This presentation describes a course on Software Project Management developed by the author. The course combines the general project management standard PMBOK® with specific software engineering practices. Link to paper: http://www.cs.technion.ac.il/~tomera/publications/Tomer_EDUCON_2014_V02.pdf

1. Software Mangineeringment:
Teaching Project Management from Software Engineering Perspective
Dr. Amir Tomer, PMP
Head, Dept. of Software and Information Systems Engineering
Kinneret Academic College on the Sea of Galilee, Jordan Valley, Israel
amir@amirtomer.com
EDUCON 2014 - TDSE Track 1

2. EDUCON 2014 - TDSE Track 2

3. Motivation
• This what happens to many SE graduates…
– Typical qualifications required for SE management jobs:
• Relevant Computing Education
• Software development experience
• Management Background
Ms. P.C. Expert
Chief Programmer
Project Manager
3
From university
From previous work
???
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4. But Even Before that…
• Most of the work in industry is done in projects
– The viewpoint is totally different from the “school lab”:
• Business considerations
• Planning and control
• Trade-offs and decision making
• Changing requirements
• Changing environment
• Changing technologies
• Procedures / standards / regulations
• Fresh graduates do not usually start in
managing a project, but from the beginning
they are managed in a project
– Need to learn the language!
• The main problems of SW projects are not technical, but rather managerial…
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5. Why Software Projects Fail?*
• Unrealistic or unarticulated project goals
• Inaccurate estimates of needed resources
• Badly defined system requirements
• Poor reporting of the project’s status
• Unmanaged risks
• Poor communication among customers,
developers, and users
• Use of immature technology
• Inability to handle the project’s complexity
• Sloppy development practices
• Poor project management
• Stakeholder politics
• Commercial pressures
* Charette, R. N., Why Software Fails?, IEEE Spectrum, Vol. 42, Issue 9, Sept. 2005
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6. The Software Project Management Course
• Developed by the author for the Technion’s CS Department
– Intended to replace a previous general PM course from another faculty
• Combines two bodies of knowledge
– PMBOK®: Project Management Body of knowledge, by the Project
Management Institute
– SW-specific practices and techniques from various SE sources
• Hands-on Experience with industry-accepted tools
– MS-Project
• Use of a unique Project Team Builder (PTB) simulator
– Enables to try planning alternatives and resolve conflicts
• Attracted industrial bodies
– Delivered also as industrial seminar for new SW PMs
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7. The Project Management Body of Knowledge [PMBOK®]
• The application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet the
project requirements
– PMBOK Includes 42 project management processes, logically grouped in five
Process Groups
• Initiating
• Planning
• Executing
• Monitoring and Controlling
• Closing
– The PMBOK project management processes are divided among nine
Knowledge Areas
• Project Integration Management
• Project Scope Management
• Project Time Management
• Project Cost Management
• Project Quality Management
• Project HR Management
• Project Communication Management
• Project Risk Management
• Project Procurement Management
Monitoring & Controlling
Project
Mgmt.
Integ-ration
Cost
Comm.
Scope
Quality
Risk
Time
HR
Procu-rement
Initiating
Planning
Closing
Executing
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8. Software-Specific Practices and Techniques
• The course is organized according to the PMBOK’s Knowledge Areas
– But more logically ordered
• Unique and relevant software management techniques and tool are
incorporated in each Knowledge Area
– Intended to provide means to overcome Charette’s failure categories
• Here (and in the next slides) are few examples
– Software cost estimation techniques in Project Cost Management
– Iterative/agile SW life cycles in Project Integration Management
– Dealing with specific SW risks in Project Risk Management
– SW development standards in Project Quality Management
– SW metrics in Project Quality Management
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9. Software Cost Estimation
User domain
Mc-Connell’s Cone of Uncertainty External
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Input
External
Output
External
Inquiry
External
Input
External
Inquiry
External
Output
Internal
Logical
File
External
Interface
File
Application domain External domain
Scope estimation with Function Points
Cost estimation with COCOMO II
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10. Agile (Scrum) Life-Cycle Model
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11. Typical Software Risks
[adapted from Galin D., Software Quality Assurance, 2004]
Risk Class1 Risk Item2 Description
1 Personnel Mgmt. 1 Personnel shortfalls Lack and turnover of qualified personnel
2 Schedule & Timing 2 Unrealistic schedules and
budgets
Too low estimates of time / budget
3 System functionality 3 Developing wrong software
functions
Development of software functions that are not
needed or are incorrectly specified
4 Developing wrong UI Inadequate of difficult UI
4 Requirements
Management
5 Gold plating Addition of unnecessary features
6 Continuing stream of
requirements management
Uncontrolled and unpredictable changes in
system functions and features
5 Subcontracting 7 Shortfalls in externally
furnished components
Poor quality of externally delivered components
8 Shortfalls in externally
performed tasks
Poor quality or unpredictable accomplishment
of externally performed tasks
6 Resource usage and
performance
9 Real-time performance
shortfalls
Poor system performance
10 Straining computer science
capabilities
Inability to implement the system due to lack of
technical solutions and/or computing power
1Boehm, B.W. and Ross, R., “Theory-W project management”, IEEE Trans. on SW Eng., 15, pp. 902-916, 1989
2 Ropponen, J. and Lyytinen, K., “Components of Software Development Risks”, IEEE Trans on SW Eng., 26(2), pp. 98-111, 2000.
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12. Standard-Based Software Development
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13. Software Metrics
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14. Course Structure and Learning Aids
• Frontal Lectures (2 hours/week)
– PowerPoint slides
• Class / Lab Tutorials (1 hour/week)
– Paper exercises
– Tool exercises (MS-project)
– PTB Simulator
• Team Project
– Writing an evolving Project Management Plan
• Final Exam
– Imitation of a PMP-certification exam
– 80 4-choice questions in 2 hours
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15. Course Agenda
Week Topic
1 Introduction to Software Project Management
2-3 Software Project Integration Management
4 Software Project Communication Management
5 Software Project Scope Management
6 Software Project Risk Management
7-8 Software Project Time Management
9-10 Software Project Cost Management
11-12 Software Project Quality Management
13 Software Project HR Management
14 Software Project Procurement Management
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16. Class Exercises – Example (Risk Management)
Risk Response strategy Alternative / 3rd party / mitigation / contingency
• The senior architect on your project is promoted to the global
chief architect
• Your preferred testing subcontractor is overbooked until 3 months
after the planned tests
• The maintenance team sent abroad to resolve a customer’s
urgent problem is “stuck” for another 2 weeks
• The customer is unsatisfied disapproves the prototype after 3
months of validation, through which the full-scale development
has been progressing in parallel
• You won two contracts at the same time, for which you bid under
less than 50% chance
• You are temporarily relocated to a remote site, from which you
are expected to continue to manage your project
• A requirements management tool recently employed in the
project – crashes.
• According to a new legislation you have to reduce the outsourced
activities on your project by 50%
• According to a new company policy you have to replace 2 of your
engineers by 6 part-time students
• The subcontractor developing your testing simulator went out of
business
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17. Lab Work – the PTB Simulator
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18. Team Project
• Inputs
– SOW document
– Company structure
– Project management policy
– Role allocation
• Project Manager
• System Engineer / Chief Architect
• Quality Manager
– PMP Template (based on ISO/IEC/IEEE 16326)
• Output
– 4 evolving versions of a Project Management Plan (PMP)
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19. Final Exam – A Sample Question (Communication Management)
• The project manager invites an engineer on the project for a personal
meeting, in which she intends to tell the engineer that he is fired. The
engineer, who considers himself senior, is sure that the purpose of the
meeting is to tell him that he is promoted. The manager starts the
conversation by saying: “you probably guess what I am going to tell you”
and gets the answer “I suppose so”. This is an example of…
a) noise in communication
b) the gap between encoding and decoding
c) a message that is not aligned with the feedback-massage
d) a feedback-message that is not aligned with the message
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20. Course Evaluation
Term Students Answered Overall Relevancy*
Winter 2010 14 10 4.89/5.00 4.89/5.00
Winter 2011 32 19 4.54/5.00 4.63/5.00
Spring 2012 27 14 4.76/5.00 4.69/5.00
Winter 2013 23 10 4.50/5.00 4.75/5.00
Winter 2014 14 6 4.25/5.00 4.25/5.00
Total 110 59 4.61/5.00 4.67/5.00
* “To what level did the lecturer show the relevancy of what he/she taught (to the course / to your
studying subject / to your future employment)?”
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21. Thank you for listening!
Any questions?
21
EDUCON 2014 - TDSE Track