Project management

1. Project management

2. Topics covered Management activities Project planning Project scheduling Risk management

3. The product is intangible. The product is uniquely flexible. The software development process is not standardised. Many projects are 'one-off'. Project management challenges

4. Project planning Probably the most time-consuming project management activity. Continuous activity from initial concept through to system delivery. Plans must be regularly revised as new information becomes available.

5. The project plan The project plan sets out to map: The work breakdown The resources available to the project Cost estimation A schedule for the work

6. Cost Estimation

7. Problem Our ability to realistically plan and schedule projects depends on our ability to estimate project costs and development efforts In order to come up with a reliable cost estimate, we need to have a firm grasp on the requirements, as well as our approach to meeting them Typically costs need to be estimated before these are fully understood

8. Estimating uncertainty Boehm 1981

9. What are project costs? For most software projects, costs are: Hardware Costs Travel & Training costs Effort costs

10. What are effort costs? Effort costs typically largest of the 3 types of costs, and the most difficult to estimate. Effort costs include: Developer hours Heating, power, space Support staff; accountants, administrators, cleaners, management Networking and communication infrastructure Central facilities such as rec room & library Social security and employee benefits

11. Effort cost estimation - Overhead Effort costs Developer time (salaries) All the other stuff All the other stuff costs aprox. the same as the developer time!

12. Effort cost estimation - Overhead OSU example: 45% for benefits 46% for “indirect” costs (space, infrastructure etc) calculated on top of everything else $1,000 +benefits ($450) + infrastructure ($667) = $2,117

13. Determining software cost Boehm (1981) Algorithmic cost modeling Base estimate on project size (lines of code) Expert judgment Ask others Estimation by analogy Cost based on experience with similar projects Parkinson’s Law Project time will expand to fill time available Pricing to win Cost will be whatever customer is willing to pay Top-down estimation Estimation based on function/object points Bottom-up estimation Estimation based on components

14. Aggravating & mitigating factors Market opportunity Uncertainty/risks Contractual terms Requirements volatility Financial health Opportunity costs

15. Cost drivers Software reliability Size of application database Complexity Analyst capability Software engineering capability Applications experience Virtual machine experience Programming language expertise Performance requirements Memory constraints Volatility of virtual machine Environment Turnaround time Use of software tools Application of software engineering methods Required development schedule

16. Project staffing May not be possible to appoint the ideal people to work on a project Project budget may not allow for the use of highly-paid staff Staff with the appropriate experience may not be available An organisation may wish to develop employee skills on a software project. Managers have to work within these constraints especially when there are shortages of trained staff.

17. Metrics Lines of code Simple, but not very meaningful metric Easy to pad, affected by prog language How to count revisions/debugging etc? Function points Amount of useful code produced (goals/requirements met) Less volatile, more meaningful, not perfect Object points Number of artifacts that need to be produced Less detailed, requires less work to estimate, but more appropriate for some types of applications

18. Function points Function points are computed by first calculating an unadjusted function point count (UFC). Counts are made for the following categories (Fenton, 1997): External inputs – those items provided by the user that describe distinct application-oriented data (such as file names and menu selections) External outputs – those items provided to the user that generate distinct application-oriented data (such as reports and messages, rather than the individual components of these) External inquiries – interactive inputs requiring a response External files – machine-readable interfaces to other systems Internal files – logical master files in the system Each of these is then assessed for complexity and given a weighting from 3 (for simple external inputs) to 15 (for complex internal files).

19. Unadjusted Function Point Count (UFC)

20. Function points -> Lines of code 200-300 LOC/Function point in assembly Multiplication factor by language Programmer productivity? 30-900 LOC/month!

21. Basic cost models

22. Object points Similar to function points (used to estimate projects based heavily on reuse, scripting and adaptation of existing tools) Number of screens (simple x1, complex x2, difficult x3) Number of reports (simple x2, complex x5, difficult x8) Number of custom modules written in languages like Java/C x10

23. Object point estimation PM = (object points x(1-%reuse/100)/ productivity Productivity estimates from 4-50 object points/month, depending on experience and the availability/maturity of tools

24. Project Scheduling

25. Project scheduling Split project into tasks and estimate time and resources required to complete each task. Organize tasks concurrently to make optimal use of workforce. Minimize task dependencies to avoid delays caused by one task waiting for another to complete.

26. Scheduling problems Estimating the difficulty of problems and hence the cost of developing a solution is hard. Productivity is not proportional to the number of people working on a task. The unexpected always happens. Always allow contingency in planning.

27. Activity vocabulary Activities in a project should be organised to produce tangible outputs for management to judge progress. Milestones are the end-point of a process activity. Deliverables are project results delivered to customers.

28. Bar charts and activity networks Show project breakdown into tasks. Tasks should not be too small. They should take about a week or two. Activity charts show task dependencies and the critical path. Bar charts show schedule against calendar time.

29. Task durations and dependencies

30. Activity network

31. Activity timeline

32. Risk Management

33. Risk management Risk management is concerned with identifying risks and drawing up plans to minimise their effect on a project. A risk is a probability that some adverse circumstance will occur Project risks affect schedule or resources; Product risks affect the quality or performance of the software being developed; Business risks affect the organisation developing or procuring the software.

34. The risk management process Risk identification Identify project, product and business risks; Risk analysis Assess the likelihood and consequences of these risks; Risk planning Draw up plans to avoid or minimise the effects of the risk; Risk monitoring Monitor the risks throughout the project;

35. Uncertainty Sources Requirements Match (UI/interface) Changing Environment Resources Management (support & talent) Supply Chain Politics Conflict Innovation Scale

36. Risk Management How much risk to take Return on investment = value-cost/cost Need for specificity in calculating these? What are the difficulties in specifying costs, benefits, value, and to whom?

37. Risk Vocabulary What is risk management vs. Crisis management? Show stoppers! (project assumptions) What is Mitigation? What is a transition indicator?

38. What is risk management? Risk discovery Exposure analysis (probability * cost/damages) Contingency planning Mitigation Ongoing transition monitoring

39. Core Risks 1 inherent scheduling flaw 2 Requirements inflation 3 Employee turnover 4 Specifications breakdown 5 Poor productivity

40. Risk Management Strategies Risks can be avoided contained mitigated evaded ignored

41. Ignoring Risks Risks to ignore: 1 Probability is just very small 2 Effect makes product irrelevant 3 Minimal consequence 4 Someone else’s risk

42. Risk Analysis Estimating project completion The Nano-percent date Risk Exposure Cost x Probability