24/9/15

… is a planned undertaking that has a beginning and an end and that produces a desired result or product
• Organized activities
• Defined (expected) outcome
• Timeline, schedule activities & outcome
• SDLC (stages or phases and their sequence)
• Methodology (models, techniques, tools, guidelines)

• …the process of planning, directing, and controlling the development of an acceptable system at a minimum cost within a desired time-frame

• The classic SDLC must be monitored and managed
• excessively long, drawn out process
• leads to schedule and cost overruns
• Techniques such as
FTS, JAD (Joint Appl. Dev.), prototyping,
RAD (Rapid Appl. Dev.), and CASE
• should be used to accelerate the life-cycle and
• keep it under control within
• the proven problem-solving framework of the SDLC

• A start and a finish
• Is a unique activity with a visible output
• May involve uncertainty and risk
• Involves a team coming together specifically for the project
• A budget
• Non repetitive tasks, sequential order
• Use of resources (including human resources)
• A single point of ultimate responsibility
• Clearly defined team roles
• Clear aims, objectives, goals

• Process – a series of steps needed to perform a routine activity (e.g. purchasing). A project may contain many processes.
• Programme – work performed towards achieving a long term goal (e.g. a health awareness programme). Programmes may never achieve all their goals, and may comprise a series of projects.

• Individual – decorating your bedroom
• Group – organising a wedding
• Organisation – construction company, building the Millennium bridge in London
• Project Organisation – creation of a separate independent organisation specifically for accomplishing a particular project, e.g. the
Olympic games committee
• Multinational – design construction of Concorde

• Project mismanagement can deter or render ineffective the best analysis and design methods
• Many projects suffer from poor leadership and management

Four common results („symptoms”) of
mismanaged projects
• Unfulfilled or unidentified requirements
• Uncontrolled change of project scope
• Cost overruns
• Late delivery

• Unreasonable estimates of costs before projects begin
• lack of proper preliminary/feasibility study
• poor estimating techniques
• estimates will change as the project progresses
• schedule delays
• analysts are overly optimistic

• Mismanagement of expectations
• failure to identify key (or all potential) stakeholders
• failure to set project scope leads to creeping requirements syndrome
• budgets and schedules rarely modified
• Most contemporary companies modify (release) content

• Misunderstanding the nature of software
• Flexible
• No real physical appearance – only behaviour
• you can not touch a software component
• `you may see the code and the result what it does (or not)
• Difficult to estimate
=> Mythical man-month
• assign more people to the project team
• Only leads to more confusion
• Complexity increases on the management side