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An Introduction & Importance of Software Project Management

This document provides an introduction to software project management. It discusses why project management is important, with large amounts of money being spent on software projects and many projects failing or going over budget. It defines what constitutes a project and compares projects to jobs and exploration. The key characteristics of projects are described. While software projects are similar to other projects, factors like invisibility, complexity, conformity and flexibility make software more challenging to develop. The document also distinguishes between in-house and outsourced projects, and the differing roles of a contract manager versus a technical project manager.
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
37 views8 pages

An Introduction & Importance of Software Project Management

This document provides an introduction to software project management. It discusses why project management is important, with large amounts of money being spent on software projects and many projects failing or going over budget. It defines what constitutes a project and compares projects to jobs and exploration. The key characteristics of projects are described. While software projects are similar to other projects, factors like invisibility, complexity, conformity and flexibility make software more challenging to develop. The document also distinguishes between in-house and outsourced projects, and the differing roles of a contract manager versus a technical project manager.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Software Project Management

An Introduction &
Importance of Software Project
Management
Outline of talk
In this introduction the main questions to be
addressed will be:
– What is software project management? Is it really
different from ‘ordinary’ project management?
– How do you know when a project has been
successful? For example, do the expectations of
the customer/client match those of the
developers?

2
Why is project management important?

• Large amounts of money are spent on ICT e.g. UK government in 2003-4


spent £2.3 billions on contracts for ICT and only £1.4 billions on road
building
• Project often fail – Standish Group claim only a third of ICT projects are
successful. 82% were late and 43% exceeded their budget.
• Poor project management a major factor in these failures

3
What is a project?
Some dictionary definitions:
“A specific plan or design”
“A planned undertaking”
“A large undertaking e.g. a public works
scheme”
Longmans dictionary
Key points above are planning and size of task

4
Jobs versus projects

‘Jobs’ – repetition of very well-defined and well


understood tasks with very little uncertainty
‘Exploration’ – e.g. finding a cure for cancer: the
outcome is very uncertain
Projects – in the middle!
Characteristics of projects
A task is more ‘project-like’ if it is:
• Non-routine
• Planned
• Aiming at a specific target
• Carried out for a customer
• Carried out by a temporary work group
• Involving several specialisms
• Made up of several different phases
• Constrained by time and resources
• Large and/or complex

6
Are software projects really different from other
projects?
Not really …but

• Invisibility
• Complexity
• Conformity
• Flexibility
make software more problematic to build
than other engineered artefacts.

7
Contract management versus technical project
management
Projects can be:
• In-house: clients and developers are
employed by the same organization
• Out-sourced: clients and developers
employed by different organizations
• ‘Project manager’ could be:
– a ‘contract manager’ in the client organization
– a technical project manager in the
supplier/services organization

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