1 Intro

SoberIT
Software Business and Engineering Institute

T-76.5612 Software Project Management
Spring 2010

1: Introduction

Tuomas Niinimäki

Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Helsinki University of Technology

HELSINKI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY

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Why software projects are
interesting to you?


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Course contents
  What is a software project?
  Constraints, goals and types of a software project
  Software processes in software project management
  Software project estimation
  Budgeting, scheduling and monitoring software project
  Software quality and risk management
  Leadership and management in software projects
  Distributed software development


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Course goals
  After taking this course, one should be able to
  apply different project types and frameworks to project goals
  create a budget and schedule for a small-scale software project
  apply sound software project monitoring practices in a small-scale
software project
  apply most common software process models to a small-scale
software project
  evaluate the applicability of software estimation practices in typical
software engineering contexts
  reflect the software quality requirements to project constraints
  understand the basics of risk management in software project
management
  find and critically assess additional material for supporting the
software project management work


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“The one correct answer”
does not exist!


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Course overview (1/2)
  First part of the course is “theoretically” oriented
  Lectures 1-8 provide basic insights into essential software
project management issues
  Assignments 1 and 2 help you to apply some of the practices
presented on the lectures

  Course exam is based on contents from the first part


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Course overview (2/2)
  Second part of the course: “the Reality”
  Lectures 9-14 are visiting lectures given by people from
industry - contents vary, but reflect the true context of
software engineering and software project management
  Assignments 3 and 4 are based on real industrial case

  Lecture summaries are written from lectures of the second
part


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Important dates and times (1/3)
  Lectures:
  Tuesdays 16-18 at lecture hall T5
  Thursdays 16-18 at lecture hall T3

  First part consists of lectures given by course personnel
  January 19th – February 11th
  Cover various aspects of software project management

  Second part lectures are given by guest speakers from
industry
  February 16th – March 4th
  Experience reports, useful insights, how things really work

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Important dates and times
  Exams:
  March 8th 9-12 at lecture hall T1
  (optionally, February 6th 10-13 at the main building)

  Required material for exams:
  Lectures 1-8 (i.e. those given by course personnel)
  Reading material from Noppa


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Course personnel
  Teacher: Tuomas Niinimäki
  Course assistant: Peitsa Hynninen

  Website: https://noppa.tkk.fi/noppa/kurssi/t-76.5612/etusivu
  Any updates, changes to schedule or deadlines will be
announced at Noppa
  Email address: t765612@soberit.hut.fi
  To ensure timely answer to your question, please use the
course email address instead of personal email addresses
  Twitter: #t765612
  You’re encouraged to share interesting articles, links, other
material


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Course prerequisites
  T-76.3601 Basics of Software Engineering
  Basic software development methods, concepts, terminology
and discourse

  TU-22.1120 Introduction to Project Management
  Basic project management methods, concepts, terminology
and discourse


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Course material
  Reading material
  No coursebook
  Collection of articles from Noppa

  Lectures
  Slides will be available in PDF form at Noppa
  Lecture recordings (slides+audio) will be available at Noppa

  Exercises
  Noppa


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Course requirements
  To pass the course, you need to do ALL of the following
  Pass the exercises (50% of max. points)
  Pass the exam (50%) based on 1st part of the course
  Pass the lecture summaries (50%) from 2nd part of the
course
  Give course feedback

  You may earn extra points (max 10pt) by
  attending the lectures (1 pt / lecture)


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Exercises
  Exercises 1 and 2 are individual work
  Lecture summaries are individual work
  Exercises 3 and 4 are made in groups of 1-4 people
  You may use newsgroup opinnot.tik.tik76612 to find your group
  Templates will be given to all exercises
  Exercises must be submitted in DOC or PDF format in Finnish, Swedish or
English

  Deadlines are absolute and strict!
  Always Thursday at 12:15
  Dates: 11.2.2010, 18.2.2010, 11.3.2010, 11.3.2010
  More information about exercises is available at course web page


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Exam
  Exams:
  March 8th 9-12 at lecture hall T1
  (optionally, February 6th 10-13 at the main building)

  Required material for exams:
  Lectures 1-8 (i.e. those given by course personnel)
  Reading material from Noppa


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Lecture summaries
  Purpose:
  To teach you to find and briefly summarize the most important points
presented during the lecture
  To teach you to be critical, to analyse and evaluate different sources
  0-5 points per lecture summary, points from 5 best lecture summaries
summed -> max 25 points

  5 points per summary requires
  A good summary of the main points from the lecture
  Discussion and comparison to reading material, other articles,
lectures, other visiting lecturers, your own opinions
  Critical thinking
  Proper referencing of the sources


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Lecture summaries from seminar
  Global Software Development: Towards an Agile and Lean
Future
  Wednesday February 17th at 12:30-17:30
  @ Dipoli Congress Centre, Espoo
  http://www.soberit.hut.fi/mapit/seminar2010/

  By participating this seminar and writing one larger summary
about the whole seminar, you may earn max 10 points (= equals
two guest lecture summaries)
  To participate, please register via http://dy.fi/zq6 (URL also
available at Noppa), DL February 11th @ 18:00!


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Grading
  Exercises: 50 points (to pass you need 25 points)
  Exercise 1: 10 p (individual)
  Exercise 2: 10 p (individual)
  Exercise 3: 13 p (group)
  Exercise 4: 17 p (group)
  Exam: 25 p (to pass you need 12 points)
  Lecture summaries: 25 p (to pass you need 12 points)
  Extra points (to pass you need 0 points)


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Grading

Points Grade
0.00-47.99 0
48.00-54.99 1
55.00-64.99 2
65.00-74.99 3
75.00-84.99 4
85.00- 5


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What must / should you do now?
  Register to the course in OODI
  Register to the exam in OODI
  Read through the course web pages
  Information on exercises!
  Reading material!
  Subscribe to course news (either email or RSS)
  Keep track of time you spend on this course


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More information available at
the course web page:
https://noppa.tkk.fi/noppa/kurssi/t-76.5612/etusivu

If you can’t find answer there, send email to

t765612@soberit.hut.fi


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Introduction to software
project management


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What is a project?


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What is a project?
  A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique
product or service
  A project has a definitive beginning and a definitive end
  Specific objectives are to be met or a specific product is to be
created

  Work is carried out for someone else than yourself
  Resources available for use on the project are constrained
  A project has goals, schedule, resources and budget

(PMBOK 1996)

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Why there is a course on
software project
management?


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Is software project management special?
  Many techniques of general project management are applicable
to software project management
  Software development projects are often very hard to
manage

  Software differs from many other deliverables, because of its
  Invisibility
  Complexity
  Conformity
  Flexibility


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Software project management is special
  Problem of specifying the exact requirements in the beginning
  Project planning and estimation is difficult

  High productivity differences between individuals
  1:10 differences typical, even 1:50 reported

  A lot of changes – their effect on the system often unknown
  Software complexity still increases rapidly

  Division of tasks - adding workforce in late phase can be harmful
  Software development is communication intensive activity


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What is a software project?


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Project types
  Project target
  One-of-kind customer specific systems
  Completely new software products
  New versions of software products
  New features or improvements to old systems
  Project scope
  Requirements elicitation project
  Feasibility study project
  Pilot / prototyping project
  Project organization
  Intra-organizationally distributed
  Using software subcontractors
  Using ready-made components
  Developing open-source software

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Project constraints
  Projects have constrains:
  resources
  time
Resources
  scope
  Often one or two are more important
than the others, e.g.
Time Scope
  Time to market
  Basic functionality
  Let everybody know which ones are
the most important!


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Who are involved in a
software project?


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Project stakeholders
  Different parties have different interests in the software project
  Motivations and objectives must be recognized, and taken
into account when planning and executing the project

  Project stakeholders can be
  Internal (the project team)
  External to the project team but within the same organization
  E.g. marketing department
  External to both the project team and the organization
  E.g. end users, customers, subcontractors


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Different viewpoints on a project

£
Cost / Benefit

Temporary organization
Project X
€$
Sequence of work to be done

Collection of products


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How software projects are
performing?


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Software project success rates 2000
(2003)
23%
(15%)
  Successful: on time, on
budget, all features
49%   Challenged: Completed and
(51%) operational, but over-budget,
over time, fewer features
  Failed: Cancelled
28%
(34%)
Challenged
Succeeded
Failed

(Standish Group, based on US data)

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Failure statistics – Improvements?
  Average cost overrun 189 % (1994)->45 % (2000)-> 43% (2003)
  Average time overrun 222% (1994)->63 % (2000)-> 82% (2003)
  On average 61 % (1994) of required features were delivered -> 67
% (2000) -> 52% (2003)

250

200

150 1994
%

100 2000

50

0
Average cost Average time Reguired
overrun overrun features delivered


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Reasons for success and failure
Reasons for failure: Recipe for success:
  “Most projects failed for lack   Smaller project size and
of skilled project management shorter duration
and executive support”
  “Underestimating project
  More manageable
complexity and ignoring   “Growing”, instead of
changing requirements are “developing”, software
basic reasons why projects engages the users earlier and
fail” confers ownership.
  “The problem – and the   -> Iterative and
solution – lay in people and interactive process
processes”


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Classic mistakes - People

  Undermined motivation   Lack of effective project
  Weak personnel sponsorship
  Uncontrolled problem   Lack of stakeholder buy-in
employees   Lack of user input
  Heroics   Politics placed over substance
  Adding people to a late   Wishful thinking
project
  Noisy, crowded offices
  Friction between
developers and
customers
  Unrealistic expectations

(Steve McConnell 1996)

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Classic mistakes - Process

  Overly optimistic   Inadequate design
schedules   Shortchanged quality
  Insufficient risk assurance
management   Insufficient management
  Contractor failure controls
  Insufficient planning   Premature or overly
  Abandonment of planning frequent convergence
under pressure
  Omitting necessary tasks
  Wasted time during the from estimates
fuzzy front end
  Shortchanged upstream
  Planning to catch up later
activities   Code-like-hell
programming


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Classic mistakes - Product&Technology
Product Technology
  Requirements gold-   Silver-bullet syndrome
plating   Overestimated savings
  Feature creep from new tools or
  Developer gold-plating methods
  Push-me, pull-me   Switching tools in the
negotiation middle of a project
  Research-oriented   Lack of automated
development source-code control


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Advice and good practices
  Be aware of the classic mistakes
  Create lists of “worst practices” to avoid in the future projects
  Conduct postmortems to learn from your team’s mistakes and
add to the list
  Encourage other projects within your organization to conduct
postmortems so that you can learn from their mistakes
  Exchange war stories with your colleagues in other organizations
and learn from their experiences
  Display your list of mistakes prominently so that people will see
it and learn not to make the same mistakes yet another time


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Thank you.

Questions?
Tuomas Niinimäki

tuomas.niinimaki@soberit.hut.fi


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