Project Management
Dan Fleck
Sping 2009
Coming up: Overview
Overview
Planning
 Scheduling
 Scope Creep
 Managing Risk
 Motivating People
 Schedule examples and demo

Coming up: Planning
Planning
The bad news: time flies
 The good news: you’re the pilot!


You must begin planning immediately
Given limited information
 Plan anyway and then revise

Coming up: Creating a plan: Things to know
Creating a plan: Things to know

Scope
• Context. How does the software to be built fit into a larger system,
product, or business context and what constraints are imposed as a
result of the context?
• Information objectives. What customer-visible data objects
(Chapter 8) are produced as output from the software? What data
objects are required for input?
• Function and performance. What function does the software
perform to transform input data into output? Are any special
performance characteristics to be addressed?

Software project scope must be unambiguous and
understandable at the management and technical
levels.
Coming up: Creating a plan: Things to do
Creating a plan: Things to do
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Problem Decomposition: Sometimes called
partitioning or problem elaboration
Once scope is defined …

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It is decomposed into constituent functions
It is decomposed into user-visible data objects
or
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It is decomposed into a set of problem classes
Decomposition process continues until all
functions or problem classes have been defined
(this won’t be far at the beginning of your
project)
Coming up: Create a schedule
Create a schedule

An idea without a schedule is just a
dream. - Unknown
Coming up: At the beginning you should ask yourself these questions
At the beginning you should ask
yourself these questions
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Why is the system being developed?
What will be done?
When will it be accomplished?
Who is responsible?
Where are they organizationally located?
How will the job be done technically and
managerially?
How much of each resource (e.g., people, software,
tools, database) will be needed?
Barry Boehm
Coming up: Your job (one view)
Your job (one view)

The MOI Model
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Motivation. The ability to encourage (by “push or
pull”) technical people to produce to their best
ability.
Organization. The ability to mold existing
processes (or invent new ones) that will enable the
initial concept to be translated into a final product.
Ideas or innovation. The ability to encourage
people to create and feel creative even when they
must work within bounds established for a particular
software product or application.
Coming up: Your job (another view)
Your job (another view)
Make sure these happen
Formal risk management
 Empirical cost and schedule estimation
 Metrics-based project management

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Tracking – amount of work done, costs, work
remaining, etc…
Defect tracking against quality targets
 People aware project management

Coming up: Define success and failure
Define success and failure
Don’t lie to yourself!
 Be confident, trust yourself for success!

Quantify your plans to allow success or
failure
 A vague or un-measurable idea is much
less helpful
- Dan Fleck

Coming up: Scheduling
Scheduling
One of the most important things you can
do is schedule.
 Also one of the first things you should do!
 Tools help

Microsoft Project
 OpenProj.org <-- This is what I will use
 OpenWorkbench.org
 Find another good one? Let me know… there
are web-based tools out there also.

Coming up: Schedule
Schedule

List of tasks
With dates
 With assigned resources (people)
 With durations
 With predecessors and successors


How do you get buy-in from the team for a
schedule?
Coming up: Schedule Terms
Schedule Terms

Critical path

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Sequence of tasks that form the longest path to
completion of the project. Any delay on any of these
will make the overall completion date move.
Slack

Amount of time a task can be delayed without
affecting the overall completion date.
• Start slack - amount before task needs to start
• Finish slack - amount before task needs to finish


Milestone - An import date in the schedule
Dependencies - relationship between tasks
Coming up: Schedule Dependencies
Schedule Dependencies

FS - Finish to start (most common)
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FF - Finish to finish

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A FF B. B doesn’t finish before A is finished
Write final chapter FF Complete Index
SS - Start to start

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A FS B. B doesn’t start until A is finished
Build wall FS Paint wall
A SS B. B doesn’t start until A has started
Project funded SS project management activies begin
SF - Start to finish

A SF B. B doesn’t finish before A has started
Coming up: Resource Leveling
Resource Leveling
A process to examine a project for an
unbalanced use of people and to resolve
over-allocations or conflicts
 Happens when multiple tasks are scheduled
at the same time for the same person
 Solution:

Make tasks sequential
 Split resource usage among tasks (50% on task
1, 50% on task 2)

Coming up: Gantt Chart
See example: NeedToLevel.pod
Gantt Chart
Coming up: Finding Critical Path
Finding Critical Path
Draw a network diagram of the activities
 Determine the Early Start (ES) of each
node. Work from beginning node to final
node
 ES - earliest time the activity can start


ES = Max(ESprevNode + DurationPrevNode)
ES: 4
A
ES: 2
B
Coming up: Finding Critical Path
ES: ??
C
Finding Critical Path

Determine the Late Start (LS) of each
node. Work from the final node to the
beginning node.
The latest time the activity can start without
changing the end date of the project
 LS = MIN(LSnext - DurationNode)
LS: 13
 For the last node LS = ES

B
LS: ?
A
LS: ?
Coming up: Example
B
LS: 12
C
LS: ?
A
LS: 12
C
Example
Here's the example:
Activity
Description
A
Product design
B
Market research
C
Production analysis
D
Product model
E
Sales brochure
F
Cost analysis
G
Product testing
H
Sales training
I
Pricing
J
Project report
Coming up: Example Node Network
Predecessor
(None)
(None)
A
A
A
C
D
B, E
H
F, G, I
Duration
5 months
1
2
3
2
3
4
2
1
1
Example Node Network
ES:5
LS:
ES:0
LS:
A
ES:7
LS:
C
F
ES:12
LS:
ES:5
LS:
G
D
ES:0
LS:
B
J
ES:8
LS:
ES:5
LS:
E
I
ES:9
LS:
H
ES:7
LS:
Coming up: Example Node Network
Here's the example:
Activity
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
Description
Predecessor
Product design (None)
Market research(None)
Production
A
Product model
A
Sales brochure A
Cost analysis
C
Product testing D
Sales training B, E
Pricing
H
Project report F, G, I
Duration
5 months
1
2
3
2
3
4
2
1
1
Example Node Network
ES:5
LS:7
ES:0
LS:0
A
ES:7
LS:9
C
F
ES:12
LS:12
ES:5
LS:5
G
D
ES:0
LS:8
B
J
ES:8
LS:8
ES:5
LS:7
E
I
ES:9
LS:11
H
ES:7
LS:9
Coming up: Example Node Network
Here's the example:
Activity
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
Description
Predecessor
Product design (None)
Market research(None)
Production
A
Product model
A
Sales brochure A
Cost analysis
C
Product testing D
Sales training B, E
Pricing
H
Project report F, G, I
Duration
5 months
1
2
3
2
3
4
2
1
1
Example Node Network
ES:5
LS:7
ES:0
LS:0
A
ES:7
LS:9
C
F
ES:12
LS:12
ES:5
LS:5
G
D
ES:0
LS:8
B
J
ES:8
LS:8
ES:5
LS:7
E
I
ES:9
LS:11
H
ES:7
LS:9
Coming up: Game Development In-Class Exercise
Here's the example:
Activity
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
Description
Predecessor
Product design (None)
Market research(None)
Production
A
Product model
A
Sales brochure A
Cost analysis
C
Product testing D
Sales training B, E
Pricing
H
Project report F, G, I
Duration
5 months
1
2
3
2
3
4
2
1
1
Game Development In-Class Exercise
Find the critical path
TASK
DURATION (days)
A Graphics Engine
14
B Sound Engine
5
I
C Music Engine
5
J
D Input Engine
10
A
E Gameplay/general
programming
31
B, C, D
F Physics
7
E
G 2D Artwork
14
H 3D Artwork
21
I Sound Effects
14
J Music
9
K Level Design
21
Coming up: Review Questions
PREDECESSORs
G
F, H
Review Questions
What is the critical path?
 Do all nodes on the critical path have to
be connected to each other? (directly)
 What is slack?
 When should you write your schedule for
the work?
 What is resource leveling?

Coming up: Earned Value Management
What about Agile?
Planning and tracking is still important!
 Scrum Burndown Chart

Release level: Number of story points versus
Release
 Sprint Level: Number of story points versus day


Burndown chart shows amount of work
remaining, and charts the trajectory to help
predict success or failure
Story Points
Remaining
Sprint Burndown Chart
Day
Story Points
Remaining
Release Burndown Chart
Iteration Number
Burndown Chart

Vertical axis can be any metric describing
amount of work remaining:
Story points
 User Stories
 Use Cases
 Requirements
 Ideal developer hours

Scheduling Rules of Thumb
Don’t work backwards!
 One person should always edit the
schedule (you!)

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If you have two people that need to, create
two files and link them together
Keep it simple and useful
 Level your resources
 Share the schedule with your team

Coming up: Schedule Example
Schedule Example

Lets try to schedule this work among our
three developers “John, Mary, Carl”
TASK
DURATION (days)
A Graphics Engine
14
B Sound Engine
5
I
C Music Engine
5
J
D Input Engine
10
A
E Gameplay/general
programming
31
B, C, D
F Physics
7
E
G 2D Artwork
14
H 3D Artwork
21
I Sound Effects
14
J Music
9
K Level Design
21
Coming up: Scheduling Steps
PREDECESSORs
G
F, H
Scheduling Steps

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Add in all the tasks (preferably in a
hierarchy)
Add in all the dependencies
Break down large tasks into smaller tasks.
Optimally (in Dan Fleck’s opinion) you want
to schedule so the duration of each smallest
task is at most 3-5 days
Assign people (resources) to tasks
Level your resources
Coming up: Classic Mistakes
Classic Mistakes
Overly optimistic schedule
 Failing to monitor schedule
 Failing to update schedule
 Adding people to a late project
 Failure to manage expectations of others

Coming up: Scope Creep
BOO!
Scope Creep
Scope
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The scope of your project is all the work you
initially planned to do.
Scope creep is when your project gets new
tasks throughout it’s lifetime without adding
more resources to handle new tasks. The
scope is “creeping” up…
Scope changes are OK, and really
unavoidable… that’s fine. However you must
update the resources (time, features or
people accordingly)
Coming up: Why would scope changes occur?
Why would scope changes
occur?
A. You get more money to do more things
 B. The customer asks you to do
something extra because “it is critical for
success”
 C. A competing product has a feature that
you must have to be competitive
 D. All of these

Coming up: Which are causes of scope creep?
Which are causes of scope creep?
A. poor change control
 B. lack of proper initial identification of
what is required to satisfy project
objectives
 C. a weak project manager
 D. all of these

Source: Wikipedia: Scope Creep
Coming up: Managing Scope
Managing Scope
How to deal with the inevitable “Scope
creep”?
 JAD and prototyping Scope
 Formal change approval
 Defer additional requirements as future
system enhancements

Coming up: Managing Risk
Managing Risk

Document your risks in a risk management plan
1
2
3
4
5
Description of risk
Likelihood of occurrence (0-100%)
Impact - 1(low)  5 (high), or cost $20,000
Exposure = Impact * Liklihood
Mitigation strategy
• How to lessen the impact of the risk
• How to lessen the liklihood
• An action plan if risk occurs


Update and track your risks
Communicate your risks to upper management
Coming up: Managing Risk
Managing Risk

The most important thing to do for risk
management is spend some time thinking
about possible risks, mitigations and
impacts BEFORE risks occur.

Once your house is on fire, it is too late to
buy the fire extinguisher
Coming up: Motivating People
Motivating People
Use monetary rewards cautiously
 Use intrinsic rewards

Recognition
 Achievement
 The work itself
 Responsibility
 Advancement
 Chance to learn new skills

Coming up: Project Manager
Project Manager
Management is using tools and
techniques
 Leadership is inspiring people to do the
right thing

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Leadership with poor management
practices can be successful, management
with poor leadership will fail.
Coming up: Leadership Case Study: 3M
Leadership Case Study: 3M
Philosophy:

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As our business grows, it becomes increasingly necessary to delegate
responsibility and to encourage men and women to exercise their initiative.
This requires considerable tolerance. Those men and women to whom we
delegate authority and responsibility, if they are good people, are going to
want to do their jobs in their own way.
"Mistakes will be made. But if a person is essentially right, the mistakes he
or she makes are not as serious in the long run as the mistakes
management will make if it undertakes to tell those in authority exactly how
they must do their jobs.”
"Management that is destructively critical when mistakes are made kills
initiative. And it's essential that we have many people with initiative if we
are to continue to grow." .
These are common themes now, but not in 1940s when 3M codified them
Coming up: 3M Results
3M Results

Encouragement and a culture of innovation
yields:

1968 Dr. Spence Silver does an experiment that yields an adhesive that sticks, but not strongly
Presents around the company for 5 years with no “takers”
In 1973, 3M scientist Art Fry was trying to mark his place in his church choir hmn book with bits
of paper that kept falling out. As he did so
Art works with Spence. Creates little notepapers.
Marketing says “not enough market, who wants to pay for scraps of paper?”, engineering says
“too hard to make, will be costly”
Response: If it’s hard to make that’s great, no one but 3M will be able to do it!
Fry sends out “free samples” across the company, making sure to include executive’s
assistants
Demand rises – finally the product is introduces. Within 1 year PostIt notes named “Outstanding
New Product” and today generates $100 million in US sales
This is possible because of a culture in the company to empower, encourage, and experiment!
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Coming up: Avoid team toxicity
References
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www.projity.com
Wikipedia: Project Management
Pressman R., Software Engineering A Practical Approach, Ch 21
Pressman R., Software Engineering A Practical Approach, Slides for Ch 21
Kazman R., The CIO, People Issues, Project & Change Management,
kazman.shidler.hawaii.edu/619ch12.ppt
Pratt M, Earned Value Management,
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleI
d=110065&intsrc=article_pots_bot
End of presentation