Software Project Management

Dr. Nguyen Quang Vu

[email protected]

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management

 Introduction to SPM

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management

 Motivations (1/3)

• Many courses in computer science and electronic

engineering focus on the technical aspects and on the
notations to develop good software (e.g., how to do
testing; how to write requirements; how to model
systems; UML; Java)
• However, in order to build good software, a well
defined and managed process, which organizes the
activities in an efficient and controlled way

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management

 Motivations (2/3)
• Consider the following:
– Writing good requirements is no good if you don’t have a
controlled process, for instance, to accept changes and
trace revisions
– The techniques to do testing are useless if you don’t have
any time left to do testing (because, for instance, you
underestimated the development time and are late with a
release)
– The development of a software system requires to execute,
monitor, and control various activities which have little or
nothing to do with writing code. Consider, for instance:
training users, packaging a product, managing publicity and
communication, writing user documentation

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management

 Motivations (3/3)
• If you want to deliver on time and within budget a
product which has the quality properties agreed upon
(be it a software or any other product), you need:
– A process to define a schedule, a budget, and agree on the
(quality) characteristics of a product
– A list of techniques to define, agree, plan, execute, and
monitor: goals, quality, time, and costs

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management

 Skills and some goals of the course
• Managing a (software development) project, thus, requires
specific competences, skills, and techniques
• Some of the questions you will be able to answer at the end
of this course include:
– How do I estimate how long it will take to complete a task?
– How much am I going to charge for a project?
– How do I keep the team motivated and ensure projects are
fulfilling and an occasion to learn, grow, and advance in one’s
career?
– How do I deal with project risks?
– How do I assess whether the project is on time, on budget,
on schedule?
– How do I control the quality of the final output?

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management

 Software Project Management
The Project Management techniques are intrinsically
multidisciplinary …

… what you will learn in this course is applicable to

virtually any other (engineering) domain.

There are however certain characteristics that make

the management of software projects particularly
interesting.

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management

 Software Project Management
• Software project management is interesting and
challenging because:
– The product is intangible
– The product is uniquely flexible (e.g. different sizes;
different constraints)
– Many software projects are 'one-off'
– The development process is uniquely flexible
– Size and complexity are increasing exponentially
– Human lives might depend on software running as
expected (consider the control system of an
airplane)- safety critical systems

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management

 Complexity (1/2)
10000 M I S S I O N C O N T R O L : G R O U N D ST AT I O N ATF
SKYLAB 2 SHU TTLE/OPERAT IONA L PRO J E C TE D
B-2
F-15E
A P O L L O 17 SHUTTLE/OFT B -1B
APOLLO 7
1000 G E M I N I 12
SHUTTLE/OFT
MANNED SYSTEMS
B -1A
F-16 C/D C-17
GEMINI 3 P-3A PRO J E C TE D
AWAC S MISSILE
G AL IL E O
S -3A
A P O L L O 11
E -2C
100 UNMANNED SYSTEMS
P-3A F-15 P E R S H I N G 11(ED)
GEMINI 2 APOLLO 7 SKYLAB 2
F-111 TITAN 34D (IUS)
F-111 VIKING
MERCURY 3
C-5A
P E R S H I N G 11(AD)
A-7D /E UNMANNED
10 TRIDENT C4
GEMINI 3 U N M A N N E D INT E RP L A NE TA R Y
TITAN IIIC VOYAGER
M A N N E D A/C
PERSHING 1 P O S E I D O N C3 MANNED SPACE
P E R S H I N G 1A
M A RIN E R
TITAN MANNED SPACE CONTROL
SURVEYOR VENUS MERCURY
1

1960 65 70 75 80 85 90 95

Source: Mars and Beyond: NASA’s Software Challenges in the 21st Century

Dr. Michael R. Lowry. NASA Ames Research Center. December 5, 2003

web.cecs.pdx.edu/~black/S3S/MichaelLowry.ppt

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management

 Complexity (2/2)
• The entire Saturn V stack, that is, all three stages of
the booster plus the command module and the lunar
module, had less computing capacity combined than
today’s typical cell phone.
Source: Apollo
by Charles Murray and
Catherine Bly Cox

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management

 A Brief History of (Software)
Project Management

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management

 Frederick Winslow Taylor
• Taylor’s “Scientific Management” is the first theory
of work and management
• Beginning of 1900
• A negative view of workers (they perform at the
slowest rate which goes unpunished)
• Some more interesting characteristics:
– Scientific definition of work
– Scientific selection of personnel
– Sharing of responsibilities between workers and
management
– Incentives and rest periods (to make workers more
efficient)

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spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management
 Henry Gantt
• Gantt’s “Gantt chart” notation is still used
today to schedule projects
• Defined during the First World War
• First used to schedule and monitor work
and progress in ship building: distinction
between work and progress
• His book available for download from
archive.org

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spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management
 Example of Gantt Chart

Source: The Gantt chart, a working tool of management

Clark, Wallace and Gantt, Henry

spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management

 Fifties and Sixties
• 2nd World War:
– Manhattan Project: process flow diagrams

• 1957 CPM (Critical Path Method)

– Mathematically based algorithm for scheduling a
set of project activities, used to plan maintenance
activities in plants
– Dupont + Remington Rand UNIVAC team
– No fundamental changes to date
• 1958 PERT (Program Evaluation and Review
Technique)
– U.S. Navy Polaris missile program (Booz Allen &
Hamilton (management consulting firm) working as
ORSA team for Lockheed Missile System)

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spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management
 Motivation for CPM and PERT
What activities could delay the project delivery of
the following plan?

Printed:
33 x 48 inches
(83 x 121 cm)

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spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management
 Fifties and Sixties
• 1960’s Big Government contracts (Vietnam, nuclear power
plants, NASA Apollo): standardization and automation
– PERT/COST and WBS become compulsory in Government’s
sponsored projects
– Earned Value Analysis (EVA) is defined
– Configuration management
– Project organizations (PMI, IPMA) promote profession and
techniques
– (1961) IBM uses PM commercially

• 1970 Software development gets into the equation

– EVA developed for monitoring schedule and cost
– Waterfall model for software development
– The mythical man-month highlights many pitfalls of software
development

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spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management
 The Computer Revolution
• 1980’s
– Hardware and software proliferation make PM tools accessible
to smaller firms
– Hardware capacity grows exponentially (Moore’s Law) and so
does software
– Estimation models (FP and COCOMO) are introduced to
predict software complexity

• 1990’s
– Total quality
– Leaner, quicker, more responsive organizations

• Today
– Web application and new application distribution models
– Development with components and frameworks
– Agility, quick interaction, constant feedback
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spm - ©2014 adolfo villafiorita - introduction to software project management