Project Management in Software Development, Slides of Introduction to Software Engineering

Download Project Management in Software Development and more Slides Introduction to Software Engineering in PDF only on Docsity! Lecture 05 Project Management Project Management • Project management involves the planning, monitoring, and control of the people, process, and events that occur as software evolves from a preliminary concept to full operational deployment. • A system of management procedures, practices, technologies, skills, and experience necessary to successfully manage an engineering project. Good Project Management Basic Principles • Make sure all decisions are based on openly shared information. • Don't second-guess your team members' expertise. • Introduce software quality from the very beginning of the project. • Don't impose an artificial hierarchy on the project team. • Remember that the fastest way through the project is to use good engineering practices. A Good Project Manager • Understand every facet of software development in order to make good judgements. • Need not to be a programmer, software tester, requirements analyst, or architect • Need to be able to read and understand the documents his/her people create and provide intelligent feedback • Relying on objective analysis rather than Personal preferences • Use this knowledge in order to make decisions based on the best interests of the project Why do software projects fail? • People begin programming before they understand the problem Everyone likes to feel that they’re making progress When the team starts to code as soon as the project begins, they see immediate gains When problems become more complex (as they always do!), the work gets bogged(sink) down In the best case, a team that begins programming too soon will end up writing good software that solves the wrong problem Why do software projects fail? (Cont…) • Programmers have poor habits – and they don’t feel accountable for their work. Programmers don’t have good control of their source code Code written by one person is often difficult for another person to understand Programmers don’t test their code, which makes diagnosing and fixing bugs more expensive The team does not have a good sense of the overall health of the project. Why do software projects fail? (Cont…) • Managers try to test quality into the software. Everyone assumes that the testers will catch all of the defects that were injected throughout the project. When testers look for defects, managers tell them they are wasting time. When testers find defects, programmers are irritated because they feel that they are being personally criticized. When testers miss defects, everyone blames them for not being perfect. THE MANAGEMENT SPECTRUM • Effective software project management focuses on the four P’s: People Product Process project. 3. Process • The third P of project management is Process. Project managers and team members should have a methodology and plan that outlines their approach. Without a clearly defined process, team members will not know what to do and when to carry out project activities. • A software process provides the framework from which a comprehensive plan for software development can be established. A small number of framework activities are applicable to all software projects, regardless of their size or complexity. A number of different task sets—tasks, milestones, work products, and quality assurance points—enable the framework activities to be adapted to the characteristics of the software project and the requirements of the project team. Finally, umbrella activities—such as software quality assurance, software configuration management, and measurement—overlay the process model. 4. Project • The fourth and final P of project management is Project. This is where the project manager’s roles and responsibilities come into play. He or she must guide team members to achieve the project’s goals and objectives. The project manager must delegate tasks, help team members when needed, and ultimately strive to accomplish all requirements set forth in the project scope. The Stakeholders The software process (and every software project) is populated by stakeholders who can be categorized into one of five constituencies: • Senior managers who define the business issues that often have significant influence on the project. • Project (technical) managers who must plan, motivate, organize, and control the practitioners who do software work. • Practitioners who deliver the technical skills that are necessary to engineer a product or application. • Customers who specify the requirements for the software to be engineered and other stakeholders who have a peripheral interest in the outcome. • End-users who interact with the software once it is released for production use