Software Project Management

1
Software Project Management

• Lecture 7

2
What are we studying today?

• Chapter 24 - Project Scheduling
• Effort distribution
• Defining task set for the software project
• Project types (related topic)
• Factors that influence task set selection in a
  project
• A task set example
• Defining a task network
• Project Scheduling
• Timeline charts
• Schedule tracking
• Earned Value Analysis

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Effort Distribution

• A recommended distribution of effort across
  software process is often referred to as 40-20-40
  rule
• 40 allocated to analysis design
• 20 allocated to coding
• 40 allocated to testing
• Use the above as a guideline only as each project
  dictates its own distribution effort

4
Defining Task Set For The Software Project

• Task set is a collection of software engineering
  work tasks , milestones and deliverables that
  must be accomplished to complete a particular
  software project.
• Task sets are different for different types of
  projects
• Most organizations encounter following types of
  projects
• Concept development projects
• Explore some new business concept or application
  of new technology

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Defining Task Set For The Software Project
(Contd.)

• New application development projects
• Undertaken as a consequence of specific customer
  request
• Application Enhancement projects
• Involve modification to functions, performance or
  interfaces (observable by end-user) in existing
  software
• Application maintenance projects
• That correct, adapt or extend existing software
  in ways that may not be obvious to end user
• Reengineering projects
• Undertaken for rebuilding an existing system in
  whole or part

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Factors Influencing Task Set Selection in Projects

• Size of project
• Number of potential users
• Mission criticality
• Application longevity
• Stability of requirements
• Ease of customer/develop communication
• Maturity of applicable technology
• Performance constraints
• Embedded, non embedded characteristics
• Project staff
• Reengineering factors
• These factors also provide an indication of the
  degree of rigor with which the software process
  should be applied

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A Task Set Example

• Consider software engineering tasks for a Concept
  Development project.
• Such projects are approached by applying the
  following major tasks
• 1.1 Concept scoping
• determines overall project scope
• 1.2 Preliminary concept planning
• Establishes the organizations ability to
  undertake work implied by project scope
• 1.3 Technology risk assessment
• Evaluates risk associated with the technology to
  be implemented
• 1.4 Proof of concept
• Demonstrates the viability of a new technology in
  the software context

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A Task Set Example (Contd.)

• 1.5 Concept implementation
• Implements the concept representation in a manner
  that can be reviewed by a customer and is used
  for marketing purposes when a concept must be
  sold to other customers or management.
• 1.6 Customer Reaction
• Concept solicits feedback on a new technology
  concept and targets specific customer
  applications

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Refinement of Major Tasks

• The major tasks described earlier may be used to
  define a macroscopic schedule for project.
• The macroscopic schedule must be refined to
  create a detailed schedule.
• For this each major task is decomposed into a set
  of subtasks (with related work products and
  milestones)
• As an example consider task 1.1 concept
  scoping. The refinement is shown on next slide

10
Refinement of Major Tasks (Contd.)

• See page 715

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Defining a Task Network

• Also known as activity network
• It is a graphic representation of the task flow
  for a project
• Displays interdependencies and parallelism
• Project manager should be aware of those tasks
  that lie on the critical path

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A task set network for concept development
1.4a Module A Des/Dev
1.2 Project Planning
1.6 Concept Demo
1.4b Module B Des/Dev

• Enables the team to see the essentially serial
  nature of the project, but take advantage of
  parallelism where possible.

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Scheduling

• Two Project Scheduling methods that can be
  applied to software development
• Program evaluation and review technique (PERT)
• Critical Path Method (CPM)
• Both are driven by Info already developed
• Estimates of effort
• A decomposition of product function
• The selection of appropriate process model and
  task set
• Decomposition of tasks

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Timeline Charts

• When creating software project schedule, the
  planner begins with a set of tasks (work
  breakdown structure)
• If automated tools are used, the work breakdown
  is input as a task network
• Effort, duration and start date are then input
  for each task
• As a result of this input, a timeline chart or
  Gantt chart is generated

15
Tracking Schedule

• Accomplished in a no. of ways
• Conducting periodic project status meetings in
  which each team member reports progress
  problems
• Evaluating results of all reviews conducted
  throughout the s/w engg process
• Determining whether formal project milestones
  have been accomplished by scheduled date
• Comparing actual start date to planned date for
  each project task
• Meeting practitioners to get their assessment of
  progress to date and problems encountered
• Use earned value analysis to assess progress
  quantitatively

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Earned Value Analysis (EVA)

• A quantitative approach for progress analysis of
  project
• Earned value is a measure of progress
• Steps to determine earned value
• The budgeted cost of work scheduled (BCWS) is
  determined for each work task represented in
  schedule
• The BCWS values for all work tasks are summed to
  derive the budget at completion, BAC
• BAC ?(BCWSk) for all k tasks
• Next the value for budgeted cost of work
  performed (BCWP) is computed.
• Its value is sum of the BCWS values for all work
  tasks that have actually been completed by a
  point in time on the project schedule

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EVA (Continued)

• According to Wilkens
• BCWS represents the budget of activities that
  were planned to be completed
• and BCWP represents the budget of activities that
  were actually completed
• Important progress indicators can be computed
  based on BCWS, BAC, BCWP values
• SPI BCWP/BCWS
• Schedule performance index indicates efficiency
  with which project is using scheduled resources.
  SPI value 1.0 indicates efficient execution of
  project schedule
• SV BCWP BCWS
• Schedule variance, is simply an absolute
  indication of variance from planned schedule
• CPI BCWP/ACWP
• Cost performance index value close to 1.0
  indicates project is within its defined budget
• Actual Cost of Work Performed is sum of effort
  actually expended on work tasks that have been
  completed by a point in time on project schedule
• CV BCWP ACWP
• Cost Variance is an absolute indication of cost
  savings or shortfall at a particular stage of
  project