Organizational Issues and Project Management

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Software Project Management (CS615)

LECTURE # 8

2. Software Development Fundamentals

Management Fundamentals

2.7

Organizational Issues and Project Management

Organizational issues have a deep influence on a software project, its progress,

and the role of the project manager. The policies of an organization can affect the

way the organization handles the customer, different types of technologies, and

different software projects. The organizational issues that can influence a software

project include:

Reaction to external influences

Interest in adherence to standards

Definition of core competency area

Existence of knowledge management system

Interest in human resources

One organizational issue that can influence a software project is the reaction of

the organization to external influences.- As a project manager, it is important for

you to assess how the organization reacts to changes in the external environment,

For example, in the current technology environment that changes rapidly, an

organization should be proactive in strengthening its capability baseline by

adopting new technology and retraining its employees as per market

requirements.

Interest in adherence to standards is another organizational issue that can

influence a software project. The current technology environment is highly

dynamic. Various nonprofit and independent organizations have developed

protocols and standards for the standardization of software development and

measurement: For example; the Software Engineering Institute at the Carnegie

Mellon University has developed the Capability Maturity Model (SEI-CMM).

The CMM rates the processes of a software development organization and

classifies it into five maturity levels. Software development organizations can also

get the quality-related certifications issued by the International Standards

Organization smoothen your project management tasks by standardizing the

internal processes and optimizing performance.

Definition of core competency area also influences a software project. An

organization that creates software must understand how they are created and

establish processes accordingly For example, if the core competency of the

organization lies in manufacturing chemicals, it should preferably not attempt

Software Project Management (CS615)

software development for such an organization, it is better to purchase an off-the-

shelf software product.

An organizational issue that positively influences the tasks of software project

managers is the presence of a good knowledge management system within the

organization. Knowledge management is the collection of processes that control

the creation and utilization of knowledge within the organization. A good

knowledge management system allows you to access relevant information and

make informed decisions.

Another organizational issue that can influence a software project is the interest of

management in human resources. The human resources of an organization are its

primary resource. You need to ensure that the people in the development team

enjoy a comfortable work environment, which is conducive for smooth and

trouble-free work. This includes providing suitable compensations, a friendly

work environment, and smooth processes. The absence of these factors negatively

affects employee morale, and therefore, productivity.

2.8

Managing Processes

As a software project manager, you become the key player in a software project.

You not only manager the day-to-day activities of the project but also ensure that

the software product is delivered on time. What makes your role challenging is

the performance of project-related activities within a specified budget and time

constraint. At the same time, you need to keep the requirements and specifications

of the customer in mind.

To deliver expected results, you carry out three successive processes: studying the

feasibility of the project, planning to meet the requirement, and executing the

plan. These processes can be further broken down into activities, such as

planning, staffing, and monitoring.

You plan and organize the software development team to complete development

within the stipulated time and budget. To do this, you form a team of people who

have the required technical skills. Then, you ensure that all activities are carried

out as planned by the relevant people.

Your responsibilities include analyzing customer requirements, determining the

scope of the software project, allocating resources top the project, scheduling the

project, and executing the project. These responsibilities can be considered in

terms of the areas where management skills are required. The primary software

project management areas that you need to concentrate on include:

Managing Resources

Managing Cost

Software Project Management (CS615)

Managing Risk

Managing Schedule

Managing the project plan

Managing quality

⇒ Managing Resources

The primary input required to create software are resources. Resources for a

software project may be of three kinds: human, hardware, "and software. Human

resource management is about effectively identifying the people with the

appropriate skills, assigning roles and responsibilities to these people, and

establishing reporting relationships. On the other hand, hardware and software

resource management relates to identifying and ensuring resources such as

workstations, disk space on servers, software tools, and software licenses. You

need to ensure that human resource identification and allocation is carried out;

simultaneously with hardware and software resource management.

To manage resources effectively, there are two areas that you require your

attention. These include:

Management of human resource

Identification of the critical hardware and software resources

Management of human resources calls for a number of actions. First, you define

reporting relationship for the software project. Reporting relationship can exist

within and across organizational units, technical areas, and hierarchical levels.

Next, determine the skills required for the software project, and identify the

appropriate people who possess the required skills. You can review the resource

pool and identify resources on the basis of their experience and availability. In

case the resources are unavailable, you request for their release from another

project or outsource the required resources. Depending upon the organizational

practices arid experiences from past projects, you can assign roles and

responsibilities to the development team. Finally, create a staff management plan

and an organizational chart to show the hierarchical structure of the development

team.

Management of human resources also requires efficient team development. This

is a complex activity because it combines managing people and organizing the

reporting structure within the team. You can build cohesion and commitment

within the team through team building activities. These activities include

conducting team meetings to involve people from areas other than management

into decision-making.

To manage human resources, you also need to implement a reward and

recognition system. This helps in promoting and reinforcing positive

performance. It is important that you make the link between the performance and

Software Project Management (CS615)

reward explicit and achievable. You should also ensure that the training needs of

the development team are met.

A second resource management area that requires attention is identification of the

hardware and software resources that are critical for the project. As a software

project manager, you must identify all the critical hardware and software

resources and document them in the project plan. After the required resources are

identified, you define control limits for each resource. Control limits for a

resource are the upper and lower limit beyond which the resource is above or

below the required level. For example, if a software project requires disk space on

the central server, the control limits for the disk space are the required maximum

and minimum disk space. Note that not all hardware and software resources are

critical to the success of a software project. In some software projects, you may

not find any critical resource at the beginning. However, as the project progresses,

some resources might become critical. For efficient resource management, you

should periodically assess hardware and software resource requirements for the

software project. Just as a resource may become critical as a project progresses, a

resource might also become less critical over a period of time. Therefore; plan,

assess, and take corrective action for all the resources through the duration of the

software project.

⇒ Managing Cost

The cost factor has a considerable influence on the execution of a software

project. The budget of a software project is affected by factors, such as the current

orientation of the organization toward software development, number of skilled

personnel available, infrastructure, and computer hardware and software. The

budget can also be influenced by timely availability of resources. If a particular

resource is allocated to the project later than required, the costs involved could go

up drastically.

Quite often, when a software project starts to become too expensive, many project

managers also tend to start cutting costs. This can have a direct impact on

employee morale. When employee morale drops, so does the quality of work, and

the productivity. Therefore, as a project manager you must prepare for all

circumstances through proper estimation and allocation. To manage costs for

software projects, you need an accurate estimation of costs. To do that, there is a

sequence of steps that you need to perform.

Identify the resources required for the project

Estimate the cost of each activity

Set cost baselines for each activity

Implement a control system for cost changes

To estimate costs, you first identify and describe all the resources required in the

software project. You also estimate the duration for which the resources are used.

Software Project Management (CS615)

Next, estimate the cost of each resource. To estimate the cost, you can use

mathematical tools. However, in the case where limited information is available

about resources, you can also use expert judgment to estimate costs.

After the costs of the required resources are estimated, you set cost baselines for

each activity. Cost baselines measure the performance of an activity with regard

to the cost and duration defined for the completion of the activity.

Finally, as the project manager you implement a control system for cost changes.

The cost control system defines cost baselines, identifies cost changes, and

modifies cost baselines to adjust cost changes.

⇒ Management Risk

Risk management is an integral part of project management. In software projects,

where uncertainties are very high, risk management and mitigation is even more

critical. Taking risks for high payoffs might bring in high profits but not without

the danger of losses. Risk on a small scale is acceptable to most project managers

as the element of loss is minimal. However, large risks pose a danger to the

progress of a software project and you need to manage them. Risk management

activities involve identifying potential risks, assessing them, and planning for

contingent actions if a risk materializes.

As a project manager, you perform two primary activities to manage risks for

software project:

Risk Analysis

o Risk identification

o Risk quantification

Risk management

The first activity in risk analysis is risk identification. Risk identification helps

you point out the, potential risks for a software project across all phases of the

project. Risks might evolve through the duration of a software project, and

therefore, risk identification is an ongoing activity. To identify potential risks for

a software project, you can analyze the activities in the software project, the

software product description, and risks faced by the development team in similar

past projects. This exercise allows you to identify the potential sources of risks to

the current software project, Assessing the factor influencing the different inputs

also allows you to identify the phases in the SDLC when risk might materialize.

After potential risks have been identified, you can quantify them. This is done to

ascertain their priority. If multiple risks materialize at the same time, then you

must assign a priority to each risk based on the degree of impact on the project

and handle the highest-risk events first. For example, the risk of change in client

Software Project Management (CS615)

requirements during the software construction phase is a higher risk than a

deadline for a deliverable being missed. Therefore, you first manage the risk that

has a higher priority. To quantify project risks, you can use various mathematical

and statistical tools. You can also use expert judgment to assess and quantify

risks.

After you have identified and quantified the potential risks for a software project,

you create a risk mitigation plan. The purpose of the risk mitigation plan is to help

you identify procedures to choose the path of least damage and highest returns in

a case a risk materializes. To mitigate risks for a software project, you first need

to be aware of the opportunities and threats that can be pursued or ignored. This

enables you to focus on the risks that might have a negative impact on the

software project and develop contingent plans to deal with these risks. You can

also mitigate risks by evolving alternative strategies to altogether prevent

potential risks from materializing.

In case an unplanned risk materializes, you must be aware of the dependencies of

the project activities so that ad hoc solutions can be evolved. However, as the

project manager you can avoid unplanned risks from materializing by engaging in

an intensive risk identification and mitigation exercise before the software project

commences.

⇒ Managing Schedule

Time is a major constraint for a software project. With most software projects, the

delivery dates for the software product are already committed to the customer at

the time the project commences. As a software project manager you must perform

various tasks to balance time and deadlines. These are:

Identify the different deliverables that constitutes the software product

Define the activities that are required to produce the deliverables

Identify the interdependencies between activities

Define the duration of each activity

Assess the project network diagram

Create a schedule management and control plan

The first task is to identify the different deliverables that constitute the software

product. These deliverables also mark the completion of the different phases

within a software project.

Next, define the activities that are required to produce the deliverables. To do this,

you can break down the SDLC into phases, identify the deliverables at the end of

each phase, and the activities required for creating the deliverables.

Software Project Management (CS615)

After the activities are defined, you identify the interdependencies between them.

The purpose of this exercise is to organize the activities and sequence them in the

form of a project schedule.

Next, you define the duration of each activity. The inputs that you need for

scheduling are the resources required to complete each activity. Then, assesses the

availability of these resources and the duration of each similar activity in similar

past projects.

After estimating the time required for each activity to complete, you assess the

project network diagram. This includes an assessment of the duration estimates,

resource requirements, resource pool description, and assumptions and constraints

for the software. You can use Mathematical tools to determine a schedule for the

project. The project schedule defines the activities within each phase, the team

members assigned to complete each activity, the duration of each activity, and the

start and end dates for all of the activities.

Finally, create a schedule management and control plan. The purpose of this plan

is to identify when changes occur, Implement the changes to the project schedule,

and ensure that the changes are beneficial to the software project. After the

changes are implemented, you might need to modify the sections of the project

plan to ensure that the project is completed on time.

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