CPS 714 - Software Project Management

What are the key attributes of a project?

Unique purpose and is temporary

Has a primary customer or sponsor

Drives change and creates value

Requires collaboration and resources

What are the 3 project constraints?

Scope

Time

Cost

10 Project Management Knowledge Areas?

Scope

Cost

Schedule

Communications

Stakeholders

Procurement

Resource

Project Integration Management

Risk

Quality

What is a discretionary cost?

An optional cost

Growth and Venture Costs

What is a non-discretionary cost?

A mandatory cost

Core costs

What defines project success?

A project is successful if:

- Met STC goals

- Satisfied customer/sponsor

- Met it's main objective

Why do projects succeed?

- Adequate funding

- Staff expertise

- Stakeholder engagement

What is a program vs a project?

Program is a group of related projects managed in a coordinated manner.

1 Program manager --> n Project managers

What is project portfolio management?

Process of grouping projects and programs into one portfolio

What duration and goals does project portfolio management look at?

Long term

Strategic goals

More high level questions

What duration and goals does project management look at?

Short term

Tactical goals

More in the moment questions

When do projects end?

Objectives are reached

Project is terminated

Who are stakeholders?

People involved in or affected by project activities

What do companies that excel in project delivery do?

Use integrated toolbox

Grow project leaders

Streamlined project delivery process

Measure project health

What is project management?

Application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements

What is a systems approach?

A holistic and analytical approach to management and problem solving

Three parts of a systems approach

Systems philosophy (think of things as systems)

Systems analysis (problem-solving approach)

Systems management

Three parts of system management

Business

Organization

Technology

What are the four frames of organizations?

Structural, human resources, political, symbolic

What is in the structural frame of an organization?

Having roles and responsibilities with coordination and control

What is in the Human resources frame of an organization?

Providing harmony between organization and people needs

What is the political frame of an organization?

Coalitions composed of various people

Conflict and power are key issues

What is in the symbolic frame of an organization?

Symbols and meanings related to events

(culture, language, etc...)

What are the 3 basic organizational structures?

Functional: functional managers report to CEO

Project: Program managers report to CEO

Matrix: Mix of functional and project

What is organizational culture?

Set of shared assumptions, value and behaviours that characterize an organization

Underlying cause of many company problems

How can top management commitment help project managers?

Provide resources

Approve projects

Collaborate with entire organization

Mentor/coach

What is a project life cycle?

Collection of project phases that defines work, deliverables and roles in each phase

What is the status in early phases of project life cycle?

Resource needs is the lowest

Risk level highest

Stakeholders have high influence

What is the status in middle phases of project life cycle?

More resources needed

Risk level decreases

What is the status in the final phase of the project life cycle?

Ensure requirements met

Sponsor approval

What are the different product life cycles

Predictive

Iterative

Adaptive

Hybrid

Incremental

What is part of the predictive life cycle?

STC determined early

Models: waterfall, spiral

What is part of the iterative life cycle?

Scope determined early

TC changed overtime

Works best when: high degree of change, low degree of frequency

What is part of the incremental life cycle?

Deliverables produced through a series of iterations

Works best when: low degree of change, high degree of frequency

What is part of the adaptive life cycle?

Stakeholders define and approve scope before each iteration

Works best when: high degree of change, high degree of frequency

What is the need for management reviews?

Allow for phase exits

Should occur at end of each phase

What is the importance of project context?

Help determine which product life cycle is most effective

What is the nature of IT projects?

Diverse in terms of size, complexity, products, etc...

Characteristics of IT projects?

Diverse backgrounds and skill sets

Trends affecting IT project management

Globalization

Outsourcing

Virtual Teams

Agile Project Management

Scrum structure

Product backlog --> Sprint backlog --> sprint --> sprint review

What is Kanban?

Associated with scrum, visual cues to guide workflow

What are the five project management process groups

Initiating

Planning

Executing

Monitoring and Controlling

Closing

What happens during initiation process?

We define and authorize a project or project phase

What are the main outputs of the initiation process?

Project charter and stake holder register

Kick off meeting

What happens during the scrum in the initiation process?

Assign roles, functionalities of phases, number of sprints and releases

What happens during the planning process?

Devise and maintain a workable plan to ensure the project addresses the organizational needs

What are the key outputs of the planning phase?

Team contract

Project scope statement

WBS

Project schedule

Risks

What happens in the scrum during the planning process?

High level description identified in product and sprint backlogs

Estimate sprint time

What happens during the executing process?

Create product or service

Requires most resources, time and money

What happens during the monitoring and controlling process?

Monitor progress to ensure team meets the objectives

Monitor deviation from the plan

How is the monitoring and controlling process executed?

Through daily scrums and sprint reviews

What matters most in monitoring and controlling processes?

Hours left for each task

What happens during the closing process?

Ending project efficiently

Doing admin work

Gain stakeholder and customer approval

Final report and presentation

What happens during scrum in the closing process?

Scrum master leads sprint retrospective

Look at what went well and what to change

Are process groups mutually exclusive?

No they are not, they can run in parallel

What is a methodology?

Describes how things should be done

What is a standard?

Describes what should be done

What is the Rational Unified Process methodology?

Software development process that focusses on team productivity

What are some project management methodologies?

PRINCE2

Six Sigma

Rational Unified Process

What are the outputs during the monitoring and controlling stage?

Performance reports, change requests, updates to plans

What is the product owners role?

Responsible for business value of project, decides what work to do and order

What are scrum artifacts?

Product backlog

Sprint Backlog

Burndown chart

What is Project integration management?

Develop project charter and project management plan

Direct and manage project work

Perform integrated change control

Closing the project

What does strategic planning involve?

Determining long term objectives

Identifying potential projects

Aligning IT with business strategy

SWOT analysis

What does SWOT stand for?

strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats

What is the four stage process for selecting IT projects?

Resource allocation

Project planning

Business area analysis

Information tech strategy planning

What are the methods for selecting projects?

Focus on organizational needs

Categorize info tech projects

Perform financial analyses

Use weighted scoring model

Implement balanced scorecard

Why is focussing on organizational needs important?

Because projects that address these needs are more likely to be successful

Important criteria for selecting projects that focus on organizational needs?

Need, funding and will

What are the categories for categorizing IT projects?

Opportunities

Orders

Problems

Priority

Duration

Tools for performing financial analysis?

Net present value analysis

ROI

Payback analysis

What is Net Present Value analysis?

Calculating monetary gain or loss for life of project and products it produces

Higher NPV is better

Equation for NPV?

Summation of (cashflow for the year divided by 1 + discount rate to the power of year of cashflow)

What is the purpose of the discount rate?

To take into account the time value of money, risk and uncertainty of future cash flows

Equation for ROI?

(Total benefits - total cost) / total cost

Higher the ROI, the better

What is payback analysis?

The time it takes to recoup the money invested in project, time to break even point

Earlier payback is better

What is a weighted scoring model?

Find criteria and assign weights to them

Multiply the scores by the weights to rank the projects

Purpose of a balanced score card?

Planning and management system on a grid

What is the purpose of a project charter?

Recognize existence of project and let organization know

Provides direction on project objectives and management

Challenges with project charters?

Getting people with proper knowledge and authority to sign off

What is a project management plan?

Document used to coordinate all project planning documents and guide project execution and control

Elements of a project management plan

Project overview

Project description

Technical processes

Schedule and budget

IT PM role in small projects?

Might need to do technical work or mentor team

IT PM role in large projects?

Must understand business and application area of project

Types of Knowledge

Explicit: easily explained using words

Tacit: difficult to express

Parts of performing integrated change control

Influencing factors that are creating changes

Determining change has occurred

Managing changes as they occur

What is a change control system?

Documented process that describes when and how project documents and work may be changed

Role of the Change Control Board

Approve or reject changes to a project

What is project scope management?

Processes involved in determining what is or is not included in a project

Processes of project scope management

Plan scope management

Collecting requirements

Creating WBS

Define, Validate and control scope

What is planning scope management?

Process of determining how projects scope and requirements will be managed

Two important outputs of planning scope management?

Scope management plan

Requirements management plan

What are the software engineering steps requirements can be broken down into?

Elicitation, Analysis, Specification, Validation

What does the requirements management plan document?

Documents how project requirements will be analyzed, documented and managed

What is a major consequence of collecting requirements?

Rework

What are three ways to collect requirements?

Interview stakeholders

Questionnaires and surveys

Observation studies

What are common techniques for collecting requirements?

Prototyping

Documenting analysis

Context diagrams

What is a requirements traceability matrix?

Table that lists the requirement and the attributes and status of each requirement

Elements of a project scope statement?

Product scope description

User acceptance criteria

Project deliverables