What is Project Management?

Project management is a carefully planned and organized team effort, to

accomplish one particular task , objective or goal. For this we have to manage
resources (HR, Financial, Physical), pass information and maintain discipline at all
times.
Project management includes developing a project plan, which includes
defining and confirming the project goals and objectives, identifying tasks and how
goals will be achieved, quantifying the resources needed, and determining budgets
and timelines for completion. It also includes managing the implementation of the
project plan, along with operating regular 'controls' to ensure that there is accurate and
objective information on 'performance' relative to the plan, and the mechanisms to
implement recovery actions where necessary. Projects usually follow major phases or
stages (with various titles for these), including feasibility, definition, project planning,
implementation, evaluation and support/maintenance.

What is Software Project Management?

Software project management encompasses the knowledge, techniques, and

tools necessary to manage the development of software products.

Advantages of using project management….

• Better control of financial, physical, and human resources

• Improved customer relations
• Shorter development times
• Lower costs
• Higher quality and increased reliability
• Higher profit margins
• Improved productivity
• Better internal coordination
• Higher worker morale (less stress)

New parameters of project Cost

Customer Scop
Quality Expectati e
on

Time
 The project always be rotating inside the above factors, if the project is
constantly on check of time, scope, Quality and Scope the project would be successful
project.

Characteristics of a project:

 Objectives
 Life Span
 Single entity
 Team Work
 Life Cycle
 Uniqueness
 Change
 Successive Principle
 Customer specific
 Unity in diversity
 High level of sub contracting
 Risk and uncertainty
 Optimality
 Control Mechanisms

Features of a project:

 Carried out by a team of people. The activities of this team may be co-ordinate
by a project manager.
 Consist of people from different backgrounds and different parts of the
organization. In some cases project teams may consist of people from different
organizations.
 Project teams are likely to lie outside the normal organization hierarchies.
 The project team will be responsible for delivery of the project end product to
some sponsor within or outside the organization.

Characteristics of Project management:

 A single person, the project manager, heads the project organization and
operates independent of the normal chain of command. This organization
reflects the cross functional, goal oriented and temporary nature of the project.

 The project manager is the focal point for bringing together all efforts toward
a single project objective.

 Because each project requires a variety of skills and resources, the actual work
might be performed by people from different functional areas or by outside
contractors.
 The project manager is responsible for integrating people from different
functional disciplines working on the project.
  The project manager negotiates directly with functional managers for support.
The project manager is responsible for integrating and overseeing the start and
completion of activities

 The project focuses on delivering a particular product or service at a certain

time and cost and to the satisfaction of technical requirements. In contrast,
functional units must maintain an ongoing pool of resources to support
organizational goals. As a result, conflict may exist between the project and
functional managers over the time and talent to be allotted to a project.

 Decision making, accountability, outcomes, and rewards are shared among

members of the project team and supporting functional units.

 Though the project organization is temporary, the functional units from which
it is formed are permanent. When a project ends, the project organization is
disbanded and people return to their functional or are reassigned to new
projects.

 Project management sets into motion numerous other support functions such
as personnel evaluation, accounting, procurement, and information systems.

Scope of Project Management:

 Nature of the problem for which the project is designed

 Specification, limitation of the problem for which the project is designed
 Range of accuracy and quality needed in solving the problems by the project
 Benchmarks of acceptability of project results in its range.

In fact the scope or coverage of any project will depend in the hands of the
project manager who handles unique problems with available resources

Principles of Project Management

1. The Success Principle

The goal of project management is to produce a successful product.
Without achieving a successful product there is no merit in incurring the project
management overhead cost. Contrary to conventional wisdom, there have been many
projects that have been “On time and within budget” but the product has not been
successful, and similarly many that have not been “On time and within budget” yet
the product has been very successful.

2. The Commitment Principle

A mutually acceptable commitment between a project sponsor and a project team
must exist before a viable project exists.
A project sponsor is a knowledgeable person representing the eventual owner
of the product of the project and who is responsible for providing the necessary
resources (money, goods, services, and general direction, as appropriate.) A project
team is a knowledgeable and qualified group able and willing to undertake the work
of the project. A mutually acceptable commitment is one in which there is agreement
on the goals and objectives of the project in terms of the product’s scope, quality
grade, time to completion and final cost.

3. The Tetrad-Tradeoff Principle

The core variables of the project management process, namely: product scope,
quality grade, time-to-produce and cost-to-complete must all be mutually consistent.
The core variables of scope, quality, time and cost are interrelated somewhat
similar to a four-cornered frame with flexible joints. One corner can be anchored and
another moved, but not without affecting the other two.

4. The Primary Communication Channel (or Unity-of-Command) Principle

A single channel of communication must exist between the project sponsor and the
project team leader for all decisions affecting the product of the project.
This principle is necessary for the effective and efficient administration of the
project commitment. The owner of the eventual product, if represented by more than
one person, must nevertheless speak with one voice. Similarly, at any given time, the
project’s team must have a single point of responsibility, a project manager, for the
work of the project. Such person must have the skills, experience, dedication,
commitment, authority and tenacity to lead the project to success.

5. The Cultural Environment (or Suitability) Principle

An informed management must provide a supportive cultural environment to
enable the project team to produce its best work.
An informed management is one which understands the project management
process.
A supportive cultural environment is one in which the project is clearly backed by
management, and project team members are enabled to produce their best work
without unnecessary bureaucratic hindrance. This principle includes the need for
management to ensure that the leadership profile and management style are suited to
both the type of project and its phase in the project life-cycle.

6. The Process Principle

Effective and efficient policies and procedures must be in place for the conduct of the
project commitment.
Such policies and procedures must cover, at a minimum, clear roles and
responsibilities, delegation of authority, and processes for managing the scope of
work, including changes, maintenance of quality, and schedule and cost control.

7. The Life-Cycle Principle

Plan first, then do.
A successful project management process relies on two activities – planning
first, and then doing. These two sequential activities form the basis of every project
life-cycle, and can be expanded to suit the control requirements of every type of
project in every area of project management application. The project life-cycle,
characterized by a series of ‘milestones’ determines when the project starts, the
‘control gates’ through which it must pass, and when the project is finished.
Ten most important skills and competencies for Project Managers

• People skills
• Leadership
• Listening
• Integrity, ethical behavior, consistent
• Strong at building a trust
• Verbal communication
• Strong at building a team
• Conflict resolution and conflict management
• Critical thinking, problem solving
• Understands, balances priorities.

➜ A Project manager can control 4 things:

_Resources (can get more dollars, facilities, personnel)

_ Time (can increase schedule, delay milestones, etc.)
_ Product (can reduce functionality - e.g. scrub requirements)
_ Risk (can decide which risks are acceptable)

Quality
Quality is best achieved by careful adherence to standards, effective
development techniques, and periodic technical review throughout the process.
Management must cooperate and coordinate with different quality assurance
organizations, if they exist nature of software itself.

Productivity
Increased productivity lowers costs. In the current state of development
technology, the most important productivity factors are the ability of during
development. Inspections (reviews) that are the individual software engineers, the
tools they normally part of the manufacturing process have to work with, and the
work environment

Risk reduction
Managers should identify the most difficult parts of a particular development
and systematically come to grips with efficient solutions.

As described what the quality , productivity and risk reduction implies the Project
manager has further responsibility to make see the Project to its success.

o To plan thoroughly all aspects of the project, urgently requiring the active
involvement of all functional areas involved, in order to obtain and maintain a
realistic plan that satisfies their commitment for performance.
o To control the basic technical definition of the project, ensuring that
"technical“ versus "cost" trade-offs determine the specific areas where
optimization is necessary.
o To lead the people and organizations assigned to the project at any given point
in time. Strong positive leadership must be exercised in order to keep the
many disparate elements moving in the same direction in a co-operative
manner.
o To control the organization of manpower needed by the project.
o To monitor performance, costs and efficiency of all elements of the project
and the project as a whole, exercising judgment and leadership in determining
the causes of problems and facilitating solutions.
o To complete the project on schedule and within costs, these being the overall
standard by which performance of the project manager is evaluated.