
• Project mangers must also have knowledge and experience in
• general management
• the application area of the project

16
Project Management Life Cycle
Project Proposal
(projects.naz.edu)

Project Delivery Process

Initiate Plan Execute Close
•Project Charter •Project plan •Design specifications •Support plan
•High level scoping •Collab site created •Deployment plan •Lessons learned
•Stakeholders •Requirement •Test plan •Assessment
•Project kickoff Specifications •Training plan •Closure report
•Communication Plan •Production Readiness
•Resources
•Assessment

Monitor and Control

Meeting notes, Status reports, Change control, Risk management, Issue log

Deliver
Routine maintenance and support
Benefits of the PM Life Cycle?
• Standardized process
• Scaled from the PMBOK
• Provides a framework for how projects are managed
• Flexibility – not all projects are the same
• Project management life cycle is the term used to describe the series
of phases a project passes through from its start to its completion.
• It establishes the basic framework that can be applied towards any
kind of project from software development to construction to event
planning.
The 5 Phases of Project Management

• There are 5 main project management life cycle phases that we’ll
discuss in the course of this post:
• Conception & Initiation
• Definition & Planning
• Launch or Execution
• Performance & Control
• Project Closure
• Each phase assumes a number of specific project management steps
 Phase 1: Conception & Initiation
• This is the ground zero of any project. Your main goal here is to
conceive the project at a broad level:
• Build a strong case for it (Why are we doing this and what are the
benefits?)
• Feasibility study/analysis (Can we do it? How much time and
resources will it require?
• Identify key stakeholders.
• Develop a project charter.
• A project charter is a document that offers a formal initiation definition of
the project and authorized the project manager to use the company’s
organizational resources for project activities.
• The key tools and techniques for developing a project charter are as
follows:
• Data gathering focus groups, stakeholder interviews, team brainstorming.
• Meetings with key stakeholders/project sponsors.
• PM’s expert judgment.
• The main goal of a project charter is to define the project purpose, key
objectives and expected benefits. Knowing these factors leads to better
resource allocation during the next stages and smoother planning.
PMBoK suggests that the final document should clearly specify the
following:
• Project purpose;
• Measurable project objectives and related success criteria;
• High-level requirements;
• High-level project description, boundaries, and key deliverables;
• Overall project risk;
• Summary milestone schedule;
• Pre-approved financial resources;
• Key stakeholder list;
• Project approval requirements (i.e., what constitutes project success,
who decides the project is successful, and who signs off on the
project);
• Project exit criteria (i.e., what are the conditions to be met in order to
close or to cancel the project or phase);
• Assigned project manager, responsibility, and authority level; and
• Name and authority of the sponsor or another person (s) authorizing
the project charter.
Phase 2: Project Definition & Project
Planning
• A project management plan defines how a project will be executed,
monitored, controlled and closed basically, covering all the
consequent stages of a project.
• Depending on your needs, your project management plan can be
either summary level or highly detailed.
• Remember, your plan should also account for the likely changes in the
project environment e.g. when new information becomes available,
or if any requirements change.
• Project scope management plan documenting all the deliverables of the
project; scope definition, validation and control. It should present a detailed
list of requirements for the project and a bird-eye view of what should be
delivered and when.
• Requirements management plan indicates how the requirements activities
will be planned, tracked and reported. It includes all the respective project
management process steps you will have to take to initiate changes,
prioritize different requirements, track and report them.
• Constraints: information about the known bottlenecks e.g. limited human
resources, short timeline. Some managers also choose to include a risk
• management plan a document detailing individual project risks; assessing their
probability of occurrence and the possible effect they may cast on different
project processes; and outlines how those would be mitigated.
• Human resources requirements: the assigned project team, roles and
responsibilities of each member.
• Project schedule and key milestones: this section should outline the key project
deliverables, due date or duration of each phase/iteration and key dependencies
between them. The easiest way to illustrate this point is to use a Gantt chart.
• Budget/cost estimates: a preliminary assessment of the funds required for the
project. The costs are typically divided into three categories: capital items,
expense items and labor
Phase 3: Project Execution
Project Execution

• At this point, the actual work on the project begins. All those requirements, resources
and tools outlined in the plan are leveraged to meet the project goals. The tasks you are
expected to complete at this stage are as follows:
• Assemble a team
• Assign resources
• Start executing the project management plan
• Proactive control and manage project execution
• Identify KPIs and set-up tracking systems.
• Distribute and assign tasks.
• Schedule status meetings
• Update project schedule
• Modify project plans as needed.
•
Phase 4: Project Performance & Project Controlling
• To ensure that your project remains on track at all times, you will want to
establish key performance indicators (KPIs). Most managers tend to settle for
3-5 metrics that clearly indicate the project overall health in regards to
performance, budgets, timelines and objectives.
• Specifically, you may want to engage in:
• Cost tracking: review and refine project costs to reflect additional details as
those become available.
• Quality management: make sure that organizational quality policies are
incorporated into the project. All the deliverables are produced according to
the predefined specs.
• Overall project performance monitoring: monitor and respond to changes in
the project. Assess the team effectiveness, proactively identify and prevent
project bottlenecks and ensure that all the project ‘cogs’ are moving without
any friction. This also includes sharing project status reports with key
stakeholders upon reached milestones.
Phase 5: Project Closure
• All the objectives are met; all the tasks are completed; the final
deliverables are reviewed and sign-off by the customer.
• Apart from congratulating everyone on good work, professional PMs
will often schedule a closing meeting the so-called “project post-
mortem” to draw the final line. Such meetings are held to discuss the
overall project performance, identify key failures and successes and
apply those insights towards future projects
Build and buy decision

• Make-or-buy analysis is the process of gathering and organizing data about product
requirements and analyzing them against available alternatives, including the purchase or
internal manufacture of the product.
• The make-or-buy decision is the act of choosing between manufacturing a product in-house
or buying it from an external supplier.
• Other factors leading to a “make” decision include:
• Concerns about intellectual property 
• Concerns about quality
• Inadequate supply of qualified suppliers
• To preserve a backup source
• Environmental considerations
• Political considerations
Factors Favoring a “Buy” Decision 

• Lack of Skills 
• When a business lacks skills for manufacturing a product, outsourcing is the best choice. Suppliers with
expertise can offer the product cheaper; therefore, the “buy” option is best for a business. 
• Financial Considerations 
• When manufacturing a product or providing a service is expensive, businesses turn to outsource.
• Lack of Facilities
• Outsourcing is a better option when the business lacks facilities or capacity, equipment, resources, etc.
• Low Demand Quantity 
• Depending on the product quantity, a company can outsource or decide to produce. For smaller quantities,
businesses can go for a “buy” decision.
• A product or service that isn’t essential to the core business is usually outsourced.
• Other factors leading to a “buy” decision can include:
• Procurement and inventory considerations
• Preferences for certain brands
Introduction To Project Management Body of Knowledge 6th Version
(PMBOK-6)

• A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, or in short

‘PMBOK’ is the project management standard for the PMP and CAPM
exams, brought out by PMI, the Project Management Institute.
• PMBOK contains standard terminologies, practices, and guidelines to
manage a project, practically in any domain or industry. 
: Anatomy of a Process
• These processes are 49 in total (as of the PMBOK-6 version).
• These are grouped into 5 Process Groups – they contain activities that
appear to be happening in chronological order. However, please bear in
mind that depending on project dynamics any activity can occur at any point
in time, in any sequence.
• Initiating
• Planning
• Executing
• Monitoring & Controlling
• Closing
Knowledge areas

• Further, the same 49 processes are grouped in another fashion – based on the knowledge it takes
to execute them. This grouping is called Knowledge Areas. There are 10 of them.
• Project Integration Management
• Project Scope Management
• Project Schedule Management
• Project Cost Management
• Project Quality Management
• Project Resource Management
• Project Communications Management
• Project Risk Management
• Project Procurement Management
• Project Stakeholder Management (introduced in PMBOK 5th edition)
• Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)® and Project
Management Professional (PMP)® are both specialized credentials
offered through the Project Management Institute (PMI) that improve
credibility and offer professionals opportunities to increase their skills,
lead larger projects
Program and portfolio Management
• a portfolio refers to a collection of projects, programs, subportfolios,
and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives.
• Programs are grouped within a portfolio and are comprised of
subprograms, projects, or other work that are managed in a
coordinated fashion in support of the portfolio.
• Individual projects that are either within or outside of a program are
still considered part of a portfolio.
• Although the projects or programs within the portfolio may not
necessarily be interdependent or directly related, they are linked to the
organization’s strategic plan by means of the organization’s portfolio.