Design Software Project Management

 

Introduction

Designing Software Project primary deals with organizing, planning and scheduling of software projects. The role of Design Software Project is very important because software development is always subject to budget and schedule constraints. The software project manager’s job is to ensure that the software project meets these constraints and delivers software in time.

As a part of reliable software designing and computer hardware, Labels are emerging as the secondary tool to help the digital products.

Need for Software Management
Designing Software Project becomes all the more important and particularly difficult due to the following reasons:

1. The software product is intangible. Since the software cannot be seen or touched, it is difficult to define customer requests and track progress.
2. There is no standard process. The fast paced business does not process freeze. Thus in the absence of standard process, it becomes difficult to evaluate and manage.
3. New software projects are not similar to previous ones. No two projects are similar in features and functionality. Hence there is a lot of uncertainty in developing a new project.

 

Four P’s In Project Management
An effective Designing of a Software Project focuses   the four very important P’s: People, Product. Process and Project. A successful venture is the one where the Project-manager emphasizes on building the right product using the right Process for the right project with efficient human involvement.

People
            The people involved in designing a software project management are its greatest assets. They represent intellectual capital and its up to the software managers to get best out of their investment in people, In successful companies, this is achieved when people are respected by the organization. They should have a level of responsibility and reward that matches their skill sets.
Designing project management is therefore about managing people in the organization. Poor management is one of the most significant contributors to project failure.

Categories of People involved in designing an Effective Software Project Management

1. Senior Managers: Who defines the business issues that have significant influence on the project.
2. Project Managers: Who plan, motivate, organize and control the programmers who do software work.
3. Programmers: Who deliver the technical skills needed to develop a product.
4. Customers: Who specifies the need for getting the software developed.
5. End Users : Who actually interact with the software once it is developed.

Product
            The second ‘P’ to Design a Software Project is the product. A software project manager is confronted with a dilemma at the very beginning of a software engineering project. He has to very closely examine the product and the problem it is intended to solve. In other words, the scope of the product must be established and bounded at the very beginning by the Project Manager.

The Process
The generic phases that characterize the software process – definition, development, and support – are applicable to all software. The problem is to select the process model that is appropriate for the software to be engineered by a project team.

1. The Linear Sequential Model
2. The Prototyping Model
3. The Spiral Model
4. The Fourth Generation Technique Model

The Project manager must decide which process model is most appropriate for

1. the customers who have requested the product and the people who will do work.
2. the characteristics of the product itself, and
3. the project environment in which the software team works.

When a process model has been selected, the team defines a preliminary project plan based on the set of common process frame work activities. Once the preliminary plan is established, process decomposition begins. That is, a complete plan, reflecting the work tasks required to populate the frame work activities must be created.

The Project
Ten signs that indicate that the designing of a software project management is in jeopardy are:

1. Software people don’t understand their customer’s needs.
2. The product scope is poorly defined.
3. Changes are managed poorly.
4. The chosen technology changes.
5. Business needs change [or are ill-defined]
6. Deadlines are unrealistic.
7. Users are resistant.
8. Sponsorship is lost [or was never properly obtained].
9. The project team lacks people with appropriate skills.
10. Managers avoid best practices and lessons learned.

A five-part common sense approach to Software Projects is followed as a rescue/ prevention measure.
1. Start on the right foot.
2. Maintain Momentum
3. Track Progress
4. Mark Smart decisions
5. Conduct a Postmortem analysis.

           Designing a Software Project activity compasses measurement and metrics, management activities, project planning, scheduling, tracking and risk management.