JJ - Software Project Management, Oct 2010 1 Software Project Management Session 1: Introduction, Fundamentals, Classic Mistakes

JJ - Software Project Management, Oct 2010 1

Software Project Management

Session 1: Introduction, Fundamentals, Classic Mistakes


Today

• Course basics, administrative items• Introductions• Fundamentals• Classic Mistakes


Denver International AirportBozman [1994]; Zetlin [1996]; Montealegre & Keil [2000]

• Designed as largest US airport

• Cost– Estimate $1.7 billion (to be done Oct 1993)– Pre-construction budget $2.08 billion– Aug 1994 spent $3.2 billion– Final 16 months late, $2 billion over budget


Denver International AP

• Functionality– Malfunctioning computerized baggage system

• Cost $193 million

• 55 networked computers, 56 barcode scanners

• Sometimes bags on wrong flights

• Major effort– Many problems

– Functioning airport

– Typical project


Top Ten Most in Demand IT Skills

Rank IT Skill/Job Average Annual Salary 1 SQL Database Analyst $80,664 2 Oracle Database Analyst $87,144 3 C/C++ Programmer $95,829 4 Visual Basic Programmer $76,903 5 E-commerce/Java Developer $89,163 6 Windows NT/2000 Expert $80,639 7 Windows/Java Developert $93,785 8 Security Architect $86,881 9 Project Manager $95,719

10 Network Engineer $82,906 Paul Ziv, “The Top 10 IT Skills in Demand,” Global Knowledge Webcast (www.globalknowledge.com) (11/20/2002).


Top Information Technology Skills

60% 58%

42% 41%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Applicationdevelopment

Project management Databasemanagement

Networking

Cosgrove, Lorraine. “January 2004 IT Staffing Update,” CIO Research Reports, (February 3, 2004).

Information Technology (IT) Skill

Percentage ofRespondents


Job Fundamentals

• Skills required

• PM Positions and roles

• The process


Project Management Skills

• Leadership

• Communications

• Problem Solving

• Negotiating

• Influencing the Organization

• Mentoring

• Process and technical expertise


The Role of the Project Manager

• Job descriptions vary, but most include responsibilities like planning, scheduling, coordinating, and working with people to achieve project goals

• Remember that 97% of successful projects were led by experienced project managers, who can often help influence success factors


• Define scope of project

• Identify stakeholders, decision-makers, and escalation procedures

• Develop detailed task list (work breakdown structures)

• Estimate time requirements

• Develop initial project management flow chart

• Identify required resources and budget

• Evaluate project requirements• Identify and evaluate risks

Prepare contingency plan• Identify interdependencies• Identify and track critical

milestones• Participate in project phase

review• Secure needed resources• Manage the change control

process• Report project status

15 Project Management Job Functions*

*Northwest Center for Emerging Technologies, "Building a Foundation for Tomorrow: Skills Standards for Information Technology,"Belleview, WA, (1999).


Suggested Skills for Project Managers

• Project managers need a wide variety of skills

• They should:

– be comfortable with change

– understand the organizations they work in and with

– be able to lead teams to accomplish project goals



• Project managers need both “hard” and “soft” skills

– Hard skills include product knowledge and knowing how to use various project management tools and techniques

– Soft skills include being able to work with various types of people



• Communication skills: listening, persuading• Organizational skills: planning, goal-setting,

analyzing• Team Building skills: empathy, motivation, esprit de

corps• Leadership skills: sets example, energetic, vision

(big picture), delegates, positive• Coping skills: flexibility, creativity, patience,

persistence• Technological skills: experience, project knowledge


Media Snapshot – Good Project Management Skills from the Apprentice

• Leadership and professionalism are crucial

• Know what your sponsor expects from the project, and learning from your mistakes

• Trust your team and delegate decisions

• Know the business

• Stand up for yourself

• Be a team player• Don’t be overly

emotional and stay organized

• Work on projects and for people you believe in

• Think outside the box• There is some luck

involved in project management, and you should always aim high


Most Significant Characteristics of Effective and Ineffective Project Managers

• Leadership by example• Visionary• Technically competent• Decisive• Good communicator• Good motivator• Stands up to upper

management when necessary

• Supports team members

• Encourages new ideas

• Sets bad example• Not self-assured• Lacks technical expertise• Poor communicator

• Poor motivator

Effective Project Managers Ineffective Project Managers


Functional vs. Project Manager

Functional manager Project manager

Clear authority; quasi-permanent; can direct

Low authority; temporary; must convince

Established organization Developing organization

Long-term relationships Short-term relationships

Small set of skills managed Diverse set of skills managed


IS Project Characteristics & ConflictBarki & Hartwick [2001]

Individual Team Project Organization

Personality Size Time pressure

Culture

Background Heterogeneity Resources Form

Role & status Leadership Success

Individual goals

Participation Top support

History


Individual Characteristics

• Personality– Technical people tend to dominate IS projects– Users need to participate as well

• Background– Different education, experience

• Organizational Role & Status– Hierarchical power won’t match expertise

• Individual Needs & Goals


Dimensions of Individual Difference

• Life Stages

• Temperament/Personality

• Behavioral Styles

• Motivational Pattern

• Styles of Learning

• Styles of Decision Making


Life StageYOUNG• Forward looking• Up• Idealistic• Quantity• Increasing• Nil ===> plenty

• Increasing• High == Low

• OLD• Backward• Down• Realistic• Quality• Diminishing• Planty Nil

• Decreasing• == High

Orientation

Energy

Values

Goal

Opportunity

Authority

Financial depen


Personality

Choleric Sanguine

Melancholy Phlegmatic


Personality

Strong willed, confi..

Leader, Activist

Decisive, Impatient

Inflexible, Bossy

Active, Outgoing

Sociable, Talkative,

Restless, Egoistic,

Naïve, get angry easy

Idealistic, Analytical

Creative, Serious,

Unsociable, Moody

Self-centre

Quite, Calm, Cool

Easy going, Relax

Patient, Spectator

Indecisive, Selfish


Personality

Driving Style Expressive Style

Analytical Style Amiable Style


Some Motivating Abilities

• An investigative ability

• A Visualizing ability• A Formulating ability• A Planning ability• An Organizing ability• A Developing ability• A Consulting ability

• An Implementing ability

• A Performance ability• A Teaching ability• A Writing ability• An Influencing ability• A Counseling ability


Characteristics of IS people

• Highest growth need of any group

• Lowest social need of any group


A Characteristic of IS Managers

• Usually promoted because of technical competence

• Strong desire to retain professional expertise

• No formal training in management


Team Characteristics

• Team size– Larger tends to have more conflict

• Team heterogeneity– More diverse tends to have more conflict

• Team Leadership

• Participation

• History


Project Characteristics

• Time pressure inherent in most IS projects– People react differently

• Resource constraints– Often have to work with what’s available

• Success criteria– Expectations

• Top management support


Organizational Characteristics

• Organizational culture

• Form of organization– Many project organizations use Matrix

• Creates high pressure, highly dynamic environment


Software Project Management

Management

ProjectManagement

SoftwareProject

Management


What is hard about software?

Defineconcept

Implementconcept

“I believe the hard part of building software to be the specification, design and testing of this conceptualconstruct, not the labour of representing it and testing the fidelity of the representation”.Frederick Brooks No silver bullet IEEE Computer 20(4)10-19, April 1987


Software engineering is more difficult because of

• Complexity• Conformity• Changeability• Invisibility

It therefore needs specialized management techniques to deal with it


Is software development an engineering activity?

• One definition of software engineering:– Creating cost-effective solutions to practical

problems by applying scientific knowledge to building things in the service of mankind - Mary Shaw

– But how scientific is software development really?


Software engineering or software management?

“Unfortunately, [software engineering] is now most often used to refer to life-cycle models, routine methodologies, cost estimation techniques, documentation frameworks, configuration-management tools, quality assurance techniques…. ‘software management’ would be a more appropriate term” - Mary Shaw


What Is a Project?

• A project is “a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result” (PMBOK® Guide 2004, p. 5)

• Operations is work done to sustain the business

• Projects end when their objectives have been reached or the project has been terminated

• Projects can be large or small and take a short or long time to complete


What is a project?

• One definition – ‘a specific design or plan’

• Key elements– non-routine– specific objectives– planned – predetermined time span– constrained resources


Position of planning

• Feasibility study - decide if project is worth doing

• Plan how you are going do it, then do it

feasibility study

planning

project

Is it worth doing?

How do we do it?

Do it!


Contents of a feasibility study report

Introduction: identifies what the document is; Description of current situation Problem description Proposed development

business and financial aspects technical aspects organizational aspects

continued >


Contents of feasibility study continued

Estimated costs development costs operational costs

Envisaged benefits Recommendations


The Triple Constraint

• Every project is constrained in different ways by its– Scope goals: What work will be done?– Time goals: How long should it take to complete?– Cost goals: What should it cost?

• It is the project manager’s duty to balance these three often competing goals

“Einstein discovers thattime is actually money.” The Far Side, 1985


It’s Not a “Three Legged Stool”

Scope Schedule

Cost

Quality

Scope

Cost

Schedule


Adages

• Brooks’s LawAdding manpower to a late software project makes it later.

• Throwing money at a project doesn’t solve the problem

• Taking resources away from a project doesn’t always make it easier either


3-Way partnership

• A system is built:– For the user– By the technical people– For the benefit of the business

Technical User

Business

All 3 interested party must be considered and protected throughout the project


What is management?

Management may involve:

• planning — deciding what is to be done

• organizing — making arrangement

• staffing — selecting the right people

• directing — giving instructions

• monitoring — checking on progress– continued


What is management? contd.

• controlling — taking action to remedy hold-ups

• innovating — coming up with new solutions

• representing — liaising with users


What Managers do

Strategic Planning Level

Management Control Level

Operational Control Level

Plan

Control

Organize

Direct

Staff

Organize

Staff

Direct

Plan

Control

Direct

Staff

Plan

Control

Organize


Why Project Management?

Idea

Reality


What is Project Management?

• Project management

– “the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements” (PMBOK ® Guide 2004, p. 8)


PMBOK® (3rd ed.) Process Groups

ClosingProcesses

InitiatingProcesses

Monitoring &Control Processes

PlanningProcesses

ExecutingProcesses


Project Management Framework


PM Tools: Software

• Low-end– Basic features, tasks management, charting– MS Excel, Milestones Simplicity

• Mid-market– Handle larger projects, multiple projects, analysis tools– MS Project (approx. 50% of market)

• High-end– Very large projects, specialized needs, enterprise– AMS Realtime– Primavera Project Manager


Project Management Tools and Techniques

• Project management tools and techniques assist project managers and their teams in various aspects of project management

• Some specific ones include

– Project charter, scope statement, and WBS (scope)

– Gantt charts, network diagrams, critical path analysis, critical chain scheduling (time)

– Cost estimates and earned value management (cost)

– And many more


Tools: Gantt Chart


Tools: Network Diagram


Four Project Dimensions

• People

• Process

• Product

• Technology


Trade-off Triangle

• Fast, cheap, good. Choose two.


Trade-off Triangle

• Know which of these are fixed & variable for every project


People

• “It’s always a people problem” Gerald Weinberg, “The Secrets of Consulting”

- Improvements:- Team selection- Team organization– Motivation


People 2

• Other success factors– Matching people to tasks– Career development– Balance: individual and team– Clear communication


Process

• Is process stifling?

• 2 Types: Management & Technical

• Development fundamentals

• Quality assurance

• Risk management

• Lifecycle planning

• Avoid abuse by neglect


Product

• The “tangible” dimension

• Product size management

• Product characteristics and requirements

• Feature creep management


Technology

• Often the least important dimension

• Language and tool selection

• Value and cost of reuse


Planning

• Determine requirements

• Determine resources

• Select lifecycle model

• Determine product features strategy


Tracking

• Cost, effort, schedule

• Planned vs. Actual

• How to handle when things go off plan?


Measurements

• To date and projected– Cost– Schedule– Effort– Product features

• Alternatives– Earned value analysis– Defect rates– Productivity (ex: SLOC)– Complexity (ex: function points)


36 Classic Mistakes

• Types– People-Related– Process-Related– Product-Related– Technology-Related


1990s Study: 13 Reasons for Project Management Failure

1. Too many half-baked ideas

2. Inadequate due diligence

3. Customers wait too long, then dictate unrealistic schedules

4. “Estimate-to-please”

5. Poor sponsorship

6. Lack of business unit involvement

7. Complete disregard for business cycles

8. Too few qualified project managers

9. All-or-nothing scope statement

10.Lack of a well-defined business/IT project management process

11.Misplaced belief in value of project management software

12.Lack of a well-designed “project health” review process

13.Lack of a robust project portfolio management process


What the Losers Do…

Documents

JJ - Software Project Management, Oct 2010 1 Software Project Management Session 1: Introduction, Fundamentals, Classic Mistakes