Managing Technology Projects, MS418, Strathclyde, team Alliance

1. Managing Technology
Projects

2. Learning outcomes:
Section 1 - General Project Management
Section 2 - Introduction to Tech Projects
Section 3 - Waterfall model
Section 4 - DevOps
Section 5 - Spiral model
Assessment:
Case studies
Quizzes on website

3. Section 1 –
General
Project
Management
▶ Contents:
• The 10 PMBOK knowledge areas

4. The 10 PMBOK knowledge areas
PMBOK [1] stands for the “Project Management Body of
Knowledge”. It is a set of standard terminology and guidelines for
project management. It is applicable to any type of project and
contains ten essential knowledge areas:
1. Integration
2. Scope
3. Time
4. Cost
5. Quality
-
6. Human Resources
7. Communication
8. Risk
9. Procurement
10. Stakeholder

6. Section 2 –
Introduction
to Tech
Projects
▶ Contents:
• What is an IT project?
• System Development Phases
• Development Process Model
• Plan-driven vs Agile

7. What is an IT project?
An IT or Technology project is any type of project dealing with IT
infrastructure, information technology or computer technology.
“There are two ways of constructing a piece of software: One is to
make it so simple that there are obviously no errors, and the other
is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious errors.”
Tony Hoare

8. System
Development Phases
• System study
• Feasibility study
• System design
• Coding
• Testing
• Implementation
• Maintenance

9. Development
Process Model
In other words:
1. What shall we do next?
2. For how long?
3. Impose structure on the
software development
activity and make progress
visible!
Development Process Model
Strategy for taking a project from conception to
delivery
• determines the order of software
development stages
• transition criteria from one stage to the next
• Usually risk-driven and not code-driven!

10. Plan-driven vs Agile
▶ Need to choose the most appropriate strategy for project and
organisation.
Plan-driven:
• Plan up front
• Progress measured against plan
• Agreed deliverables
Agile:
• Plan on the hoof
• React to changing circumstances
• Ongoing negotiation of outputs

11. Section 3 –
Waterfall
Model
▶ Contents:
• What is waterfall model?
• Phases
• Pros and Cons
• Video
• Case study

12. What is Waterfall model?
▶ A model used for software development.
▶ Each phase is completed before the next phase begins.
▶ Input of a phase is the outcome of the previous phase.
▶ The phases do not overlap.

13. What are the phases in
Waterfall model?

14. It is also known as Linear-
Sequential Life Cycle
Model

15. ▶ Easy to understand
▶ Phases are completed one at a
time
▶ Each phase has deliverables
and review process
▶ Suitable for projects with fixed
requirements
▶ Difficult to measure progress
within stages.
▶ Difficult to estimate time and cost
for each phase.
▶ Not a good model for complex
projects.
▶ Lack of flexibility
Advantages Disadvantages

16. Detailed Explanation - video

17. Case Study
US Department of Defence
(DOD) Software Systems
followed the Waterfall model.
Document - DOD-STD-
2167A (lasted 10 years, it was
replaced by MIL-STD-498
The document states "uniform
requirements for the software
development that are
applicable throughout the
system life cycle.“
Produced successful projects

19. Section 4 –
DevOps
▶ Contents:
• What is DevOps?
• Benefits of the DevOps model
• DevOps best practices
• Key Stages of DevOps
• Big companies that use DevOps:
The model where Software
Development meets Information
Technology Operations

20. What is DevOps?
• DevOps is the combination of cultural philosophies, practices, and tools that
increases an organization’s ability to deliver applications and services at high speed.
• Under a DevOps model, development and operations teams work closely together
and are sometimes merged into one, with team members acquiring a variety of
cross-functional skills.

21. Benefits of the DevOps model
The key benefits of the DevOps development model are:
• Speed – Combining developer and operations teams
helps adapt to markets faster and efficiently
determine business goals
• Scale – Manage and expand projects more efficiently
with improved infrastructure supported by cross-
functional teams
• Collaboration – Combined teams are more effective
at delivering goals and this model encourages
ownership and accountability

22. DevOps best practices
Some of this model's best practices include:
• Continuous Integration – regular code merges to a central
repository
• Continuous delivery – automatically build, test, and deploy
code
• Microservices – build a big application from lots of small ones
• Collaboration – bringing together the workflows of
development and operations

23. Key Stages of
DevOps:
• Code
• Build
• Test
• Package
• Release
• Configure
• Monitor

24. Big companies that use DevOps:
• Case Study
• Case Study
• Case Study

25. Section 5 –
Spiral
model
▶ Contents:
• What is Spiral model?
• Phases
• When to use Spiral methodology
• Pros and cons
A risk-driven software
development process model.

26. What is Spiral model?
• A risk-driven software development process model.
• A combination of waterfall model and iterative model.
• There are four phases.
• More emphasis placed on Risk Analysis phase.
• A project passes through the phases in iterations.

27. Phases of Spiral
model
• Planning
• Risk Analysis
• Engineering
• Evaluation

28. When to use Spiral model
For medium to
high-risk projects.
01
When there is a
budget constraint
and risk
evaluation is
important.
02
Requirements are
complex.
03
Significant
changes are
expected in the
product.
04

29. Pros
• Good for large and mission-
critical projects.
• Development is fast.
• There’s space for customer
feedback.
Cons
• It’s a costly model to use.
• Risk of not meeting the
schedule or budget.
• Management is more complex.

30. Additional
Reading
• Section 1 - Conchúir, D. 2010. Overview of the
PMBOK guide. Berlin ; London : Springer, pp.
39-158
• Section 2 - Taylor, J. 2004. Managing information
technology projects. New York : American
Management Association.
• Section 3 - Isaias, P. and Issa, T. 2014. High Level
Models and Methodologies for Information
Systems. New York: Springer, pp. 22-24
• Section 4 - Hüttermann, M. 2012. DevOps for
developers. New York : Apress.
• Section 5 -
http://csse.usc.edu/TECHRPTS/1988/usccse88-
500/usccse88-500.pdf

31. References
• Section 1 - https://www.project-management-
prepcast.com/pmbok-knowledge-areas-and-pmi-
process-groups
• Section 2 - https://www.workfront.com/blog/it-
project-management-for-beginners
• Section 3 -
https://www.lucidchart.com/blog/waterfall-
project-management-methodology
• Section 4 -
http://ijcsit.com/docs/Volume%206/vol6issue03
/ijcsit2015060382.pdf
• Section 5 - Reifer, D. 2006. Software
management. Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley-
Interscience, pp. 40-46