Project Management

Planning in

software projects

JAYAKUMAR.PPPost Graduate Diploma in eGovernanceIIITM-K,Technopark,Trivandrum9847435193

SUBJECT MATTERIntroduction to Project Management.Planning in Project Management.Planning in Software Projects.Activities involved in Planning a Software Project.Journal 1 ( IEEE) - Successful software projects need requirements planning Journal 2( IEEE) - Software project initiation and planning - an empirical study Conclusion

What is Project Management ?

Project management is the discipline of planning,

organizing, securing, managing, leading, and controlling

resources to achieve specific goals. A project is a

temporary endeavor with a defined beginning and

end ,undertaken to meet unique goals and objectives. It is

a systematic approach to planning and guiding project

processes from start to finish

Five Stages: Initiation, Planning, Executing,

Controlling, and Closing.

Planning in Project ManagementProject planning is a discipline for stating how to

complete a project within a certain timeframe, usually

with defined stages, and with designated resources. One

view of project planning divides the activity into:

Setting objectives (these should be measurable)

Identifying deliverables

Planning the schedule

Making supporting plans

Supporting plans may include those related to human

resources, communication methods, and risk management.

Planning in Software Projects

Software project management begins with a set of

activities that are collectively called project planning. Before

the project can begin, the Project Manager and the

software team must estimate and look into.

The work to be done

The resources that will be required

And the time that will elapse from start to finish.

The future and accept some degree of uncertainty as

matter of course.

Lack of Planning leads to

…It is often said that early planning is impossible

because precise information concerning the project goals,

customer needs and system constraints is not available at

the beginning of a software project. But a major purpose of

the planning phase is to clarify goals and needs required

to plan a software project. Lack of good planning leads to

Schedule slippage

Cost overruns

Poor quality

High maintenance cost.

Software Project Planning Activities1.Define the Problem,

2.Develop Solution Strategy,

3.Planning the Development Process.

I. Define the Problem Involves :-

Understanding the problem

Justifying the need of a Software

Identifying the functions of a major subsystem

Identify the goals and requirements

Establishing high- level acceptance criteria for the

system.

II. Developing Solution Strategy involves:-

Outlining several solution strategies

Conducting feasibility study for each strategy

Recommending a solution strategy, indicating why

other strategies were rejected.

Developing a list of priorities for product

characteristics.

III. Planning the Development Process involves:-

Defining a life Cycle model and an organizational

structure of the project.

Planning the configuration management, quality

assurance and validation activities.

Determining phase development tools, techniques

and notation to be used.

III. Estimation in Planning Phase include:-

Preliminary cost estimation for system development

•Expert judgment

•Work breakdown structure

•Algorithmic cost model.

Preliminary staffing estimates

Computing resources required to operate and maintain the

system.

Identifying the sources of information and refer to them throughout

the project plan.

Software measures for quality and product

•Metrics used – Size oriented and function oriented

•Function point metrics for function point analysis.

Journal 1 ( IEEE) - Successful software projects need requirements planning

by Annie I Anton, Professor, College of Eng. North Carolina State University

This paper mainly focus on importance of understanding the requirements.According to this author top three project challenged factors are:1. Lack of user involvement 2.Incomplete requirement and specification3.Changing requirements and specifications Standish Group surveyed that bad requirement causes 40 – 60% software failures

Key Principles can help eliminate defects during requirement planning.

1.Understanding the problem before expressing the requirement.

2. Involve the stake holders early on and sustain their involvement to validate

requirements. We must give customers repeated opportunities to validate

requirement.

Prototypes – give users a tangible product – it helps to interact

Journal I ( IEEE) - Successful software projects need requirements planning

by Annie I Anton, Professor, College of Eng. North Carolina State UniversityKey Principles can help eliminate defects during requirement planning.

3. Ensure that Critical Requirements are considered. Scenario Analysis – Obstacle analysis – What if questions

4.Give non-functional and quality requirements as much attention as functional

requirements.-users emphasis on functional requirements.

Non functional requirements express a software system’s properties,

including security, reliability, portability, and robustness.

Good requirement planning mean software can be cheaper to produce,

easier to build and less prone to unexpected failures.

Journal 2( IEEE) - Software project initiation and planning - an empirical study

by D.Greer-UK & R.Conradi- NorwayThis paper describes the study on 14 established Norwegian software companies - How they initiate and pre-plan software development projects.

The aim was to obtain an indication of the range of planning activities carried out be these 14 software firm.

The Instrument of study was structured interviews. (Questions are left completely open ended )- Sampling convenience sampling of 31 companies.CMM level integration (Capability Maturity Model ) approach emphasis the role of through planning in the software projects for improving the predictability and to ensure the process improvement.Question included from the topics :

Software process Choice

Feasibility Study

Early Planning Documents

Release Planning

Risk Management

Journal 2( IEEE) - Software project initiation and planning - an empirical study

by D.Greer-UK & R.Conradi- NorwayFindings of the Study

1. Most of the firms using Agile method (IID), few of them using Water fall model

2.Study confirms the perceived importance of Feasibility Study , but firms mainly

focus on Economical feasibility ,although several did mention on technical

feasibility.3.Most companies produce at least a partial requirements documents. Early cost, schedule and budgets are often documented, but other data on decision taken are not documented.

4.Waterfall process associated with a single release do often include provision for

future releases. For agile scrum projects , the number of releases planned is

always two or more.

5.Risk Identification and Risk Monitoring are common activities but other risk

management were not explicitly performed in most of the companies.

Conclusion …..The early planning of software project is

very vital and the software project planner must estimate three things before a project begins: How long it will take

How much effort will be requiredHow many people will be involvedIn addition , the project planner must

predict the resources ( Hardware and Software ) that will be required and the risk associated with this project.

The Success of software project relay on user involvement and their participation

References1.NIIT study book on SE2.SE , A Practitioners Approach- Roger.S.Pressman3.Google.co.in

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