Software Project Management
Assignment 3
Name: Muhammad Mubasher
Roll No: 3604-FBAS/BSCS/F17
Section: A
Submitted To: Mr. Islam Zada
Q1. How is software project Management important in software development?
Sol: It is an essential part of software organization to deliver quality product, keeping the cost
within client's budget constrain and deliver the project as per scheduled. ... Therefore, software
project management is essential to incorporate user requirements along with budget and time
constraints. Project management focuses on developing a product that will have a positive
effect on an organization. Without project management, a software development team may
begin working on a project without any clear vision or guidance, resulting in more frequent
errors and confusion.
Q2. Software project management relies on experience of project
manager. However, failure results in loss of money and time. Any
good suggestions to avoid it?
Sol: Projects most commonly fail because there is a lack of attention and efforts being applied
to seven project performance factors:
Focus on business value, not technical detail
This involves establishing a clear link between the project and the organizations key strategic
practices. The project plan needs to cover the planned delivery, the business change required
and the means of benefits realization.
Establish clear accountability for measured results
There must be clear view of the interdependencies between the projects, the benefits, and the
criteria against which success will be judged. It is necessary to establish a reasonably stable
requirement baseline before any other work goes forward. Requirements may still continue to
creep. In virtually all projects there will be some degree of “learning what the requirements
really are” while building the project product.
Have consistent processes for managing unambiguous checkpoints
Successful large projects typically have software measurement programs for capturing
productivity and quality historical data that can be sued to compare it against similar projects in
order to judge the validity of schedules, costs, quality, and other project related factors. The
lack of effective quality centered mechanisms can be a major contributor to both cost and
schedule overruns.
Have a consistent methodology for planning and executing projects
There should be a detailed plan developed before any release date of a project is announced.
Inadequate planning is one of the major reasons why projects spin out of control.
Include the customer at the beginning of the project and continually involve the
customer as things change so that the required adjustments can be made
together
It has been observed that successful projects occur when end users (customers) and the project
members work as teams in the same cubicle, although this is not always possible. Projects are
less likely to fail if there are informed customers giving meaningful input during every phase of
requirements elicitation, product description and implementation. The customer needs to be
asking, “how are the project result used over time and what do I get out of the results?
Manage and motivate people so that project efforts will experience a zone of
optimal performance throughout its life
This involves managing and retaining the most highly skilled and productive people. Knowledge
is money. A project team made up of higher paid people with the right specialized skills is
worth more per dollar than a group of lower cost people who need weeks or months of training
before they can start to be productive.
Provide the project team members the tools and techniques the need to
produce consistently successful projects
The project team must be skilled and experienced with clear defined roles and responsibilities.
If not, there must be access to expertise which can benefit those fulfilling the requisite roles.
