Unit-1:Overview of Project Management

Project management –

Project management in software engineering is distinct from traditional project

management — software in project management has a unique life cycle process that
requires multiple rounds of testing, updating, and customer feedback. Most IT-related
projects are managed in the Agile style to keep up with the increasing pace of
business and iterate based on customer and stakeholder feedback.

Factors Influencing Project Management-

Project manager-

Project managers play the lead role in planning, executing, monitoring, controlling
and closing projects. Here is a look at the project manager role, responsibilities,
relevant certifications, expected salaries, and job-seeking tips.
They are accountable for the entire project scope, the project team and resources,
the project budget, and the success or failure of the project.

A project manager, with the help of their team, is charged with multiple
responsibilities that span the five project phases of a project life cycle (initiating,
planning, executing, monitoring, and closing) below.

The project management phases intersect with 10 knowledge areas, which include
integration, scope, time, cost, quality, human resources, communication, risk
procurement, and stakeholder management.

Project management activities-

Software Project Management consists of many activities, that includes planning of
the project, deciding the scope of product, estimation of cost in different terms,
scheduling of tasks, etc.

The list of activities are as follows:

1. Project planning and Tracking

2. Project Resource Management
3. Scope Management
4. Estimation Management
5. Project Risk Management
6. Scheduling Management
7. Project Communication Management
8. Configuration Management

Now we will discuss all these activities -

1. Project Planning: It is a set of multiple processes, or we can say that it a task that
performed before the construction of the product starts.

2. Scope Management: It describes the scope of the project. Scope management is

important because it clearly defines what would do and what would not. Scope
Management create the project to contain restricted and quantitative tasks, which may
merely be documented and successively avoids price and time overrun.

3. Estimation management: This is not only about cost estimation because

whenever we start to develop software, but we also figure out their size(line of code),
efforts, time as well as cost.

If we talk about the size, then Line of code depends upon user or software
requirement.

If we talk about effort, we should know about the size of the software, because based
on the size we can quickly estimate how big team required to produce the software.

If we talk about time, when size and efforts are estimated, the time required to
develop the software can easily determine.

And if we talk about cost, it includes all the elements such as:

o Size of software
o Quality
o Hardware
o Communication
o Training
o Additional Software and tools
o Skilled manpower

4. Scheduling Management: Scheduling Management in software refers to all the

activities to complete in the specified order and within time slotted to each activity.
Project managers define multiple tasks and arrange them keeping various factors in
mind.

For scheduling, it is compulsory -

o Find out multiple tasks and correlate them.

o Divide time into units.
o Assign the respective number of work-units for every job.
o Calculate the total time from start to finish.
o Break down the project into modules.
5. Project Resource Management: In software Development, all the elements are
referred to as resources for the project. It can be a human resource, productive tools,
and libraries.

Resource management includes:

o Create a project team and assign responsibilities to every team member

o Developing a resource plan is derived from the project plan.
o Adjustment of resources.

6. Project Risk Management: Risk management consists of all the activities like
identification, analyzing and preparing the plan for predictable and unpredictable risk
in the project.

Several points show the risks in the project:

o The Experienced team leaves the project, and the new team joins it.
o Changes in requirement.
o Change in technologies and the environment.
o Market competition.

7. Project Communication Management: Communication is an essential factor in

the success of the project. It is a bridge between client, organization, team members
and as well as other stakeholders of the project such as hardware suppliers.

From the planning to closure, communication plays a vital role. In all the phases,
communication must be clear and understood. Miscommunication can create a big
blunder in the project.

8. Project Configuration Management: Configuration management is about to

control the changes in software like requirements, design, and development of the
product.

The Primary goal is to increase productivity with fewer errors.

Stakeholder
What Is a Stakeholder?
A stakeholder is a party that has an interest in a company and can either affect or be
affected by the business. The primary stakeholders in a typical corporation are
its investors, employees, customers, and suppliers. However, with the increasing
attention on corporate social responsibility, the concept has been extended to include
communities, governments, and trade associations.

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

 A stakeholder has a vested interest in a company and can either affect or be

affected by a business' operations and performance.
  Typical stakeholders are investors, employees, customers, suppliers,
communities, governments, or trade associations.
 An entity's stakeholders can be both internal or external to the organization.

Project Communication
Communication is a key component to the success of your project. Communicate
project progress and issues to the project stakeholders, team members and leadership.
Though the communication schedule may differ by the audience, establish a regular
schedule for informing the target audience.

Project Development Phases

At the start of a project, the amount of planning and work required can seem
overwhelming. There may be dozens, or even hundreds of tasks that need to be
completed at just the right time and in just the right sequence.

Seasoned project managers know it is often easier to handle the details of a project
and take steps in the right order when you break the project down into phases.
Dividing your project management efforts into these five phases can help give your
efforts structure and simplify them into a series of logical and manageable steps.

1. Project Initiation

Initiation is the first phase of the project lifecycle. This is where the project’s value
and feasibility are measured. Project managers typically use two evaluation tools to
decide whether or not to pursue a project:

 Business Case Document – This document justifies the need for the project,
and it includes an estimate of potential financial benefits.
 Feasibility Study – This is an evaluation of the project’s goals, timeline and
costs to determine if the project should be executed. It balances the
requirements of the project with available resources to see if pursuing the
project makes sense.

Teams abandon proposed projects that are labeled unprofitable and/or unfeasible.
However, projects that pass these two tests can be assigned to a project team or
designated project office.

2. Project Planning

Once the project receives the green light, it needs a solid plan to guide the team, as
well as keep them on time and on budget. A well-written project plan gives guidance
for obtaining resources, acquiring financing and procuring required materials. The
project plan gives the team direction for producing quality outputs, handling risk,
creating acceptance, communicating benefits to stakeholders and managing suppliers.

The project plan also prepares teams for the obstacles they might encounter over the
course of the project, and helps them understand the cost, scope and timeframe of the
project.

3. Project Execution
This is the phase that is most commonly associated with project management.
Execution is all about building deliverables that satisfy the customer. Team leaders
make this happen by allocating resources and keeping team members focused on their
assigned tasks.

Execution relies heavily on the planning phase. The work and efforts of the team
during the execution phase are derived from the project plan.

4. Project Monitoring and Control

Monitoring and control are sometimes combined with execution because they often
occur at the same time. As teams execute their project plan, they must constantly
monitor their own progress.

To guarantee delivery of what was promised, teams must monitor tasks to prevent
scope creep, calculate key performance indicators and track variations from allotted
cost and time. This constant vigilance helps keep the project moving ahead smoothly.

5. Project Closure

Teams close a project when they deliver the finished project to the customer,
communicating completion to stakeholders and releasing resources to other projects.
This vital step in the project lifecycle allows the team to evaluate and document the
project and move on the next one, using previous project mistakes and successes to
build stronger processes and more successful teams.

Although project management may seem overwhelming at times, breaking it down

into these five distinct cycles can help your team manage even the most complex
projects and use time and resources more wisely.

Project Charter –
Project Charter: The Project Charter is a formal document to authorize the project
and give the project manager the authority to spend the project budget.

 The Project Charter includes:

 Project purpose / justification
 High-level project objectives and product characteristics
 Project success criteria
 High-level requirements
 High-level schedule and budget
 Name the Project manager
 List out the project approval requirements and approval authority

 The Project Charter is created in the Develop Project Charter process with
the following inputs:
 Project statement of work (SOW)
 Business case
 Agreement
 Enterprise environmental factors (EEFs)
 Organizational process assets
A project charter is a formal, typically short document that describes your project in

its entirety — including what the objectives are, how it will be carried out, and who

the stakeholders are. It is a crucial ingredient in planning the project because it is used

throughout the project lifecycle.

A charter overview

The project charter typically documents:

 Reasons for the project

 Objectives and constraints of the project

 The main stakeholders

 Risks identified

 Benefits of the project

 General overview of the budget

How to create a project charter

1. Understand project goals and objectives: Identify the project vision and
determine the scope of the project

2. Define project organization: List all of the essential roles for the project,
including customers, stakeholders, and the day-to-day project team

3. Create an implementation plan: Outline major milestones, dependencies,

and the timeline for the entire team and stakeholders

4. List potential problem areas: This isn’t about being a downer, and more
instead about being realistic. Adding potential risks and issues to the project
charter helps everyone think ahead and even prevents potential roadblocks.

Statement of Work (SOW)

 Project Statement of Work (SOW): The Project Statement of Work is a
document providing the business need and the overview of the
 qualities/characteristics of intended deliverables/products the project would
deliver. It will also include what are included / NOT included in the project.
 The Project SOW is provided:
 (for external projects) customer as the basis for writing the bid
document;
 (for internal projects) project sponsor

What exactly is SOW document in software development, and why is it necessary for
productive partnerships with IT-firms? Basically, it’s a document that clarifies every
aspect of your contract with another company, including schedules, terms, work
standards, payment method, as well as acceptance criteria for deliveries. As a matter
of fact, a high-quality SOW should cover every critical point of the work. So, what
exactly should this document include? Let’s take a closer look.

Table of Contents

 Purpose of Statement of Work (SOW) Document

 Who Should Write the SOW

 What’s included in the SOW for software development projects

o Introduction

o Purpose (What is it?)

o Scope of work and description (What is going to be done?)

o Location of Operations (Where will it be done?)

o Standards (How will it be done?)

o Deadlines and Schedule (When is it going to be done?)

o Monitoring (How to control it?)

o Acceptance Criteria (How will we know the job is done?)

o Contract Mode and Payment Model (What does the payment process

look like?)

o Miscellaneous (What else should we clarify?)



Project Planning
 After the project has been defined and the project team has been appointed, you are
ready to enter the second phase in the project management life cycle: the detailed
project planning phase.

Project planning is at the heart of the project life cycle, and tells everyone involved
where you’re going and how you’re going to get there. The planning phase is when
the project plans are documented, the project deliverables and requirements are
defined, and the project schedule is created. It involves creating a set of plans to help
guide your team through the implementation and closure phases of the project. The
plans created during this phase will help you manage time, cost, quality, changes,
risk, and related issues. They will also help you control staff and external suppliers to
ensure that you deliver the project on time, within budget, and within schedule.

The project planning phase is often the most challenging phase for a project manager,
as you need to make an educated guess about the staff, resources, and equipment
needed to complete your project. You may also need to plan your communications
and procurement activities, as well as contract any third-party suppliers.

The Task of the project planning phase is to:

 Establish business requirements

 Establish cost, schedule, list of deliverables, and delivery dates
 Establish resources plans
 Obtain management approval and proceed to the next phase

The basic processes of project planning are:

 Scope planning – specifying the in-scope requirements for the project to facilitate
creating the work breakdown structure
 Preparation of the work breakdown structure – spelling out the breakdown of the
project into tasks and sub-tasks
 Project schedule development – listing the entire schedule of the activities and
detailing their sequence of implementation
 Resource planning – indicating who will do what work, at which time, and if any
special skills are needed to accomplish the project tasks
 Budget planning – specifying the budgeted cost to be incurred at the completion of
the project
 Procurement planning – focusing on vendors outside your company and
subcontracting
 Risk management – planning for possible risks and considering optional contingency
plans and mitigation strategies
 Quality planning – assessing quality criteria to be used for the project
 Communication planning – designing the communication strategy with all project
stakeholders

Work Breakdown Structure(WBS):-

A Work Breakdown Structure includes dividing a large and complex project into
simpler, manageable and independent tasks. The root of this tree (structure) is
labelled by the Project name itself. For constructing a work breakdown structure,
each node is recursively decomposed into smaller sub-activities, until at the leaf level,
the activities becomes undividable and independent. It follows a Top-Down
approach.
Steps:
 Step-1: Identify the major activities of the project.
 Step-2: Identify the sub-activities of the major activities.
 Step-3: Repeat till undividable, simple and independent activities are created.

Construction of Work Breakdown Structure:

Firstly, the project managers and top level management identifies the main
deliverables of the project. After this important step, these main deliverables are
broke down into smaller higher-level tasks and this complete process is done
recursively to produce much smaller independent tasks. It depends on the project
manager and team that upto which level of detail they want to break down their
project.
Generally the lowest level tasks are the most simplest and independent tasks and
takes less than two weeks worth of work. Hence, there is no rule for upto which level
we may build the work breakdown structure of the project as it totally depends upon
the type of project we are working on and the management of the company. The
efficiency and success of the whole project majorly depends on the quality of the
Work Breakdown Structure of the project and hence, it implies its importance.
Uses:
 It allows to do a precise cost estimation of each activity.
 It allows to estimate the time that each activity will take more precisely.
 It allows easy management of the project.
 It helps in proper organisation of the project by the top management.

The Project Lifecycle Models

 There is no single project lifecycle model that fits all kinds of project. Each
industry or application area has its own distinct model with very specific
characteristics (a simple software development life cycle model is illustrated below).
Even within a particular application area both the model used and its precise
interpretation can vary. In every case, however, the lifecycle model provides project
managers with a structure within which work can be identified and organised into
phases. Once an appropriate life cycle model has been selected, its structure can be
used to form the basis for developing the project plan.

A simple Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

In the absence of an application-specific life cycle model, a generic model can be

used to provide the necessary framework. The following phases might form part of
such a model:

 Conceptual phase - the project proposal is developed, objectives and

constraints are identified, and the feasibility of the project is assessed
(this will normally involve making a rough estimate of project cost,
the human resources required and the timescale over which the
project activities will take place). The phase may also include the
identification of project milestones and an assessment of risks
associated with undertaking the project.
 Planning phase - assuming the decision has been taken to proceed
with the project, detailed planning must now take place. The scope of
the project will be defined and work will be scheduled and allocated
to workgroups or individuals as appropriate. A detailed schedule of
the resources required will be produced, and a detailed project budget
will be prepared. The project budget, together with the various
schedules that are drawn up, will constitute the baseline against
which progress will be measured. It is at this stage that the tools and
techniques that will be used to manage, monitor and evaluate the
project, including any specialist software packages, will be identified.

 Implementation - the product or service that is the subject of the

project will be produced and tested during this phase, making it the
most intensive phase of the project in terms of expenditure and effort.
The kind of project management activities that take place during this
stage will include the management of change - depending on the
nature of the project, the requirements (or scope) of the project may
change as time goes by. Other activities will include monitoring
expenditure to ensure that the budget is adhered to (or if necessary
amended), and work carried out to ensure that any delays are flagged
up and dealt with promptly (this could entail making changes to the
schedule of work or a re-allocation of resources).

 Termination - this phase, sometimes overlooked when aspects of

project management are being considered, is where loose ends are
tidied up and the relative success or failure of the project is evaluated.
Depending on the type of project being undertaken, it may include a
process of handover whereby the customer or end user takes
ownership of the new product or service, and is given all of the
necessary documentation (e.g. user manuals, technical
documentation, certificates of compliance and so on). An audit may
be carried out to assess how well (or badly) the project was managed,
and to derive any lessons to be learned for future reference.
 A simple generic project life cycle

The project life cycle model can be used as a framework within which to plan project
activities and to define project milestones. Each phase of the life cycle will be
associated with a specific set of deliverables which can be evaluated against the
planned objectives for the current phase, and which will form the foundation on
which the next phase of the life cycle will build. The end of each phase will be a
significant project milestone. In many projects, the phases of the life cycle model
used will form the basis for the Work Breakdown Structure (we will look at this in
some detail elsewhere), which is used to define and organise the units of work that
must be undertaken during the project’s lifetime, and which forms the basis for the
project plan. The standard assumption is that each phase will be completed before the
next phase begins, although there are invariably exceptions to this rule.