Atılım University

Software Project
Management
Aylin AKÇA OKAN - I
 Truths & Beliefs 
Good project management is not so much knowing what to do and when, as knowing
what excuses to give and when.

Good project managers know when not to manage a project.

If there were no problem people, there'd be no need for people who solve problems.

Fast - cheap - good: you can have any two.

To estimate a project, work out how long it would take one person to do it, then
multiply that by the number of people on the project.

When the weight of the project paperwork equals the weight of the project itself, the
project can be considered complete.

If it happens once it's ignorance, if it happens twice it's neglect, if it happens three
times it's policy.

If it wasn't for the 'last minute‘, nothing would get done.

Warning: dates in the calendar are closer than you think.

If an IT project works the first time, it is wrong.

Any project can be estimated accurately (once it's completed).

Too few people on a project can't solve the problems - too many create more
problems than they solve.

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 What is a Project?
 Temporary

 One-time

 To create a unique product or service

 Defined beginning and end

 Dedicated budget

 Unique staff or resources assigned

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 Examples
 Examples
 Scheduling operating room staff
 Constructing a new wing of the hospital
 Planning for merger between two organizations
 Ordering supplies
 Implementing an electronic health record
 Managing routine patient care
 Development of a new database system for a client
 Production of automative materials
 Running of Call Center
 Construction of petroleum refinery
 Feasibility analysis for a new product
 Going to work in the mornings

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 Examples of Projects and
Goals
 What are examples of non-project
activities?

 What are some examples of projects you’ve

worked on?
 What were the desired deliverables/outcomes?
 What was the project time frame?
 What was the biggest challenge during the project?
 Which goals were more important?
 Were all goals fully met?

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 Process & Project
Process
1. Repeat process or product
2. Several objectives
3. Ongoing
4. People are homogeneous
5. Systems in place to integrate
efforts
6. Performance, cost, & time
known
7. Part of the line organization
8. Based on established practice
9. Supports status quo
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Project
1. New process or product
2. One objective
3. One shot – limited life
4. More heterogeneous
5. Systems must be created to
integrate efforts
6. Performance, cost & time less
certain
7. Outside of line organization
8. Violates established practice
9. Upsets status quo
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 Project vs. Process Work
Project Process
 Take place outside the • Ongoing, day-to-day
process world activities
 Unique and separate from • Use existing systems,
normal organization work properties, and
 Continually evolving capabilities
• Typically repetitive

A project is a temporary endeavor

undertaken to create a unique product or
service.
PMBoK
2000
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 Additional Definitions
 A project is a unique venture with a beginning and an end, conducted
by people to meet established goals within parameters of cost,
schedule and quality.
Buchanan & Boddy
 Projects are goal-oriented, involve the coordinated undertaking of
interrelated activities, are of finite duration, and are all, to a degree
unique.
Frame
 Series of activities or tasks, specific objectives, defined start and end
dates, funding limits, consumes resources, multifunctional.
Kerzner
 Specific, timely, usually multidisciplinary, and always conflict ridden.
Mantel et al.

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General Project Characteristics
 Ad-hoc endeavors with a clear life cycle
 Building blocks in the design and execution of organizational
strategies
 Responsible for the newest and most improved products,
services, and organizational processes
 Provide a philosophy and strategy for the management of change
 Entail crossing functional and organization boundaries
 Traditional management functions of planning, organizing,
motivating, directing, and controlling apply
 Principal outcomes are the satisfaction of customer requirements
within technical, cost, and schedule constraints
 Terminated upon successful completion

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 Why Projects?
Why organize an activity or job as a project?
 It allows you to better structure and organize the
tasks that need to be performed
 Well developed approaches and tools are
available for managing projects
 Easy-to-use software is available for scheduling
and budgeting projects
 Experience has shown that the work/job can be
done faster, cheaper, and better when managed
as a project

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 What is Management?
Basically, the management involves the following activities:

Planning- deciding what is to be done

Organizing- making arrangements

Staffing- selecting the right people for the job

Directing- giving instructions

Monitoring- checking on progress

Controlling- taking action to remedy hold-ups

Innovating- coming up with new solutions

Representing- liaising with users, etc.

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 What is Project Management?
Project management is the application
of
 knowledge,
 skills,
 tools, and
 techniques Management

Project
to project activities in order to meet or Management
exceed stakeholder needs and
expectations from a project. Software
Project
Management

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 What is Project Management?
 Array of tools and techniques

 By people (or resources) to

 Organize
 Monitor
 Analyze
 Measure
 Implement

 Primary focus - scheduling to accomplish the goals

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 Project vs. Program
Management
What’s a ‘program’?
 Mostly differences of scale
 Often a number of related projects
 Longer than projects
 Definitions vary

Ex: Project Manager for MS Word,

Program Manager for MS Office

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Software Project Management
is Special
 Problem of specifying the exact requirements in the
beginning
 Project planning and estimation is difficult

 High productivity differences between individuals

 1:10 differences typical, even 1:50 reported

 A lot of changes – their effect on the system often

unknown
 Software complexity still increases rapidly

 Division of tasks - adding workforce in late phase can

be harmful
 Software development is communication intensive activity

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Software Project Management
is Special
 Many techniques of general project management
are applicable to software project management
 Software development projects are often very hard to
manage
 Software differs from many other deliverables,
because of its
 Invisibility
 Complexity
 Conformity
 Flexibility

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 Project Performance Goals
 Which goal is more important: time, cost, or outcomes?
 Who decides which goal is more important?
 Why is it important for the Project Manager (PM) to know
which goal is more important?

 Outcomes/Quality (deliverables and quality)

 exactly what needs to be accomplished at what quality level
 Time
 doing it quickly or on schedule
 Cost
 doing it cheaply or on budget

Unfortunately, tradeoffs among these goals exist

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 Project Goal Tradeoffs

have to know which of

these are fixed & variable
for every project

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 Project Success Rates
 Software & hardware projects fail at a 65% rate

 Over half of all IT projects become runaways

 Up to 75% of all software projects are cancelled

 Only 2.5% of global businesses achieve 100%

project success

 Average success of business-critical application

development projects is 35%.

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 Failure statistics –
Improvements?
 Average cost overrun 189 % (1994) 45 %
(2000)  43% (2003)
 Average time overrun 222% (1994)  63 %
(2000)  82% (2003)
 On average 61 % (1994) of required features
were delivered  67 % (2000)  52% (2003)

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 PM History in a Nutshell
 Birth of modern PM: Manhattan Project (the
bomb)
 1970’s: military, defense, construction industry
were using PM software
 1990’s: large shift to PM-based models
 1985: TQM
 1990-93: Re-engineering, self-directed teams
 1996-99: Risk mgmt, project offices
 2000: M&A, global projects

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 PMI’s 9 Knowledge Areas
 Project integration management
 Scope
 Time
 Cost
 Quality
 Human resource
 Communications
 Risk
 Procurement

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 Project Phases
All projects are divided into phases

All phases together are known as the

Project Life Cycle

Each phase is marked by completion of

Deliverables

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 Seven Core Project Phases

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 Project Phases a.k.a.

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Resources & Project Life Cycle

Concept Planning Execution Wrap-up

Resources

Required Resources

Start Finish
Time

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 Lifecycle Relationships

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 Four Project Dimensions
People
Process
Product
Technology

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 People
 “It’s always a people problem” Gerald Weinberg, “The Secrets
of Consulting”

 Developer productivity: 10-to-1 range

 Team organization
 Team selection
 Motivation

 Other success factors

 Matching people to tasks
 Career development
 Balance: individual and team
 Clear communication

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 Process
 Is process stifling?
 2 Types: Management & Technical
 Development fundamentals
 Quality assurance
 Risk management
 Lifecycle planning
 Avoid abuse by neglect
 Customer orientation
 Process maturity improvement
 Rework avoidance

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 Product
 The “tangible” dimension
 Product size management
 Product characteristics and requirements
 Feature creep management

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 Technology
 Often the least important dimension
 Language and tool selection
 Value and cost of reuse

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 36 Classic Mistakes
Types
 People-Related
 Process-Related
 Product-Related
 Technology-Related

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 People-Related Mistakes
1. Undermined motivation
2. Weak personnel
1. Weak vs. Junior
3. Uncontrolled problem employees
4. Heroics
5. Adding people to a late project
6. Noisy, crowded offices
7. Customer-Developer friction
8. Unrealistic expectations
9. Politics over substance
10.Wishful thinking
11.Lack of effective project sponsorship
12.Lack of stakeholder buy-in
13.Lack of user input

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 Process-Related Mistakes
1. Optimistic schedules
2. Insufficient risk management
3. Contractor failure
4. Insufficient planning
5. Abandonment of plan under pressure
6. Wasted time during fuzzy front end
7. Shortchanged upstream activities
8. Inadequate design
9. Shortchanged quality assurance
10.Insufficient management controls
11.Frequent convergence
12.Omitting necessary tasks from estimates
13.Planning to catch-up later
14.Code-like-hell programming

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 Product-Related Mistakes
1. Requirements gold-plating
1. Gilding the lily

2. Feature creep
3. Developer gold-plating
1. Beware the pet project

4. Push-me, pull-me negotiation

5. Research-oriented development

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 Technology-Related
Mistakes
1. Silver-bullet syndrome
2. Overestimated savings from new tools and methods
1. “Trendy” warning

3. Switching tools in mid-project

4. Lack of automated source-code control

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 Wh0 is a Project Manager?
Project managers:
 Implement plans
 Manage resources and activities
 Is responsible for the project to be completed on time
and in budget based on the Statement of Work (SoW).

Keep in mind :
Project managers often manage project
resources, including budgets and people
related to the project, even though they
seldom have direct authority over the
people engaged in the project.

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 Project Management Skills
Leadership
Communications
Problem Solving
Negotiating
Influencing the Organization
Mentoring
Process and technical expertise

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