Software Project Management: Lecture 1

MARWARI COLLEGE, RANCHI

(AN AUTONOMOUS UNIT OF RANCHI UNIVERSITY FROM 2009)

- Prakash Kumar, Dept. of CA

-Anjana Kumari, Dept. of IT

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Software Project Management (IT- Sem VI(Old))

Introduction: The Software Project Management is different from other type of project- All projects are about meeting objectives. A project to produce software is only worthwhile if it satisfies the real needs.

Having identifies those objectives and ensuring that they are met is the basis of successful project management. However, we cannot be sure that a project is going to meet its objectives unless there is accurate information and how we obtain that will be explored.

Why software project management is required?

Unfortunately projects are not successful. In a report published in 2003 concluded that 82% project are late and 43% exceeded their budget and only a third of projects were successful.

Most commonly identified reason for this project shortcoming tends to be related to management of projects as:-

1.   Lack of skills

2.   Proven approach to management

3.   Risk management

What is Project?

Dictionary definition says project as “A planned activity.” Planning is in essence thinking carefully about something before you do. The activity that benefits from conventional project management lies between two extremes:-

fig: Activities likely to be benefit from project management

Software Projects versus Other Types of Project: 

The characteristics which distinguish different projects can be summarized as follows:-

1.   Invisibility:  With software, progress is not visible immediately visible.  One way of perceiving software project management is as the process of making visible that which is invisible.

2.   Complexity: Per $, pond or euro spent. Software products contain more complexity than other engineering artefacts.

3.   Conformity: The traditional engineering is usual working with physical systems and physical materials like cement and steel. Software developers have to conform to the requirements of human clients.

4.   Flexibility: The ease with which software can be changed is usually seen as one of its strengths. This means that where the software system interfaces with a physical or organizational system, it is expected that, where necessary, the software will change to accommodate the other components rather than vice-versa. This means that systems are likely to be subject to a high degree of change.