Lecture4 :Project planning

Lecturer: Kawther Abas

447CS – Management of Programming Projects

Software project management

– The art of getting work done through other people• Project management is needed because software

development is always subject to budget and schedule constraints that are set by the organisation developing the software

Management activities• Proposal writing• Project planning and scheduling• Project costing• Project monitoring and reviews• Personnel selection and evaluation• Report writing and presentations

Project planning1. A plan, drawn up at the start of the project,

should be used as the driver for the project2. The initial plan should be the best possible

plan given the available information.

The project plan

• The project plan sets out:1. The resources available to the project2. The work breakdown3. A schedule for the work

Project plan structure• Introduction• Project organisation• Risk analysis• Hardware and software resource requirements• Work breakdown• Project schedule• Monitoring and reporting mechanisms

Activity organization• Activities in a project should be organised to

produce tangible outputs for management to judge progress

• Deliverables are project results delivered to customers

• The waterfall process allows for the straightforward .

Project scheduling1. Split project into tasks and estimate time and resources

required to complete each task2. Organize tasks concurrently to make optimal use of

workforce3. Minimize task dependencies to avoid delays caused by

one task waiting for another to complete4. Important to note that the schedule evolves over time.

Scheduling problems• Estimating the difficulty of problems and hence the cost of

developing a solution is hard

Bar charts and activity networks• Graphical notations used to illustrate the

project schedule• Show project breakdown into tasks. Tasks

should not be too small. They should take about a week or two

• Activity charts show task dependencies and the critical path

• Activity Bar charts show schedule against calendar time

Activity network

What if T8 is delayed by 14 days?

Activity bar chart (Gantt chart)“slack” time

one week, 5 business/working days

Staff allocation

Project ScopeProject ScopeProject ScopeProject Scope

Solutions ArchitectureSolutions Architecture

Defined (authorized), risk adjusted, scheduled and planned work of the project.

Project plan is founded on a mature project scope statement.

Project scope statement is founded on detailed solution architecture (SA).

Solutions architecture is found on mature enterprise architecture (EA).

Project scope is the product of the iterative scope management processes that is generally done by the project team, using a WBS.

Using the WBS, the team to capture and then decompose all of the work of the project, project scope.

Cost Management Plan

Cost Management Plan: Cost management addresses the cost of the resources needed to complete project activities.

Management Processes, includes 1) cost estimating, 2) cost budgeting, and 3) cost control.

Cost (Budget) Management PlanCost (Budget) Management Plan

Quality Management Plan

Quality Management Plan: Quality management addresses the assurance that the defined product characteristics meet the stakeholders’

Management Processes, includes 1) quality planning,2) quality assurance,3) quality control.

Quality Management PlanQuality Management Plan

Risk Management Plan

Risk Management Plan: addresses how risks are systematically identified analyzed and responded to throughout the project.

Management Processes, include 1) risk management planning, 2) risk identification, 3) qualitative risk analysis, 4) quantitative risk analysis, 5) risk response planning, and 6) risk monitoring and control.

Risk Management PlanRisk Management Plan