Unit – 3 Software Project Planning

 Project Planning, Scheduling, and

Monitoring

Manisha Software Project Management, Planning Slide 1

Introduction
 Effectively schedule, allocate, use, and replace
resources to achieve goals
 Master schedule is the basic tool and main output
of planning
 Project control is based on comparing the
progress with schedule
 Planning and scheduling are dynamic

Manisha Software Project Management, Planning Slide 2

Reluctance to Planning
 Takes too much time and cost
• Preventive action
• Long-term payoff is greater than short-term cost
 Too tedious (mental activity)
• “Thinker” and “doer”
 Ego (shoot from the hip)
• Not realistic

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Effective Schedule
 Understandable
 Sufficiently detailed
 Highlighting critical tasks
 Flexible
 Based on reliable estimates
 Conform to available resources
 Compatible with other related projects

Manisha Software Project Management, Planning Slide 4

Scheduling
 Total schedule is a function of total effort and
(flexible) resource allocation issues.
 Simple estimate of schedule:
• S = a * Eb
 “Square root” rule of thumb:
• Proposed schedule and number of resources should be around
the square root of total effort in person-month.
 Dependencies have to be considered too.

Manisha Software Project Management, Planning Slide 5

Scheduling
 Next step: milestones, per-phase resource allocation, and
detailed scheduling
• Rayleigh curve and peak time size (PTS)
• Peak usually happens at “build” phases after “design” and before “test”
• In detailed schedule, low level tasks should need a few days and one
person
 Slack time
• Due to fixed resource allocation
• Used for training, documentation, …
 Schedule and effort distributions are different
• Design and test usually have larger percentage of schedule compared to
effort
• Schedule: 40-40-20%, manpower ratio: 1,2,1

Manisha Software Project Management, Planning Slide 6

Developing the Schedule
 Defining objectives
• Attainable, definitive, quantifiable, with specific duration
 Breaking down the work
 Sequencing the activities
 Estimating the activity costs and durations
 Reconciling with time constraints
 Reconciling with resource constraints
 Reviewing

Manisha Software Project Management, Planning Slide 7

Work Breakdown Structure
 WBS is a hierarchical representation of a process
or product or both (hybrid).
 WBS can be shown in a tree graph or as an
indented list
 A decimal numbering to label the elements
• e.g. 4.1.2 is the 2nd element of the 1st element of the 4th
4th
1st
2nd

Manisha Software Project Management, Planning Slide 8

Tree Graph WBS for ATC
ATC System

Project SW Eng. Operations Product Assur.

Management

Req. Eng. Design Coding Test

QA V&V
Preliminary Detailed

Manisha Software Project Management, Planning Slide 9

Indented List WBS for ATC
 0.0 Air Traffic Control (ATC) System
 1.0 Project Management
 2.0 Software Engineering
• 2.1 Requirement Engineering
• 2.2 Design
• 2.3 Coding
• 2.4 Test
 3.0 Operations
 4.0 Product Assurance
• 4.1 Quality Assurance
• 4.2 Verification and Validation

Manisha Software Project Management, Planning Slide 10

Notes on WBS
 “Rolling wave” approach
• First top levels
• Gradual completion
 Keep partitioning into 72 elements
 WBS dictionary
 Make sure about numbering scheme
• Top-level zero or one, …
 Work package specification for lowest level
entries (info, completion, …)

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Sequencing Scheduled Activities
 Interrelationship among activities
 Milestones and Gantt charts are most common
• Gantt chart also shows the relationship between work load and
time
 Full-wall method gives a global view
 Precedence networks are used for larger projects
• Critical Path Method (CPM)
• Program Evaluation and Review Technique

Manisha Software Project Management, Planning Slide 12

Milestone Chart
 Simplest scheduling method
 Small projects or summary of larger ones
 Ease and minimal cost
 No interrelationships exhibited
 Only completion dates
 Not enough feedback

Manisha Software Project Management, Planning Slide 13

Gantt Chart
 Gantt or Bar chart used more frequently than
others
 Suitable for projects with less than 25 activities
 Graphical display of start/end times
 Shows overlapping activities easily
• CPM or PERT are translated to Gantt sometimes
 For estimation of resource and budget vs. time

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Gantt Example - 1

Manisha Software Project Management, Planning Slide 15

Gantt Example - 2

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Precedence Networks
 Network is a graphical representation of
sequential relationship between:
• Activities
• Events
 Critical Path Method (CPM)
• Activity-based
 Program Evaluation and Review Technique
(PERT)
• Event-based

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CPM/PERT
 AOA (activity-on-arc)
• Nodes are “events” and arcs are “activities” leading to them
 AON (activity-on-node)
• Nodes are “activities” and arcs show the sequence/order
 CPM
• Labels and focuses on activities
• Usually AOA
• e.g. construction projects
 PERT
• Labels and focuses on events
• Almost always AOA
• More complicated projects

Manisha Software Project Management, Planning Slide 18

CPM/PERT Graph

Manisha Software Project Management, Planning Slide 19

Critical Path

Manisha Software Project Management, Planning Slide 20

Activity Slack
 Maximum time that an activity can be delayed without
delaying the entire project
 Zero for those on critical path
 S = LS - ES or S = LF – EF
• LS is Latest and ES is Earliest Start time for activity (or source node)
• LF is Latest and EF is Earliest Finish time
 Earliest times calculated using “forward pass”
• ESj = maxi {(ESi + time for activity ai,j)} , i and j are nodes
• ES for last node is “project deadline”
 Latest times calculated using “backward pass”
• What’s the latest time for each node, keeping the deadline?

Manisha Software Project Management, Planning Slide 21

Probabilistic PERT
 No unique estimate for time/effort
• Optimistic, a
• Realistic, m
• Pessimistic, b
 mean=((2m+(a+b)/2)/3)
 sigma2=((b-a)/6)2
 Central Limit Theorem
• Sum of the activity times on the critical path is a random
variable with a normal distribution, its mean and variance the
sum of the means and variances of the activities on the critical
path

Manisha Software Project Management, Planning Slide 22

When CPM/PERT?
 Sequential
 Interrelated
 Ordered
 Without interruption
 Well-defined
• CPM
 Uncertain
• PERT (allows probability for time estimates)

Manisha Software Project Management, Planning Slide 23

Format for Project Plan - 1
 Title page
 Signature page
 Change history
 Preface
 Table of contents
 List of figures
 List of tables

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Format for Project Plan - 2
 1- Overview
• Summary
» Purpose, scope, objectives
» Assumptions and constraints
» Deliverables
» Schedule and budget summary
• Evolution of plan
 2- References
 3- Definitions

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Format for Project Plan - 3
 4- Project organization
• External interface
• Internal structure
• Roles and responsibilities
 5- Managerial process plans
• Estimation (cost, schedule)
• Work (activities, resource and budget allocation)
• Control (quality, metrics, …)
• Risk management

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Format for Project Plan - 4
 6- Technical process plans
• Process model
• Methods, tools
• Acceptance plan
 7- Supporting process plans
• Configuration management
• Verification/validation
• Quality assurance (reviews, audits, …)
• Subcontract
• Process improvement plan
 Annexes
 Index

Manisha Software Project Management, Planning Slide 27

Effective Project Control
 Detailed planning
 Deliverables and measurable milestones
 Communication
 Tracking (money, time, resources, tasks)
 Reviews
 Signing-on
 Reasons for poor control?

Manisha Software Project Management, Planning Slide 28

Project Tracking
 Activities tracking
• Use Microsoft Project or similar tools
• Percent completed
 Defect tracking
• Submission, injection, detection, closure dates
• Type, severity, people involved
• Related changes
 Issues tracking
• Small jobs, …
 Status reports

Manisha Software Project Management, Planning Slide 29

Milestone Analysis
 Actual vs. estimated effort and schedule
• Re-schedule
• Scheduling training
• Review tasks
 Quality monitoring
• Review test procedure
• More tests
 Risk-related monitoring

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