Software Project Management Activities

Software Project Management Plan : All technical and managerial activities required to deliver the deliverables to the client.

A software project has a specific duration, consumes resources and produces work products.

• Management categories to complete a software project:
  • Tasks,
  • Activities,
  • Functions

Software Project Management Plan

1. The controlling document for a software project.
2. Specifies the technical and managerial approaches to develop the software product.
3. Companion document to requirements analysis document
4. Changes in either may imply changes in the other document.
5. SPMP may be part of project agreement.

Document written for a client that defines :

• the scope, duration, cost and deliverables for the project.
• the exact items, quantities, delivery dates, delivery location.

• Can be a contract, a statement of work, a business plan, or a project charter.
• Client: Individual or organization that specifies the requirements and accepts the project deliverables.
• Deliverables (= Work Products that will be delivered to the client):
  • Documents
  • Demonstrations of function
  • Demonstration of nonfunctional requirements
  • Demonstrations of subsystems

Functions

• Activity or set of activities that span the duration of the project
• Examples:
  • Project management
  • Configuration Management
  • Documentation
  • Quality Control (Verification and validation)
  • Training

Tasks

✓ Smallest unit of work subject to management
✓ Small enough for adequate planning and tracking
Examples:
✓ Write user manual
✓ Write meeting minutes and post them
✓ Schedule the code review
✓ Develop the project plan
✓ Related tasks are grouped into hierarchical sets of functions and activities.

The hierarchical representation of all the tasks in a project is called the work breakdown structure (WBS). First Version of a UML Model.

Software Project Management (SPM)

Software project management activities is aimed to ensure that the software is delivered on time, within budget and schedule constraints, and satisfies the requirements of the client.

Management activities:

• Writing proposals
• Planning the project
• Scheduling the project
• Estimating the cost of the project
• Monitoring and reviewing the project’s progress
• Selecting, hiring, and evaluating personnel
• Writing reports and giving presentations

Project Planning

A project plan should be drawn at the start of the project. This plan drives the project and needs to be continuously adjusted

The role of the project manager is to anticipate possible problems and be prepared with solutions for these problems

• Other plans that need be developed:
  • Quality plan
  • Validation and verification plan
  • Configuration management plan
  • Maintenance plan
  • Staff development plan

Structure of the Project Planning

• Introduction (objectives, constraints)
• Project organization (team structure, personnel involved, roles)
• Risk analysis (types of risk, probabilities, solutions to prevent or reduce the risk)
• Hardware and software resources needed (prices, delivery schedule)
• Work breakdown (activities, milestones, deliverables)
• Project schedule (dependencies between activities/tasks, work assignments, time allocated per task)
• Monitoring and reporting mechanisms (reports, dates)

What is project scheduling & tracking?

Scheduling:

• The partitioning of the total work of a project in tasks, which deliver defined products.
• The planning of those tasks in calendar time.
• The allocation of resources to these tasks.

Tracking:

• Following of the progress of the tasks in the course of a project.
• Adapting the schedule according the latest developments.

Read More Topics

Software project managements

Risk analysis and management

Software development life cycle

Principles of management