Review Questions

• Why is it important to proactively manage risk?

• What are some techniques for enumerating project risks?

• What are the two main aspects of configuration management?

What if . . .

• We cancelled all the rest of the labs, set the project end date at November 23, set up the submit directories, and wished you good luck

What is project management?

The overall goal of project planning is to establish a The overall goal of project planning is to establish a pragmatic strategy for controlling, tracking, and pragmatic strategy for controlling, tracking, and monitoring a complex technical project.monitoring a complex technical project.

• includes risk managementincludes risk management

Software Project Management Plans (SPMP, Iteration 0)Software Project Management Plans (SPMP, Iteration 0)

Weekly iterationsWeekly iterations

RAFRAF

Ten major causes of project failure [ Danek Bienkowski]

• The project is a solution in search of a problem

• Only the project team is interested in the end result

• No one is in charge

• The project plan lacks structure

• The project plan lacks detail

• The project is underbudgeted

• Insufficient resources are allocated

• The project is not tackled against its plan

• The project team is not communicating

• The project strays from its original goals

Objectives of Project Management1. To ensure that the project is correctly designed

to meet its objectives

2. To ensure that the project is completed on schedule, within resources and budget

3. To provide a mechanism for monitoring the project

Agreed upon by all parties, achievable, satisfy customer needs

Agreed upon, consistent with needs of project, clearly defined

So project does not stray

Task Durations and DependenciesTask Duration

(days)Dependencies

T1 8T2 15T3 15 T1T4 10T5 10 T2, T4T6 5 T1, T2T7 20 T1T8 25 T4T9 15 T3, T6T10 15 T5, T7T11 7 T9T12 10 T11

A manageable task is one in which the expected results can be easily identified; success, failure or completion of the task can be easily ascertained; the time & resources to complete the task can be estimated and is in decently small chunks of time (1/2 day, day)

Activity Network

start

T2

M3T6

Finish

T10

M7T5

T7

M2T4

M5

T8

4/7/94

8 days

14/7/94 15 days

4/8/94

15 days

25/8/94

7 days

5/9/94

10 days

19/9/94

15 days

11/8/94

25 days

10 days

20 days

5 days25/7/94

15 days

25/7/94

18/7/94

10 days

T1

M1 T3T9

M6

T11

M8

T12

M4

Staff Allocation

4/7 11/7 18/7 25/ 1/8 8/8 15/8 22/8 29/8 5/9 12/9 19/9

T4

T8 T11

T12

T1

T3

T9

T2

T6 T10

T7

T5

Fred

Jane

Anne

Mary

Jim

Example Gantt Chart

From: http://www.me.umn.edu/courses/me4054/assignments/gantt.html

•Project progress quickly until they become 90% complete; then they remain at 90% complete forever.

PERT

• Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)– For each task

» Name/identifier

» Duration

» Number of people

» Dependency information

– Critical Path Method (CPM)

» Critical path is indicated. The critical path consists of the set of dependent tasks which together take the longest time to complete.

» Tasks that fall on the critical path should receive special attention because delays can shift the whole project

– Slack

» Broken or dotted line between the end of a task and the start of a dependent task

Pert Chart (Critical Path Method)

From: http://www.rff.com/pert_html.htm

Big Visible Chart; Wall Gantts; Stand Up Meeting

Pros and Cons

• What are the pros and cons of– Pert charts, Gantt charts

– Planning game, Wall gantts

• For what types of projects are each appropriate?

What every software engineer needs to know 101

• Fred Brooks (IBM, UNC), “Mythical Man Month”

• Brooks’ Law: Adding manpower to a late project makes it later

– Communication

– Assimilation time

– Training