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Project Planning Objectives, Primary Planning Steps

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Software Project Management (CS615)
LECTURE # 23
4. PLANNING
Planning is one of the most important management activities and is an ongoing effort
throughout the life of the project. Software project management begins with a set of
activities that are collectively called Project Planning.
·
Preliminary planning starts on day one even in the pre-project phase
·
It should not be conducted "in secret"
·
It needs buy-in and approval
4.1
Project Planning Objectives
The objective of software project planning is to provide a framework that enables the
manager to make reasonable estimates of:
·
Resources
·
Cost, and
·
Schedule
These estimates are made within a limited time frame at the beginning of a software
project and should be updated regularly as the project progresses.
In addition, estimates should attempt to define best case and worst-case scenarios so
that project outcomes can be bounded.
Planning is one of the most important management activities and is an ongoing effort
throughout the life of the project.
Software project management begins with a set of activities that are collectively
called Project Planning.
The software project planner must estimate following things before a project begins:
1.
How much will it cost?
2.
How long will it take?
3.
How many people will it take?
4.
What might go wrong?
4.2
Project Planning - Definition
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What is it? Software project planning involves estimation - your attempt to
determine how much money, how much effort, how many resources, and how
much time it will take to build a specific software-based system or product.
·
Who does it? Software Project Managers- Using information solicited from
customers and software engineers and software metrics data collected from past
projects. It is advisable to generate your estimates using at least two different
methods (as a cross check). Problem complexity and risk are considered before a
final estimate is made.
·
What is the work product? A Simple table delineating the tasks to be
performed, the functions to be implemented and the cost, effort and time involved
for each is generated. A list of required project resources is also produced.
·
How do I ensure that I've done it right? That's hard, because you won't really
know until the project has been completed. However, if you have experience and
follow a systematic approach, generate estimates using solid historical data, create
estimation, data points using at least two different methods, and factors in
complexity and risk. You can feel confident that you've done a right job to
achieve the targets.
4.3
Project Planning: Key Tasks
1. Set goal and scope
2. Select lifecycle
3. Set organization team form
4. Start team selection
5. Determine risks
6. Create WBS
7. Identify tasks
8. Estimate size
9. Estimate effort
10. Identify task dependencies
11. Assign resources
12. Schedule work
4.4
Project Management Process
The software development management section, which describes the organization and
resources that will be used to develop the product, should always be included. The
management section discusses how the facilities will be organized to support the
development effort. This is one of the sections that provide much of the detail needed
to prepare the heart of the development plan, namely the development schedule. The
schedule provides answers to two basic planning questions: what and when, while
much of the remaining sections discuss how.
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The discussion in the how sections provides information on how the project will be
organized, how risks will be handled, how reviews will be conducted, how standards
will be applied, what development methodologies will be used, and how the product
will be tested.
It is usually best to leave the completion of the schedule section for last. The
schedule, being dependent on most of the other sections, is the most sensitive part of
the development plan. After a first draft of the development plan is ready, an initial
development schedule can then be prepared. As we shall see, the schedule will then
be further refined as the development plan goes through progressive iteration.
Why is the system being developed? The answer to this question enables all parties
to assess the validity of business reasons for the software work. Stated in another
way, does the business purpose justify the expenditure of people, time and money?
What will be done, by when? The answers to these questions help the team to
establish a project schedule by identifying key project tasks and the milestones that
are required by the customer.
Who is responsible for a function? Earlier in this chapter, we noted that the role and
responsibility of each member of the software team must be defined. The answer to
this question helps accomplish this.
Where they are organizationally located? Not all roles and responsibilities reside
within the software team itself. The customer, users, and other stake" holders also
have responsibilities.
How will the job be done technically and managerially? Once product scope is
established, a management and technical strategy for the project-must be defined.
How much of each resource is needed? The answer to this question is derived by
developing estimates based on answers to earlier questions.
The definition phase focuses on what. That is, during definition, the software
engineer attempts to identify what information is to be processed, what function and
performance are desired, what system behavior can be expected, what interfaces are
to be established, what design constraints exist, and what validation criteria are
required to define a successful system. The key requirements of the system and the
software are identified. Although the methods applied during the definition phase will
vary depending on the software engineering paradigm (or combination of paradigms)
that is applied, three major tasks will occur in some form: system or information
engineering, software project planning and requirements analysis.
The development phase focuses on how. That is, during development a software
engineer attempts to define how data are to be structured, how function is to be
implemented within a software architecture, how procedural details are to be
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implemented, how interfaces are to be characterized, how the design will be
translated into a programming language (or nonprocedural language), and how testing
will be performed. The methods applied during the development phase will vary, but
three specific technical tasks should always occur: software design, code generation,
and software testing.
The support Phase focuses on Change associated with error correction, adaptations
required as the software's environment evolves, and changes due to enhancements
brought about by changing customer requirements. The support phase reapplies the
steps of the definition and development phases but does so in the context of existing
software. Four types of change are encountered during the support phase:
1. Correction
Even with the best quality assurance activities, it is likely that the customer will
uncover defects in the software. Corrective maintenance changes the software to
correct defects.
2. Adaptation
Over time, the original environment (e.g., CPU, operating system, business rules,
external product characteristics) for which the software was developed is likely to
change. Adaptive maintenance results in modification I the software to
accommodate changes to its external environment.
3. Enhancement
As software is used, the customer/user will recognize additional functions that
will provide benefit. Perfective maintenance extends the software beyond its
original functional requirements.
4. Prevention
Computer software deteriorates due to change, and because ( this, preventive
maintenance, often called software reengineering, must be conducted to enable
the software to serve the needs of its end users, in essence, preventive
maintenance makes changes to computer programs so that they ca be more easily
corrected, adapted, and enhanced.
In addition to these support activities, the users of software require continuing
support. In-house technical assistants, telephone-help desks, and application-
specific Web sites are often implemented as part of the support phase.
4.5
Planning Puzzle
Planning is one of the most important management activities and includes the
preparation of good estimates, the maintenance of the development schedules and the
efficient assignment of personnel.
i. Scope Planning
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Scope planning is the process of progressively elaborating and documenting the
project work (project scope) that produces the product of the project.
ii. Risk Planning
Risk management planning is the process of deciding how to approach and plan
the risk management activities for a project. It is important to plan for the risk
management processes that follow to ensure that the level, type, and visibility of
risk management are commensurate with both the risk and importance of the
project to the Organization.
iii. Schedule Development
Analyzing activity sequences, activity durations, and resource requirements to
create the project schedule.
iv. Cost Estimating
Developing an approximation (estimate) of the costs of the resources required to
complete project activities
v. Project Control
Project Control may be considered to be one of the continuous objectives for the
project manager. As such he is responsible for taking remedial actions, within
the defined terms of reference, to correct potential problems or taking risk
avoidance measures. The prime objective is to protect the integrity of the project
at all times.
4.6
Primary Planning Steps
Once the scope of the project has been defined in the Terms of Reference, the project
enters the detailed planning phase. This involves the creation of a:
1.
Project Plan (outlining the activities, tasks, dependencies and timeframes)
2.
Resource Plan (listing the labor, equipment and materials required)
3.
Financial Plan (identifying the labor, equipment and materials costs)
4.
Quality Plan (providing quality targets, assurance and control measures)
5.
Risk Plan (highlighting potential risks and actions taken to mitigate them)
6.
Acceptance Plan (listing the criteria to be met to gain customer acceptance)
7.
Communications Plan (listing the information needed to inform stakeholders)
8.
Procurement Plan (identifying products to be sourced from external suppliers).
At this point the project has been planned in detail and is ready to be executed
By this stage, the benefits and costs of the project have been clearly documented, the
objectives and scope have been defined, the project team has been appointed and a
formal project office environment established. It is now time to undertake detailed
planning to ensure that the activities performed in the execution phase of the project
are properly sequenced, resourced, executed and controlled.
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1. Develop Project Plan
The first step is to document the Project Plan. A 'Work Breakdown Structure'
(WBS) is identified, which includes a hierarchical set of phases, activities and
tasks to be undertaken on the project. After the WBS has been agreed, an
assessment of the effort required to undertake the activities and tasks is made. The
activities and tasks are sequenced, resources are allocated and a detailed project
schedule is formed. This project schedule will become the primary tool for the
Project Manager to assess the progress of the project.
2. Develop Resource Plan
Immediately after the Project Plan is formed, it is necessary to allocate the
resources required to undertake each of the activities and tasks within the Project
Plan. Although general groups of resources may have already been allocated to
the Project Plan, a detailed resource assessment is required to identify the:
Types of resources (labor, equipment and materials)
Total quantities of each resource type
Roles, responsibilities and skill-sets of all human resources
Items, purposes and specifications of all equipment resource
Items and quantities of material resource
A schedule is assembled for each type of resource so that the Project Manager can
assess the resource allocation at each stage in the project.
3. Develop Financial Plan
Similar to the Resource Plan, a Financial Plan is prepared to identify the quantity
of money required for each stage in the project. The total cost of labor, equipment
and materials is quantified and an expense schedule is defined which provides the
Project Manager with an understanding of the forecast spending vs. the actual
spending throughout the project. Preparing a detailed Financial Plan is extremely
important as the project's success will depend on whether or not it is delivered
within the 'time, cost and quality' estimates for this project.
4. Develop Quality Plan
Meeting the quality expectations of the customer is critical to the success of the
project. To ensure that the quality expectations are clearly defined and can
reasonably be achieved, a Quality Plan is documented. The Quality Plan:
Defines what quality means in terms of this project
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Lists clear and unambiguous quality targets for each deliverable. Each quality
target provides a set of criteria and standards which must be achieved to meet
the expectations of the customer
Outlines a plan of activities which will assure the customer that the quality
targets will be met (i.e. a Quality Assurance Plan)
Identifies the techniques used to control the actual level of quality of each
deliverable as it is built (i.e. a Quality Control Plan).
Finally, it is important to review the quality not only of the deliverables produced
by the project but also of the management processes which produce them. A
summary of each of the management processes undertaken during the execution
phase is identified, including Time, Cost, Quality, Change, Risk, Issue,
Procurement, Acceptance and Communications Management.
5. Develop Risk Plan
The foreseeable project risks are then documented within a Risk Plan and a set of
actions to be taken formulated to both prevent each risk from occurring and
reduce the impact of the risk should it eventuate. Developing a clear Risk Plan is
an important activity within the planning phase as it is necessary to mitigate all
critical project risks prior to entering the Execution phase of the project.
6. Develop Acceptance Plan
The key to a successful project is gaining acceptance from the customer that each
deliverable produced meets (or exceeds) his/her requirements. To clarify the
criteria used to judge each deliverable for customer acceptance, an Acceptance
Plan is produced. The Acceptance Plan provides the criteria for obtaining
customer acceptance, a schedule of acceptance reviews within which customer
acceptance will be sought and a summary of the process used to gain acceptance
of each deliverable from the customer.
7. Develop Communications Plan
Prior to the Execution phase, it is also necessary to identify how each of the
stakeholders will be kept informed of the progress of the project. The
Communications Plan identifies the types of information to be distributed, the
methods of distributing information to stakeholders, the frequency of distribution
and responsibilities of each person in the project team for distributing information
regularly to stakeholders.
8. Develop Procurement Plan
The last planning activity within the Planning phase is to identify the elements of
the Project which will be acquired from external suppliers to the project. The
Procurement Plan provides a detailed description of the Products (i.e. goods and
services) to be procured from suppliers, the justification for procuring each
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product externally, as opposed to from within the business, and the schedule for
procurement. It also references the process for the selection of a preferred supplier
("Tender Process") and the process for the actual order and delivery of the
procured products ("Procurement Process").
4.7
The Software Development Plan (SDP)
The project development plan is one of the first formal documents produced by the
project. Within this document, the project manager describes in detail:
How the project will be developed?
What resources will be required?
How these resources will be used?
The project development plan assures that the development of the project is well
charted before the main development activities begin. In -addition to the basic
development schedule, the plan addresses such issues as:
The timely provision of equipment and tools so that they are available to
developers when needed.
The availability of staff to perform the development tasks in accordance with
the schedule.
Provision of contingency plans in the event that project risks materialize
The designation .of duties within the development team, and the assignment
of these duties to the team members.
Preparing the project plan for a software project helps you ensure that the specified
requirements and objectives are met successfully. It is a collation of all planning
activities that have happened for a software project. This includes activities such as
design and analysis, activity definition, risk planning, and cost estimation. To create
the plan, you assess all planning activities, organizational policies regarding the
creation of the project plan and assumption and constraints for the project. To
implement the software project plan, you require management skills, such as
leadership, communication, and problem solving, along with the basic knowledge
about the software. You also need to ensure that the senior management bf the
company has authorized work on the software project. Knowledge management
techniques help you to make informed decision regarding the project plan.
After the project plan is executed, you manage the changes to it in such a way that the
performance measurement baselines are not impacted, To manage the project plan
effectively you monitor the project plan, periodic performance status reports, and
requests for change. The primary tool that you can use to control the changes in the
project plan is the change control mechanism: This is a set of formal procedures for
changing the project plan.
4.7.1
Software Development Plan (SDP) Information needs
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The Project Plan is a vital part of the project initiation stage. The plan
should normally contain the following information:
1. Introduction and status of the plan
2. The authorisation procedures
3. Statement of project objectives
4. Statement of requirement
5. Deliverables in the project
6. A Work Breakdown Structure
7. The project milestones
8. The resource requirements
9. Interdependencies of work
10. The timetable of events
11. Staffing, organisation and responsibilities
12. Development methods and toolsets to be used
13. Source documentation
14. Resource and financial summary
This information creates the generation of a Project Book (log). The log
should be in a loose-leaf binder with clearly identified sections and version
control exercised over the documentation sets. These logs are now often
retained as computer file, which enables a greater level of security to be
maintained over them and version control to be established as an automatic
feature.
4.7.2
Software Development Plan (SDP) Steps/items required
The contents of the project development plan may be adapted to the size of
the project; it may be a large document or just a few pages. Table 1 presents
an outline of some of the subjects covered in the project development plan.
Not all subjects in Table 1 are applicable to all projects. For example, many
projects do not administer their own budget. Some organizations have a
financial officer responsible for the administration of project budgets. The
interface with external sources is another area riot applicable to all projects.
The term, external sources covers such activities as interfacing with
subcontractors, vendors and representatives of the customer.
Many standards have been produced for the project development plan. The
formal structure or the project development plan document differs,
depending on the actual documentation standard used. For example, the US
DOD standard 2167 provides the option of describing the testing,
configuration management and quality assurance plans in three separate
documents. For large projects, this option can become a requirement.
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The IEEE standard 1058.1 describes what is referred to as the software
project management plan, which is essentially the same as the project
development plan. This standard is largely compatible with the 2167 project
development plan, although it is significantly less detailed.
This standard, too, provides the option of including configuration
management and quality assurance plans, or of describing them in separate
documents. The project development plan should be prepared as a
standalone document, in the sense that it should be read and understood
without the need to refer to other documents.
A general overview of the project is therefore usually included in the first
section of the document. References for additional detail, of course, should
always be provided, including pointers to such documents as the project
contract, the concept document or the market research analysis.
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Table 1: Software project development plan items
1. System overview
2. Software development management
Project organization and resources
Development facilities
Project organizational structure
Personnel
3. Schedule and milestones
Scheduled activities
Milestones and baselines
Activity network diagrams
System component source
Budget administration
Milestone payments
Major budgetary expenditures
Expenditure authorization procedure
4. Risk analysis
5. Security
6. Interface with external sources
7. Procedure for formal reviews
8. Corrective action process
9. Problem change report
10. Software engineering
Standards and procedures
Development methodology
Development resources
Personnel - qualifications and function
11. Testing procedure
12. Software configuration management
13 Software quality assurance
4.7.3
Inputs to SDP
Project plan development uses the outputs of the other planning processes,
including strategic planning, to create a consistent, coherent document that
can be used to guide both project execution and project control. This process
is almost always iterated several times. For example, the initial draft may
include generic resource requirements and an undated sequence of activities
while the subsequent versions of the plan will include specific resources and
explicit dates.
1. Other planning outputs. All of the outputs of the planning processes in
the other knowledge areas are inputs to developing the project plan. Other
planning outputs include both base documents, such as the WBS, and the
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supporting detail. Many projects will also require application area-specific
inputs (e.g., most major projects will require a cash-flow forecast).
2. Historical information. The available historical information (e.g.,
estimating data-bases, records of past project performance) should have
been consulted during the other project planning processes. This
information should also be available during project plan development to
assist with verifying assumptions and assessing alternatives that are
identified as part of this process.
3. Organizational policies. Any and all of the organizations involved in the
project may have formal and informal policies whose effects must be
considered. Organizational policies that typically must be considered
include, but are not limited to:
Quality management--process audits, continuous improvement
targets
Personnel administration--hiring and firing guidelines, employee
performance reviews
Financial controls--time reporting, required expenditure and
disbursement reviews, accounting codes, and standard contract
provisions.
4. Constraints. A constraint is an applicable restriction that will affect the
performance of the project. For example, a predefined budget is a
constraint that is highly likely to limit the team's options regarding scope,
staffing, and schedule. When a project is performed under contract,
contractual provisions will generally be constraints.
5. Assumptions. Assumptions are factors that, for planning purposes, are
considered to be true, real, or certain. Assumptions affect all aspects of
project planning, and are part of the progressive elaboration of the project.
Project teams frequently identify, document, and validate assumptions as
part of their planning process. For example, if the date that a key person
will become available is uncertain, the team may assume a specific start
date. Assumptions generally involve a degree of risk.
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Table of Contents:
  1. Introduction & Fundamentals
  2. Goals of Project management
  3. Project Dimensions, Software Development Lifecycle
  4. Cost Management, Project vs. Program Management, Project Success
  5. Project Management’s nine Knowledge Areas
  6. Team leader, Project Organization, Organizational structure
  7. Project Execution Fundamentals Tracking
  8. Organizational Issues and Project Management
  9. Managing Processes: Project Plan, Managing Quality, Project Execution, Project Initiation
  10. Project Execution: Product Implementation, Project Closedown
  11. Problems in Software Projects, Process- related Problems
  12. Product-related Problems, Technology-related problems
  13. Requirements Management, Requirements analysis
  14. Requirements Elicitation for Software
  15. The Software Requirements Specification
  16. Attributes of Software Design, Key Features of Design
  17. Software Configuration Management Vs Software Maintenance
  18. Quality Assurance Management, Quality Factors
  19. Software Quality Assurance Activities
  20. Software Process, PM Process Groups, Links, PM Phase interactions
  21. Initiating Process: Inputs, Outputs, Tools and Techniques
  22. Planning Process Tasks, Executing Process Tasks, Controlling Process Tasks
  23. Project Planning Objectives, Primary Planning Steps
  24. Tools and Techniques for SDP, Outputs from SDP, SDP Execution
  25. PLANNING: Elements of SDP
  26. Life cycle Models: Spiral Model, Statement of Requirement, Data Item Descriptions
  27. Organizational Systems
  28. ORGANIZATIONAL PLANNING, Organizational Management Tools
  29. Estimation - Concepts
  30. Decomposition Techniques, Estimation – Tools
  31. Estimation – Tools
  32. Work Breakdown Structure
  33. WBS- A Mandatory Management Tool
  34. Characteristics of a High-Quality WBS
  35. Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
  36. WBS- Major Steps, WBS Implementation, high level WBS tasks
  37. Schedule: Scheduling Fundamentals
  38. Scheduling Tools: GANTT CHARTS, PERT, CPM
  39. Risk and Change Management: Risk Management Concepts
  40. Risk & Change Management Concepts
  41. Risk Management Process
  42. Quality Concept, Producing quality software, Quality Control
  43. Managing Tasks in Microsoft Project 2000
  44. Commissioning & Migration