Project management course: experience
from the first year and second version
Mirjana Ivanović, Zoran Putnik, University of Novi Sad
DAAD Project
“Joint Course on Software Engineering”
Humboldt University Berlin, University of Novi Sad, University of Plovdiv,
University of Skopje, University of Belgrade, University of Niš, University of Kragujevac
Version: Oct. 23, 2003 (D Sep. 22, 2003)
SPM – Modification and improvement
2 Weeks (January 2006, DAAD support)
Prof. Klaus Bothe, Institut für Informatik, HumboldtUniversität zu Berlin
Modification and improvements of existing material
(presentations)
Additional sources
• Internet sources
• Books
- T. DeMarco, T. Lister, Waltzing with Bears, Managing Risk on
Software Projects, Dorset House Publishing, 1998, (for
additional, further topic)
- P. Martin, K. Tate, Getting started in Project Management, John
Wiley & Sons,
• Prof. Dr. Holger Schlingloff slides (Humboldt University, mostly
for HR topics)
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Course Organization
 IV year students of Business Informatics, 14 students
 + significant number of voluntaries – concluded that
course could be useful for them based on experience of
previous generation of students
 VIII semester, 2 hrs lecture, 1 hr exercises
 Exam and final mark:
•
•
•
•
1/5 of points obtained by regular class attendance
Practical assignment in MS Project
Continual assessment (3 times during semester)
Questionnaire of 10-20 different kinds of questions (multiplechoice, short answers, …)
• Final questionnaire (improve results obtained during semester, for
those who missed some of questionnaires)
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Content of Course Lectures
 Introduction + general overview of PMBOK (117 slides –
now 116+74)
 IT management (59 +132) – avoided this year, a lot of
overlapping subjects with other topics
 CMM and process improvement (51 – now 56)
 Cost estimation and COCOMO (71 – now 84)
 Software measurement and metrics (51 – now 55)
 Planning (77)
 Using tools - Microsoft project (65, Exercise)
 Ethical issues (87 – now 90, + Exercise)
 NEW - Human resources and management (students’
opinion is that part is extremely interesting and useful)
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SPM - Introduction
Essential project properties
Classifications of projects
What is software, management
Tasks of management, Why projects fail
Activities of project management
Real world example
Project Management Body Of Knowledge,
general overview
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Content of Course Lectures
Introduction + general overview of PMBOK (117
slides – now 116+74)
IT management (59 +132) – avoided this year, a
lot of overlapping subjects with other topics
CMM and process improvement (51 – now 56)
Cost estimation and COCOMO (71 – now 84)
Software measurement and metrics (51 – now 55)
Planning (77)
Using tools - Microsoft project (65, Exercise)
Ethical issues (87 – now 90, + Exercise)
NEW - Human resources and management
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SPM – CMM and process improvement
Software Process, Improvement, Process
Improvement Frameworks Quagmire
Maturity Models, Improvement levels, Level
Requirements
CMM Integration and benefits
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Content of Course Lectures
Introduction + general overview of PMBOK (117
slides – now 116+74)
IT management (59 +132) – avoided this year, a
lot of overlapping subjects with other topics
CMM and process improvement (51 – now 56)
Cost estimation and COCOMO (71 – now 84)
Software measurement and metrics (51 – now 55)
Planning (77)
Using tools - Microsoft project (65, Exercise)
Ethical issues (87 – now 90, + Exercise)
NEW - Human resources and management
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SPM – Cost estimation and COCOMO
Software cost estimation, general information and
some techniques, problems
Quality and productivity
COCOMO and COCOMO II model
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Content of Course Lectures
Introduction + general overview of PMBOK (117
slides – now 116+74)
IT management (59 +132) – avoided this year, a
lot of overlapping subjects with other topics
CMM and process improvement (51 – now 56)
Cost estimation and COCOMO (71 – now 84)
Software measurement and metrics (51 – now 55)
Planning (77)
Using tools - Microsoft project (65, Exercise)
Ethical issues (87 – now 90, + Exercise)
NEW - Human resources and management
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SPM – Software measurement and metrics
 Software Measurement, Classification
 Project Metrics, Typical Metrics
 Defects, Removal Efficiency
 Software Metrics Classification
 Personnel Metrics
 Hardware Metrics
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Content of Course Lectures
Introduction + general overview of PMBOK (117
slides – now 116+74)
IT management (59 +132) – avoided this year, a
lot of overlapping subjects with other topics
CMM and process improvement (51 – now 56)
Cost estimation and COCOMO (71 – now 84)
Software measurement and metrics (51 – now 55)
Planning (77)
Using tools - Microsoft project (65, Exercise)
Ethical issues (87 – now 90, + Exercise)
NEW - Human resources and management
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SPM – Planning
 Kinds of planning (Time, Capacity, Cost)
 Net-planning (rules, steps, activity lists, critical paths)
 Management of big software projects, PERT Technique,
MPM: Metra-Potential-Method
 Gantt chart
 Tools and algorithms
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Content of Course Lectures
Introduction + general overview of PMBOK (117
slides – now 116+74)
IT management (59 +132) – avoided this year, a
lot of overlapping subjects with other topics
CMM and process improvement (51 – now 56)
Cost estimation and COCOMO (71 – now 84)
Software measurement and metrics (51 – now 55)
Planning (77)
Using tools - Microsoft project (65, Exercise)
Ethical issues (87 – now 90, + Exercise)
NEW - Human resources and management
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SPM – Ethical issues
 Ethics introduction
 Software Engineering Ethics and Professional Conduct
 Computer Ethics, Computer Crime, Privacy and Anonymity,
Intellectual Property, Professional Responsibility
 Case Study: 10 Big Myths about copyright
 Case Study: E – Voting
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Content of Course Lectures
Introduction + general overview of PMBOK (117
slides – now 116+74)
IT management (59 +132) – avoided this year, a
lot of overlapping subjects with other topics
CMM and process improvement (51 – now 56)
Cost estimation and COCOMO (71 – now 84)
Software measurement and metrics (51 – now 55)
Planning (77)
Using tools - Microsoft project (65, Exercise)
Ethical issues (87 – now 90, + Exercise)
NEW - Human resources and management
DAAD project „Joint Course on Software Engineering“ ©
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Human resources and management
 Managing conflicts (27)
Communication techniques (27)
Moderation (29)
Attitude theories (50)
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Organization of Exercises
Exercises are organized on-the-need bases.
During the first few weeks, students were
introduced to the body-of-knowledge for the
subject, so there was nothing to practice on.
On some of the following weeks, professor
needed additional classes to manage all of the
material.
The first “real” exercises were held in connection
with the “Planning” topic.
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Organization of Exercises
 After theoretical lesson about planning, exercises were held using MS
Project software.
• It was first presented theoretically at a 3-hour class
• On another 3-hour class, it is presented “practically” (using representative
examples)
• After that, students had 4 hours of practical work, to gain experience with
MS Project
• Additionally, this year our e-Learning favourite Moodle was used to help
with MS Project too.
• Elements from MS Project help system were translated, adjusted, and
situated as an e-Lesson in Moodle system.
• Lucky us – those are the same students that have usernames, passwords,
and knowledge of Moodle from the SE course.
 Finally, students were given a software project that they have to
manage using MS Project, in a classroom, or at home
 This project served as a part of the exam
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Organization of Exercises
 Students had to manage a project: “Organization of a
scientific conference” (new example, but similar to
previous one)
 Students were given a written material, and one lecture
about “how conferences are organized in a real life”.
 They were also given a use-case type of a document for
all of the activities in connection with the conference
organization.
 Assistant for this subject was a working member of 12
conferences so far. Real-life.
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Organization of Exercises
 This allowed us to present a lot of possibilities of MS
Project.
 One additional possibility is to “torture” students until they
create a satisfactory project.
 This possibility was not over-used, there was only one
student that completely missed the point (or tried to
manage this part of the exam as-easy-as-possible).
 He had to do it all over again, this time almost perfectly.
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Organization of Exercises
“Practical” exercises were also held on a topic of
ethical aspects!
10 situations from a programmers real or
imaginary life were presented to the students.
Stories were read and discussed during a class,
each new one receiving bigger and better
reception (maybe because a choice of order of
stories?)
This part of exercises had a very good reception
last year, so we were looking forward to this years’
happening.
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Organization of Exercises
 Unfortunately for us, the exercises were held during the week while a
lot of students went to a final-year 7-days excursion.
 This IS something NO exercise could compete with!
 All of the students who were present – yet, only about 1/3 of a group –
actively participated in a discussion, all of them had an idea, an
opinion, a thought, and were willing to share it with the others
 Actually, there WERE some of them not too willing to participate at
first, but in such a small group, with others presenting their thoughts,
with the assistant asking them for their opinions directly, they became
involved in a short time!
 Another theme students were willing to participate in was a case study
on “e-mail etiquette”. They were adding their suggestions to the
presented material throughout the whole lesson!
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Final Exam Results
Of 14 students, 12 successfully finished their
practical assignment last year.
This year – 11 (out of 14) students solved the
practical assignment so far. (Additional 2 are
currently in USA).
Marks:
• 7 – once, 8 – eight times, 9 – three times
This year
• 7 – once, 8 – twice, 9 – five times, 10 –three times
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Final Exam Results
Of 12 students eligible for exam, 11 showed up,
each one passing both tests, marks 6 – 10. (last
year)
After that, they accepted offered marks.
This year – 9 out of 11 showed up, and accepted
marks. (The last 2 finished their project during this
summer. Through e-mail conversation they
agreed to their marks and will approach the exam
in September.)
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Students Opinion – Questionnaire
Effort:
Attendance
Post-processing [lectures]
Post-processing [assignments]
5 - 100% 1 - 20%
Hours
Hours
 Students attended 50% of the lectures on the average,
and it took them 1.7 hour post-processing time for lectures
and the assignments. (2005)
 ….. more than 80% …. 2.7 hours! (2006)
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Students Opinion – Questionnaire
Contents:
Amount of knowledge
Contents
Course well structured
5 - Too much 1- Too few
5 - Too easy 1 - Too difficult
5 - Very well 1 – Unstructured
 Students assessed that they received (2005)
• “perfect amount” of knowledge,
(3,00)
• “almost perfect” content,
(3,20)
• but the structure of the course was just “average”. (2,86)
 Almost the same! (2006)
 The only difference was the improvement in the structure
(it is 3,20).
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Students Opinion – Questionnaire
Needed pre-knowledge?:
SE + English (5x)
Experience.
Not too much - just basics of everything
 Needed pre-knowledge was assessed usually as:
• “nothing”, “a little bit of everything”, “experience”, and
• with 40% of students as “Software Engineering + English
language” (2005).
 Almost the same! (2006) (percent a bit higher!)
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Students Opinion – Questionnaire
Which topics in Serbian?:
• Lectures in Serbian slides in English (1x)
• All (11 x)
• None (1x)
Percent of students thinking that they need slides
in Serbian was even higher.
This wasn’t possible till now, because slides are
still changing, yet we are seriously considering
this option.
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Students Opinion – Questionnaire
 Style of the lectures:
According to the questionnaire, we improved on almost every issue:




Lecturer familiar
Lectures well prepared
Lecturer engaged
Willingness to answer
students' questions
 Presentation
 Presentation style encourage
to follow the lecture
Mark (last year)
4.10 (4.00)
4.10 (3.50)
4.10 (3.64)
Wanted mark
5
5
5
4.50 (4.92)
4.50 (4.70)
5
3
3.00 (2.90)
5
 Remarks: This year, we had one interesting idea: “… some of the lectures
should be given to students – that would be more interesting and engaging …”
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Students Opinion – Questionnaire
 Using media
• Amount of info on
slides adequate
• Slides well structured
and clearly organized
5 - Very well 1 - Not so much
5 - Very well 1 - Not so much
 Average marks last year:
• “amount of info adequate”
• “slides well structured and clearly organized”
3.14
3.29
 This year, after some improvements, marks were
significantly higher:
• “amount of info adequate”
• “slides well structured and clearly organized”
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4.50
3.90
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Students Opinion – Questionnaire
Assignments:
• Difficulty
• Motivating
5 -Too high
1 -Too low
5 -Very much
1 -Not so much
Similar with the assignments:
• “difficulty to solve”
• “motivating”
2.36
3.14
In 2006. season:
• “difficulty to solve”
• “motivating”
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3.14
3.29
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Students Opinion – Questionnaire
Benefit of the course:
• New things learned
• Contents useful
• Overall rank of the course
5 – Much
1 -Not so much
5 –Completely
1 -Not so much
5 - Very well
1 - Bad
 Average marks for a course improved:
• New things learned
• Contents useful
3.25 (2005)
3.75 (2005)
4.00
3.70
• Overall rank
3.83 (2005)
4.10
 This year, we asked students how important for them is that the course is
internationally supported.
On a scale of 5 (very) to 1 (not at all), the mark was 4!!!
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Students Opinion – Questionnaire
 Remarks:
 Overall comments of the course, for the last year (2005)
were:
• “Everything OK. Everything according to curriculum. Good and
useful. Very useful”
but also:
• “Pure theory, not connected to real life. Lack of practical lessons
evident. Not connected to students’ experiences (?)”
 This year (2006), comments were:
• “Ethical issues and Human resources – interesting and very
important”
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Lecturer’s Opinion
Positive
 Good and representative material (topics)
 Prepared slides, acceptable quality, coverage to final version
 Acceptable level of familiarity, preparation of additional
topics (Risk management, Agile project management,
Methodologies of Software Project Management)
Negative
 A lot of different sources – maybe further refinement is
needed
 Static structure of slides, too much text, introduction of
animation and graphics
 Further readings and deeper involvement in whole material,
introduction of other software tools for project management
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Conclusion
Additional support to upgrade the course on SPM
Further improvement is (needed) expected
Questionnaire results are satisfied (better then
obtained last year)
Better and more student-oriented organization of
practical work and exercises (work in real
environment) – permanent problem
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Additional support to upgrade the course on SPM
1 year project for modification of existing course
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Additional support to upgrade the course on SPM
The course will cover the following topics (the order will be
influenced by the order of practical assignments):
 Introduction to project management
 Communications management
 Software process models
 Deeper coverage of some software process models
 Quality of software development process and its
standardization
 Project management processes according to PMBOK and
life-cycle processes (primary, supporting, organizational)
 Assessment procedures: ISO, SPICE, PSP (Personal
Software Process), TSP (Team Software Process), CMM
(Capability Maturity Model), SPICE, …
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Additional support to upgrade the course on SPM
The course will cover the following topics (the order will be
influenced by the order of practical assignments):
 Project management
•
•
•
•
Feasibility study, the role in requirements engineering, …
Cost estimation and COCOMO model
Risk analysis
Tracking (tools, metrics, …)
 Methodologies of Software Project Management: RUP,
Prince, ...
 Software process metrics
 Maintenance and maintenance metrics
 Advanced topics in Professional Responsibilities and
Computer Ethics
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Additional support to upgrade the course on SPM
Teaching Methodology
 Lectures will be supported by animated, multimedia
‚power-point' slides. Handouts for these slides will be
delivered to students after the lecture.
 We also plan to write and publish a textbook for the
course.
 During practical exercises students (divided into teams)
will 'simulate' the real-world process of managing the
software project.
 During the life of the project teams would exchange roles
in order to better appreciate:
a) the role of proper documentation throughout the life of project and
b) the difference between managing and 'doing'.
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Additional support to upgrade the course on SPM
Teaching Methodology
Complete teaching material
• copies of presented slides,
• text of practical assignments,
• documents produced by students groups
will be available on the web-site (after the
presentation of certain lectures).
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Additional support to upgrade the course on SPM
Examining Methodology
 Constant review of practical work done during practical
exercises (work on the project.) This will be conducted
continuously during the semester.
 Short tests on theoretical aspects taught during the
lectures.
 Discussion on documents and solutions produced during
the work on the project.
 Oral exam covering topics taught during lectures, at the
end of the semester - for the students unsatisfied with a
grade acquired throughout the semester.
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