Software Project
Management
Intro to Project Management
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Glenn Booker
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Syllabus
 Course covers essential project
management
 Traditional Project Management
 Adaptive Project Framework
 Text complies with PMI’s Project
Management Body of Knowledge
(PMBOK)
 We add software-specific concepts
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Syllabus
 Class focuses on application of project
definition and management principles
to a project of your choosing
 Text is Wysocki’s Effective Project
Management, 3e
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My Background
 Systems Engineering approach
 Mostly work with long-lived systems
 Industry experience includes thirteen
years of Dept. of Defense (DoD)
work, and five for the FAA – mostly
in large scale system design,
development, and testing
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References
 See web site
http://users.snip.net/~gbooker/
 In particular, note the SEI, SPMN and
STSC resources on the Reference
Materials page
 The SEI document index is particularly
recommended, and the SPMN identifies
a lot of classic mistakes to avoid.
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Defining a Project
 A project is a series of complex,
connected activities with a common
purpose
 Our most common context is a project to
develop or refine an information system,
but most principles of project
management apply to any project
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Activities = Sets of Tasks
 A key difference in project
management is to start thinking of a
project as a series of interrelated
tasks which need to be accomplished
 Most other courses focus on how to
perform a single complex task, such as
developing an ERD, or designing a good
interface – here we focus on defining the
tasks needed to complete the project
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Project Limitations
 Projects also have limits on the
amount of time and money available
to them
 There may be changes to these limits
negotiated, but there are always limits
 Projects need some form of
specification to describe what
needs to be accomplished
 Here, they are system requirements
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Program versus Project
 Often program and project are used
interchangeably, but nominally, a
program is a larger concept than a
project
 A program is a set of related projects
 The Space Shuttle program consists of
many flights which are each separately
managed projects
 Here we focus mainly on projects
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Project Limits
 Projects are limited in scope, as
defined by one of these:
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A functional specification
A Software Requirements Specification
Use cases and their documentation
A Statement of Work (SOW)
A Mission Needs Statement (MNS)
(government term)
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Project Limits
 Projects are limited by their product
quality and process quality
requirements
 Cost – mostly the labor cost, but also
hardware, software, training, etc.
 Calendar time
 And other resources – people, facilities,
equipment, etc.
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The Triangle
 Projects generally get stuck facing a
triangle
 Cost
 Time (schedule)
 Features and/or quality
 At most, two of these points can be
controlled
 Which one can you tolerate flexibility?
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Project Classification
 Projects are often classified by their
approximate size and complexity
 Risk, business value, duration, cost, etc.
can be used to determine categories
 The categories are often used to
determine the extent of documentation
needed (e.g. page 14), and may affect
approval processes (bigger projects need
higher level approval)
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Traditional Project Management
 Traditional Project Management (TPM)
refers to commonly accepted
management practices
 In software development, it implies
that some variation of the waterfall
life cycle model is used
 DOD-STD-2167a (1988) is the classic
description of the waterfall life cycle;
others will be discussed with the WBS
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Traditional Project Management
 Also note that TPM is typically
regarded as the most time consuming
way to run a project
 In software, extreme programming (XP)
and other agile methods have been
developed to speed development for
small, low risk projects
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TPM Life Cycle
 Wysocki has five major phases in
the TPM life cycle
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Scope the project
Develop the project plan
Launch the plan
Monitor/control project progress
Close out the project
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Scope the project
 This phase includes:
 Define problems (with existing
information system) and opportunities
(for new features and/or use of new
technologies)
 Define project objectives in terms of
business value – quantify improvements
compared to current system
 Identify project success criteria, risks,
and constraints
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Develop the project plan
 Identify the project activities
 May divide activities into support
activities (which are done throughout
project) and specific life cycle phases
(per the life cycle model chosen)
 Estimate duration and resources for
each activity
 Create project schedule or network
 Put all this into a project proposal
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Launch the plan
 Select and recruit project team
members
 Level resources needed across
the plan
 Schedule and document work
packages
 A work package is the detailed set of
tasks needed to perform a given activity
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Monitor/control project progress
 Determine how project progress will
be measured
 Establish change control tools and
processes, including an escalation
process
 Monitor actual progress vs. the plan
 Go back to “Develop the project plan”
if major changes are needed
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Close out the project
 When the project is completed
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Get customer approval of final product
Install final product
Deliver promised documentation
Make sure everything’s happy
Write up final project report
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Support Activities
 Ongoing activities throughout a
project typically include
 Project management (or you don’t have
a job!)
 Quality management
 Risk management
 Procurement management
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Project Management
 Project management should include
all five phases of the TPM life cycle
 Many organizations omit one or
more of the phases, most often
the last ones, producing less-thanoptimal results
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Quality Management
 There are zillions of books on various
aspects of quality management
 Most focus on two major aspects
 Quality of the product you are creating
 Quality or maturity of the processes you
use to create that product
 Mature processes produce more consistent
and predictable results
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Quality Management
 There are many guides to quality –
Six Sigma, CMMI, TQM, ISO 9000,
Malcolm Baldridge, etc.
 Organizations with mature processes
often use statistical process control
methods to track quality and quantify
improvements
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Risk Management
 Deliberate management of risks is
critical to good project management
 American culture would rather shoot
the messenger than deal with risks
openly – this has to change
 Risks include any event, which hasn’t
happened yet, which could delay the
successful completion of a project
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Risk Management Guide
 Need to create a list of possible risks
 Describe each risk briefly
 Estimate the probability of the risk
happening
 Should be between 0 and 100%
 Estimate the loss if the risk occurs
 How much effort will it take to recover
from the risk?
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Risk Management Guide
 Multiply probability times loss to get
the impact of each risk
 Impact = probability * loss
 Sort risks in descending order of
impact; keep the top 10 (typically)
 This is prioritizing the risks
 For each significant risk, assign a risk
owner to look for the risk occurring
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Risk Management Guide
 Quantify what has to occur for the
risk to have happened (detection)
 “If we are more than 10% over budget,
the risk for Exceed Budget has occurred”
 Must quantify each risk, or they’ll never
occur
 Determine how to prevent the risk,
if possible, or look for alternative
approaches to make the risk go away
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Risk Management Guide
 Plan a mitigation strategy to reduce
the risk’s impact on your project
 Once the project starts, keep
reviewing the risks (e.g. weekly) to
see if any risks have occurred, or if
new risks have been identified
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Risk Management = Security
 Risk management looks like security
analysis, such as for an airline
 Prevent a risk from happening (e.g. a
hijacker getting onboard)
 Detect when the risk has occurred (they
make their presence known)
 Mitigate the damage they can do (get
the plane on the ground safely)
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Procurement Management
 All information systems involve some
commercial hardware, software, and
networking equipment
 Selection and procurement of these
components is a key activity
 Start with the buy-versus-make
decision
 For each system component, will you
make it yourself, or buy something offthe-shelf?
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Procurement Management
 Procurement has its own life cycle,
which runs parallel to part or all of
the project life cycle
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Solicit RFI (optional; and not in text)
Solicit RFPs
Get responses
Select Vendors
Manage contracts
Close out contracts
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Solicit RFI
 If you want to create a shorter list of
candidate vendors, a Request For
Information (RFI) can be used
 The RFI is a tool to screen out poorly
qualified candidate vendors
 An RFI mainly seeks proof that they
understand the type of requirements
to be addressed, and have suitable
relevant experience
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Solicit RFPs
 A Request For Proposal (RFP) is
used to get proposals from
candidate vendors
 FedBizOpps.gov posts RFPs for
government work over $25,000
 The RFP states your requirements;
each candidate vendor decides
how to meet your needs
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Get responses
 Candidate vendors may ask questions
to clarify the RFP; answers are made
available to all vendors
 Vendors prepare a proposal to
respond to the RFP
 RFPs often have very strict time
deadlines (30-90 days) and specific
page and format limits
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Select Vendors
 A proposal often has different
volumes, e.g. Business, Technical,
Cost, etc. which are reviewed by
different experts
 Each volume is scored or rated according
to guidance (grading criteria) stated in
the RFP
 The proposal with the highest score
generally wins
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Manage contracts
 Once the vendor is selected, contract
personnel write the details of the
contract
 The contract specifies what will be
delivered, when, where, and often in
what format
 A Statement of Work details the requirements to be fulfilled by the vendor
 The schedule for payments to the
vendor is also stated
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Close out contracts
 When the final deliverable products
and/or services are provided by the
vendor, the contract is closed out
 The contract generally specifies what
happens to equipment, informal
documentation, and other work products
resulting from the contract
 Final payment is made to the vendor
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