course5_defining the project.ppt

7/29/2019 course5_defining the project.ppt

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SE307 "Software projectmanagement"Course5 Defining the project, rest of

the steps


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Summary

Summary of course 4

Project definition

Investigate costs and benefits

Define the project

Planning

Decide go or no go


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Summary course 4

We have seen the first steps how to define aproject

Define stage plan and agreement

Evaluate business need

Find the best solution


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Now That you have done the first steps of yourproject definition and you know that there is aneed for it, you can start to estimate the costs

and benefits In a further lecture we will see how to do it in

details

What is important is that your benefits shouldbe higher than your costs, otherwise you projectwill be rejected!


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Investigate costs

Now we can estimate the cost of the solution

The Finance department may have a list oftypical major project cost areas and standard

rates for converting people's hours into money: How much is an IT person

How much is a business people

How much is your software etc


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Investigate costs

This is not an easy thing to do

With the experience it will become easier toknow what could be the cost of a project


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Investigate costs

If this is an IT project, who is going to estimatethe IT development cost?

Clearly it has to be IT.

It can take a lot of time and effort for the ITpeople to get sufficient information aboutwhat is proposed even to give a high levelestimate.


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Investigate costs

Main problem is that many IT people don't knowhow to estimate their work

We will see that in details in a separate lesson

But this is one of the most tricky part, becauseIT people think only in lines of code and forgetall the rest:

Test Documentation

Error correction

.


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Investigate benefits

Benefit:

Something that improves

Bring an advantage

Bring some profit


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Is there such a thing as a project benefit thatcannot be quantified in financial terms?

No, Every benefit can be quantified.


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For example if you want to make a project thatincrease employee's happiness:

You can say is that when employees are

happy they work more, so they producemore and this save XXX money.

You must at least quantify enough of thebenefits to justify the project.


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Define the project

Now you now that there is a customer need anda benefit for your project.

We have decided a solution within the scope,

but when we go in details (Business Case) thelist of requirement can be very long

And if you try to deliver everything thateveryone would like in one go you'd be facing abig bang disaster project: this is too big!


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Project stages

What is that?

"A two year project will take three years, a threeyear project will never finish."

What could be the solution:

To split the project in small releases


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One big project

It's more visible More focus from senior management

because it's big

Only one implementation, one disruption tothe business

Nice clean switch from old to new: Notemporary bridges from old to new

Only one tranche of training


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One big project

Everything being done only once so lowercost

Plenty of time to do it properly

If it's going wrong, plenty of time to get out

before the end

But maybe too much time and everything isdone at the last minute?


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Small releases

Better team motivation

Less spent on project control

Greater flexibility for senior management

Learning from experience

Easier to handle change

Less business risk: evolution not revolution Less waste on never-used functionality

Easier to manage four small projects thanone large one


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Small releases

Easier to commit people for eight monthsthan for three years

Fewer people leave during a release project

than during the big bang project Earlier benefits realization

Lower cost overall (yes, it's on both lists)


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Define the project

So you decide to break it into releases and youdetermine what will be included in Release 1.

You must tell some very senior people that whatthey would like won't be in Release 1, it'll be in

Release 3 - maybe.

This is always a difficult part with a lot ofdiscussions, because if this is not done at the

beginning people don't see thebenefit for them and don't want

to be part of the project

This is very political!


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Define the project

If you don't discuss it and don't be realistic youcan have serious problems

Remember, I told you about living in reality

If your project is not realistic, too big it will fail!


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How to decide the releases

In principle include in Release 1 only thosethings that are absolutely essential on day one,

"You want that included? Sure, I'll put it in for

you." Good project managers know how to say "no":

politely, firmly, rationally: "no".

Unnecessary things Rolls royce solution

What you absolutely need What is priority 2


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How to decide the releases

If we break into releases we may have torethink our costs and benefit to change thescope

You have to do iterations This can take a very long time


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Define the project

Now we can continue with our definitions:

decide who should be on the steeringcommittee

define and agree roles

determine how the project will be managed:issue handling, change control, status

reporting... ...


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Planning

We have decided what is in Release 1, we needto plan it:

High level planning for the all project

More detailed planning for your first release

We also need to know what must be deliveredand then plan who must do what work andwhen in order to deliver those things.

A key part of the planning of Release1 will benegotiating with the managers of the people wewill need


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Example of Planning

We will have a separate course to see how toplanning in details.


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Decide go or no go

You will have to make several meetings toensure that all the key player (Stakeholder)have the same understanding of the project.

You will review: project's goals and objectives

business case summary

scope and contents of Release 1 and outlookfor future releases

planning(s)

go no/go points


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Decide go or no go

roles and responsibilities

who will supply what resources when

how status will be reported, how change will

be managed, etc risks and how they will be managed


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Decide go or no go

Then when everything is clear: The projectmanager presents to the sponsor evidence: weknow what we're doing and we're ready to startdoing it.

Then it will be decided if the project can beofficially started!


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Conclusion

We have seen ho to define a project

Define stage plan and agreement

Evaluate business need

Find the best solution


Define the project

Planning Decide go or no go

course5_defining the project.ppt

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