A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects - Assignment Example

Project Management A project usually refers to a task that can be performed by single or a group of people. By definition a project means to create a unique product or service at one time for time being. This property of temporary and one time compares with of specific processes or functions, which can be permanent or semi-permanent to manufacture same product over and over again. A project is defined set of rules or functions that meet the pre-defined set of objectives. The objective can be the goals for getting or accomplish that project. The project is created it need some resources like communication, space, energy, materials, people, money, etc. Management refers to control the over all activities or to manage the system with respect to technical skills and philosophy. Management also refers to manage the whole team and get them together and take work from them in timely and friendly manner. Project management means set of rules that are created to manage resources (e.g. people, money) and over all organization. There are different activities that need to manage the project so that one can achieve the goal in time with the feasible money and cost requirement. The first thing of project management is to make sure that project is divided into defined set of modules. The second thing is to fix the inputs and functions that meet the required objective of a project. There are different definitions: PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge as defined by the Project Management Institute - PMI):"Project management is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements." PRINCE2 project management methodology: "The planning, monitoring and control of all aspects of the project and the motivation of all those involved in it to achieve the project objectives on time and to the specified cost, quality and performance." PROJECT: A temporary piece of work with a finite end date undertaken to create a unique product or service. Projects bring form or function to ideas or needs. DIN 69901 (Deutsches Institut fr Normung - German Organization for Standardization): "Project management is the complete set of tasks, techniques, tools applied during project execution". Project: There is a project for developing the computerize system for a National Bank. The bank has many branches all over the country and wants that one branch can communicate to other branch through the created computerized system. So first of all it is duty for the project team to define the project what is it and what are it requirements Then they should need to think about its management how they manage the project What should its need and how they cover it They project management team should consider that How they do the project How many people are required to achieve these goals How much cost required for develop the system What are the inputs What are the outputs And many more Basically whenever a project is going to be created it is necessary to cover its all features like used requirements, his desire outcomes, they way he wants to see the project, his thinking about project, his cost about creating the system and quality about the project. Then there should be a breakdown process which means to break the large project into sub modules. These sub modules are individual to each other and perform a specific task. This is called work break down (WBS). It also helpful for doing the task, Moreover it help to check the error and bugs into the program. There can be future enhancements or updates also done very well. If the Bank (National Bank) project is divided into sub modules then there will be: Figure: Work break down (WBS) for national Bank After these entire modules division there are some basic procedures that project team needs to create the algorithm about developing the project. Algorithm means step by step procedure to solve any problem. This means how to project can be develop. After creation of algorithm, there must be a pictorial representation of all activities of project that have to perform within construction of system. This pictorial representation is called Flowchart. Planning The most difficult element in a project is project planning then the scheduling and estimating. These all thing is fully dependent upon the features and requirements of project. The planning can be handled with three techniques Precedence analysis On Arrow networks Precedence networks Precedence analysis In this phase it is decided that which activity have to start and review the overall activities of project. What is the goal scope and criteria of overall system. The concept of flowchart is come form that forefather of project management Henry Gantt (1917), who is very famous for his Gantt chart as a project management tool. He defined the specified set of symbols and lines for drawing the system activities. The Gantt chart is created to estimate the overall time span use for the development of a system. It is in the form of graph or table and used to cover the time for each phase of system. But each Gantt chart can be different for every project. Because every project has it own requirements and demands. After him the Frederick winslow taylor the forerunner to many modern project tools introduce the work break down (WBS) and resource allocation. For example the flowchart of a single module for National bank that checks the balance of an account can be: No Yes Figure 2: Flow chart for National Bank As the Bank system is not only a single system but it is also one of the requirements that it can work together with any other branch in a country. So it is also need to work o networking. This refers to that how a bank can communicate to other and from how many extend. What should be sharing feature and what should be hidden from other branch of national bank On Arrow networks The Work is divided into module and then this is elaborated in the form of figure like for national bank the table is: Tasks Precedence Time Requirement a 15 days Analysis b 25 days Design c 10 days Data implementing d 25 days Coding e 20 days Testing c 8 days Risk analysis c 6 days Implementation f 8 days After having the estimate there is a diagram of these figures and the shape is as like a network. There is also a diagram for all the tasks of a bank and these tasks called the nodes. How much and which node can be communicate to other node can be elaborated in a diagram easily. These like systems diagram are use to draw the over all network system. Precedence networks In this type the network is drawn with respect to time but there is also extra information of earliest finish module and latest finish module. In National bank it can be estimated that the design phase can be finished in earliest and analysis phase will be the latest one. Project Evaluation Project evaluation mean the over all design of the project that must be focus on business value and project viability. There are many proposals for a project but there is only one proposal considered best for a single project. The project can be said workable by its two perspectives. Level 1: Individual workability Level 2: Comparative workability. For the National bank evaluation of project depends upon the following questions How will the proposal of project be submitted into the pool of potential projects How will the proposals for national bank project be reviewed and evaluated How will selection decisions be approved How will selection decisions be communicated Strategic Strategic refers to overall way to develop the project. It is just like to create infrastructure of project that how it will be done and from which extend it will be workable What should be used the major languages and tools to achieve the goal. Each and every thing is divided according to a specific time span and money requirements. It is better for effective bank project that it must rely upon a pro-defined "organizational" scenario for the proposal consideration and selection. The committee for the bank project must review the proposal. In the case that the proposal for national bank may approve the there is sub division of business management. The strategy of overall business is depended upon different process components. Like organization, goals and objectives, deliverables, roles and responsibilities, steps and standards. These things are essential to manage for getting the best project outcomes and results. Technical It is also duty of proposal selection committee to review that the proposal must get certain key goals and objectives: To evaluate the proposed project according to pre-defined system. The project must base upon long term workability. To engage in a process with all stake holders to ensure that valid information is considered. Statues of communication, certain issues, outcomes in an open and timely manner. The selection process must fix on some standards by which proposal will be evaluated and selected. The selection of project depends upon following things: Criteria: Refers to viability measurement. Score: Degree to which to various criteria are met Weight: ranking of multiple project proposals Economic To estimate the over all cost of the project. Like the hardware cost, system development cost engineering cost etc. For national bank the cost estimated is as follows Software 50$ Hardware 10000$ Networking 12000$ Project development cost 45000$ It is only the raw estimated values for the national bank. But the over all final estimate can be tell after the project has been developed. Risk considerations In every project there is a degree of risk. That can be referred to as What can happen What could result What can be done These means to manage the element of risk as the national bank project manager it is his duty to control those risk before the risks get out of control. Risks have density according to the nature and difficulty of project. Effective management process will have three key components: Risk Identification Risk Analysis and Assessment Risk Response and Control Before constructing the system of national bank it is better to consider all risks like data security or data capacity risks must be identified. After identification the risk must be analyze that how much it can be extend and create problem. Then there must be some measurements and rules from which the risk can be control. There are many categories of risks like Management risks These risks are concerned with scope, layout and overall strategy of project. Technology risks Technical risks include design of project, its updating conflicts and bugs in project. Resource risks These risks involve with some risks that related to change of staff. There may be risks that involved with skilled resource. Timing risk These risks may relate to delivery delay in project. Or it may include some missing module till the estimated time. Political risks This relates to internal group communications and co operations. External risks The external environment risks include those causes that affect the control of project and manufacturing of project. Identification & Analysis Risk can be first identified and then carefully analysis helps to remove the factors of risks. For example the risk of security first identified and then there is an analysis to remove and overcome the security risk. Like password breakage, or data theft etc. Management Management refers to manage the risks as per their density. Then there must be some strategy and risk recovering measurement that handle and manage the risk. Like password breakage risk can be handle by saving the data and time of utilizing data. There can be a recovery for previous of data usage like rollback. People in projects The people that are related to the projects have different behaviours and attitude. This is duty of project manager to take work from his team members and get them together and provide them a nice environment. Organisational behaviour The team behaviour is dependent upon the behaviour of manager and colleagues. To manage the overall system it is also to check and balance in team. Motivation The workers need feedback and motivation as they do work. The appreciation increases the workability and sincerity in them. Teams All the members of team must be cooperative and friendly behaviour. More over all have specific knowledge about creating the project. Group performance There must be duty pf project manager to have an eye on group or team work. Group performance means the way that a group of people perform specific task with respect to specific time span and cost. Quality is important It is ever been a big issue to maintain the quality of project. This also refers to that a project can perform every task that the user can desire and never give error message. There are some rules and limitations that are built to maintain the quality and provide the quality assurance. Monitoring and Control Management framework The project management can have different types of activities like: 1. Planning 2. Analysis 3. Design 4. Assessing and controlling risk 5. Allocation of resources 6. Assigning tasks 7. Communicating to stakeholder 8. Increase/ decrease a company's workers and many more The thing is that to control and check all activities of a project. It is helpful to finish the work on time within the available resources. These steps are helpful to manage the project with respect to specified planning and a defined way to do the work. It helps for the project manager to manage the project in predefined set of rules and strategy. The tasks that are prioritized defined for the project means to identified and inform the overall schedule of project. The project manager usually uses the technique of double down to prevent from breaking deadlines in the final stages of the implementation phase. Cost to develop the project depends on several variables including: resource quantities, labour rates, equipment, indirect cost and profit. The cost for developing a project is depends upon the worth of the project. Let in national bank if one branch is going to be computerize them the cost will be less but as it is demanded that every branch can exchange the data to other branch then there is a need of networking. For this there is a hardware and software that needs to manage the communication between the branches and their data. References 1. Elaine Marmel and Nancy C (2007) Project 2007 Dummies [Internet]. 2. Sally Slack (2007) CNET Do-It-Yourself Digital Home Office Projects [Internet].< http://www.amazon.ca/CNET-Yourself-Digital-Office-Projects/dp/0071489835/ref=sr_1_2ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196338900&sr=1-2> 3. Jared Richardson and William A Gwaltney (2005) Ship It!: A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects[Internet]. 4. Tony Johnson (2005) Pmp Exam Success Series: Understanding the Processess [Internet]. < http://www.amazon.ca/Pmp-Exam-Success-Understanding-Processess/dp/0974876135/ref=sr_1_4ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196338900&sr=1-4> 5. Ron Black (2005) Complete Idiots Guide Project Management Microsoft Project 2003 [Internet]. 6. Massimo Paolucci and Roberto Sacile (2004) Agent-Based Manufacturing and Control Systems: New Agile Manufacturing Solutions for Achieving Peak Performance [Internet]. 7. Ron Black (2003) Complete Idiot Guide Project Management Microsoft Project 2000 1e [Internet]. 8. The BridgeBuilder Company, Jill Howe, William McRae, and Scott Spanbauer (2003) Crystal Reports 9 Essentials [Internet]. 9. E. William East and Jeffrey G. Kirby (1990)A Guide to Computerized Project Scheduling [Internet]. < http://www.amazon.ca/Guide-Computerized-Project-Scheduling/dp/0442238029/ref=sr_1_9ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196338900&sr=1-9> 10. Andrew Johnston and Andrew Johnson (1995) A Hacker's Guide to Project Management [Internet]. http://www.amazon.ca/Hackers-Guide-Project-Management/dp/075062230X/ref=sr_1_10ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196338900&sr=1-10 11. Peter H. Jones (1997) Handbook of Team Design: A Practitioner's Guide to Team Systems Development [Internet]. 12. Fergus O'Connell (1999) How to Run Successful High-Tech Project-Based Organizations [Internet]. Read More