Rosu Gabriel, Anul I Master AES

Software Project Management

Project management methodologies are the various ways in which projects are initiated, planned, and executed unto completion.

For different industries and different types of projects, there are specific methodologies that can be used.

Next we will task about the most commonly used project management methodologies.

A methodology is a model, which project managers employ for the design, planning, implementation and achievement of their project objectives.

There are different project management methodologies project management methodologies that cater to the needs of different projects spanned across different business domains.

Agile Software Development refers to a group of software development methodologies based on iterative development, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing cross-functional teams.

Most agile methods attempt to minimize risk by developing software in short timeboxes, called iterations, which typically last one to four weeks.  

Each iteration is like a miniature software project of its own.  Agile methods emphasize real-time communication, preferably face-to-face, over written documents.

Most agile teams are located in a bullpen and include all the people necessary to finish the software. 

One of the agile project management methods is the Adaptive Project Framework (APF). It is the form of adaptive life cycle model, developed by Wysocki (2009), to aid projects other than the software development.

APF is based on cycles and each of these cycles can safely be considered as separate project, each consisting of scoping, planning, launching and monitoring phases.

Each cycle is planned for and scheduled, based on the findings from the previous cycle.

The findings from each cycle must be thoroughly reviewed in order to ensure that the planning for the next cycle is precise. It is the model, that favors the focused approach, and only the viable options are taken into account.

In crystal method, the project processes are given a low priority. Instead of the processes, this method focuses more on team communication, team member skills, people and interaction.

Crystal methods come under agile category.

This is the successor of Rapid Application Development (RAD) methodology.

It is also a subset of agile software development methodology and boasts about the training and documents support this methodology has.

This method emphasizes more on the active user involvement during the project life cycle.

Lowering the cost of requirement changes is the main objective of extreme programming. XP emphasizes on fine scale feedback, continuous process, shared understanding and programmer welfare.

In XP, there is no detailed requirements specification or software architecture built.

This methodology is more focused on simple and well-defined processes, short iterative and feature driven delivery cycles.

All the planning and execution in this project type take place based on the features.

PRINCE2 takes a process-based approach to project management. This methodology is based on eight high-level processes.

The IDEAL model is an organizational improvement model that serves as a roadmap for initiating, planning, and implementing improvement actions.

The IDEAL model is named for the five phases it describes: initiating, diagnosing, establishing, acting, and learning

Critical chain is a method of planning and managing projects that puts the main emphasis on the resources required to execute project tasks, developed by Eliyahu M. Goldratt.

A Critical Chain project network will tend to keep the resources levelly loaded, but will require them to be flexible in their start times and to quickly switch between tasks and task chains to keep the whole project on schedule.

http://www.prince2.com/prince2-methodology

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