3-Project Planning and Implementation

©Ian Sommerville 2004 Software Engineering, 7th edition. Chapter 5 Slide 1

Project planning

Probably the most time-consuming project management activity.

Continuous activity . Plans must be regularly revised as new

information becomes available. Different types of plan may be developed to

support the main project plan that is concerned with schedule and budget.


Informal vs. Formal planning

Informal planning – projects involving few activities ,resources, constraints and inter-relationships can be visualized and planned informally.

Formal planning – when a project crosses a certain threshold level of size and complexity, informal planning has to be substituted by formal planning.


Functions of planning

Provide a basis for organizing the work on the project

Allocate responsibilities to individuals Provide a means of communication and co-

ordination of all those involved in the project. Induce people to look ahead. Develop a sense of urgency and time

consciousness Establish the basis for monitoring and control.


Areas of Planning

A comprehensive project planning covers the following:

Planning the project work- The activities must be identified. They should be properly scheduled and sequenced.

Planning the manpower and organization- estimate the manpower requirements-managers, technologists, operators, and others


(------- contd)

Planning the money- The expenditure must be budgeted in a time-phased manner

Planning the information system – The information required for monitoring the project must be defined


Stages in the Life cycle of a project

Project development and preliminary engineering

Bidding and contract negotiation Engineering design Purchase and procurement Construction Commissioning


Concepts in planning these stages

1. Rolling wave concept – when detailed planning is done for one stage, summary planning would be done for the remaining stages.

2. Integration concept - planning for all the stages must be integrated. It stems from the inter-relationship among various stages of the project.


Tools of planning

Bar chart , also referred to as Gantt chart or the multiple activity chart.

Net work techniques


Bar chart

- is a pictorial device in which the activities are represented by horizontal bars on the time axis

- Advantages of bar chart: Simple to understand Can be used to show progress Can be used for manpower planning


Limitations of bar chart

Can not show inter-relationship among activities on large and complex projects

Physical limit to the size of the bar chart may limit its application

Can not easily incorporate frequent changes in the project


Network techniques

In these techniques the activities, the events and their inter-relationships are represented by a net work diagram, also called arrow diagram.

These are more sophisticated than the traditional bar chart.

Advantages:

(i) They can effectively handle inter-relationships among project activities

(ii) Timely identification of the activities which are critical


(contd…..)

(ii)Timely identification of the activities which are critical to the completion of the project

(iii) They can handle very large and complex projects

(iv) They can be easily computerized and updated

Drawbacks:

(i) Being more complicated the project personnel may not be able to understand easily.

(ii) The do not define an operational schedule which tells who does what and when.


The project plan

The project plan sets out:

• The resources available to the project;

• The work breakdown;

• A schedule for the work.


Project plan structure

Introduction. Project organisation. Risk analysis. Hardware and software resource

requirements. Work breakdown. Project schedule. Monitoring and reporting mechanisms.


Activity organization

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.

The waterfall process allows for the straightforward definition of progress milestones.


Milestones in the RE process

Evaluationreport

Prototypedevelopment

Userrequirements

Requirementsanalysis

Feasibilityreport

Feasibilitystudy

Architecturaldesign

Designstudy

Systemrequirements

Requirementsspecification

ACTIVITIES

MILESTONES


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.

Dependent on project managers intuition and experience.


The project scheduling process

Estimate resourcesfor activities

Identify activitydependencies

Identifyactivities

Allocate peopleto activities

Softwarerequirements

Activity chartsand bar charts

Create projectcharts


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.

Adding people to a late project makes it later because of communication overheads.

The unexpected always happens. Always allow contingency in planning.


Bar charts and activity networks

Graphical notations used to illustrate the project schedule.

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 the critical path.

Bar charts show schedule against calendar time.


Example : Task durations and dependencies

Activity Duration (days) Dependencies

T1 8

T2 15

T3 15 T1 (M1)

T4 10

T5 10 T2, T4 (M2)

T6 5 T1, T2 (M3)

T7 20 T1 (M1)

T8 25 T4 (M5)

T9 15 T3, T6 (M4)

T10 15 T5, T7 (M7)

T11 7 T9 (M6)

T12 10 T11 (M8)


Example: Activity network

start

T2

M3T6

Finish

T10

M7T5

T7

M2T4

M5

T8

4/7/03

8 days

14/7/03 15 days

4/8/03

15 days

25/8/03

7 days

5/9/03

10 days

19/9/03

15 days

11/8/03

25 days

10 days

20 days

5 days25/7/03

15 days

25/7/03

18/7/03

10 days

T1

M1 T3T9

M6

T11

M8

T12

M4


Example : Activity timeline4/7 11/7 18/7 25/7 1/8 8/8 15/8 22/8 29/8 5/9 12/9 19/9

T4

T1T2

M1

T7T3

M5

T8

M3

M2

T6

T5

M4

T9

M7

T10

M6

T11M8

T12

Start

Finish


Example: Staff allocation

4/7 11/7 18/7 25/7 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


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.


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;


The risk management process

Risk avoidanceand contingency

plans

Risk planning

Prioritised risklist

Risk analysis

List of potentialrisks

Riskidentification

Riskassessment

Riskmonitoring


Risk identification

Technology risks. People risks. Organisational risks. Requirements risks. Estimation risks.


Risk analysis

Assess probability and seriousness of each risk.

Probability may be very low, low, moderate, high or very high.

Risk effects might be catastrophic, serious, tolerable or insignificant.


Risk planning

Consider each risk and develop a strategy to manage that risk.

Avoidance strategies• The probability that the risk will arise is reduced;

Minimisation strategies• The impact of the risk on the project or product will

be reduced; Contingency plans

• If the risk arises, contingency plans are plans to deal with that risk;


Risk monitoring

Assess each identified risks regularly to decide whether or not it is becoming less or more probable.

Also assess whether the effects of the risk have changed.

Each key risk should be discussed at management progress meetings.


Key points

Good project management is essential for project success.

The intangible nature of software causes problems for management.

Managers have diverse roles but their most significant activities are planning, estimating and scheduling.

Planning and estimating are iterative processes which continue throughout the course of a project.


A project milestone is a predictable state where a formal report of progress is presented to management.

Project scheduling involves preparing various graphical representations showing project activities, their durations and staffing.

Risk management is concerned with identifying risks which may affect the project and planning to ensure that these risks do not develop into major threats.

Key points

3-Project Planning and Implementation

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