SESSION 2024-2025

SPM LAB FILE

SUBMITTED TO: SUBMITTED BY:
NAME – FAZEELA FARHEEN
S.R. NO. – 180231016
BRANCH – M.C.A. 5th SEM.
Name: Fazeela Farheen
Roll No.: 180231016
M.C.A. - Final

SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

LAB WORK

Ques1:What do you mean by Project and Project Plan?

Ans: Project:- A project is a series of tasks that need to be completed in order to
reach a specific outcome. A project can also be defined as a set of inputs and outputs
required to achieve a particular goal. Projects can range from simple to complex and can
be managed by one person or a hundred.
Projects are often described and delegated by a manager or executive. For good project
productivity, some teams break the project up into individual tasks so they can manage
accountability and utilize team strengths.
Project Plan:- A project plan defines project goals and objectives, specifies tasks and
how goals will be achieved, identifies what resources will be needed and associated
budgets and timelines for completion. A project plan defines all work in a project and
identifies who will do it. A typical project plan consists of:

• A statement of work,
• A resource list,
• Work breakdown structure,
• A project schedule and,
• A risk plan.

The project plan identifies the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders. The project
manager gets clarity and agreement on what will be done, by whom, as well as which
decisions each stakeholder will make. The scope of work statement is one of the most
important documents in the project plan. The scope includes the business need and
business problem, the project objectives, deliverables, and key milestones.
Q 2: How to create a new project plan and set its start date?

Procedure: Once you have downloaded and installed ProjectLibre Tool, you should see
a window like this one below:-

After clicking on ‘Create Project’ you must enter some basic project details as seen in
the screen below:-
You will need to enter the following information about your project:
Project Name: Product
Manager: Fazeela
Start Date: September 11th, 2020.
After that, click on OK.
Now, your new project plan is created with the setting of the project start date.

Q 3: How to set working & non-working time?

Procedure: Open ProjectLibre tool, Go to file and then select Calendar.

Now Calendar tool open as shown below:-

For changing the calendar settings, select a specific date with a single click or multiple
days using Ctrl or Shift keys in combination with left click. Then for the specific days, you
may use the standard hours (8-12, 13-17) or define your own. You may also select week
days (use Ctrl or String key for multiple week days selection).

Calendar tool normally sets to “Use default”, but you can change the settings of
calendar tool according to you in the following ways:
• For making days non-working, select "Non-Working time"
• For making days working, select “Non-default working time”.
Q 4:How to enter tasks, task duration and milestone?
Task: A task is a single unit of work - an action to accomplish in a project, a single step
in a multi-step project. A task is accomplished by a set deadline, and must contribute
toward work-related objectives. Just as project management is the coordination of
individual tasks, a task can be broken down further into subtasks, which should also have
clear start and end dates for completion.

Task Duration: Task duration would be the actual time it takes to complete a
task. This time comes from the difference between the planned completion date and the
planned start date.

Milestone: A milestone is a specific point in time within a project lifecycle used to

measure the progress of a project toward its ultimate goal. In project management,
milestones are used as signal posts for: a project's start or end date, a need for external
review or input, a need for budget checks, submission of a major deliverable, and much
more. Milestones have a fixed date but no duration.

Q 5:How to organize tasks into phases?

We organize tasks into phases by using Indent and Outdent tools of ProjectLibre.
 • Indent:- Indent tool is basically used to create a sub-task of a particular task.
• Outdent:- Outdent tool is basically used to remove a sub-task of a particular task.

Procedure: Click the task row that you want to indent or outdent, and then, on the
Task tab, click on Indent or Outdent whatever you want to do.

Q 6:How to link adjacent and non-adjacent tasks?

Procedure: We link the adjacent and non-adjacent tasks by writing row number and
relationship in Predecessors column.

The four main types of activity dependencies include Finish-to-Start (FS), Start-to-Start
(SS), Start-to-Finish (SF), and Finish-to-Finish (FF). The following briefly describes these
relationship types:
• Finish-to-Start (FS): The successor activity cannot start unless the predecessor
activity finishes.
• Start-to-Start (SS): The successor activity cannot start unless the predecessor
activity starts.
• Start-to-Finish (SF): The successor activity cannot finish unless the predecessor
activity starts.
• Finish-to-Finish (FF): The successor activity cannot finish unless the
predecessor activity finishes.
 Q 7:How to assign resources to task?
To view tasks click on ‘Task’ at the top menu and ‘Gantt’ button on the left.

To view resources click on ‘Resources’ at the top menu and then the ‘Resources’
button on the left.

Assigning resources to tasks

Scenario:-

Scenario about a software project:

• Project Manager, Functional Manager and Operational Manager plays their own
role in managing the software project.
• Coordinator co-ordinates the project and supervisor supervise the whole project
with their experience of work plan.
 • Analyst has to visit the client in order to discuss requirements by plan.
• Tester is going to test if the project works completed.
• Database Administer has to check all the information which is saved in database.
• Developer are going to develop the project.
• Finally Developer are going to fix the project’s bugs.

Now, go at the tasks list, double-click on the first task and then click on the ‘Resources’
tab. Then, click on the blue button with the two people.

2
3

As you can see, you have the list of your project’s resources available. You can
Control+click to select multiple resources for a task. Control+click at ‘Project Manager’
and ‘Co-ordinator’ and then click on ‘Assign’.
Now two resources are allocated for the first task. We do same process for different tasks
to allocate different resources.

Q 8:How to set-up work and material resources?

Work (people) resources:

Work Resources are people and machines, and they need time (hours, days, weeks,
etc.) to perform the Tasks of a particular project.

▪ Project Manager
▪ Functional Manager
▪ Operational Manager
▪ Co-ordinator
▪ Superviser
▪ Analyst
▪ Tester
▪ Database Administrator
▪ Developer
Material resources:

Material Resources are consumables like electricity, fuel, concrete etc., which are used
during the project development and they are time independent.

▪ Electricity
▪ Paint
▪ Money
▪ Fuel
▪ Tools

When we click on the ‘Type’ row of any resource then two options will open (Work and
Material) as shown in the above figure, then we select one type of resource according
to our need of project.

Q 9: How to calculate Schedule Variance(SV) and Cost Variance(CV) using

ProjectLibre Tool?
 Procedure: - When all the resources are assigned to tasks then we want to calculate
Schedule Variance(SV) and Cost Variance(CV).
Schedule Variance (SV) and Cost Variance (CV) are two essential parameters in
Earned Value Management. They help you analyze the project’s progress, i.e., how you
are performing in terms of schedule and cost.

Schedule Variance (SV): -

Schedule Variance is a vital analytical tool, it lets you know if you are ahead of schedule
or behind schedule in dollars.

The Formula for Schedule Variance(SV):-

Schedule Variance = Earned Value – Planned Value
SV = EV – PV
From the above formula, we can conclude that:
• You are ahead of schedule if the Schedule Variance is positive.
• You are behind schedule if the Schedule Variance is negative.
• You are on schedule if the Schedule Variance is zero.

When the project is complete, the Schedule Variance becomes zero because all Planned
Value has been earned.
When we want to calculate SV, then firstly we can save baseline to the entire project using
ProjectLibre Tool.
Without baseline our project’s Gantt chart looks like below: -

When we save baseline to the entire project then our project’s Gantt chart looks like:
 After saving baseline, we insert columns of Actual Start, Actual Work, Actual Cost,
Baseline Cost, BCWP, BCWS, SV, CV, BAC as follows: -

After inserting all these columns, go to the number of task to select whole row of task
and then click on task and go to update as shown below: -

1
Update tasks open like below: -

Now Give how much percentage of task is completed. For example, suppose that for
this task we give 65% as follows: -

After that click on close, then our BCWP, BCWS and SV will be calculated
automatically according to the given completed percentage of a particular task.
 Follow the above steps for calculating the Schedule Variance(SV) of all the tasks and
we get the result as follows: -

Cost Variance (CV): -

Cost Variance deals with the cost baseline of the project. It provides you with
information on whether you are over or under budget, in dollar terms. Cost Variance
is a measure of the cost performance of a project.

The Formula for Cost Variance (CV): -

Cost Variance = Earned Value – Actual Cost
CV = EV – AC
We can conclude the following from the above formula:

• You are under budget if the Cost Variance is positive.

• You are over budget if the Cost Variance is negative.
• You are on budget if the Cost Variance is zero.
When finally Schedule Variance(SV) of all the tasks is calculated then simply clear
baseline from entire project.

And our Cost Variance(CV) will be calculated automatically as shown below: -

Q 10:How can we generate the report using ProjectLibre Tool?
Procedure: - There are four types of reports available in ProjectLibre: -
• Project Details
• Resource Information
• Task Information
• Who Does What

1. Project Details: - For Project Details select ‘View’ and then click on ‘Report’ as
shown below: -

Then Project Details open as shown in the figure below: -

Project Details
The project details report, displays the following information:
• Dates: Start, Finish, Baseline Start, Baseline Finish, Actual Start and Actual Finish.
• Duration: Scheduled, Remaining, Baseline, Actual and Percent Complete.
• Work: Scheduled, Remaining, Baseline and Actual.
• Costs: Scheduled, Remaining, Baseline, Actual and Variance.

2. Resource Information: - For Resource Information report click on Resource

Information as shown below:

Resource Information

Resource Information details displays as follows:

❖ Resource Information – Default:

The Resource Information – Default report displays in a simple list all your resources with
the following columns:
ID, Name, RBS, Type, E-mail Address, Material Label.
 Default

Earned Value

❖ Resource Information – Earned Value:

We can select the Resource Information – Earned Value by clicking on the earned value
option in the column as shown in the above figure by arrow.
The Resource Information – Earned Value report, displays your resources along with
various columns related to Earned Value (BCWS, BCWP, ACWP, CV, SV, EAC) as follows:

Earned Value
3. Task Information: - Now select Task information which is just below the option of
resource information:

❖ Task Information – Default:

The Task Information – Default report displays all the tasks, along with the Duration,
Start, Finish, Predecessors and Resource names.
Default

❖ Task Information – Constraint Dates:

The Task Information – Constraint Dates report is very useful to check all the constraint
dates at once as a checklist. You can use this report as a checklist regularly to check that
everything is going according to plan.

Constraint Dates
 ❖ Task Information – Cost:
The Task Information – Cost report can have a quick glance at every Task cost, Actual
cost, Remaining cost, Fixed cost and Baseline cost.

Cost

❖ Task Information – Earned Value:

Similar to Resource Information – Earned Value report, with this report, you can check
the Earned Value per task as shown below:

Earned Value

❖ Task Information – Tracking: Very useful report, displaying all the tasks, along
with the Actual Start, Actual Finish and Percent Complete. You can also filter the
 tasks to view Completed tasks, Cost over budget tasks, Critical tasks, In-progress
tasks, Incomplete tasks, Late/over budget tasks and Normal tasks as shown in the
below figure by the arrow:

Filter Options

Tracking

4. Who Does What – Tasks Assigned: -

The Who Does What – Tasks Assigned report, is a checklist for our resources (either work
or material) to check where they are allocated and how are they doing. You can also filter
your resources by Material Resources, Work Resources, In-progress Assignments,
Unstarted Assignments, Work Complete.
Filter Options