5.
Project planning and
management
Role of a manager
Charts and Critical Path Analysis
Estimation Techniques
Monitoring
Role of a manager
Directs resources for the achievement of
goals
LEADER also provides
Vision
Inspiration
Rises above the usual
No one right way to manage
Management Continuum
Autocratic Consultative Participate
Authoritarian Democratic
Solves problems alone
Dictates decisions
Discusses Problems
Makes decision
Chairperson
Agrees problem
Creates consensus
Managerial Roles
(after Henry Mintzberg)
Interpersonal
Figurehead
Leader
Liaison
Informational Roles
Monitor
Disseminator
Spokesperson
Decisional Roles
Entrepreneur
Resource Allocator
Disturbance Allocator
Negotiator
Qualities
Technical/Professional knowledge
Organisational know-how
Ability to grasp situation
Ability to make decisions
Ability to manage change
Creative
Mental flexibility - Learns from experience
Pro-active
Moral courage
Resilience
Social skills
Self Knowledge
Variables
Resource
Time
Function
You can have any two of quick, good or
cheap, but not all three
Development cycle:
Effort
Time
Specification Analysis Build Test Maintain
Alpha Beta
Crossing the Chasm
Geoffrey Moore, after Everett Rogers
Tech Utility
Approaches and methodologies
Top Down
Waterfall decomposition
Bottom Up
meta machine
Rapid Prototype
successive refinement
Muddle through
Spiral Methodology
Phase
Deliverables
Envisioning agreeing the
overall direction and the
contents of this phase
Vision/Scope document
Risk assessment
Project structure
Planning design for this
phase.
Functional specification
Risk assessment
Project schedule
Developing the actual build
Frozen functional specification
Risk management plan
Source code and executables
Performance support elements
Test specification and test
cases
Master project plan and master
project schedule
Stabilsing test, debug,
rework.
Golden release
Release notes
Performance support elements
Pert and Gantt Charts
Visual representation of project
Microsoft Project
Example: Getting up in the
morning
Task Duration (mins)
1 Alarm rings 0
2. Wake Up 3
3. Get out of bed 5
4. Wash 5
5. Get dressed 5
6. Put kettle on 2
7 Wait for kettle to boil 5
8 Put toast on 2
9 Wait for Toast 3
10 Make coffee 3
11 Butter Toast 2
12 Eat Breakfast 10
13 Leave for Lectures 0
Pert Chart
Leave f or
Lectures
9:30am 9:30am
9:30am 9:30am
Wash
8:56am 9:01am
8:56am 9:01am
Get dressed
9:01am 9:06am
9:01am 9:06am
Eat Breakf ast
9:20am 9:30am
9:20am 9:30am
Put Ket tle on
9:06am 9:09am
9:09am 9:12am
Wait f or kett le t o
boil
9:09am 9:14am
9:12am 9:17am
Make Cof f ee
9:14am 9:17am
9:17am 9:20am
But ter Toast
9:16am 9:20am
9:16am 9:20am
Wait f or Toast
9:11am 9:16am
9:11am 9:16am
Put t oast on
9:06am 9:11am
9:06am 9:11am
Get out of bed
8:56am 8:56am
8:56am 8:56am
Critical Path Analysis
Compute earliest and latest start/finish for
each task
The difference is the slack
The Critical Path joins the tasks for which
there is no slack
Any delay in tasks on the on the critical path
affects the whole project
Pert Chart
Leave f or
Lectures
9:30am 9:30am
9:30am 9:30am
Wait f or kett le t o
boil
9:09am 9:14am
9:12am 9:17am
Make Cof f ee
9:14am 9:17am
9:17am 9:20am
But ter Toast
9:16am 9:20am
9:16am 9:20am
Wait f or Toast
9:11am 9:16am
9:11am 9:16am
Put Ket tle on
9:06am 9:09am
9:09am 9:12am
Get out of bed
9:06am 9:06am
9:06am 9:06am
Put t oast on
9:06am 9:11am
9:06am 9:11am
Eat Breakf ast
9:20am 9:30am
9:20am 9:30am
Get dressed
9:11am 9:16am
9:15am 9:20am
Wash
9:06am 9:11am
9:10am 9:15am
Gantt Chart
Example
Example Pert
Phase 2
29/5/ 95 7/7/ 95
29/5/ 95 28/7/ 95
Phase 3
19/6/ 95 25/8/ 95
19/6/ 95 25/8/ 95
Code
19/6/ 95 23/6/ 95
10/7/ 95 14/7/ 95
Analyse
1/5/ 95 26/5/ 95
1/5/ 95 26/5/ 95
St art
30/4/ 95 30/4/ 95
1/5/ 95 1/5/ 95
Code
17/7/ 95 28/7/ 95
17/7/ 95 28/7/ 95
End
25/8/ 95 25/8/ 95
25/8/ 95 25/8/ 95
Code
29/5/ 95 16/6/ 95
19/6/ 95 7/7/ 95
Analyse
29/5/ 95 16/6/ 95
29/5/ 95 16/6/ 95
Analyse
19/6/ 95 14/7/ 95
19/6/ 95 14/7/ 95
Phase 1
1/5/ 95 23/6/ 95
1/5/ 95 14/7/ 95
Test
19/6/ 95 23/6/ 95
10/7/ 95 14/7/ 95
Test
26/6/ 95 7/7/ 95
17/7/ 95 28/7/ 95
Test
31/7/ 95 25/8/ 95
31/7/ 95 25/8/ 95
Levelling
Adjust tasks to match resources available
Automatic systems available, but do not
always give an optimum result
Tasks may be delayed within slack without
affecting project dates
Otherwise consider extending project, or
using more resource
Adding resource to late project may cause
RECURSIVE COLLAPSE
consider carefully whether the benefits outweigh the
additional learning delays and overheads
Derive costings
Larger example
5
23
33 34
36
40
15
41
38
30
14
11
13
8
20
12
42
4
18
27
7 2
35
31
37
16
3
10
9
44 45 46
24
26
39
25
21
22
17
19
6
28
32 29
1 43
Estimation Techniques
Experience
Comparison with similar tasks
20 lines of code/day
can vary by 2 orders of magnitude
Decomposition
Plan to throw one away
20 working days per month BUT 200 per year
Rules of Thumb
Software projects:
estimate 10 x cost and 3 x time
1:3:10 rule
1: cost of prototype
3: cost of turning prototype into a product
10: cost of sales and marketing
>>Product costs are dominated by cost of sales
Hartrees Law
The time to completion of any project, as estimated by
the project leader, is a constant (Hartrees constant)
regardless of the state of the project
A project is 90% complete 90% of the time
80% Rule
Dont plan to use more than 80% of the available
resources
Memory, disc, cycles, programming resource....
Cynics Project Stages
Enthusiasm
Disillusionment
Panic
Persecution of the innocent
Praise of the bystander
