Software Project Management

  Steps in Planning Process: The steps in planning process are presented here in connection with major programs, such as the acquisition of a plant the development of a product, managers would follow essentially the same steps in any other through planning. Since minor plans are usually simpler, some of the steps would be more easily accomplished, but the practical steps listed below. In practice, however, managers must study the feasibility of possible courses of action at each step. These are the following steps of planning process. 1) Being Aware of Opportunities: This is first steps of planning. Although it precedes actual planning and is therefore not strictly a part of the planning process, an awareness of opportunities in the external environment as well as within the organization is the real starting point for planning. All managers should take a preliminary look at possible future opportunities and see them clearly and completely, know where they stand in light of their...

  Managerial Levels / Hierarchy: Every organization has managerial hierarchy or chain of command that consists of various levels of authority. The number of managements generally differs from organization to organization. Since management is process of exercising authority and understanding responsibility, its function is to be allocated according to various functional departments or sections. By and large, quite many organizations identity within them three levels of management such as – 1)         Top management: Top management deals with policy issues and with planning and analysis that totally concerns the entire organization and its future direction. They are vested only with preliminary control and him obtaining feedback to assesses degree of long-range plan success. The nature of their work can be classified as intangible and hence cannot exercise touting or concurrent control. The top management may consist of an individual called chi...

  Decision making process:             These are the following steps involved in decision making process. 1)       Defining the Process: Decision making process really starts with defining the exact problem. The decision maker has to basically identify what exactly is the problem, before making a decision on the situation. A problem exists when there is difference between what is or will be happening and what should happen in given situation. The real and most basic cause of the problem must be identified. While defining the problem, it is essential to find out the critical or strategic factors of problem. These factors pose restriction or present obstacles in finding the solution to the problem. In adequacy of finance, limited managerial talent, low employee morale, adverse change in the government policy etc. are some of the critical factors which need a careful attention while deciding over a prob...

  Types of Decisions   : 1)       Programmed and Non-Programmed Decisions : Programmed decisions are of repetitive nature concerned with routine type of problems. These decisions are taken normally by lower level of managers. Such decisions have short-run impact. As they are concerned with routine matters of less importance, managers should not spend much time in respect of such decisions. In fact, specific policies and procedures should be fixed for taking such decisions. Eg. Purchase of low priced stationery, granting a leave to an employee.   Non-programmed decisions are novel or new decisions taken in respect of special types of problems. These decisions are normally taken by top management. For eg. Introduction of new product in the market, offer of bonus shares to the shareholders.   2)       Major and Minor Decisions: Depending upon the importance or possible effect on the organization as a whole, deci...

  Elements of Decision making : 1)       Concept of a Good Decision: The first and important element of the process of decision making is the perception of a decision. The decision should be sound and result oriented. The decision should be based on facts and figures after its careful analysis.   2)       Environment of Decision: The management should create a favorable environment in the organization structure for good decisions. The decision environment, the labor management relations, organizational pattern, the delegation of authority, decentralization policy are some important factors. 3)       Psychological Elements: The decision making is human process, so it is natural that the taken decision will be affected by the psychology of decision maker. Some personal attributes affecting decision are intelligence, educational level, temperament position, attitude etc. 4)    ...

  Decision Making Process and Nature : Decision making process:   To decide means to come to a conclusion or resolution. Decision is a choice whereby a person comes to a conclusion about a situation. It represents a course of behavior or action about what must or must not be done.             Decision making is mental process. It is process of selection of one best alternative for doing a work. Thus, it is particular course of action chosen by decision maker ( Manager) as the most effective alternative for achieving his goals. Decision making is a process and decision is the product of a process. Definitions: 1)       Decision Making is a selection based on some criteria, of one behavior alternative from two or more possible alternatives. – R.S.Davar. 2)       Decision Making is a selection of alternative, from two or more alternative, to determine an opinion or...

  Functions of management:   Management function is very important, because use this function to perform the activity. Use it function to solving problem. These are the five function, such as planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling. They are following- Figure : Function of management   Planning : Planning is the ongoing process of developing the business' mission and objectives and determining how they will be accomplished. Planning includes both the broadest view of the organization, e.g., its mission, and the narrowest, e.g., a tactic for accomplishing a specific goal. Organizing : Organizing is establishing the internal organizational structure of the organization. The focus is on division, coordination, and control of tasks and the flow of information within the organization. It is in this function that managers distribute authority to job holders. Staffing :  Staffing filling and keeping filled with qualified people all positions in the busin...

  Scope of Management ü   Charters should be developed for each project. ü A formal process should be developed for change management including the estimate in cost of making the change. ü Scope of the project needs to be clearly defined in the project charter.   To avoid scope creep, any changes to scope must be documented and a formal approval must be obtained before changing the scope of the project. ü Need to determine who can make decisions and to see an unlikeness (differentiate) based on greatness (magnitude) of decision.   Not every project decision should go to the Steering Committee. Ambiguity in scope leads to confusion and unnecessary work. To avoid this, the scope needs to be clear and to the point. Stakeholders in a project can include people those who ·          Buy it ·          Sell it ·          Use it · ...

  Importance of management:   Management success is gained through accomplishment of mission and objectives. Managers fail when they do not accomplish mission and objectives. Success and failure are tied directly to the reasons for being in business, i.e., mission and objectives. However, accomplishing mission and objectives is not sufficient. Success requires both effectiveness and efficiency. Managers who accomplish their mission and objectives are said to be effective. Efficiency describes the relationship between the amount of resources used (input) and the extent to which objectives were accomplished (output). If the cost of accomplishing an objective is prohibitive, then the objective is not realistic in the context of the firm's resources. Additional planning is necessary. Some form of management exists in every type of human organization. We are all affected by good or bad management practices. And we should therefore learn to recognize and influence the quality ...

  Introduction to Management: Management:  The Verb manage comes form the Italian to control especially a house. Which in turn derivers from the latian mans hand? The French and mesnagement – then menagement influenced the development in meaning of English word management in17 th   and 18 th   Centuries . Management in business and human organization activity is simply the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals. Management comprises planning , organizing , staffing , leading or directing, and controlling an organization (a group of one or more people or entities) or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal.   Definition:     1)   “Management is the process of getting activities completed efficiently and effectively with and through other people”.   2)   “Management is comprise directing and controlling a group of one or more people for the purpose of coordinating and harmonizing them (...

  The incremental delivery plan: The nature and order of each increment to be delivered to the user have to be planned at the outset. This process is similar to strategic planning but at a more detailed level attention is given to increments of a user application rather than whole applications. The elements of the incremental plan are the system objective, incremental plan and the open technology plan. System objectives : Recall that earlier we suggested that project planners ideally want will defined objectives, but as much freedom as possible about how these are to be met. These overall objectives can be expanded into more specific functional goals and quality goals. Objectives it is intended to achieve. Jobs the system is to do. Computer/non-computer functions to achieve them. Open technology plan : If the system is to be able to cope with new components being continually added then it needs to be extendible, portable and maintainable. As a minimum th...

  Incremental delivery: This approach breaks the application down into small components which are then implemented and delivered in sequence. Each component delivered must give some benefits to the user. Time boxing is often associated with a incremental approach. Here the scope of deliverables for an increment is rigidly constrained by an agreed deadline. This deadline has to be met, even at the expense of dropping some of the planned functionality. Advantages of this approach- ·          The feedback from early increments improves the later stages. ·          The possibility of changes in requirements is reduced because of the shorter time span between the design of a component and its delivery. ·          Users get benefits earlier than with conventional approach. ·          Early delivery of some useful components impr...

  Selecting the most appropriate process model: Construction of an application can be distinguished from its installation. It is possible to use different approaches for these two stages. For example- an application could be constructed using a waterfall or one shot strategy but then be released to its users in increments. The only combinations of construction and installation strategies that are not feasible are the evolutionary installation with any other construction approach than evolutionary.             Where uncertainty is high then an evolutionary approach is to be favored. An example of uncertainty would be where the user’s requirements are not clearly defined. Where the requirements are relatively certain but there are many complexities, as with a large embedded system needing a large amount of code, then an incremental approach is favored over a one shot strategy, as both tactics should allow at least something t...

  Managing iterative processes: Iterative and Incremental development is a cyclic software development process developed in response to the weaknesses of the waterfall model. It starts with an initial planning and ends with deployment with the cyclic interaction in between. The iterative and incremental development is an essential part of the Rational Unified Process , the Dynamic Systems Development Method, Extreme Programming and generally the agile software development frameworks. Approaches like XP correctly emphasize the importance of communication and of removing artificial barriers to development productivity. XP to many might seem to be simply a license to hack. However, a more detailed examination of the techniques of XP shows that many are conscious techniques to counter the excesses of hacking and to ensure good maintainable code is written.             Booch suggests that there are two level of development- the ...