Spm unit 1

Editor's Notes

• #3: 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’ BSO ISO 10006: 1997
• #4: On the one hand there are repetitive jobs a similar task is carried out repeatedly, for example Kwikfit replacing a tyre on a car or a lecturer giving an introductory talk on project management. The task is well-defined and there is very little uncertainty. In some organizations, software development might tend to be like this – in these environments software process management might be more important than software project management On the other hand some exploratory activities are very uncertain. Some research projects can be like this – we may not be sure what the outcome will be, but we hope that we will learn some things of importance. It may be very difficult to come up with precise plans, although we would probably have some idea of a general approach. Projects seem to come somewhere between these two extremes. There are usually well-defined hoped-for outcomes but there are risks and uncertainties about achieving those outcomes.
• #5: Exercise 1.1 in the Software Project Management text is a good way of introducing this material if you have time. I have found this exercise to be a good ‘ice-breaker’. Get each student to list the example activities in an order which matches the degree to which they merit the description of ‘project’. You can create a grid on a whiteboard with the projects on the vertical axis and the positions 1 st , 2 nd , 3 rd etc on the horizontal axis. You then go through asking how many put ‘producing a newspaper’ first, second, etc. (Avoid making jokes about this being like the Eurovision song contest). This is time-consuming but it does mean that every student participates in building up a general picture of people’s perceptions, and you can discuss disagreements in perceptions as you go along.
• #6: This is based on Fred Brooks’ paper No Silver Bullet: Essence and Accidents of Software Engineering which appeared in IEEE Computer 20(4) pp10-19 April 1987
• #8: With objective-based projects, a general objective or problem is defined, and there are several different ways in which that objective could be reached. The project team have freedom to select what appears to be the most appropriate approach. With product-based projects, the product is already very strictly defined and the development team’s job is to implement the specification with which they have been presented. Arguably, information systems projects are more likely to be objective-based than is the case with software engineering. In many cases, an objective-based project could consider a problem and recommend a solution that is then implemented by a product-based project. Exercise 1.5 in the text is relevant here.
• #16: This list is based on one that can be found in Introduction to Software Project Management and Quality Assurance by Darrel Ince, Helen Sharp and Mark Woodman, McGraw-Hill, 1993.
• #17: Different people who are involved in a project (Stakeholders) will have different interests in the project and are likely to see different outcomes as being important. For example, end-users would want a system that is ‘user-friendly’, that is, easy to learn and to use, and a system that helps rather than hinders them from doing their jobs. Their managers may be more interested in whether the new system would allow them to reduce staffing levels. It is important therefore that a set of clearly defined objectives are identified and published for the project. Some individual or group needs to be pinpointed who acts as the main client for the project. See Exercise 1.7 in the text.
• #18: The focus here needs to be on what the situation will be when the project is completed. In what ways will the world be different? The objectives should avoid describing activities: e.g. ‘a new payroll application will be operational by 4 th April’ not ‘design and code a new payroll application’
• #19: I have seen some places where the R is said to stand for ‘resource-constrained’, that is that there is a target cost associated with the achievement of the objective.
• #20: Scoring a goal in football is a ‘goal’ or sub-objective on the way to achieving the overall objective of winning the match. Sub-objectives and objectives can be nested in a hierarchy, so that the objective of winning the match could itself be a goal or sub-objective on the way to winning the league etc.
• #21: Goals can be formulated in such a way that they represent what an individual or group need to do to contribute to the success of the project’s objectives. In the example above, the analyst or developer, by themselves, cannot guarantee user satisfaction. However, the analyst can contribute to the achievement of the objective by making sure the users’ requirements are accurately recorded and the developer by making sure that the software is reliable. See Exercise 1.7 in the text.
• #22: See Exercise 1.8 in the text.
• #23: Each stakeholder will have their own goals and concerns in relation to the project which may be different from those of the project as a whole. For example, a software developer might work to make a living, pay the mortgage, learn new things, solve interesting problems. The main stakeholders need, however, to understand and accept the overall project objectives.
• #26: It is not always possible to put a precise financial on the benefits of a project. The client’s willingness to pay up to a certain price to get a project implemented implies that they have informally identified a value to them of getting that project implemented.
• #34: 1.1. Identifying objectives and measures of effectiveness. This was discussed in chapter/lecture 1. To revise this students could be asked to try to produce a succinct statement of the objectives for the student described previously. Key points are that the student project objectives must be such that a student can realistically be responsible for their achievement. For instance, an objective to reduce conflict between project team members would be at too high a level for a software developer: he or she is there to produce software and evaluation of the particular pyschometric test would be outside their capabilities. If the student was a psychology student and the project was regarded as a psychological one, then things might be different. 1.2.Establishment of a project authority In the case of students on placement or carrying final year projects for outside organizations, the problem of identifying who has the final say on the project can occur surprisingly often, particular when different user groups have conflicting requirements. In larger, more formal projects, the project authority might reside in a Project Board or steering committee. 1.3 Identify all stakeholders in the project and their interests . Stakeholders can be anyone who has an interest in the project. They may be users of the final application or might be involved in the development or implementation of the project.
• #35: 1.4 Modify objectives in the light of stakeholder analysis. The key point here is the need to ensure commitment to the project from the important stakeholders. This might need to be done by ensuring that there is some benefit from the project for them. Note this is a similar idea to Barry Boehm’s ‘Theory W’ (‘W’ stands for ‘everyone a w inner’) 1.5 Establish methods of communication with all parties In the case of a small student project, it might be mainly swapping email addresses and mobile phone numbers. With larger projects, it could involve setting up groups who meet regularly to co-ordinate action. Sometimes specific ‘communication plans’ are drawn up to deal with these issues.
• #36: At the same time as establishing exactly what the project objectives are, the person responsible may know little about the organizational environment in which the application is to be developed and implemented. The actions in Step 2 address this problem.
• #37: Step 3 is about examining the nature of the application to be built and the environment in which it is to be built and implemented and identifying the most appropriate technical approach. 3.1 Objective-based versus product-based projects . With a product-based project the developers have to create a product, the specification of which is often (but not always) clearly defined. In an objective-based project, a problem is defined that needs to be solved but there could be more than one solution. For example, in the case of the psychometric testing project, it could be assumed that the student is simply to develop the software application that will be defined by the company. On the other hand, it might be possible to implement pyschometric testing using purely paper-based questionnaires, or by buying in an existing tool if a broader, objective-based, approach was adopted. 3.2 Analyse other project characteristics – such as is it an information system or an embedded real time or a multimedia application? Is it safety-critical? Etc etc
• #38: Identifying high level risks could influence the general approach to the project. For example, if the users appeared to be uncertain about the precise nature of the requirement then a more iterative approach, including the use of prototypes to refine user needs, might be selected. If the application is very large and complex then breaking it down into increments might be the way to proceed. Chapter/lecture 4 looks at this in more detail.
• #39: Here we follow the PRINCE approach of firstly identifying the products to be created. These products could be deliverables that will eventually be handed over to the customer, or intermediate products such as specifications and design documents, that are produced along the way. The PBS is a way of listing these products. In the scenario, the need for usability testing was identified, and the example of planning a usability test is used here. In order to do the testing, we need a set of selected subjects , a group of people who have similar characteristics to those who will finally use the system and who have agreed to try out the application. We need to have a booked PC that is available for testing when we need it. We are going to give each subject a questionnaire to complete when they have tried out the application ( completed questionnaire ), but we will need to have a questionnaire design first. We are also to observe the subjects using the application and collect details of things like the time taken to complete standard tasks and the errors they make ( test results ). These will then be analysed and the results put in an analysis report which will then be used to suggest changes to the application ( change requests ). All the boxes in the diagram which are not sub-divided at a lower level represent products. Boxes that are sub-divided (i.e. usability testing and testing arrangements ) are names given to the group of activities that are connected to them lower in the hierarchy.
• #42: The names of products on the PBS can be rather vague. If you were to ask someone to produce, for example, the ‘analysis report’ in the usability testing scenario, then you would need to explain exactly what you mean by that. This is done via a Product Description. PDs can usually be re-used from one project to another. Note that they are different from specifications – the explain in general terms what a product is and the description is relevant to all instances of that product. A specification describes a particular instance within the class of products.
• #43: The product flow diagram shows the order in which the products have to be completed. Effectively it defines a method of working. Note that as we drew up the PFD for the usability testing scenario, we identified an additional product called ‘testing plan’. The flow of the PFD is generally from top to bottom and left to right. We do no put in lines which loop back. This is not because iterative and back-tracking is not accepted. Rather it is that you can in theory jump back to any preceding product. For example, when producing the analysis report we might realise that there is a particular type of user that we have not included in our tests. We could go back and find some more selected subjects . However this would potentially mean that all the products that follow the one we have jumped back to would have to be reworked.
• #45: There are some points in the project when we want to check that the quality of what we have done so far is a sound basis for further work. In the example we have decided to check that all the module designs are compatible with one another before continuing. Note that the benefit of reducing wasted work at a later stage when incompatibilities lead to products being reworked, has to be balanced against the delay caused by the check-point. The start of coding of modules A, B and C all have to wait for the completion of the design of all the modules A, B and C. With no check-point, module A could be coded as soon as the design of module A had been done without having to wait for B and C.
• #46: Effort is the total number of staff-hours (or days etc) needed to complete a task. Elapsed time is the calendar time between the time task starts and when it ends. If 2 people work on the same task for 5 days without any interruption, then the effort is 10 staff-days and the elapsed time is 5 days. Using the PBS/PFD to generate the activities often means that some activities are very small and others are huge. Often there is an activity called ‘write software’ which is 70% of a software development project. These large activities need to be broken down into more manageable small tasks. You should aim for the average length of your activities to be about the time between progress meetings e.g. if you have team progress meeting once a fortnight, try to make the tasks last about 2 weeks. Lecture/chapter 5 explores estimating in some depth.
• #47: Note that we have already considered some high level risks that could affect the project as a whole at Step 3. Estimates of the effort and duration of activities can be quite tricky. When you produce an estimate for an activity it is worth reflecting about the events which could cause the assumptions upon which you have based your estimate to be wrong. Where the risk seems very high, then you might try to introduce new activities specifically designed to reduce the risk, or to formulate a contingency action if the risk should materialize. For example, there is not much you can do to stop people getting the flu at a critical time in the project, but you might be able to have a plan to bring in temporary cover for sickness in the case of time-critical activities. Lecture/chapter 7 focuses particularly on risk.
• #49: You now need to allocate resources (in particular, staff) to the activities in the plan. Where there is a resource constraint, that is there are not enough staff (or other resource) of the right type to start all the activities that run in parallel at the planned time, then the start of some activities may need to be delayed until the appropriate resources are available.
• #50: We now have the basic information needed to produce a plan. One way of presenting the plan is by means of a Gantt chart (named after Henry Gantt).
• #51: We have noted already that it is not feasible to produce a detailed plan for all stages of the project right at the beginning of the project planning process and not all the information needed for the detailed planning of the later stages is available at the outset. Initially an outline plan for the whole project would be produced, plus a detailed plan for the first stage.