554 Week 3 Case Study 1 Reaching Success through Best Project Management Practi

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jpynl24

Computer Science

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Read the following articles:

Write a two to three (2-3) page paper in which you:

  1. Identify the common challenges that exist within IT projects based on the first article. Highlight the best practices that could be linked to the successful performance of IT project teams.
  2. Determine at least three (3) challenges that exist when working with virtual teams based on the second article titled “IT project management and virtual teams”. Analyze how the efficient management of these challenges influences the success of project deliverables. 
  3. Based on the lessons learned within the first article titled “ OPM3® Case Study: OPM3 in Action: Pinellas County IT Turns Around Performance and Customer Confidence”, draw a workflow diagram to show how a project should initiate to gain support from the various project stakeholders. Use the graphical tools in Microsoft Word or Visio, or an open source alternative such as Dia. Note: The graphically depicted solution is not included in the required page length. 
  4. Compare and contrast the assessment steps provided by the OPM3 Model presented in the first article with the CMMI-DEV-v1.2 process framework presented in Appendix 1A of the textbook. Discuss how the CMMI maturity levels are related to the assessment steps.
  5. Summarize at least three (3) CMMI processes that can improve the productivity of virtual teams. Determine the three (3) most significant measures and the activities associated with each process. Note: Refer to table 1A.4 in Chapter 1 of the textbook for information on purposes of the CMMI-DEV-v1.2 processes.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

  • Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
  • Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length. 
  • Include charts or diagrams created in Visio or Dia. The completed diagrams / charts must be imported into the Word document before the paper is submitted.

Use the following template APA_Template_With_Advice_(6th_Ed) .doc

Book Managing and Leading Software Projects.pdf

IT project management and virtual teams IT project management and virtual teams.pdf


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Running head: TYPE ABBREVIATED TITLE HERE Title of the Paper in Full Goes Here Student Name Here Strayer University Dr. Richard Brown April 15, 2014 1 TYPE ABBREVIATED TITLE HERE 2 Abstract This is the abstract, which is typed in block format with no indentation. It is a brief summation of your paper and should be 120 words or less. It should be accurate and concise. Your abstract should also be written in a self-contained way so people reading only your abstract would fully understand the content and the implications of your paper. It may be helpful to write this section last when you have collected all the information in your paper. See section 2.04 APA for helpful tips and for more information on writing abstracts. TYPE ABBREVIATED TITLE HERE 3 Title of the Paper Do not add any extra spaces between your heading and your text (check Spacing under Format, Paragraph in your word processor, and make sure that it’s set to 0”)—just double space as usual, indent your work a full ½ inch (preferably using the tab button), and start typing. Your introduction should receive no specific heading because it is assumed that your first section is your introduction section. Once you’ve considered these formatting issues, you will need to construct a thesis statement, something that lets your reader know how you synthesized the literature into a treatise that is capable of advancing a new point of view. This statement will then provide your reader with a lens for understanding the forthcoming research you’ve decided to present in the body of your essay (after all, each piece of literature should support and be made applicable to this thesis statement). Once you’ve established your thesis, you can then begin constructing your introduction. An easy template is as follows: 1. Start with what’s been said/done regarding your topic of interest. 2. Explain the problem with what’s been said or done. 3. Offer your solution, your thesis statement (one that can be supported by the literature). 4. Explain how your thesis brings about social change. Level 1 Heading TYPE ABBREVIATED TITLE HERE 4 This will be the beginning of the body of your essay. Even though it has a new heading, you want to make sure you connect this to your previous section so your reader can follow you and better understand your hard work. Remember to make sure your first sentence in each paragraph both transitions from your previous paragraph and summarizes the main point in your paragraph. Stick to one topic per paragraph, and when you see yourself drifting to another idea, make sure you break into a new paragraph. Try to avoid long paragraphs to avoid losing your reader and to hold his or her attention--it’s much better to have many shorter paragraphs than few long ones. Think: new idea, new paragraph. Another Level 1 Heading Here’s another Level 1 heading. Again, the topic sentence of this section should explain how this is related or a result of what’s been discussed in the previous section. You’ll also want to consider using transitions between your sentences as well. Below are a few examples of how to transition from one statement to another (or in some cases, one piece of literature to another): 1. Many music teachers at Olson Junior High are concerned about losing their jobs (J. Thompson, personal communication, July 3, 2004). This is not surprising considering the state’s recent financial cutbacks of fine arts programs (Pennsylvania Educational System, 2004). 2. Obesity affects as much as 17% of the total population of children (Johnson & Hammer, 2003). This increase of obesity leads to other chronic health problems, some short term and some long term (Christianson, 2004). For more examples, see some of our transitions handouts on our website. Level 2 Heading TYPE ABBREVIATED TITLE HERE 5 The Level 2 heading here implies that we are in a subsection of the previous section. Using headings are a great way to organize your paper and increase its readability, so be sure to review heading rules on APA 3.02 and 3.03 in order to format them correctly. For shorter papers, using one or two levels is all that is needed. You would use Level 1 (centered, bold font with both uppercase and lowercase) and Level 2 (left aligned, bold, both uppercase and lowercase). Level 3 heading. The number of headings you need in a particular paper is not set, but for longer papers, you may need another heading level. You would then use Level 3 (indented, bold, lowercase paragraph heading). One crucial area in APA is learning how to cite in your academic work. You really want to make sure you cite your work throughout your paper to avoid plagiarism. This is critical: you need to give credit to your sources and avoid copying other’s work at all costs. Look at APA starting at 6.01 for guidelines on citing your work in your text. Level 1 Heading APA can seem a bit tricky to master, but it’s really fairly straightforward once you get the hang of it. There are also plenty of sources to help you—don’t be afraid to ask! And so forth until the conclusion….. Level 1 Heading Your conclusion section should recap the major points you have made in your work. However, perhaps more importantly, it should also interpret what you have written and what it means in the bigger picture. In your concluding remarks, think big! Some questions to ask yourself include: What do you want to happen with the information you’ve provided? What do TYPE ABBREVIATED TITLE HERE 6 you want to change? What is your ultimate goal in using this information? What would it mean if the suggestions in your paper were taken and used? TYPE ABBREVIATED TITLE HERE 7 References (Please note that the following references should NOT appear in your paper) Alexander, G., & Bonaparte, N. (2008). My way or the highway that I built. Ancient Dictators, 25(7), 14-31. doi:10.8220/CTCE.52.1.23-91 Babar, E. (2007). The art of being a French elephant. Adventurous Cartoon Animals, 19, 43194392. Retrieved from http://www.elephants104.ace.org Bumstead, D. (2009). The essentials: Sandwiches and sleep. Journals of Famous Loafers, 5, 565582. doi:12.2847/CEDG.39.2.51-71 Hansel, G., & Gretel, D. (1973). Candied houses and unfriendly occupants. Thousand Oaks, CA: Fairy Tale Publishing. Hera, J. (2008). Why Paris was wrong. Journal of Greek Goddess Sore Spots, 20(4), 19-21. Laureate, Education, Inc. (Producer). (2007). How to cite a video: The city is always Baltimore [DVD]. Baltimore, MD: Author. Sinatra, F. (2008). Zing! Went the strings of my heart. Making Good Songs Great, 18(3), 31-32. Retrieved from http:///articlesextollingrecordingsofyore.192/fs.com Smasfaldi, H., Wareumph, I., Aeoli, Q., Rickies, F., Furoush, P., Aaegrade, V., … Fiiel, B. (2005). The art of correcting surname mispronunciation. New York, NY: Supportive Publisher Press. Retrieved from http://www.onewaytociteelectronicbooksperAPA7.02.com TYPE ABBREVIATED TITLE HERE White, S., & Red, R. (2001). Stop and smell the what now? Floral arranging for beginners (Research Report No. 40-921). Retrieved from University of Wooded Glen, Center for Aesthetic Improvements in Fairy Tales website: http://www.uwg.caift/~40_921.pdf 8 www.it-ebooks.info MANAGING AND LEADING SOFTWARE PROJECTS www.it-ebooks.info Press Operating Committee Chair Linda Shafer former Director, Software Quality Institute The University of Texas at Austin Editor-in-Chief Alan Clements Professor University of Teesside Board Members David Anderson, Principal Lecturer, University of Portsmouth Mark J. Christensen, Independent Consultant James Conrad, Associate Professor, UNC Charlotte Michael G. Hinchey, Director, Software Engineering Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Phillip Laplante, Associate Professor, Software Engineering, Penn State University Richard Thayer, Professor Emeritus, California State University, Sacramento Donald F. Shafer, Chief Technology Officer, Athens Group, Inc. Evan Butterfield, Director of Products and Services Kate Guillemette, Product Development Editor, CS Press IEEE Computer Society Publications The world-renowned IEEE Computer Society publishes, promotes, and distributes a wide variety of authoritative computer science and engineering texts. These books are available from most retail outlets. Visit the CS Store at http://computer.org/cspress for a list of products. IEEE Computer Society / Wiley Partnership The IEEE Computer Society and Wiley partnership allows the CS Press authored book program to produce a number of exciting new titles in areas of computer science, computing and networking with a special focus on software engineering. IEEE Computer Society members continue to receive a 15% discount on these titles when purchased through Wiley or at wiley.com/ieeecs To submit questions about the program or send proposals please e-mail kguillemette@computer.org or write to Books, IEEE Computer Society, 10662 Los Vaqueros Circle, Los Alamitos, CA 90720-1314. Telephone +1-714-821-8380. Additional information regarding the Computer Society authored book program can also be accessed from our web site at http://computer.org/cspress. www.it-ebooks.info MANAGING AND LEADING SOFTWARE PROJECTS RICHARD E. (DICK) FAIRLEY A JOHN WILEY & SONS, INC., PUBLICATION www.it-ebooks.info Copyright © 2009 by IEEE Computer Society. All rights reserved. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey. Published simultaneously in Canada. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 750-4470, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permission. Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. For general information on our other products and services please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic formats. For more information about Wiley products, visit our web site at www.wiley.com. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available. ISBN: 978-0-470-29455-0 Printed in the United States of America. 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 www.it-ebooks.info CONTENTS Preface 1 xv Introduction 1 1.1 1.2 1.3 Introduction to Software Project Management, 1 Objectives of This Chapter, 2 Why Managing and Leading Software Projects Is Difficult, 2 1.3.1 Software Complexity, 3 1.3.2 Software Conformity, 4 1.3.3 Software Changeability, 4 1.3.4 Software Invisibility, 5 1.3.5 Team-Oriented, Intellect-Intensive Work, 6 1.4 The Nature of Project Constraints, 9 1.5 A Workflow Model for Managing Software Projects, 13 1.6 Organizational Structures for Software Projects, 16 1.6.1 Functional Structures, 16 1.6.2 Project Structures, 17 1.6.3 Matrix Structures, 17 1.6.4 Hybrid Structures, 18 1.7 Organizing the Project Team, 19 1.7.1 The System Engineering Team, 19 1.7.2 The Software Engineering Team, 20 1.8 Maintaining the Project Vision and the Product Vision, 21 1.9 Frameworks, Standards, and Guidelines, 22 1.10 Key Points of Chapter 1, 23 1.11 Overview of the Text, 23 References, 24 Exercises, 25 v www.it-ebooks.info vi CONTENTS Appendix 1A: 2 Frameworks, Standards, and Guidelines for Managing Software Projects, 28 1A.1 The CMMI-DEV-v1.2 Process Framework, 28 1A.2 ISO/IEC and IEEE/EIA Standards 12207, 34 1A.3 IEEE/EIA Standard 1058, 36 1A.4 The PMI Body of Knowledge, 37 Process Models for Software Development 2.1 2.2 2.3 Introduction to Process Models, 39 Objectives of This Chapter, 42 A Development-Process Framework, 42 2.3.1 Users, Customers, and Acquirers, 43 2.3.2 System Requirements and System Design, 46 2.3.3 Software Requirements, Architecture, and Implementation, 47 2.3.4 Verification and Validation, 50 2.4 Tailoring the System Engineering Framework for Software-Only Projects, 52 2.5 Traditional Software Development Process Models, 54 2.5.1 Hacking, 54 2.5.2 Requirements-to-Code, 55 2.5.3 The Waterfall Development Model, 55 2.5.4 Guidelines for Planning and Controlling Traditional Software Projects, 58 2.6 Iterative-Development Process Models, 58 2.6.1 The Incremental-Build Model, 59 2.6.2 The Evolutionary Model, 64 2.6.3 Agile Development Models, 66 2.6.4 The Scrum Model, 68 2.6.5 The Spiral Meta-Model, 69 2.6.6 Guidelines for Planning and Controlling IterativeDevelopment Projects, 71 2.7 Designing an Iterative-Development Process, 72 2.8 The Role of Prototyping in Software Development, 74 2.9 Key Points of Chapter 2, 75 References, 76 Exercises, 77 Appendix 2A: Frameworks, Standards, and Guidelines for Software Development Process Models, 79 2A.1 The CMMI-DEV-v1.2 Technical Solution Process Area, 79 2A.2 Development Processes in ISO/IEC and IEEE/EIA Standards 12207, 80 2A.3 Technical Process Plans in IEEE/EIA Standard 1058, 81 2A.4 The PMI Body of Knowledge, 81 www.it-ebooks.info 39 CONTENTS Appendix 2B: 3 vii Considerations for Selecting an IterativeDevelopment Model, 82 Establishing Project Foundations 85 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Introduction to Project Foundations, 85 Objectives of This Chapter, 86 Software Acquisition, 87 Requirements Engineering, 88 3.4.1 Requirements Development, 89 3.4.2 Requirements Analysis, 96 3.4.3 Technical Specifications, 98 3.4.4 Requirements Verification, 105 3.4.5 Requirements Management, 106 3.5 Process Foundations, 109 3.5.1 Specifying the Scope of Your Project, 110 3.5.2 The Contractual Agreement, 110 3.6 Key Points of Chapter 3, 112 References, 113 Exercises, 114 Appendix 3A: Frameworks, Standards, and Guidelines for Product Foundations, 116 3A.1 The CMMI-DEV-v1.2 Process Areas for Requirements Development and Requirements Management, 116 3A.2 Product Foundations in ISO/IEC and IEEE/EIA Standards 12207, 117 3A.3 IEEE/EIA Standard 1058, 118 3A.4 The PMI Body of Knowledge, 118 4 Plans and Planning 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 119 Introduction to the Planning Process, 119 Objectives of This Chapter, 120 The Planning Process, 121 The CMMI-DEV-v1.2 Process Area for Project Planning, 125 4.4.1 Planning Agile Projects, 128 4.4.2 Balancing Agility and Discipline, 129 A Minimal Project Plan, 129 A Template for Software Project Management Plans, 130 4.6.1 Front Matter, 130 4.6.2 Project Summary, 132 4.6.3 Evolution, Definitions, and References, 134 4.6.4 Project Organization, 136 4.6.5 Managerial Processes, 137 4.6.6 Technical Processes, 143 4.6.7 Supporting Processes, 145 4.6.8 Additional Plans, Appendixes, Index, 149 www.it-ebooks.info viii CONTENTS 4.7 Techniques for Preparing a Project Plan, 150 4.7.1 Tailoring the Project Plan Template, 150 4.7.2 Including Predefined Elements, 152 4.7.3 Using Organizational Support, 152 4.7.4 Leading a Planning Team, 153 4.7.5 Incremental Planning, 153 4.8 Key Points of Chapter 4, 154 References, 154 Exercises, 155 Appendix 4A: Frameworks, Standards, and Guidelines for Project Planning, 156 4A.1 The CMMI-DEV-v1.2 Project Planning Process Area, 156 4A.2 ISO/IEC and IEEE/EIA Standards 12207, 157 4A.3 IEEE/EIA Standard 1058, 158 4A.4 The PMI Body of Knowledge, 158 Appendix 4B: Annotated Outline for Software Project Management Plans, Based on IEEE Standard 1058, 159 4B.1 Purpose, 159 4B.2 Evolution of Plans, 160 4B.3 Overview, 160 4B.4 Format of a Software Project Management Plan, 160 4B.5 Structure and Content of the Plan, 162 5 Project Planning Techniques 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 Introduction to Project Planning Techniques, 173 Objectives of This Chapter, 174 The Scope of Planning, 175 Rolling-Wave Planning, 175 Scenarios for Developing a Project Plan, 176 Developing the Architecture Decomposition View and the Work Breakdown Structure, 177 5.7 Guidelines for Designing Work Breakdown Structures, 182 5.8 Developing the Project Schedule, 188 5.8.1 The Critical-Path Method, 190 5.8.2 The PERT Method, 190 5.8.3 Task-Gantt Charts, 193 5.9 Developing Resource Profiles, 193 5.10 Resource-Gantt Charts, 199 5.11 Estimating Project Effort, Cost, and Schedule, 199 5.12 Key Points of Chapter 5, 201 References, 202 Exercises, 202 www.it-ebooks.info 173 CONTENTS ix Appendix 5A: Frameworks, Standards, and Guidelines for Project Planning Techniques, 204 A5.1 Specific Practices of the CMMI-DEV-v1.2 Project Planning Process Area, 204 5A.2 ISO/IEC and IEEE/EIA Standards 12207, 205 5A.3 IEEE/EIA Standard 1058, 205 5A.4 The PMI Body of Knowledge, 206 6 Estimation Techniques 207 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 Introduction to Estimation Techniques, 207 Objectives of This Chapter, 208 Fundamental Principles of Estimation, 209 Designing to Project Constraints, 214 Estimating Product Size, 216 Pragmatic Estimation Techniques, 224 6.6.1 Rule of Thumb, 224 6.6.2 Analogy, 226 6.6.3 Expert Judgment, 227 6.6.4 Delphi Estimation, 227 6.6.5 WBS/CPM/PERT, 229 6.7 Theory-Based Estimation Models, 230 6.7.1 System Dynamics, 230 6.7.2 SLIM, 231 6.8 Regression-Based Estimation Models, 234 6.8.1 COCOMO Models, 238 6.8.2 Monte Carlo Estimation, 244 6.8.3 Local Calibration, 244 6.9 Estimation Tools, 249 6.10 Estimating Life Cycle Resources, Effort, and Cost, 249 6.11 An Estimation Procedure, 251 6.12 A Template for Recording Estimates, 256 6.13 Key Points of Chapter 6, 258 References, 258 Exercises, 259 Appendix 6A: Frameworks, Standards, and Guidelines for Estimation, 262 6A.1 Estimation Goals and Practices of the CMMI-DEV-v1.2 Project Planning Process Area, 262 6A.2 ISO/IEC and IEEE/EIA Standards 12207, 263 6A.3 IEEE/EIA Standard 1058, 263 6A.4 The PMI Body of Knowledge, 263 7 Measuring and Controlling Work Products 7.1 7.2 Introduction to Measuring and Controlling Work Products, 265 Objectives of This Chapter, 268 www.it-ebooks.info 265 x CONTENTS 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 Why Measure?, 268 What Should Be Measured?, 269 Measures and Measurement, 270 Measuring Product Attributes, 276 7.6.1 Measuring Operational Requirements and Technical Specifications, 276 7.6.2 Measuring and Controlling Changes to Work Products, 281 7.6.3 Measuring Attributes of Architectural Design Specifications, 285 7.6.4 Measuring Attributes of Software Implementation, 288 7.6.5 Complexity Measures for Software Code, 293 7.6.6 Measuring Integration and Verification of Software Units, 298 7.6.7 Measuring System Verification and Validation, 299 7.7 Measuring and Analyzing Software Defects, 301 7.8 Choosing Product Measures, 309 7.9 Practical Software Measurement, 311 7.10 Guidelines for Measuring and Controlling Work Products, 311 7.11 Rolling-Wave Adjustments Based on Product Measures and Measurement, 313 7.12 Key Points of Chapter 7, 313 References, 314 Exercises, 315 Appendix 7A: Frameworks, Standards, and Guidelines for Measuring and Controlling Work Products, 319 7A.1 The CMMI-DEV-v1.2 Monitoring and Control Process Area, 319 7A.2 ISO/IEC and IEEE/EIA Standards 12207, 320 7A.3 IEEE/EIA Standard 1058, 321 7A.4 The PMI Body of Knowledge, 321 7A.5 Practical Software and Systems Measurement (PSM), 321 Appendix 7B: Procedures and Forms for Software Inspections, 322 7B.1 Conducting a Software Inspection, 322 7B.2 The Defect Checklist, 324 7B.3 Conducting an Inspection Meeting, 325 8 Measuring and Controlling Work Processes 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 Introduction to Measuring and Controlling Work Processes, 333 Objectives of This Chapter, 336 Measuring and Analyzing Effort, 336 Measuring and Analyzing Rework Effort, 339 Tracking Effort, Schedule, and Cost; Estimating Future Status, 342 8.5.1 Binary Tracking, 342 8.5.2 Estimating Future Status, 345 www.it-ebooks.info 333 CONTENTS xi 8.6 Earned Value Reporting, 347 8.7 Project Control Panel®, 353 8.8 Key Points of Chapter 8, 357 References, 358 Exercises, 358 Appendix 8A: Frameworks, Standards, and Guidelines for Measuring and Controlling Work Processes, 361 9 Managing Project Risk 363 9.1 9.2 9.3 Introduction to Managing Project Risk, 363 Objectives of This Chapter, 365 An Overview of Risk Management for Software Projects, 366 9.4 Conventional Project Management Techniques, 369 9.5 Risk Identification Techniques, 373 9.5.1 Checklists, 373 9.5.2 Brainstorming, 375 9.5.3 Expert Judgment, 375 9.5.4 SWOT, 375 9.5.5 Analysis of Assumptions and Constraints, 375 9.5.6 Lessons-Learned Files, 376 9.5.7 Cost and Schedule Modeling, 376 9.5.8 Requirements Triage, 379 9.5.9 Assets Inventory, 380 9.5.10 Trade-Off Analysis, 380 9.6 Risk Analysis and Prioritization, 381 9.7 Risk Mitigation Strategies, 382 9.7.1 Risk Avoidance, 382 9.7.2 Risk Transfer, 383 9.7.3 Risk Acceptance, 383 9.7.4 Immediate Action, 384 9.7.5 Contingent Action, 385 9.8 Top-N Risk Tracking and Risk Registers, 388 9.9 Controlling the Risk Management Process, 392 9.10 Crisis Management, 394 9.11 Risk Management at the Organizational Level, 395 9.12 Joint Risk Management, 396 9.13 Key Points of Chapter 9, 396 References, 397 Exercises, 397 Appendix 9A: Frameworks, Standards, and Guidelines for Risk Management, 399 9A.1 The CMMI-DEV-v1.2 Risk Management Process Area, 399 9A.2 ISO/EIC and IEEE/EIA Standards 12207, 400 9A.3 IEEE/EIA Standard 1058, 400 www.it-ebooks.info xii CONTENTS Appendix 9B: 10 9A.4 The PMI Body of Knowledge, 401 9A.5 IEEE Standard 1540, 402 Software Risk Management Glossary, 404 Teams, Teamwork, Motivation, Leadership, and Communication 407 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 10.7 Introduction, 407 Objectives of This Chapter, 408 Managing versus Leading, 408 Teams and Teamwork, 410 Maintaining Morale and Motivation, 417 Can’t versus Won’t, 418 Personality Styles, 420 10.7.1 Jungian Personality Traits, 420 10.7.2 MBTI Personality Types, 421 10.7.3 Dimensions of Social Styles, 425 10.8 The Five-Layer Behavioral Model, 427 10.9 Key Points of Chapter 10, 430 References, 430 Exercises, 432 Appendix 10A: Frameworks, Standards, and Guidelines for Teamwork and Leadership, 433 10A.1 The CMMI-DEV-v1.2 Framework Processes, 433 10A.2 ISO/IEC and IEEE/EIA Standards 12207, 433 10A.3 IEEE/EIA Standard 1058, 433 10A.4 The PMI Body of Knowledge, 434 10A.5 Other Sources of Information, 434 10A.5.1 The People CMM, 434 10A.5.2 The Personal Software Process, 435 10A.5.3 The Team Software Process, 436 10A.5.4 Peopleware, 436 11 Organizational Issues 439 11.1 11.2 11.3 11.4 11.5 11.6 Introduction to Organizational Issues, 439 Objectives of This Chapter, 440 The Influence of Corporate Culture, 441 Assessing and Nurturing Intellectual Capital, 443 Key Personnel Roles, 444 Fifteen Guidelines for Organizing and Leading Software Engineering Teams, 449 11.6.1 Introduction to the Guidelines, 449 11.6.2 The Guidelines, 450 11.6.3 Summary of the Guidelines, 463 11.7 Key Points of Chapter 11, 464 References, 464 www.it-ebooks.info CONTENTS xiii Exercises, 465 Appendix 11: Frameworks, Standards, and Guidelines for Organizational Issues, 467 A11.1 The CMMI-DEV-v1.2 Process Framework, 467 A11.2 ISO and IEEE Standards 12207, 469 A11.3 IEEE/EIA Standard 1058, 470 A11.4 The PMI Body of Knowledge, 470 Glossary of Terms 471 Guidance for Term Projects 481 Index 487 www.it-ebooks.info PREFACE Too often those who develop and modify software and those who manage software development are like trains traveling different routes to a common destination. The managers want to arrive at the customer’s station with an acceptable product, on schedule and within budget. The developers want to deliver to the users a trainload of features and quality attributes; they will delay the time of arrival to do so, if allowed. Sometimes the two trains appear to be on the same schedule, but often one surges ahead only to be sidetracked by traffic of higher priority while the other chugs onward. One or both may be unexpectedly rerouted, making it difficult to rendezvous en route and at the final destination. Managers traveling on their train often wonder why programmers cannot just write the code that needs to be written, correctly and completely, and deliver it when it is needed. Software developers traveling on their train wonder what their managers do all day. This text provides the insights, methods, tools, and techniques needed to keep both trains moving in unison through their signals and switches and, better yet, shows how they can combine their engines and freight to form a single express train running on a pair of rails, one technical, the other managerial. By reading this text and working through the exercises, students, software developers, project managers, and prospective managers will learn why managing a large computer programming project is like managing any other large undertaking—in more ways than most programmers believe. But in many ways it is different—in more ways than most professional managers expect.1 Readers will learn how software projects differ from other kinds of projects (i.e., construction, agricultural, manufacturing, administrative, and traditional engineering projects), and they will learn how the methods and techniques of project management must be modified and adapted for software projects. 1 The Mythical Man-Month, Anniversary Edition, Frederick P. Brooks Jr., Addison Wesley, 1995; pp. x. xv www.it-ebooks.info xvi PREFACE Those who are, or will become managers of software projects, will acquire the methods, tools, and techniques needed to effectively manage software projects, both large and small. Software developers, both neophyte student and journeyman/journeywoman professional, will gain an increased understanding of what managers do, or should be doing all day and why managers ask them to do the things they ask/ demand. These readers will gain the knowledge they need to become project managers. Those students and software developers who have no desire to become project managers will benefit by gaining an increased understanding of what those other folks do all day and why the seemingly extraneous things they, the developers, are asked to do are important to the success of their projects. This text is intended as a textbook for upper division undergraduates and graduate students as well as for software practitioners and current and prospective software project managers. Exercises are included in each chapter. Practical hints and guidelines are included throughout the text, thus making it suitable for industrial short courses and for self-study by practitioners and managers. Chapters 1 through 3 provide the context for the remainder of the text: Chapter 1 provides an introduction to software project management; Chapter 2 covers process models for developing software-intensive systems; Chapter 3 is concerned with establishing the product foundations for software projects. Chapters 4 through 10 cover the four primary activities of software project management: • • • • Planning and estimating is covered in Chapters 4 through 6. Measuring and controlling is covered in Chapters 7 and 8. Managing risk is covered in Chapter 9. Leading, motivating, and communicating are covered in Chapter 10. Chapter 11 covers organizational issues and concludes the text with a summary of 15 guidelines for organizing and leading software engineering teams. For each topic covered, the approach taken is to present the full scope of activities for the largest and most complex projects and to show how those activities can be tailored, adapted, and scaled to fit the needs of projects of various sizes and complexities. Learning objectives are presented at the beginning of each chapter and each concludes with a summary of key points from the chapter. Occasional sidebars elaborate the material at hand. An appendix to each chapter relates the topics covered in that chapter to four leading sources of information concerning management of software projects: 1. 2. 3. 4. CMMI-DEV-v1.2 process framework ISO/IEC and IEEE/EIA Standards 12207 IEEE/EIA Standard 1058 PMI’s Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) The text is consistent with the guidelines contained in PMBOK and ACM/IEEE curriculum recommendations. Presentation slides, document templates, and other supporting material for the text and for term projects are available at the following URL: computer.org/book_extras/fairley_software_projects www.it-ebooks.info PREFACE xvii Terms used throughout this text are defined in the Glossary at the end of the text. Topics, schedule, and a template for term projects follow the Glossary and included are some hypothetical projects that can be used as the basis for term projects in a course or as examples that practitioners and managers can use to gain experience in preparing software project management plans. Schedule and templates for deliverables for the hypothetic projects are also provided; electronic copies of templates and some software tools are provided at the URL previously cited. Alternatively, practitioners and managers can apply the templates and tools to a past, present, or future project. A continued example for planning and conducting a project to build the software element of an automated teller system is presented to motivate and explain the material contained in each chapter. As is well known, one learns best by doing. I strongly recommended that the exercises at the end of each chapter be completed and that progress through the material be accompanied by an extended exercise (i.e., a term project) to develop some elements a project plan for a real or hypothetical software project. The planning exercise can be based on an actual project that the reader has been, is currently, or will be involve in; or it can be based on one of the hypotheticals at the end of the text; or it can be based on a project assigned by the instructor. A week-by-week schedule for completing the term project on a quarter or semester basis is provided. Completion of the planning exercise will result in a report that contains elements similar to those presented in IEEE/EIA Standard 1058 for software project management plans. The material can be presented in reading/lecture/discussion format or by assigned readings followed by classroom or on-line discussions based on the exercises and the term project. I am indebted to the pioneers who surveyed the terrain, prepared the roadbed, laid down the tracks, and drove the golden spike so that our project trains can proceed to their destinations. Those pioneers include Fred Brooks, the intellectual father of us all; Winston Royce, who showed us systematic approaches to software development and management of software projects; Barry Boehm, who was the first to address issues of software engineering economics, risk management, and so much more; Tom DeMarco, the master tactician of software development, project management, and peopleware; and the many others who prepared the way for this text. I accept responsibility for any misinterpretations or misstatements of their work. My apologies to those I have failed to credit in the text, either through ignorance or oversight. Thanks to Mary Jane Fairley, Linda Shafer, and the other reviewers of the manuscript for taking the time to read it and for the many insightful comments they offered. Special thanks to the many students to whom I have presented this material and from whom I have learned as much as they have learned from me. Richard E. (Dick) Fairley Teller County, Colorado www.it-ebooks.info 1 INTRODUCTION In many ways, managing a large computer programming project is like managing any other large undertaking—in more ways than most programmers believe. But in many other ways it is different—in more ways than most professional managers expect.1 —Fred Brooks 1.1 INTRODUCTION TO SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT When you become (or perhaps already are) the manager of a software project you will find that experience to be one of the most challenging and most rewarding endeavors of your career. You, as a project manager, will be (or are) responsible for (1) delivering an acceptable product, (2) on the specified delivery date, and (3) within the constraints of the specified budget, resources, and technology. In return you will have, or should have, authority to use the resources available to you in the ways you think best to achieve the project objectives within the constraints of acceptable product, delivery date, and budget, resources, and technology. Unfortunately, software projects have the (often deserved) reputation of costing more than estimated, taking longer than planned, and delivering less in quantity and quality of product than expected or required. Avoiding this stereotypical situation is the challenge of managing and leading software projects. There are four fundamental activities that you must accomplish if you are to be a successful project manager: 1 The Mythical Man-Month, Anniversary Edition, Frederick P. Brooks Jr., Addison Wesley, 1995; p. x. Managing and Leading Software Projects, by Richard E. Fairley Copyright © 2009 IEEE Computer Society 1 www.it-ebooks.info 2 INTRODUCTION 1. 2. 3. 4. planning and estimating, measuring and controlling, communicating, coordinating, and leading, and managing risk. These are the major themes of this text. 1.2 OBJECTIVES OF THIS CHAPTER After reading this chapter and completing the exercises, you should understand: • • • • • • • • why managing and leading software projects is difficult, the nature of project constraints, a workflow model for software projects, the work products of software projects, the organizational context of software projects, organizing a software development team, maintaining the project vision and product goals, and the nature of process frameworks, software engineering standards, and process guidelines. Appendix 1A to this chapter provides an introduction to elements of the following frameworks, standards, and guidelines that are concerned with managing software projects: the SEI Capability Maturity Model® Integration CMMI-DEV-v1.2, ISO/ IEC and IEEE/EIA Standards 12207, IEEE/EIA Standard 1058, and the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®). Terms used in this chapter and throughout this text are defined in a glossary at the end of the text. Presentation slides for this chapter and other supporting material are available at the URL listed in the Preface. 1.3 WHY MANAGING AND LEADING SOFTWARE PROJECTS IS DIFFICULT A project is a group of coordinated activities conducted within a specific time frame for the purpose of achieving specified objectives. Some projects are personal in nature, for example, building a dog house or painting a bedroom. Other projects are conducted by organizations. The focus of this text is on projects conducted within software organizations. In a general sense, all organizational projects are similar: • • • • objectives must be specified, a schedule of activities must be planned, resources allocated, responsibilities assigned, www.it-ebooks.info 1.3 WHY MANAGING AND LEADING SOFTWARE PROJECTS IS DIFFICULT 3 work activities coordinated, progress monitored, communication maintained, risk factors identified and confronted, and corrective actions applied as necessary. • • • • • In a specific sense, the methods, tools, and techniques used to manage a project depend on the nature of the work to be accomplished and the work products to be produced. Manufacturing projects are different from construction projects, which are different from agricultural projects, which are different from computer hardware projects, which are different from software engineering projects, and so on. Each kind of project, including software projects, adapts and tailors the general procedures of project management to accommodate the unique aspects of the development processes and the nature of the product to be developed. Fred Brooks has famously observed that four essential properties of software differentiate it from other kinds of engineering artifacts and make software projects difficult2: 1. 2. 3. 4. complexity, conformity, changeability, and invisibility of software. 1.3.1 Software Complexity Software is more complex, for the effort and the expense required to construct it, than most artifacts produced by human endeavor. Assuming it costs $50 (USD) per line of code to construct a one-million line program (specify, design, implement, verify, validate, and deliver it), the resulting cost will be $50,000,000. While this is a large sum of money, it is a small fraction of the cost of constructing a complex spacecraft, a skyscraper, or a naval aircraft carrier. Brooks says, “Software entities are more complex for their size [emphasis added] than perhaps any other human construct, because no two parts are alike (at least above the statement level).” 3 It is difficult to visualize the size of a software program because software has no physical attributes; however, if one were to print a onemillion line program the stack of paper would be about 10 feet (roughly 3 meters) high if the program were printed 50 lines per page. The printout would occupy a volume of about 6.5 cubic feet. Biological entities such as human beings are of similar volume and they are far more complex than computer software, but there are few, if any, human-made artifacts of comparable size that are as complex as software. The complexity of software arises from the large number of unique, interacting parts in a software system. The parts are unique because, for the most part, they are encapsulated as functions, subroutines, or objects and invoked as needed rather 2 3 Ibid, pp. 182–186. Ibid, p. 182. www.it-ebooks.info 4 INTRODUCTION than being replicated. Software parts have several different kinds of interactions, including serial and concurrent invocations, state transitions, data couplings, and interfaces to databases and external systems. Depiction of a software entity often requires several different representations to portray the numerous static structures, dynamic couplings, and modes of interaction that exist in computer software. A seemingly “small” change in requirements is one of the many ways that complexity of the product may affect management of a project. Complexity within the parts and in the connections among parts may result in a large amount of evolutionary rework for the “small” change in requirements, thus upsetting the ability to make progress according to plan. For this reason many experienced project managers say there are no small requirements changes. Size and complexity can also hide defects that may not be discovered immediately and thus require additional, unplanned corrective rework later. 1.3.2 Software Conformity Conformity is the second issue cited by Brooks. Software must conform to exacting specifications in the representation of each part, in the interfaces to other internal parts, and in the connections to the environment in which it operates. A missing semicolon or other syntactic error can be detected by a compiler but a defect in the program logic, or a timing error caused by failure to conform to the requirements may be difficult to detect until encountered in operation. Unlike software, tolerance among the interfaces of physical entities is the foundation of manufacturing and construction; no two physical parts that are joined together have, or are required to have, exact matches. Eli Whitney (of cotton gin fame) realized in 1798 that if musket parts were manufactured to specified tolerances, interchangeability of similar (but not identical) parts could be achieved. There are no corresponding tolerances in the interfaces among software entities or between software entities and their environments. Interfaces among software parts must agree exactly in numbers and types of parameters and kind of couplings. There are no interface specifications for software stating that a parameter can be “an integer plus or minus 2%.” Lack of conformity can cause problems when an existing software component cannot be reused as planned because it does not conform to the needs of the product under development. Lack of conformity might not be discovered until late in a project, thus necessitating development and integration of an acceptable component to replace the one that cannot be reused. This requires unplanned allocation of resources and can delay product completion. Complexity may have made it difficult to determine that the reuse component lacked the necessary conformity until the components it would interact with were completed. 1.3.3 Software Changeability Changeability is Brooks’s third factor that makes software projects difficult. Software coordinates the operation of physical components and provides the functional- www.it-ebooks.info 1.3 WHY MANAGING AND LEADING SOFTWARE PROJECTS IS DIFFICULT 5 ity in software-intensive systems.4 Because software is the most easily changed element (i.e., the most malleable) in a software-intensive system, it is the most frequently changed element, particularly in the late stages of a project. Changes may occur because customers change their minds; competing products change; mission objectives change; laws, regulations, and business practices change; underlying hardware and software technology changes (processors, operating systems, application packages); and/or the operating environment of the software changes. If an early version of the final product is installed in the operating environment, it will change that environment and result in new requirements that will require changes to the product. Simply stated, now that the new system enables me to do A and B, I would like for it to also allow me to do C, or to do C instead of B. Each proposed change in product requirements must be accompanied by an analysis of the impact of the change on project work activities: what work products will have to be changed? how much time and effort will be required? who is available to make the changes? how will the change affect your plans for schedule, budget, resources, technology, other product features, and the quality attributes of the product? • • • • The goal of impact analysis is to determine whether a proposed change is “in scope” or “out of scope.” In-scope changes to a software product are changes that can be accomplished with little or no disruption to planned work activities. Acceptance of an out-of-scope change to the product requirements must be accompanied by corresponding adjustments to the budget, resources, and/or schedule; and/or modification or elimination of other product requirements. These actions can bring a proposed out-of-scope requirement change into revised scope. A commonly occurring source of problems in managing software projects is an out-of-scope product change that is not accompanied by corresponding changes to the schedule, resources, budget, and/or technology. The problems thus created include burn-out of personnel from excessive overtime, and reduction in quality because tired people make more mistakes. In addition reviews, testing, and other quality control techniques are often reduced or eliminated because of inadequate time and resources to accomplish the change and maintain these other activities. 1.3.4 Software Invisibility The fourth of Brooks’s factors is invisibility. Software is said to be invisible because it has no physical properties. While the effects of executing software on a digital computer are observable, software itself cannot be seen, tasted, smelled, touched, or heard. Our five human senses are incapable of directly sensing software; software is thus an intangible entity. Work products such as requirements specifications, design documents, source code, and object code are representations of software, but 4 Software-intensive systems contain one or more digital devices and may include other kinds of hardware plus trained operators who perform manual functions. Nuclear reactors, modern aircraft, automobiles, network servers, and laptop computers are examples of software-intensive systems. www.it-ebooks.info 6 INTRODUCTION they are not the software. At the most elemental level, software resides in the magnetization and current flow in an enormous number of electronic elements within a digital device. Because software has no physical presence we use different representations, at different levels of abstraction, in an attempt to visualize the inherently invisible entity. Because software cannot be directly observed as can, for example, a building under construction or an agricultural plot being prepared for planting, the techniques presented in this text can be used to determine the true state of progress of a software project. An unfortunate result of failing to use these techniques is that software products under development are often reported to be “almost complete” for long periods of time with no objective evidence to support or refute the claim; this is the well-known “90% complete syndrome” of software projects. Many software projects have been canceled after large investments of effort, time, and money because no one could objectively determine the status of the work products or provide a credible estimate of a completion date or the cost to complete the project. Sad but true, this will occur again. You do not want to be the manager of one of those projects. 1.3.5 Team-Oriented, Intellect-Intensive Work In addition to the essential properties of software (complexity, conformity, changeability, and invisibility), one additional factor distinguishes software projects from other kinds of projects: software projects are team-oriented, intellect-intensive endeavors. In contrast, assembly-line manufacturing, construction of buildings and roads, planting of rice, and harvesting of fruit are labor-intensive activities; the work is arranged so that each person can perform a task with a high degree of autonomy and a small amount of interaction with others. Productivity increases linearly with the number of workers added; the work will proceed roughly twice as fast if the number of workers is doubled. Although labor-saving machines have increased productivity in some of these areas, the roles played by humans in these kinds of projects are predominantly labor-intensive. Software is developed by teams of individuals who engage in creative problem solving. Teams are necessary because it would take too much time for one person to develop a modern software system and because it is unlikely that one individual would possess the necessary range of skills. Suppose, for example, that the total effort to develop a software product or system5 results in a productivity level of 1000 lines of code per staff-month (more on this later). A one million line program would require 1000 staff-months. Because effort (staff-months) is the product of people and time, it would require 1 person 1000 months (about 83 years) to complete the project. A feasible combination of people and time for a 1000 staff-month project might be a team of 50 people working for 20 months but not 1000 people working for 1 month or even 200 people working for 5 months. The later proposals (1000 × 1 and 5 Software products are built by vendors for sale to numerous customers; software systems are built by contractors for specific customers on a contractual basis. The terms “system” and “product” are used interchangeably in this text unless the distinction is important; the distinction will be clarified in these cases. www.it-ebooks.info 1.3 WHY MANAGING AND LEADING SOFTWARE PROJECTS IS DIFFICULT 7 200 × 5) are not feasible because scheduling constraints among work activities dictate that some activities cannot begin before other work activities are completed: you can’t design (some part of a system) without some corresponding requirements, you should not write code without a design specification for (that part of) the system, you cannot review or test code until some code has been written, you cannot integrate software modules until they are available for integration, and so on. Adding people to a software development team does not, as a rule, increase overall productivity in a linear manner because the increased overhead of communicating with and coordinating work activities among the added people decreases the productivity of the existing team. To cite Fred Brooks once again, the number of communication paths among n workers is n(n − 1)/2, which is the number of links in a fully connected graph. Five workers have 20 communication paths, 10 have 45 paths, and 20 have 190. Increasing the size of a programming team from 5 to 10 members might, for example, might increase the production rate of the team from 5000 lines of code per week to 7500 lines of code per week, but not 10,000 lines of code per week as would occur with linear scaling. In The Mythical Man-Month, Brooks described this phenomenon as Brooks’s law6: Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later. Brooks’s law is based on three factors: 1. the time required for existing team members to indoctrinate new team members, 2. the learning curve for the new members, and 3. the increased communication overhead that results from the new and existing members working together. Brooks’s law would not be true if the work assigned to the new members did not invoke any of these three conditions. A simile that illustrates the issues of team-oriented software development is that of a team of authors writing a book as a collaborative project; a team of authors is very much like a team of software developers. In the beginning, requirements analysis must be performed to determine the kind of book to be written and the constraints that apply to writing it. The number and skills of team members will constrain the kind and size of book that can be written by the available team of authors within a specified time frame. Constraints may include the number of people on the writing team, knowledge and skills of team members, the required completion date, and the word-processing hardware and software available to be used. Next the structure of the book must be designed: the number of chapters, a brief synopsis of each, and the relationships (interfaces) among chapters must be specified. The book may be structured into sections that contain several chapters each (subsystems), or the text may be structured into multiple volumes (a system of systems). The dynamic structure of the text may flow linearly in time or it may move backward and forward in time between successive chapters; primary and 6 Ibid, pp. 25 and 274. www.it-ebooks.info 8 INTRODUCTION secondary plot lines may be interleaved. An important constraint is to develop a design structure that will allow each team member to accomplish some work while other team members are accomplishing their work so that the work activities can proceed in parallel. Some books are cleverly structured to have multiple endings; readers choose the one they like. Design details to be decided include the format of textual layout, fonts to be used, footnoting and referencing conventions, and stylistic guidelines (use of active and passive voice, use of dialects and idioms). Writing of the text occurs within a predetermined schedule of production that includes reviews by other team members (peer reviews) and independent reviews by copy editors (independent verification). Revisions determined by the reviews must be accomplished. The goal of the writing team is to produce a seamless text that appears to have been written by one person in a single setting. A deviation from the planned narrative by one or more team members might produce a ripple effect that would require extensive revision of the text. If the completed book were software, a single punctuation or grammatical error in the text would render the book unreadable until the writers or their copy editor repaired the defect. An editor determines that each iteration of elements of the text satisfy the conditions placed on it by other elements (verification). Finally, reviews by critics and purchases by readers will determine the degree to which the book satisfies its intended purpose in its intended environment (validation). The various development phases of writing (analysis, high-level design, detailed design, implementation, peer review, independent verification, revision, and validation) are creative activities and thus rarely occur in linear, sequential fashion. Conducting analysis, preparing and revising the design of the text, and production, review, and revision of the various parts may be overlapped, interleaved, and iterated. Team members must each do their assigned tasks, coordinate their work with other team members, and communicate ideas, problems, and changes on a continuous basis. The narrative above depicts a so-called Plan-driven approach to writing a book and, by analogy, to developing software. An alternative is to pursue an Agile approach by which the team members start with a basic concept and evolve the text in an iterative manner. This approach can be successful: • • • • • if the team is small, say five or six members (to limit the complexity of communication); if all members have in mind a common understanding of the desired structure of the text (i.e., a “design metaphor”); if there is a strict page limit and a completion date (the project constraints); if each iteration occurs in one or a few days (to facilitate ongoing revisions in structure; known as “refactoring”); and if a knowledgeable reader (known as the “customer”) is available to review each iteration and provide guidance for the contents of the next iteration. In some cases, the team members may work in pairs (“pair programming”) to enhance synergy of effort. In reality, most software projects incorporate elements of a plan-driven approach and an agile approach. When pursuing an agile approach, the team members must www.it-ebooks.info 1.4 THE NATURE OF PROJECT CONSTRAINTS 9 understand the nature of the desired product to be delivered, a design metaphor must be established, and the constraints on schedule, budget, resources, and technology that must be observed; thus some requirements definition, design, and project planning must be done. Those who pursue a plan-driven strategy often pursue an iterative (agile) approach to developing, verifying, and validating the product to be delivered; frequent demonstrations provide tangible evidence of progress and permit incorporation of changes in an incremental manner. The approach taken in this text is to present a plan-driven strategy, based on iterative development, that is suitable for the largest and most complex projects, and to show how the techniques can be tailored and adapted to suit the needs of small, simple projects as well as large, complex ones. Process models for software development are presented in Chapter 2. Over time humans have learned to conduct agricultural, construction, and manufacturing projects that employ teams of workers who accomplish their tasks efficiently and effectively.7 Because software is characterized by complexity, conformity, changeability, and invisibility, and because software projects are conducted by teams of individuals engaged in intellect-intensive teamwork, we humans are not always as adept at conducting software projects as we are at conducting traditional kinds of projects in agriculture, construction, and manufacturing. Nevertheless, the techniques presented in this text will help you manage software projects efficiently and effectively, that is, with economical use of time and resources to achieve desired outcomes. Your role as project manager is to plan and coordinate the work activities of your project team so that the team can accomplish more working in a coordinated manner than could be accomplished by each individual working with total autonomy. 1.4 THE NATURE OF PROJECT CONSTRAINTS Many of the problems you will encounter, or have encountered, in software projects are caused by difficulties of management and leadership (i.e., planning, estimating, measuring, controlling, communicating, coordinating, and managing risk) rather than technical issues (i.e., analysis, design, coding, and testing). These difficulties arise from multiple sources; some you can control as a project manager and some you can’t. Factors you can’t control are called constraints, which are limitations imposed by external agents on some or all of the operational domain, operational requirements, product requirements, project scope, budget, resources, completion date, and platform technology. Table 1.1 lists some typical constraints for software projects and provides brief explanations. The operational domain is the environment in which the delivered software will be used. Operational domains include virtually every area of modern society, including health care, finance, transportation, communication, entertainment, business, and manufacturing environments. Understanding the operational domain in which the software will operate is essential to success. Operational requirements describe the 7 To be efficient is to accomplish a task without wasting time or resources; to be effective is to obtain the desired result. www.it-ebooks.info 10 INTRODUCTION TABLE 1.1 Typical constraints on software projects Constraint Operational domain Operational requirements Product requirements Scientific knowledge Process standards Project scope Resources Budget Completion date Platform technology Business goals Ethical considerations Explanation Environment of the users Users’ needs and desires Functional capabilities and quality attributes Algorithms and data structures Ways of conducting work activities Work activities to be accomplished Assets available to conduct a project Money used to acquire resources Delivery date for work products Software tools and hardware/software base Profit, stability, growth Serving best interests of humans and society users’ view (i.e., the external view) of the system to be delivered. Some desired features, as specified in the operational requirements, may be beyond the current state of scientific knowledge, either at large or within your organization. Product requirements are the developers’ view (i.e., the internal view) of the system to be built; they include the functional capabilities and quality attributes the delivered product must possess in order to satisfy the operational requirements. Process standards specify ways of conducting the work activities of software projects. Your organization may have standardized ways of conducting specific activities, such as planning and estimating projects, and measuring project factors such as conformance to the schedule, expenditure of resources, and measurement of quality attributes of the evolving product. In some cases the customer may specify standards and guidelines for conducting a project. Four of the most commonly used frameworks for process standards are the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), ISO/IEEE Standard 12207, IEEE Standard 1058, and the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). Elements of these standards and guidelines are contained in appendixes to the chapters of this text. The scope of a project is the set of activities that must be accomplished to deliver an acceptable product on schedule and within budget. Resources are the assets, both corporate and external, that can be applied to the project. Resources have both quality and quantity attributes; for example, you may have a sufficient number of software developers available (quantity of assets), but they may not have the necessary skills (quality of assets). The budget is the money available to acquire and use resources; the budget for your project may be constrained so that resources available within the organization cannot be utilized. The completion date is the day on which the product must be finished and ready for delivery. In some cases there may be multiple completion dates on which subsets of the final product must be delivered. The constrained delivery date(s) may be unrealistic. Platform technology includes the set of methods, tools, and development environments used to produce or modify a software product. Examples include tools to develop and document requirements and designs, compilers and debuggers to gen- www.it-ebooks.info 1.4 THE NATURE OF PROJECT CONSTRAINTS 11 erate and check the code, version control tools to track evolving versions of a project’s work products, and testing tools to aid in verify the software. Platform technology also includes the hardware processors and operating systems on which the software is developed and on which it will operate (which may be the same or different). One or more aspects of the platform technology may be obsolete or otherwise inappropriate for the work to be done. Business goals may constrain your project to complete the product as soon as possible (to maximize short-term revenue), or to produce the highest possible quality (to maintain credibility with existing customers). Ethical considerations may constrain your project from delivering a product with known defects or from incorporating knowledge of a competitor’s product gained by unethical methods. Some of the most difficult problems you will encounter in managing software projects arise from establishing and maintaining a balance among the constraints on project scope, budget, resources, technology, and the scheduled delivery date: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. scope: the work to be done; budget: the money to acquire resources; resources: the assets to do the job; technology: methods and tools to be used; and delivery date: the date on which the system must be ready for delivery. The initial balance among these factors is established in your initial project plan. The scope of your project may change during project execution because of changes to product requirements or other factors such as the budget or delivery date. The constraints on your budget, resources, and schedule may change because of internal factors in your organization, changes in the operational environment of the product to be delivered, or competitive pressures. Changes in project scope must always be accompanied by corresponding changes in schedule, budget, resources, and (perhaps) technology. The constraints listed in Table 1.1 reduce the conceptual space available in which to plan and conduct your project. For example, it may not be possible to deliver a satisfactory product using 10 people for 12 months, but it might be possible if the schedule were extended to 15 months or if the number of people were increased from 10 to 15, or if the requirements for the product were reduced to the functionality that can be delivered with acceptable quality by 10 people in 12 months. In addition to the constraints listed in Table 1.1, there may be political and sociological factors that you cannot control. Some of the first things you must do in managing a software project are: 1. establish the success criteria for your project, 2. clarify the constraints on the project and the product, and 3. determine whether there is a reasonable chance of meeting the success criteria within the constraints. Constraints should be clarified to determine whether there is any flexibility or possibility of trade-offs among the constraints because fewer or looser constraints www.it-ebooks.info 12 INTRODUCTION increase the options for planning and executing your project. There may be priorities among the success criteria of delivering an acceptable product on schedule and within budget; for example, delivering on schedule may be more important than the number of features delivered, or features delivered may be more important than cost. There may be additional success criteria, such as establishing a working relationship with a new customer, or developing a product architecture that provides a basis for developing future products, that is, developing a product-line architecture that consists of base elements and configurable elements. Factors you will have (or should have) some influence over include: 1. establishing the success criteria, 2. negotiating the project constraints, 3. obtaining consensus among project stakeholders on an initial set of operational requirements, and 4. obtaining consensus among project stakeholders on an initial set of product requirements. Factors you will have responsibility for include: 5. making initial estimates and plans; 6. maintaining a balance among requirements, schedule, and resources as the project evolves; 7. measuring and controlling the progress of the work; 8. leading the project team and coordinating their work activities; 9. communicating with stakeholders; and 10. managing risk factors that might interfere with, or prevent achieving a successful outcome. The major activities of project management are planning and estimating, measuring and controlling, communicating and leading, and managing risk factors. Planning and estimating are concerned with determining the scope of activities that must be accomplished, estimating effort and schedule for the overall project, and developing estimates and plans for each major work activity. Planning for measurement involves establishing a data collection and reporting system that will be used to determine and report the actual status of work activities and work products on a continuing basis. Controlling involves applying corrective actions when actual status, as indicated by the measurements, does not agree with planned status. Communicating involves establishing and maintaining adequate communication channels among all involved parties so that everyone is aware of progress and problems, and so that they are constantly reminded of the goals and success criteria for the project. Leading is concerned with providing direction to, removing roadblocks for, and maintaining the morale of project personnel. Risk management is concerned with identifying risk factors (potential problems), both initially and on a continuing basis; monitoring identified risk factors; and engaging in risk mitigation activities such as preparing contingency plans and executing them when necessary. www.it-ebooks.info 1.5 1.5 A WORKFLOW MODEL FOR MANAGING SOFTWARE PROJECTS 13 A WORKFLOW MODEL FOR MANAGING SOFTWARE PROJECTS The primary objective of a software project is to develop and deliver one or more acceptable work products within the constraints of required features, quality attributes, project scope, budget, resources, completion date, technology, and other factors. The work products to be delivered (e.g., object code, training materials, and installation instructions) result from the flow of intermediate work products that are produced by and flow through the work processes (requirements, design, source code, and test scenarios). The model of project workflow used in this text is presented in Figure 1.1. All models, including the one in Figure 1.1, are abstractions of real situations that emphasize some aspects of interest and suppress details that are unimportant to the purposes of the model. Important details may be expressed in subordinate models. Subordinate models to Figure 1.1 are presented throughout this text. Figure 1.1 indicates some of the processes that support the primary activity of Product Development; they include Verification and Validation (V&V), Quality Assurance of work processes and work products (QA), Configuration Management (CM), and others. Some supporting processes and their purposes are listed in Table 1.2. Each supporting process must be accomplished in accordance with a welldefined model for accomplishing the work activities of that process. The model in Figure 1.1 is called a process model because it emphasizes work activities and the flow of work products among work activities. Each work activity in a process model produces one or more work products that provide inputs to subsequent work activities. By work product we mean any document produced by a software project (including the source code). Some work products are delivered to the customer (called deliverable work products), while others are intermediate work products developed to advance the creative problem-solving process in an orderly manner. Some of the work products of software projects are listed in Table 1.3. Change Requests Start Here Problem Reports Requirements and Constraints Development Process Planning and Replanning Customer Managers Activity Definition Work Assign ments Quality Assurance Directives and Constraints Estimating and Re-estimating Controlling Data Retention Project Reports Verification & Validation Reporting FIGURE 1.1 Configuration Management Other Supporting Processes Measuring Status Reports A workflow model for managing software projects www.it-ebooks.info End Here Deliver Work Products 14 INTRODUCTION TABLE 1.2 Some supporting processes for software development Supporting Process Configuration management Verification Validation Quality Assurance Documentation Developer training User and operator training TABLE 1.3 Purpose Change control, baseline management, product audits, product builds Determining the degree to which work products satisfy the conditions placed on them by other work products and work processes Determining the degree of fitness of work products for their intended use in their intended environments Determining conformance of work processes and work products to policies, plans, and procedures Preparation and updating of intermediate and deliverable work products Maintaining adequate and appropriate skills Imparting skills needed to effectively use and operate systems Some work-product documents produced by software projects Document Project plan Status reports Memos and meeting minutes e-Mail messages Operational requirements Technical specification Architectural design document Detailed design specification Source code Test plan Reference manual Help messages Release notes Installation instructions Maintenance guide Content of Document Roadmap for conducting the project State of progress, cost, schedule, and quality Issues, problems, recommendations, and resolutions Ongoing communications User needs, desires, and expectations Product features and quality attributes Components and interfaces Algorithms, data structures, and interface details of individual modules Product implementation Product verification criteria, test scenarios, and facilities Product encyclopedia Guidance for users Known issues, hints, and guidelines Guidance for operators Guidance for maintainers As Michael Jackson has observed, the entire description of a software system or product is usually too complex for the entire description to be written directly in a programming language, so we must prepare different descriptions at different levels of abstraction, and for different purposes [Jack02]. Note that each of the work products listed in Table 1.3 is a document; software developers and software project managers do not produce physical artifacts other than documents, which may exist in printed or electronic form. As illustrated in the workflow model depicted in Figure 1.1, a software project is initiated by customer and managers. A customer is the person or organization that www.it-ebooks.info 1.5 A WORKFLOW MODEL FOR MANAGING SOFTWARE PROJECTS 15 provides the requirements for and accepts the deliverable work products. Customers may place constraints on a project, such as specifying a required database interface (a product constraint) or the date when the delivered system must be available for use (a process constraint). Managers include your management and you, the project manager. Managers specify constraints and directives. A process constraint from your manager might place a limit on the number of people available to conduct the project; a management directive might require that all software projects in the organization perform a design activity. You, the project manager, might issue directives requiring that the design be documented using UML (the Universal Modeling Language) and that one or more design reviews be held. Requirements, constraints, and directives provide the inputs to the planning process, which is (or should be) a group activity led by you, the project manager. You should involve the customer, selected members of the development team, and other primary stakeholders in the planning process. Planning involves estimation. Factors to be initially estimated include a schedule for conducting the major work activities; kinds and numbers of resources needed, when they will be needed, and for how long; and the project milestones (points in time when progress is assessed). Estimation is best accomplished by using historical data from a data repository. Data at the completion of your project can be placed in a repository to aid in estimation of future projects. Intermediate data can be retained to assess progress and prepare completion estimates, which may result in replanning. The output of your planning process will include identification of the roles to be played in conducting the project, which results in assignment of personnel to those roles. During initial planning, the major work activities to be planned include software development and the various supporting processes such as configuration management, process and product quality assurance, verification, validation, user training; plus other necessary activities that constitute the scope of your project. Detailed plans for these activities will evolve as the project evolves. During execution of the project, data are collected and status reports are prepared on a periodic basis by you and your staff. The status reports will be used by you (the project manager), your customer, your managers, support groups, and other project stakeholders. Status reports compare planned progress to actual progress; they may cause you and your customer, working together, to revise plans and requirements, or you might, for example, reassign some personnel to different project roles (e.g., a software designer might be moved to the independent validation team). Status data are also used to provide a basis for estimating future progress based on progress to date (which may result in replanning), and is retained to provide a basis of estimation for future projects. Problem reports are generated to document defects discovered in work products that must be reworked. Status reports, new requirements, and changes to requirements, constraints, directives, and problem reports provide the data needed to continually update, elaborate, and revise your project plan. Every organization that develops and maintains software, including yours, should have one or more workflow models of software development that depicts the major work activities and flow of work products. Each member of the organization should be familiar with the workflow model(s) and understand the ways in which their work activities and work products fit into the model(s). Everyone in your software development organization should be able to sketch and describe the workflow model(s) www.it-ebooks.info 16 INTRODUCTION used in the organization. If there is more than one workflow model, everyone should understand the kinds of projects for which the various models are appropriate. 1.6 ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES FOR SOFTWARE PROJECTS Projects are one-time, transient events that are initiated to accomplish a specific purpose and are terminated when the project objectives are achieved (and are sometimes cancelled before achieving the objectives). A project exists within the context of the organization in which it is conducted; each project must adhere to the structural model of the organization. Departments that conduct engineering projects, including software projects, are typically organized in one of four ways: functional structure, project structure, matrix structure, or hybrid structure. 1.6.1 Functional Structures As the name implies, workers in a functional organization are grouped by the functions they perform. Functional groups can be process-oriented or product-oriented. One process-oriented functional group might, for example, specialize in requirements engineering, another in design of user interfaces, another in design and implementation of code, another in product validation, and yet another in user training. When organized by product specialty, one group might specialize in data communication, another in database systems, another in user interfaces, and yet another in numerical algorithms. Figure 1.2 illustrates a process-oriented functional organization, and Figure 1.3 illustrates a product-oriented functional group. Each functional group has a functional manager whose job is to acquire and maintain the quantity and quality of workers needed to support the projects within the organization, train them as necessary, provide the necessary tools, and coordinate their work activities on various projects. Different group members apply their Department Manager Requirements Group Design Group Implementation Group ... Group FIGURE 1.2 A process-oriented functional organization Department Manager User Interface Group Algorithms Group Database Group ... Group FIGURE 1.3 A product-oriented functional organization www.it-ebooks.info 1.6 ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES FOR SOFTWARE PROJECTS 17 expertise to different projects as needed. As a project manager in a functional organization, responsible for delivering an acceptable product on schedule and within budget, your ability to successfully conduct your project will depend on your skill in working with the functional managers and their team members to complete the various work activities and develop the various work products for your project. 1.6.2 Project Structures In a purely project-structured organization, you, as project manager, have full authority and responsibility for managing budget and resources. You acquire the kinds of workers you need to conduct your project and all project members report directly to you; you might acquire your workers from functional groups or you might hire them from outside. You, the project manager, have the authority to acquire staff members within the constraints of your budget and to remove them when they are no longer needed or are not performing up to your expectations. Your ability to successfully conduct your project depends on acquiring the quantity and quality of workers needed, training them as necessary, providing the necessary tools, and coordinating their work activities. A project-structured organization is illustrated in Figure 1.4. 1.6.3 Matrix Structures The goal of a matrix organization is to obtain the advantages of both functional and project structures; functional specialists are assigned to projects as needed and work for you, the project manager, while applying their expertise to your project. When their tasks are completed, they return to their function groups and are assigned, as needed, to other projects. Workers in a matrix organization thus have two bosses: their functional manager and their project manager. An example of a matrix organization is illustrated in Figure 1.5. The functional groups might be, for example, a user interface group, an algorithms group, a database group, and a communications protocol group. The numbers in the matrix indicate the number of workers of each functional type assigned to each project; for example, project #1 has 10 members: 2 of functional type #1 (user interface), 5 of functional type #3 (database), and 2 of functional type #4 (communications). Project #3 is the largest; it has 23 members. Currently 6 members of the user interface group are assigned to this project, 8 from the algorithms group, 2 from the database group, and 7 from communications. Matrix organizations can be characterized as weak or strong, depending on the relative authority of the functional managers and the project managers. In a strong Department Manager Project #1 Project #2 FIGURE 1.4 Project #3 Project #n A project-oriented organization www.it-ebooks.info 18 INTRODUCTION Department Manager Functional Manager #1 Functional Manager #2 Functional Manager #3 Functional Manager #4 5 3 Project Manager #1 2 Project Manager #2 3 4 7 9 Project Manager #3 6 8 2 7 Project Manager #m 1 2 4 6 FIGURE 1.5 A matrix-structured organization matrix, the functional managers have authority to assign workers to projects, and project managers must accept the workers assigned to them. In a weak matrix, the project manager controls the project budget, can reject workers from functional groups and hire outside workers if functional groups do not have sufficient quantities or qualities of workers. When a matrix organization performs as intended, functional workers apply their specialties to different projects, under the direction of project managers, over time while retaining membership in a group of like-minded experts. Two problems that can occur in matrix organizations are (1) conflicts between functional managers and project managers over the allocation of worker resources (which puts the workers in untenable situations), and (2) frequent shifting of workers from project to project as crises occur (know as “firefighting” mode). 1.6.4 Hybrid Structures Few, if any, organizations are purely functional, project, or matrix in nature. In a purely functional organization, there would be no project managers; a coordinator at the department level would assign tasks to the functional groups and work products would be passed from group to group as they become available. In a purely project organization, the project would be an entirely separate organization. The project manager would be responsible for physical facilities, janitorial service, human resources (i.e., hiring, firing, payroll, health insurance, and conflict resolution), and other organizational functions. Similarly projects organized in matrix format do not operate in isolation but are dependent on other functional elements of the organization to provide physical facilities, payroll processing, and janitorial service. Figure 1.6 illustrates the organizational continuum from pure function to pure project with matrix organizations occupying the middle region [Youk77]. You, as project manager, will have fewer or more responsibilities and more or fewer constraints on your authority depending on whether your organization has predominantly a functional, matrix, or project structure. www.it-ebooks.info 1.7 ORGANIZING THE PROJECT TEAM 19 0% 100% Functional Matrix Functional Emphasis Project Emphasis Project 0% 100% Project Coordinator Project Manager FIGURE 1.6 The organizational continuum [Youk77] 1.7 ORGANIZING THE PROJECT TEAM The way in which your organization is structured determines the way in which you acquire your project members. It is your job to organize your project team, and to participate, as appropriate as a member of other teams such as the system engineering team. 1.7.1 The System Engineering Team The responsibilities of systems engineers include: • • • • • • • defining the operational requirements; specifying system requirements; developing the system design; allocating system requirements to system components; integrating the system components as they become available; verifying that the system to be delivered is correct, complete, and consistent with respect to its technical specifications; and validating operation of the system with its intended users in its intended operational environment. System engineering, when it exists as a separate entity, is typically a specialty function in an organization. System engineers may be assigned to projects from a functional group within a matrix organization, or they may provide internal consulting to projects while remaining in their functional group. System engineers must be experts in their customer domains and knowledgeable of their organization’s capabilities; they are more likely to be long-term organizational members than to be hired from outside the organization by a project manager. Note that system engineers are not component specialists; they are generalists who understand (must understand) the operational domains of their customers and users and the capabilities of their organizations to develop systems for those domains. www.it-ebooks.info 20 INTRODUCTION System engineers work with component specialists to specify collections of components that will satisfy user needs and customer expectations. A system engineering team for a complex, software-intensive system should include hardware, software, and human factors specialists as appropriate for the various kinds of hardware, software, and manual operations of the envisioned system. You, as manager of the software project for a software-intensive system, should be (must be) a member of the system engineering team. In addition the lead technical person on your software team (if you are not that person) and a representative of the group that will maintain the software portion of the system (if that is not your team) should also be members of the system engineering team. 1.7.2 The Software Engineering Team Every software project, whether stand-alone or a subproject of a system-level program, should include a project manager, a lead designer/software architect, and one or more small development teams, each with a designated team leader. On a small project (up to 10 members), the roles of team leader, project manager, and lead designer may be played by a single individual (you). Or, a project manager may be assigned on a part-time basis with another individual playing the roles of lead designer and team leader. For intermediate-size projects (11 to 20 members), there will be (must be) separate people playing the roles of lead designer and full-time project manager. On large projects (more than 20 members), there may be a design team with a designated chief architect, staff members to support the project manager, and multiple development teams. Figure 1.7 illustrates a hierarchical model for organizing software projects that can be expanded or contracted to accommodate various sizes of software projects. Customer Project Manager Software Architect Team Leader #1 Team Leader#2 ... ... Team Leader #3 Member Member V&V CM XX Member Member Each team has 2 to 5 members plus a team leader V&V: CM: XX: Verification and Validation Configuration Management other supporting processes FIGURE 1.7 An organizational model for software projects www.it-ebooks.info 1.8 MAINTAINING THE PROJECT VISION AND THE PRODUCT VISION 21 A very small project (5 or fewer members) may have only one team whose leader is the project manager and software architect; a project having 5 to 10 members may include two teams and a project manager/software architect. Intermediate-size projects will have one individual playing the role of project manager and another as lead designer; a project having 20 software developers might have 4 teams of 5 members, with one member of each team playing the role of team leader. For projects of more than 50 members, the team leaders depicted in Figure 1.7 will be subsystem managers and subsystem designers with team leaders and their teams reporting to them; a project having 100 software developers might be decomposed into 4 subsystems with, for example, 5 teams of 5 assigned to each subsystem. A hierarchical project structure, as depicted in Figure 1.7, thus provides a flexible model that can be expanded and contracted as the needs of various projects dictate. The purpose of hierarchical structures is not to restrict the flow of communication within the project but rather to provide well-defined work activities, roles, authorities, and responsibilities at each level in the hierarchy that minimizes the need for communication among different groups. Communication paths among teams are not restricted to the hierarchy; the communication paths are informal networks that are dynamically established and disbanded as appropriate. To facilitate communication, a fundamental principle of software analysis and design is that the requirements must be partitioned and the design structured so that the work of each small team can proceed concurrently with the work of other teams. The reason for limiting the size of each team is to control the number of intensive communication paths among software developers who are engaged in closely coordinated work activities. As previously mentioned, communication paths can be modeled as links in a fully connected graph where each team member is a node in the graph. The number of links in a fully connected graph of n nodes is n(n − 1)/2. Five members thus have 10 paths; 10 members have 45. The need to partition the work into well-defined work activities for multiple teams either by process function (e.g., design, coding, testing) or product function (e.g., database, algorithms, user interface) is particularly important if the team members reside in functional groups or are geographically distributed. In these cases the work to be done must be partitioned so that each functional group or geographic group can proceed with their work activities with a large degree of autonomy from the other groups. 1.8 MAINTAINING THE PROJECT VISION AND THE PRODUCT VISION Every software project, large or small, simple or complex, must maintain the process vision (the project roadmap) and the product vision (the goals for the product) from beginning to end; otherwise, it is easy to lose sight of vision and goals in the midst of the daily work activities of a project. You, as the project manager, are the keeper of the process vision, which is documented in the project plan (and is updated as the project evolves). The software architect is the keeper of the product vision, www.it-ebooks.info 22 INTRODUCTION which is documented in the requirements and architectural design specifications (and is updated as the product evolves).8 The project manager can be likened to a movie producer and the software architect to a movie director. The producer has overall responsibility for schedules, budgets, resources, customer relations, and delivery of a satisfactory product on time and within budget. The director is responsible for the content of the product. Producer and director must work together to maintain and constantly communicate the process vision and the product vision to the cast of developers and supporting personnel as well as all other project stakeholders. Fred Brooks observes that producer and director can be the same person on a small project (five to seven developers), but they must be different individuals on larger projects because of the differing skills required and the number of tasks to be performed. As Brooks points out, if you, as project manager (producer) are not also the director (i.e., lead designer), you must “proclaim the director’s technical authority. . . . For this to be possible, the producer and director must see alike on fundamental technical philosophy; they must talk out the main technical issues privately, before they really become timely; and the producer must have a high respect for the director’s technical prowess.”9 We should add that, conversely, the director must have a high respect for the producer’s managerial prowess. 1.9 FRAMEWORKS, STANDARDS, AND GUIDELINES A process framework is a generic process model that can be tailored and adapted to fit the needs of particular projects and organizations. An engineering standard is a codification of methods, practices, and procedures that is usually developed and endorsed by a professional society or independent agency. Guidelines are pragmatic statements of practices that have been found to be effective in many practical situations. Some well-known frameworks, standards, and guidelines for software engineering and the associated URLs are: • • • • the Capability Maturity Model® Integration for development (CMMI-DEVv1.2) [www.sei.cmu.edu/cmmi/models]; ISO/IEC and IEEE/EIA Standards 12207 [www.iso.org], [standards.ieee. org/software]; IEEE/EIA Standard 1058 [standards.ieee.org/software]; and the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®) [www.pmibookstore. org]. Elements of these models that are relevant to managing and leading software projects are presented in appendixes to the chapters of this text, including Appendix 1A to this chapter. 8 9 Ibid, pp. 79–83. Ibid, p. 79. www.it-ebooks.info 1.11 1.10 • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 1.11 OVERVIEW OF THE TEXT 23 KEY POINTS OF CHAPTER 1 A project is a coordinated set of activities that occur within a specific time frame to achieve specific objectives. The primary activities of software project management are planning and estimating; measuring and controlling; communicating, coordinating and leading; and managing risk. Software projects are inherently difficult because software is complex, changeable, conformable, and invisible. Software projects are conducted by teams of individuals who engage in intellect-intensive teamwork. Project constraints consist of limitations imposed by external agents on some or all of the operational domain, operational requirements, product requirements, project scope, budget, resources, completion date, and platform technology. A workflow model depicts the work activities and the flow of work products among work activities in a software project. The entire description of a software system or product is usually too complex for the entire description to be written directly in a programming language, so we must prepare different descriptions at different levels of abstraction, and for different purposes. Organizations that conduct software projects use functional, project, weak matrix, and strong matrix structures. Software projects organized in a hierarchical manner provide well-defined work activities, roles, authorities, and responsibilities at each level in the hierarchy; hierarchies can expand and shrink to fit the needs of each project. Requirements must be allocated and the design structured so that the work of each small team can proceed concurrently with the work of other teams. The project manager maintains the project vision, as documented in the project plan, and the software architect maintains the product goals, as documented in the requirements and architectural design. A software process framework is a generic process model that can be tailored and adapted to fit the needs of particular projects and organizations. A software engineering standard is a codification of methods, practices, and procedures, usually developed and endorsed by a professional society or independent agency. SEI, ISO, IEEE, and PMI provide process frameworks, standards, and guidelines that contain information relevant to managing software projects (see Appendix 1A to this chapter). OVERVIEW OF THE TEXT This text is organized into 11 chapters. The first 3 chapters present the context in which software projects are conducted. This chapter provides an overview of and an introduction to managing software projects. Chapter 2 presents commonly used www.it-ebooks.info 24 INTRODUCTION process models for software development and the project management considerations for each of the models. Chapter 3 describes product and process foundations for software projects. Product foundations include operational requirements, system requirements and system design, design constraints, and software requirements. Process foundations include the workflow model, the software development model, the contractual agreement, and the project plan. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 are concerned with planning and estimation. Chapter 4 describes the planning process and the format and contents of project management plans. Chapter 5 presents planning techniques, including work breakdown structures, work packages, activity networks (critical paths and PERT), Gantt charts, and resource-loading histograms. Chapter 6 is concerned with estimation techniques, including pragmatic, theory-based, and regression-based techniques. Chapter 7 presents an introduction to measures and measurement, and measurement and control of work products, including techniques to measure and analyze software defects. Chapter 8 presents measurement and control of work processes, including techniques for measuring and controlling schedule, budget, progress, and risk. Chapter 9 covers risk management, including risk identification, analysis and prioritization, mitigation strategies, action plans and action items, contingency plans and contingent actions, and crisis management. Chapter 10 covers teamwork, motivation, personality styles, and leadership styles. Chapter 11 covers organizational issues; it concludes with 15 guidelines for organizing and leading software engineering teams. Each chapter provides exercises; completing them will further your understanding of the topics covered in the chapter. An appendix to each chapter of this text includes relevant topics, keyed to that chapter, from the SEI Capability Maturity Model® Integration CMMI-DEV-v1.2, ISO/IEC and IEEE/EIA Standards 12207, IEEE/EIA Standard 1058, and the PMI Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®). Appendix A to this text provides a glossary of terms used throughout the text. Appendix B describes some topics for term projects and a schedule of assignments for a term project to develop a software project management plan. Presentation slides for each chapter and other supporting material are available at the URL listed in the Preface. REFERENCES [Brooks95] [CMMI06] Brooks, F. P. The Mythical Man-Month. Addison Wesley, 1995. SEI. CMMI® Models and Modules. http://www.sei.cmu.edu/cmmi/models/, 2006. [IEEE1058] IEEE Std 1058™—1998 IEEE Standard for Software Project Management Plans. IEEE Press, New York, 1998. Also in Engineering Standards Collection. IEEE Product: SE113. Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, August 2003. [IEEE12207] Industry Implementation of International Standard ISO/IEC 12207:1995 Standard for Informati...
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