Tybscit Sem 5 SPM Unit 1 Part 1

Software Project Management
Crash Course Unit 1

By Pushpa Mahapatro
Question 1
Q1a. Briefly explain the various phases of project management life cycle.
Ans: Phases of project management life cycle:
Project Initiation:
• During the project initiation phase it is crucial for the champions of the project to
develop a thorough understanding of the important characteristics of the project.
• In his W5HH principle, Barry Boehm summarized the questions that need to be asked
and answered in order to have an understanding of these project characteristics.
Project Planning:
Various plans are made:
– Project plan: Assign project resources and time frames to the tasks.
– Resource plan: List the resources, manpower and equipment that required to
execute the project.
– Financial plan: plan for manpower, equipment and other costs.
– Quality plan: Plan of quality targets and control.
– Risk plan: Identification of the potential risks, their prioritization and a plan for
the actions that would be taken to contain the different risks.
Project Execution:
• Tasks are executed as per the project plan

• Monitoring and control processes are executed to ensure that the tasks are executed
as per plan
• Corrective actions are initiated whenever any deviations from the plan are noticed.
Project Closure:
• Involves completing the release of all the required deliverables to the customer along
with the necessary documentation.
• Subsequently, all the project resources are released and supply agreements with the
vendors are terminated and all the pending payments are completed.
Q1b. What is Project charter in software project management? What are the elements
of Project charters?
Ans: Project charter in software project management:

High-level document that authorizes the stating of the project and use of required
resources
Ms. Pushpa Mahapatro Page 1
• Outlines project objectives,deliverables and the required resources required
• Signed and issued by a member of top management of company who takes up role of
sponsor
• Not expected to change throughout the life cycle of project
• Project champions the project, monitors progress of project, provide feedback and help
in removing any obstacle
• Serves as a guiding document for all activities concerning the project
The project charter contains the following elements

• Overall objectives of the project and the broad items that are within the scope of the
project and those that are out of scope.
• The time schedule in terms of start date and the expected completion date of the project
• Important stakeholders and their responsibilities
• Overview of resources needed and overall budget
• Major risks to the project and strategies for over
Q 1c. What is Project portfolio management? Explain the key aspects of Project
portfolio management.
Ans: Project portfolio management:

The concerns of project portfolio management include:
• Evaluating proposals for projects
• Assessing the risk involved with projects
• Deciding how to share resources between projects
• Taking account of dependencies between projects
• Removing duplication between projects
• Checking for gaps
There are three elements to PPM:
1. Project portfolio definition
– Create a central record of all projects within an organization
– Must decide whether to have ALL projects in the repository or, say, only ICT projects
– Note difference between new product development (NPD) projects and renewal
projects e.g. for process improvement
2. Project portfolio management
Actual costing and performance of projects can be recorded and assessed.
3. Project portfolio optimization
Information gathered above can be used achieve better balance of projects e.g. some
that are risky but potentially very valuable balanced by less risky but less valuable projects.
Q1d. Define the following terms: i) Net Profit ii) Return on Investment iii) Payback
Period iv) Net present value v) Internal rate of return
Ans: Net profit:

‘Cash-flow’ is value of income less outgoing
Net profit is the value of all the cash-flows for the lifetime of the application.
Return on investment (ROI):

Average annual profit
Return on investment (ROI) =
Total investment

X 100
average annual profit = 50,000/5 = 10,000

ROI = 10,000/100,000 X 100 = 10%

Pay back period: This can be calculated as the last year in which the accumulated cash flowwas
negative + (absolute accumulated cash flow at the end of that year / cash-flow for the next year)
Net present value: The net present value of £100 in one year’s time is 91/-. If you invested
£91 now you would get £9.10 in interest which would give you £100.10 in 12 months. The
interest rate of 10%.
Internal rate of return:

• Internal rate of return (IRR) is the discount rate that would produce an NPV of 0 for
the project. It can be used to compare different investment opportunities. There is a
Microsoft Excel function which can be used to calculate
Q1e. What is project product? Explain the product breakdown structure with the help of
example.
Ans: Here we follow the PRINCE approach of firstly identifying the products to be
created. These products could be deliverables that will eventually be handed over to the
customer, or intermediate products such as specifications and design documents, that are
produced along the way.
Identify and describe project products - ‘what do we have to produce?’
The Product Breakdown Structure is a way of listing these products.

One set of products will relate to the products needed to produce one or more invitations to
tender (ITTs) to supply the hardware and software needed to operate the new payroll
application. In order to allow the most suitable configuration to be identified the number of
transactions and the size of the database needed will have to be identified – volume figures.
To set up an appropriate network attached to secure printers and servers, a layout of the
proposed office will need to be created. A user requirement will need to be produced
which describes the existing system, identifies additional requirements (such as the need to
be able to access database details in order to produce one-off queries and reports), and
some test data and expected results which further illuminate the details of the
requirements. This test data could form the basis of user acceptance tests.
Q1f. What do you mean by scope and objectives of a project? List the activities involved
in identifying project scope and objective.

Ans: Scope and Objectives: Scope of the project is defined as the functionality of the
project. The objectives of a project can be defined by completing the statement:
The project will be regarded as a success if……….
Rather like post-conditions for the project
Focus on what will be put in place, rather than how activities will be carried out
The focus here needs to be on what the situation will be when the project is completed.
In what ways will the world be different? The objectives should avoid describing activities:
e.g. ‘a new payroll application will be operational by 4th April’ not ‘design and code a new
payroll application’.
Activities involved in identifying project scope and objective:

• Answering the question ‘What do we have to do to have a success?’
• Need for a project authority
– Sets the project scope
– Allocates/approves costs
• Could be one person - or a group
– Project Board
– Project Management Board
– Steering committee
• Different people who are involved in a project (Stakeholders) will have different
interests in the project and are likely to see different outcomes as being important.
• It is important therefore that a set of clearly defined objectives are identified and
published for the project. Some individual or group needs to be pinpointed who acts
as the main client for the project.

Tybscit Sem 5 SPM Unit 1 Part 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Tybscit Sem 5 SPM Unit 1 Part 1

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Tybscit Sem 5 SPM Unit 1 Part 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Software Project Management

Crash Course Unit 1

Ans: Phases of project management life cycle:

• Tasks are executed as per the project plan

Ans: Project charter in software project management:

The project charter contains the following elements

Ans: Project portfolio management:

Ans: Net profit:

Return on investment (ROI):

Ms. Pushpa Mahapatro Page 2

average annual profit = 50,000/5 = 10,000

Ms. Pushpa Mahapatro Page 3

Internal rate of return:

Identify and describe project products - ‘what do we have to produce?’

The Product Breakdown Structure is a way of listing these products.

Ms. Pushpa Mahapatro Page 4

Activities involved in identifying project scope and objective:

Ms. Pushpa Mahapatro Page 5

You might also like