MODULE 4

Introduction to Project Management: Introduction, Project and Importance of Project

Management, Contract Management, Activities Covered by Software Project Management,
Plans, Methods and Methodologies, some ways of categorizing Software Projects, Stakeholders,
Setting Objectives, Business Case, Project Success and Failure, Management and Management
Control, Project Management life cycle, Traditional versus Modern Project Management
Practices.
SOFTWARE ENGINEERING AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT

CHAPTER 1
1.1 INTRODUCTION TO SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT
1. Software Project Management is an art & Science of planning & leading software
Projects from ideas to reality.

2. A Software Project is the complete procedure of software development from requirement

gathering to testing and maintenance, carried out according to the execution
methodologies, in a specified period to achieve intended software product

3. Project management is the discipline of defining and achieving targets while optimizing
the new resources (time, money, people, materials, energy, space, etc.) over the course of
a project (a set of activities of finite duration).

4. Project management involves the planning, monitoring, and control of people, process,
and events that occur during software development.

Everyone manages, but the scope of each person’s management activities varies according his or
her role in the project.

Software needs to be managed because it is a complex undertaking with a long duration time.

Managers must focus on the fours P’s to be successful (people, product, process, and project).

A project plan is a document that defines the four P’s in such a way as to ensure a cost effective,
high quality software product.

The only way to be sure that a project plan worked correctly is by observing that a high-quality
product was delivered on time and under budget.

1.2 WHY IS SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT IMPORTANT ?

 Large amounts of money are spent on ICT (information and communication technology)
e.g. UK government in 2003-04 spent € 2.3 billions on contracts for ICT and only € 1.4
billion on road building. (1 billion =100 crore).
 Project often fail – Standish Group claim only a third of ICT projects are successful. 82
% were late and 43 % exceeded their budget. Poor project management a major factor in
these failures.
 The methodology used by the Standish Group to arrive at their findings has been
criticized, but the general perception of the prevalence of ICT project failure is still clear.

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Software Development Life Cycle:

The Software Development life cycle is a methodology that also forms the framework
for planning and controlling the creation, testing, and delivery of an information system.

The software development life cycle concept acts as the foundation for multiple different
development and delivery methodologies, such as the Hardware development life -cycle and
software development life -cycle . While Hardware development life -cycle deal specially with
hardware and Software development life -cycle deal with software, a systems development life -
cycle differs from each in that it can deal with any combination of hardware and software , as a
system can be composed of hardware only , software only, or a combination of both.

Four Project Dimensions:

o People
o Process
o Product
o Technology

The 5 Variables of Project Control

1. Time: amount of time required to complete the project.
2. Cost: calculated from the time variable
3. Quality: The amount of time put into individual tasks determines the overall quality of
the project.
4. Scope: Requirements specified for the end result.
5. Risk: Potential points of failure.

Trade -off Triangle

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The triangle illustrates the relationship between three primart forces in a project. Time is the
available time to deliver the project. Cost represents the amount of money or resources available
and quality represents the fit-to-purpose that the project must achieve to be a scuccess.

The normal situation is that one of thse factors is fixed and the other two will vary in inverse
proportion to each other. For example , time is often fixed and the quality of the end product will
depend on the cost and resources available. Similarly if you are working to a fixed level of
quality then the cost of the project will largely be dependable upon the time available(if you have
longer you can do it with fewer people).

1. Complexity Management
o Software projects often involve intricate systems and interdependencies. Effective
management of this complexity ensures that the project remains coherent and
manageable.
2. Requirement Management
o Clear and precise requirement management is essential to ensure that the final
product meets user needs and expectations. Mismanagement here can lead to
scope creep and project failure.
3. Time and Budget Control
o Monitoring and controlling the project timeline and budget is vital. This includes
planning, estimating, and adhering to schedules and financial constraints to
prevent overruns.
4. Risk Management

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o Identifying, assessing, and mitigating risks can prevent unforeseen issues from
derailing a project. This proactive approach helps in managing uncertainties
effectively.
5. Quality Assurance
o Ensuring that the project meets quality standards is crucial for user satisfaction
and reducing post-release defects. Continuous testing and validation are key
practices.
o
6. Team Coordination
o Effective communication and coordination among team members are essential for
collaboration and timely problem-solving, ensuring that everyone is aligned with
project goals.
o
7. Stakeholder Management
o Engaging and managing stakeholders helps in gaining their support and
addressing their concerns, which is critical for project acceptance and success.
8. Scope Management
o Defining and controlling what is included in the project prevents scope creep,
ensures that all necessary features are delivered, and avoids unnecessary work.
9. Process Improvement
o Continuously improving processes ensures that the project is using the most
efficient methods and practices, leading to better performance and outcomes.
10. Resource Allocation
o Efficient allocation and management of resources (human, financial, and material)
ensure that the project has what it needs to succeed without wastage.

Statistics Highlighting the Importance of Efficient Project Management

1. 32% of Projects Fail Due to Poor Management

o This statistic underscores the critical impact of project management on the overall
success of software projects. Poor management can lead to project failures,
highlighting the need for skilled project managers.
2. 68% of Projects Fail to Meet Deadlines, Budgets, and Quality Targets
o This indicates that a significant majority of projects struggle with time, budget,
and quality control. Effective project management practices in these areas can
significantly improve success rates.
3. 97% of Businesses Believe Project Management is Essential for Success
o This near-unanimous belief among businesses highlights the recognized value of
project management. It underscores that investing in good project management
practices is seen as crucial for achieving business objectives.
4. 80% of High-Performing Projects are Led by a Project Manager with Qualifications
o This shows a clear correlation between the qualifications of the project manager
and the performance of the project. Qualified project managers bring skills and
knowledge that drive project success.

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5. On Average, a Large IT Project Runs 45% Over Budget

o This statistic points to common budget overruns in large IT projects, emphasizing
the need for rigorous budget control and efficient resource management to prevent
financial overshooting.

Conclusion

Effective software project management is essential due to the inherent complexities and
challenges of software development. The key areas outlined require diligent attention and
management to ensure project success. The statistics provided illustrate the high stakes involved
and the substantial impact that good project management can have on the success rates of
software projects. By focusing on these areas, businesses can significantly improve their chances
of delivering successful projects that meet deadlines, stay within budget, and satisfy quality
standards.

1.3 WHAT IS A PROJECT:

The definition of a project as being planned assume that to a large extent we can
determine how we are going to carry out a task before we start. There may be some projects
of an exploratory nature where this might be quite hard. Planning is in essence thinking
carefully about something before you do it and even in the case of uncertain projects this is
worth doing as long as it is accepted that the resulting plans will have provisional and
speculative elements. Other activities, concerning, for example, to routine maintenance,
might have been performed so many times that everyone involved knows exactly what needs
to be done. In these cases, planning hardly seems necessary, although procedures might need
to be documented to ensure consistency and to help newcomers to the job.

Dictionary definitions of ‘project’ include:

 A specific plan or design
 A planned undertaking
 A large undertaking e.g. a public works scheme”

Key points above are planning and size of task

Here are some definitions of ‘project’. No doubt there are other ones: for example,

‘Unique process, consisting of a set of coordinated and controlled activities with start and finish
dates, undertaken to achieve an objective conforming to specific requirements, including
constraints of time, cost and resources.

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There is a hazy boundary between the non-routine project and the routine job. The first time you
do a routine task, it will be like a project. On the other hand, a project to develop a system
similar to previous ones you have developed will have a large element of the routine.

Fig:1.1 Activities most likely to benefit from project management.

1.3.1 Characteristics of Project:

 Non-routine tasks are involved
 Planning is required
 Specific objectives are to be met or a specified product is to be created
 The project has a pre-determined time span
 Work is carried out for someone other than yourself
 Work involves several specialism’s
 Work is carried out in several phases
 The resources that are available for use on the project are constrained
 The project is large or complex.

The project that employs 20 developers is likely to be disproportionately more difficult than one
with only 20 staff because of the need for additional coordination.

1.3.2 Software Projects versus Other Types of Project:

Many of the techniques of general project management are applicable to software project
management. One way of perceiving software project management is as the process of
making visible that which is invisible.

Invisibility: When a physical artifact such as a bridge or road is being constructed the
progress being made can actually be seen. With software, progress is not immediately
visible.

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Complexity: Software products contain more complexity than other engineered artifacts.

Conformity: The ‘traditional’ engineer is usually working with physical systems and
physical materials like cement and steel. These physical systems can have some complexity,
but are governed by physical laws that are consistent. Software developers have to conform
to the requirements of human clients. It is not just that individuals can be inconsistent.

Flexibility: The ease with which software can be changed is usually seen as one of its
strengths. However, this means that where the software system interfaces with a physical or
organizational system, it is expected that, where necessary, the software will change to
accommodate the other components rather than vice versa. This means the software systems
are likely to be subject to a high degree of change.
An example for infrastructure project is construction of a flyover. An example for a
software project is development of a payroll management system for an organization using
Oracle l0g and Oracle Forms 10G.

1.4 CONTRACT MANAGEMENT

 ln-house projects are where the users and the developers of new software work for the
same organization.
 However, increasingly organizations contract out ICT development to outside
developers. Here, the client organization will often appoint a 'project manager' to
supervise the contract who will delegate many technically oriented decisions to the
contractors.
 Thus, the project manager will not worry about estimating the effort needed to write
individual software components as long as the overall project is within budget and on
time. On the supplier side, there will need to be project managers who deal with the
more technical issues.

 Contract management is the process of managing the creation, execution, and analysis
of contracts to maximize operational and financial performance and minimize risk.
 It involves various activities from the initial request for a contract, through negotiation,
execution, compliance, and renewal. Effective contract management ensures that all
parties to a contract fulfill their obligations as efficiently as possible.

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Various Stages of Contract Management

1. Request and Creation:

Request: Identifying the need for a contract and gathering the necessary information to draft it.

Creation: Drafting the contract terms and conditions that align with the requirements and
objectives of all parties involved.

Example: A software company needs to hire a third-party developer to work on a new project.

The project manager identifies the need for a contract and gathers details about the scope of
work, timelines, payment terms, and other specifics.

2. Negotiation:

Parties involved discuss and negotiate the terms of the contract to reach a mutual agreement.
This stage often involves revisions and adjustments.

Example: The software company and the third-party developer negotiate the terms. The
developer might request more time or a higher payment, while the company might request
milestones for progress checks.

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3. Approval and Execution:

Approval: Obtaining necessary approvals from stakeholders and legal departments.

Execution: Signing the contract, making it a legally binding document.

Example: Once the terms are finalized, the contract is reviewed by both parties' legal teams.
After approval, both the software company and the developer sign the contract.

4. Obligations and Performance:

Ensuring that all parties adhere to the terms and conditions agreed upon in the contract.
Monitoring performance and compliance.

Example: The developer starts working on the project, adhering to the deadlines and
deliverables specified in the contract. The software company provides the necessary
resources and makes payments as per the contract.

5. Modification and Renewal:

Making necessary amendments if any changes occur during the contract period. Reviewing
and renewing contracts as needed.

Example: Midway through the project, the software company requests additional features
not covered in the original contract. An amendment is made to include these new features
and adjust the payment terms accordingly. As the project nears completion, the company
and developer may negotiate a renewal for ongoing maintenance.

6. Closure:

Completing all contractual obligations, ensuring all parties have met their requirements, and
formally closing the contract.

Example: The developer finishes the project, and the software company conducts a final
review to ensure all deliverables meet the agreed-upon standards. Once confirmed, the
contract is closed, and a final payment is made.

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Benefits of Effective Contract Management

Risk Mitigation: Identifies and manages potential risks early in the contract lifecycle.

Improved Compliance: Ensures that all parties comply with legal and regulatory
requirements.

Cost Savings: Avoids unnecessary costs and penalties by managing contracts efficiently.

Performance Tracking: Monitors performance against contract terms to ensure objectives

are met.

Relationship Management: Maintains positive relationships between contracting parties

through clear and consistent communication.

Speed to Market: Accelerates project timelines by leveraging the vendor’s expertise and
resources.

1.5 ACTIVITIES COVERED BY SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT:

The activities covered by Software Project management are diagrammatically illustrated as

follows:

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1.5.1 The Feasibility Study:

This is an investigation into whether a prospective project is worth starting that it has a
valid business case. Information is gathered about the requirements of the proposed application.
The probable developmental and operational costs, along with the value of the benefits of the
new system, are estimated. The study could be part of a strategic planning exercise examining
and prioritizing a range of potential software developments.

1.5.2 Planning:
If the feasibility study produces results which indicate that the prospective project
appears viable, planning of the project can take place. However, for a large project, we would
not do all our detailed planning right at the beginning. We would formulate an outline plan for
the whole project and a detailed one for the first stage. More detailed planning of the later stages
would be done as they approached. This is because we would have more detailed and accurate
information upon which to base our plans nearer to the start of the later stages.

1.5.3 Project Execution:

The project can now be executed. The execution of a project often contains design and
implementation subphases. The same is illustrated in Figure 1.2 which shows the typical
sequence of software development activities recommended in the international standard ISO
12207.

[Link] Requirements Analysis:

This starts with requirement elicitation or requirement gathering which establishes what
the users require of the system that the project is to implement. Some work along these lines
will almost certainly have been carried out when the project was evaluated, but now the
original information obtained needs to be updated and supplemented.

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[Link] Specification:
Detailed documentation of what the proposed system is to do.

[Link] Design:
A design has to be drawn up which meets the specification. This design will be in two
stages. One will be the external or user design concerned with the external appearance of the
application. The other produces the physical design which tackles the way that the data and
software procedures are to be structured internally.
 Architecture Design: This maps the requirements to the components of the system that
is to be built. At the system level, decisions will need to be made about which processes
in the new system will be carried out by the user and which can be computerized. This
design of the system architecture thus forms an input to the development of the software
requirements. A second architecture design process then takes place which maps the
software requirements to software components.

 Detailed Design: Each software component is made up of a number of software units

that can be separately coded and tested. The detailed design of these units is carried out
separately.

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[Link] Coding:
This may refer to writing code in a procedural language or an object-oriented language or
could refer to the use of an application-builder. Even where software is not being built from
scratch, some modification to the base package could be required to meet the needs of the
new application.

[Link] Testing(Verification and Validation):

Whether software is developed specially for the current application or not, careful testing
will be needed to check that the proposed system meets its requirements.

Integration: The individual components are collected together and tested to see if they meet
the overall requirements. Integration could be at the level of software where different
software components are combined, or at the level of the system as a whole where the
software and other components of the system such as the hardware platforms and networks
and the user procedures are brought together.

Qualification Testing: The system, including the software components, has to be tested
carefully to ensure that all the requirements have been fulfilled.

[Link] Implementation/ Installation:

Some system development practitioners refer to the whole of the project after design as
‘implementation’ (that is, the implementation of the design) while others insist that the term
refers to the installation of the system after the software has been developed.

[Link] Acceptance Support:

Once the system has been implemented there is a continuing need for the correction of
any errors that may have crept into the system and for extensions and improvements to the
system. Maintenance and support activities may be seen as a series of minor software
projects.

1.6 PLANS, METHODS AND METHODOLOGIES

A plan for an activity must be based on some idea of a method of work. To take a simple
example, if you were asked to test some software, even though you do not know anything about
the software to be tested, you could assume that you would need to:
 Analyze the requirements for the software
 Devise and write test cases that will check that each requirement has been satisfied
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 Create test scripts and expected results for each test case
 Compare the actual results and the expected results and identify discrepancies

While a method relates to a type of activity in general, a plan takes that method (and perhaps
others) and converts it to real activities, identifying for each activity:

 Its start and end dates

 Who will carry it out?
 What tools and materials will be used?

‘Materials’ in this context could include information, for example a requirements document.
With complex procedures, several methods may be deployed, in sequence or in parallel. The
output from one method might be the input to another. Groups of methods or techniques are
often referred to as methodologies.

1.7 SOME WAYS OF CATEGORIZING SOFTWARE PROJECTS

Distinguishing different types of projects is important as different types of tasks need

different project approaches e.g.

 Changes to the characteristics of software projects

 Voluntary systems (such as computer games) versus compulsory systems e.g. the
order processing system in an organization
 Information systems versus embedded systems.
 Software Products verses services
 Product-development versus outsourced.
 Object-driven development.

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1.7.1 Changes to the characteristics of software projects

 Over the last few decades, the characteristics of software projects have undergone
drastic changes. In earlier days of software development every software was being
written from scratch and there was no code reusability. In contrast, at present almost
every programming language supports ways of reusing existing code, by
customizing and extending existing code, efficiently and dynamically linking library
routines and support for frameworks.
 Project durations have now shrunk to only a few months compared to multi-year
projects.
 In past, customer participation in software projects was largely restricted to only
initial interactions, gathering and specification and taking delivery of the developed
software, but at present, customer participation in almost every aspect of a project.

1.7.2 Compulsory versus voluntary users

In workplaces there are systems that staff have to use if they want to do something, such
as recording a sale. However, use of a system is increasingly voluntary, as in the case of
computer games. Here it is difficult to elicit precise requirements from potential users as we
could with a business system. What the game will do will thus depend much on the
informed ingenuity of the developers, along with techniques such as market surveys, focus
groups and prototype evaluation.

1.7.3 Information Systems versus Embedded systems

A traditional distinction has been between information systems which enable staff to
carry out office processes and embedded systems which control machines. A stock control
system would be an information system. An embedded, or process control, system might control
the air conditioning equipment in a building. Some systems may have elements of both where,
for example, the stock control system also controls an automated warehouse.

1.7.4 Software Products verses services

All types of software projects can broadly be classified into software product development
projects and software services projects. It can be further classified as shown in below
Fig.1.7 A software product development concerns developing the software by keeping the
requirements to the general customers in mind and developed software is usually sold-off-
the

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shelf to a large number of customers. Examples of generic software development are

Microsoft’s Windows operating system and Oracle Corporatism’s Oracle 8i database
management software. Domain-specific software targets specific segments of
customers(verticals) Example BANCS from TCS. FINACLE from Infosys.

Fig: 1.7 A Classification of software projects

Software services cover a large gamut of software projects such as customization,

outsourcing, maintenance, testing and consultancy.

Projects may be distinguished by whether their aim is to produce a product or to meet

certain objectives.

1.7.5 Outsourced Projects

While developing a large project, it makes good commercial sense for a company to
outsource some parts of its work to other companies.
For example, A company may consider outsourcing as a good option, it if feels that it does
not have sufficient expertise to develop some specific parts of the product or if it determines
that some parts can be developed cost-effectively another company.

1.7.6 Object-driven development

Projects may be distinguished by whether their aim is to produce or to meet certain objective.

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Many software projects have two stages, First is an object-driven project resulting in
recommendations which identify the need for a new software system and next stage is a
project actually to create the software product.

1.8 STAKEHOLDERS

These are people who have a stake or interest in the project. It is important that they be
identified as early as possible, because you need to set up adequate communication channels
with them right from the start. The project leader also has to be aware that not everybody who is
involved with a project has the same motivation and objectives. The end-users might, for
instance, be concerned about the ease of use of the system while their managers might be
interested in the staff savings the new system will allow.

Boehm and Ross proposed a ‘Theory W’ of software project management where the
manager concentrates on creating the role and format situations where all parties benefit from a
project and therefore have an of communication interest in its success. (The 'W' stands for 'win-
win'.)

Stakeholders might be internal to the project team, external to the project team but in the
same organization, or totally external to the organization.

 Internal to the project team: This means that they will be under the direct managerial
control of the project leader.
 External to the project team but within the same organization: For example, the
project leader might need the assistance of the information management group in order
to add some additional data types to a database or the assistance of the users to carry out
systems testing. Here the commitment of the people involved has to be negotiated.
 External to both the project team and the organization: External stakeholders may be
customers (or users) who will benefit from the system that the project implements or
contractors who will carry out work for the project. One feature of the relationship with
these people is that it is likely to be based on a legally binding contract.

Different types of Stakeholders may have different objectives and one of the jobs of the
successful project leader is to recognize these different interests and to be able to reconcile them.
It should therefore come as no surprise that the project leader needs to be a good communicator
and negotiator.

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1.9 SETTING OBJECTIVES

 The objectives should define what the project team must achieve for project success.
 Objectives focus on the desired outcomes of the project rather than the tasks within it-
they are the ‘post-conditions’ of the project.
 Objectives could be set of statements following the opening words ‘the project will be a
success if ….’ .
 To have a successful software project, the manager and the project team members must
know what will constitute success. This will make them concentrate on what is essential
to project success.
 There may be several sets of users of a system and there may be several different groups
of specialists involved its development. There is a need for well-defined objectives that
are accepted by all these people. Where there is more than one user group, a project
authority needs to be identified which has overall authority over what the project is to
achieve.
 This authority is often held by a project steering committee (or project board or project
management board) which has overall responsibility for setting, monitoring and
modifying objectives. The project manager still has responsibility for running the project
on a day-to-day basis, but has to report to the steering committee at regular intervals.
Only the steering committee can authorize changes to the project objectives and
resources.

1.9.1 Sub-objectives and Goals:

Setting objectives can guide and motivate individuals and groups of staff. An effective
objective for an individual must be something that is within the control of that individual. An
objective might be that the software application to be produced must pay for itself by reducing
staff costs over two years. As an overall business objective this might be reasonable. For
software developers it would be unreasonable as, though they can control development costs,
any reduction in operational staff costs depends not just on them but on the operational
management after the application has ‘gone live’. What would be appropriate would be to set a
goal or sub-objective for the software developers to keep development costs within a certain
budget.

Thus, objectives will need be broken down into goals or sub-objectives. Here we say that
in order to achieve the objective we must achieve certain goals first. These goals are steps on
the way to achieving an objective, just as goals scored in a football match are steps towards the

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objective of winning the match.

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The mnemonic SMART is sometimes used to describe well defined objectives:

 Specific: Effective objectives are concrete and well defined. Vague aspirations such as
‘to improve customer relations’ are unsatisfactory. Objectives should be defined in such
a way that it is obvious to all whether the project has been successful or not.

 Measurable: Ideally there should be measures of effectiveness which tell us how

successful the project has been. For example, ‘to reduce customer complaints’ would be
more satisfactory as an objective than ‘to improve customer relations’. The measure
can, in some cases, be an answer to simple yes/no questions, e.g. ‘Can we install the
new software by 1 November 2011?’

 Achievable: It must be within the power of the individual or group to achieve the
objective.

 Relevant: The objective must be relevant to the true purpose of the project.

 Time constrained: There should be a defined point in time by which the objective
should have been achieved.

1.9.2 Measures of effectiveness

Measures of effectiveness provide practical methods of ascertaining whether an objective

has been met. ‘Mean time between failures’ (mtbf) is used to measure reliability. A measure
of effectiveness will usually be related to the installed operational system.

1.10 BUSINESS CASE

 Most projects need to have a justification or business case: the effort and expense of
pushing the project through must be seen to be worthwhile in terms of the benefits that
will eventually be felt.

 The quantification of benefits will often require the formulation of a business model
which explains how the new application can generate the claimed benefits.
Any project plan must ensure that the business case is kept intact. For example:

 The development costs are not allowed to rise to a level which threatens to exceed the
value of benefits.

 The features of the system are not reduced to a level where the expected benefits cannot
be realized.

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 The delivery date is not delayed so that there is an unacceptable loss benefit.

1.11 PROJECT SUCCESS AND FAILURE

 The project plan should be designed to ensure project success preserving the business
case for the project.

 Different stakeholders have different interests, some stakeholders in a project might see
it as a success while others do not.

 The project objectives are the targets that the project team is expected to achieve—
They are summarized as delivering:
 The agreed functionality
 To the required level of quality
 In time
 Within budget

 A project could meet these targets but the application, once delivered could fail to meet
the business case. A computer game could be delivered on time and within budget, but
might then not sell.

 In business terms, the project is a success if the value of benefits exceeds the costs.

 A project can be a success on delivery but then be a business failure, On the other hand,
a project could be late and over budget, but its deliverables could still, over time,
generate benefits that outweigh the initial expenditure.
 The possible gap between project and business concerns can be reduced by having a
broader view of projects that includes business issues.

 Technical learning will increase costs on the earlier projects, but later projects benefit
as the learnt technologies can be deployed more quickly cheaply and accurately.

 Customer relationships can also be built up over a number of projects. If a client has
trust in a supplier who has done satisfactory work in the past, they are more likely to
use that company again.

1.12 MANAGEMENT AND MANAGEMENT CONTROL

1.12.1 MANAGEMENT:
Management involves following activities:
 Planning - deciding what is to be done;

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 Organizing - making arrangements;

 Staffing - selecting the right people for the job etc.;
 Directing - giving instructions;
 Monitoring - checking on progress;
 Controlling - taking action to remedy hold-ups;
 Innovating - coming up with new solutions;
 Representing - liaising with clients, users, developer, suppliers and other
stakeholders.

Much of the project manager’s time is spent only in three activities , i.e. Project Planning ,
Monitoring and control. This time period during which these activities are carried out is
indicated in Fig 1.5.
It shows that project management is carried out over three well-defined stages or processes
irrespective of the methodology used.
In the Project initiation stage, an initial plan is made. As a project starts, the project is
monitored and controlled to process as planned. Initial plan is revised periodically to
accommodate additional details and constraints about the project as they become available.
Finally, the project is closed.
Initial project is undertaken immediately after the feasibility study phase and before starting the
requirement analysis and specification process.
Initial project planning involves estimating several characteristics of a project. Based on these
estimates all subsequent project activities are planned.
The monitoring activity involves monitoring the progress of the project. Control activities are
initiated to minimize any significant variation in the plan,

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Project Planning is an important responsibility of the project Manager. During project planning,
the project manger needs to perform a few well-defined activities that have been outlined
below/ Several best practices have been proposed for software project planning activities,
PRINCE2 is used extensively in UK and Europe . In USA Project management Institute’s
‘PMBOK’ which refers to their publication “A Gude to the Project Management Body of
knowledge, is used.
 Estimation: The following project attributes are estimated.
 Cost: How much is it going to cost to complete the project.
 Duration: How long is it going to take to complete the project.
 Effort: How much effort would be necessary for completing the project?

The effectiveness of all activities such as scheduling and staffing are planned at later stage.

 Scheduling: Based on estimations of effort and duration, the schedules for

manpower and other resources are developed.
 Staffing: Staff organization and staffing plans are made.
 Risk Management: This activity includes risk identification, analysis, and
abatement planning.
 Miscellaneous Plans: This includes making several other plans such as quality
assurance plan, configuration management plan etc.

While carrying out project monitoring and control activities, a project manager may sometimes
find it necessary to change the plan to cope with specific situations and make the plan more
accurate as more project data becomes available.

1.12.2 MANAGEMENT CONTROL

Management involves setting objectives for a system and monitoring the performance of
the system.

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Fig: The Project control cycle

 In the above Fig, local mangers involve in data collection. Bare details such as “location X
has processed 2000 documents” may not be useful to higher management.
 Data processing is required to transform this raw data into useful information. This might be
in such forms as “Percentage of records Processed”, average documents per day per person”,
and estimated completion date”.
 In this example , the project management might examine the “estimated completion date” for
completing data transfer for each branch. They are comparing actual performance with
overall project objectives.
 They might find that one or two branches will fail to complete the transfer of details in time.
 It can be seen that a project plan is dynamic and will need constant adjustment during the
execution of the project. A good plan provides a foundation for a good project, but is nothing
without intelligent execution.

1.13 PROJECT MANAGEMENT LIFE CYCLE

Software development life cycle denotes (SDLC) the stages through which a software is
developed. In contrast to SDLC, the project management life cycle typically starts well before
the software development activities start and continues for the entire duration of SDLC. (Fig 1.7)

In Project Management process, the project manager carries out project initiation, planning,
execution, monitoring, controlling and closing.

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The different phases of the project management life cycle are shown in Fig: 1.8.

1. Project Initiation: The project initiation phase starts with project concept development.
During concept development the different characteristics of the software to be developed
are thoroughly understood, which includes, the scope of the project, the project
constraints, the cost that would be incurred and the benefits that would accrue. Based on
this understanding, a feasibility study is undertaken to determine the project would be
financially and technically feasible.
Based on feasibility study, the business case is developed. Once the top management
agrees to the business case, the project manager is appointed, the project charter is
written and finally project team is formed. This sets the ground for the manager to start
the project planning phase.

W5HH Principle: Barry Boehm, summarized the questions that need to be asked and answered
in order to have an understanding of these project characteristics.

 Why is the software being built?

 What will be done?
 When will it be done?
 Who is responsible for a function?

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 Where are they organizationally located?

 How will the job be done technically and managerially?
 How much of these each resource is needed.

2. Project Bidding: Once the top management is convinced by the business case, the
project charter is developed. For some categories of projects, it may be necessary to
have formal bidding process to select suitable vendor based on some cost-performance
criteria. The different types of bidding techniques are:

 Request for quotation(RFQ) : An organization advertises an RFQ if it has good

understanding of the project and the possible solutions.

 Request for Proposal(RFP) : An organization had reasonable understanding of

the problem to be solved, however, it does not have good grasp of the solution
aspects. i.e. may not have sufficient knowledge about different features to be
implemented. The purpose of RFP is to get an understanding of the alternative
solutions possible that can be deployed and not vendor selection. Based on the
RFP process, the requesting organization can form a clear idea of the project
solutions required, based on which it can form a statement work (SOW) for
requesting RFQ for the vendors.

 Request for Information (RFI): An organization soliciting bids may publish an

RFI. Based on the vendor response to the RFI, the organization can assess the
competencies of the vendors and shortlist the vendors who can bid for the work.

3. Project Planning: An importance of the project initiation phase is the project charter.
During the project planning the project manger carries out several processes and creates
the following documents:
 Project plan: This document identifies the project the project tasks and a
schedule for the project tasks that assigns project resources and time frames to the
tasks.
 Resource Plan: It lists the resources , manpower and equipment that would be
required to execute the project.
 Functional Plan: It documents the plan for manpower, equipment and other costs.
 Quality Plan: Plan of quality targets and control plans are included in this
document.

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 Risk Plan: This document lists the identification of the potential risks, their
prioritization and a plan for the actions that would be taken to contain the
different risks.

4. Project Execution: In this phase the tasks are executed as per the project plan developed
during the planning phase. Quality of the deliverables is ensured through execution of
proper processes. Once all the deliverables are produced and accepted by the customer,
the project execution phase completes and the project closure phase starts.

5. Project Closure: Project closure involves completing the release of all the required
deliverables to the customer along with the necessary documentation. All the Project
resources are released and supply agreements with the vendors are terminated and all the
pending payments are completed. Finally, a postimplementation review is undertaken to
analyze the project performance and to list the lessons for use in future projects.

1.14 TRADITIONAL VERSUS MODERN MANAGEMENT PRACTICES

Over the last two decades, the basic approach taken by the software industry to develop software
has undergone a radical change.

Software is not developed from scratch any more, Software development projects are based on
either tailoring some existing product or reusing certain pre-built libraries both will maximize
code reuse and compression of project durations.

Other goals include facilitating and accommodating client feedback and client feedbacks
and customer participation in project development work and incremental delivery of the
product with evolving functionality.

Some Important difference between modern management practices and traditional practices are:

 Planning Incremental Delivery: Earlier, projects were simpler and therefore more
predictable than the present-day projects. In those days, projects were planned with
sufficient detail much before the actual project execution started. After the project
initiation, monitoring and control activities were carried out to ensure that the project
execution proceeded as per plan, Now, the projects are required to be completed over a
much shorter duration, and rapid application development and deployment are considered
key strategies.
Instead of making a long-term project completion plan, the project manger now plans all
incremental deliveries with evolving functionalities. This type of project management is

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often called extreme project management. Extreme project management is highly

flexible approach that concentrates on human side of project management(e.g. managing
project stakeholders).

 Quality Management: Customer awareness about product quality has increased

significantly. The key responsibility of a project manager now includes assessment of
project progress and tracking the quality of all intermediate artifacts.

 Change Management: Earlier, when the requirements were signed off by the customer,
any changes to the requirements were rarely entertained. Customer suggestions are now
actively solicited and incorporated throughout the development process. To facilitate
customer feedback, incremental delivery models are popularly being used. Product
development is being carried out through a series of product versions implementing
increasingly greater functionalities. The Project manager plays a key role in product base
lining and version control. This has made change management a crucial responsibility of
the project manager. Change Management is also known as configuration management.

 Requirement Management: In older development methodologies, the requirements had

to be identified upfront and these were ‘signed off’ by the customer and frozen before the
development could start. At present, in most projects, the requirements change frequently
during the development cycle. Requirement management has therefore become a
systematic process of controlling changes, documenting, analyzing, tracing, prioritizing
requirements and then communicating the changes to the relevant stakeholders.

 Release Management: Release management concerns planning, prioritizing and

controlling the different releases of a software. Modern development processes such as
Agile development processes advocate frequent and regular releases of the software to be
made to the customer during the software development. Starting with the release of basic
or core functionalities of the software, more complete functionalities are made available
to the customer every couple of weeks . Hence effective Release Management has
become important.

 Risk Management: In modern software development practices. Effective risk

management is considered very important to the success of a project. A risk is any
negative situation that may arise as the project progresses and may threaten the
success of the

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project. Risk Management involves identification of risks, assessment of the impacts of

various risks, prioritization of the risks and preparation of risk-containment plans.

 Scope Management: Modern software development encourages customer to come up

with change requests. While accepting the requests, three critical project parameters:
scope , schedule and project cost are interdependent and related.

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