Software Project Management For Dummies

by Luckey, Teresa; Phillips, Joseph

• ISBN13: 9780471749349
• ISBN10: 0471749346
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-10-09
• Publisher: For Dummies

Summary

The increase in project outsourcing has forced traditional programmers to take on the role of project managers and quickly learn how to manage software projects The author discusses all of the essentials in widely accepted project management methodology, from managing programmers to assessing and eliminating risk The book covers the iterative development model, using Microsoft Project 2003, as well as a variety of methodologies including eXtreme, open source, SQA testing, software life cycle management, and more The companion Web site contains tools, case studies and other resources to help even novices get up and running

Author Biography

Teresa Luckey was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, the eighth of twelve children. She earned the degree of Bachelor of Science from the University of Southern Indiana, with a major in Education. She earned her teaching endorsements in Computer Education and Mathematics from the University of Indianapolis and thoroughly enjoyed teaching (and learning from) junior high students for several years. After deciding to expand her horizons beyond the teaching profession, she pursued her interests in information systems and project management while working at hospitals in Indianapolis, and then moved on to a consulting firm, where she now works as a manager implementing healthcare systems. Teresa earned her Master of Business Administration degree from Indiana Wesleyan University, where she served as co-class president with her husband, David. She is just shy of completing her Master of Science in New Media at Indiana University School of Informatics. One of these days—soon—she hopes to finish that degree so that she can maintain her reputation as a life-long learner.
Teresa earned her Project Management Professional Certification through the Project Management Institute in 2001 and continues to maintain her certification. She enjoys contributing to the field of project management, particularly with regard to healthcare software.

Joseph Phillips, PMP, Project+, is the Director of Education for Project Seminars. He has managed and consulted on projects for various industries, including technical, pharmaceutical, manufacturing, and architectural, among others.
Phillips has served as a project management consultant for organizations creating project offices, maturity models, and best-practice standardization.
As a leader in adult education, Phillips has taught organizations how to successfully implement project management methodologies, information technology project management, risk management, and other courses.
Phillips has taught courses at Columbia College, University of Chicago, Indiana University, and others. He is a Certified Technical Trainer and has taught over 10,000 professionals. Phillips has contributed as an author or editor to more than 30 books on technology, careers, and project management.
Phillips is a member of the Project Management Institute and is active in local project management chapters. He has spoken on project management, project management certifications, and project methodologies at numerous trade shows, PMI chapter meetings, and employee conferences. When not writing, teaching, or consulting, Phillips can be found behind a camera or on the working end of a fly rod. You can contact Phillips through www.projectseminars.com.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(1)
About This Book	1	(1)
Who Should Read This Book?	2	(1)
How This Book Is Organized	3	(2)
Part I: Starting Your Software Project	3	(1)
Part II: Planning Your Software Project	3	(1)
Part III: Executing Your Software Project Plan	4	(1)
Part IV: Controlling Your Software Project	4	(1)
Part V: Closing Your Software Project	4	(1)
Part VI: The Part of Tens	5	(1)
Appendix	5	(1)
Icons Used in This Book	5	(1)
Where to Go from Here	6	(1)
Part I: Starting Your Software Project	7	(70)
Examining the Big Picture of Project Management	9	(16)
Defining Software Projects	10	(1)
Defining Software Project Management	10	(2)
Comparing Projects and Operations	12	(1)
Examining Project Constraints	13	(1)
Understanding Universal Constraints (Time, Cost, and Scope)	13	(4)
Managing time constraints	15	(1)
Managing cost constraints	16	(1)
Managing the scope	16	(1)
Controlling Scope Creep	17	(1)
Making Sense of Project Success (Or Failure)	18	(1)
Starting and Finishing Software Projects	19	(1)
Understanding What Makes Software Project Management So Special	20	(5)
Breaking Moore's Law	21	(1)
Dealing with Moore	21	(2)
Dealing with the first-time, first-use penalty	23	(2)
Initiating a Software Project	25	(30)
Identifying the Project Purpose	25	(6)
Talking to the stakeholders	26	(4)
Reaching project consensus	30	(1)
Dealing with Politics	31	(1)
Moving from Here to There	32	(7)
Initiating the project	34	(2)
Planning the project	36	(1)
Examining project planning approaches	37	(1)
Executing the project	38	(1)
Controlling the project	38	(1)
Closing the project	38	(1)
Living with Stakeholders	39	(3)
Loving your project team	39	(1)
Loving your project sponsor	40	(1)
Balancing stakeholder expectations	40	(2)
Completing a Project Feasibility Study	42	(2)
What feasibility studies do (and don't do)	43	(1)
Finding a feasibility consultant	43	(1)
Understanding How Executives Select Projects	44	(5)
Using the benefit comparison selection model	45	(1)
Using a scoring model	46	(1)
Facing a murder board	46	(1)
Finding a project's ROI	46	(3)
Writing the Product Description	49	(2)
Making Your Project Wish List	51	(3)
Finding the ideal tools	51	(1)
Building a dream team	52	(1)
Finding a preferred vendor	53	(1)
Recognizing Doomed Projects	54	(1)
Creating the Software Scope	55	(22)
Understanding Product Scope and Project Scope	56	(2)
Completing stakeholder analysis	56	(1)
Interviewing stakeholders now to avoid surprises later	57	(1)
Managing Stakeholder Objectives	58	(3)
Knowing the sources of common conflicts	58	(2)
Resolving common conflicts	60	(1)
Building the Software Scope	61	(6)
Dealing with regulations and options	62	(2)
Dealing with project constraints	64	(2)
Getting to the signature	66	(1)
Creating the Project Scope	67	(3)
Knowing what the project scope statement must include	68	(2)
What a project scope doesn't include	70	(1)
Creating a Work Breakdown Structure	70	(7)
Creating your very own WBS	71	(2)
Making updates to the WBS	73	(1)
Using a code of accounts	73	(4)
Part II: Planning Your Software Project	77	(132)
Planning for Communications	79	(28)
The Importance of Communicating Effectively	80	(3)
Ensuring accurate communication	80	(2)
How not to communicate	82	(1)
Care and Feeding of Nerds	83	(2)
Avoiding Communication Breakdowns	85	(3)
Facing the risks of communication meltdowns	85	(2)
Managing communications across the enterprise	87	(1)
Calculating the Communication Channels	88	(3)
Building an Effective Communication Management Plan	91	(5)
Knowing the six things every communication plan needs	91	(2)
The communication responsibility matrix: Determining who communicates to whom	93	(1)
Setting up ten-minute meetings	94	(2)
Defining Who Needs What Information	96	(4)
What executives want to hear	96	(1)
What functional managers need to hear	97	(1)
What your project team needs to hear	98	(1)
What you need to hear	99	(1)
Defining When Communication Is Needed	100	(4)
Creating a communication schedule	100	(2)
Hosting team and stakeholder meetings	102	(2)
Defining Communication Modalities	104	(3)
Modalities for formal communication	104	(1)
Modalities for informal communication	105	(1)
Automating communications	105	(2)
Planning for Software Project Risks	107	(24)
Identifying Pure and Business Risks	108	(3)
Dealing with pure risks in software projects	109	(1)
Assessing business risks	109	(1)
Accepting everyday technology risks with your software project	110	(1)
Determining Stakeholder Risk Tolerance	111	(1)
Mitigating Risks Early On	112	(1)
Managing Risks in Your Organization	113	(3)
Identifying risks	113	(1)
Ranking risks	114	(2)
Relying on Quantitative Analysis	116	(1)
Creating a Contingency Reserve	117	(1)
Using Software Models for Risk Management	118	(8)
Using the waterfall model	119	(2)
Using the spiral model	121	(2)
Using the V model	123	(1)
Using the scrum development model	124	(2)
Preparing a Risk Response Plan	126	(3)
Avoiding risks	127	(1)
Transferring risks	128	(1)
Mitigating risks	128	(1)
Accepting the risks	129	(1)
Examining Risk Responses and Impacts	129	(2)
Handling the ripple effect of risk response	130	(1)
Getting to say, ``I told you so!''	130	(1)
Planning for Software Quality	131	(16)
Defining Quality	131	(5)
Referring to the product scope	132	(1)
Referring to the project scope	133	(1)
Avoiding gold-plated software	134	(1)
Examining quality versus grade	135	(1)
Working with a Quality Policy	136	(6)
Working ISO programs	137	(1)
Getting a Total Quality Management workout	137	(3)
Slipping into the sixth Sigma	140	(2)
Using homegrown, in-house quality solutions	142	(1)
Balancing Time, Cost, and Quality	142	(5)
Examining optimal quality	143	(1)
Considering quality when making changes	144	(3)
Building the Project Team	147	(18)
Determining Your Project Needs	148	(4)
Revisiting the work breakdown structure	148	(1)
Creating a roles and responsibilities matrix	148	(4)
Finding the Talent	152	(1)
Asking the Right Questions (In the Right Way)	152	(4)
Asking questions that facilitate resource management	153	(1)
Asking questions that facilitate leadership potential	154	(1)
Finding a star	155	(1)
Working with organizational structures	155	(1)
Determining Who Is Really in Charge	156	(5)
Functioning in a functional organization	157	(1)
Mixing it up in a matrix	158	(1)
Prospering in the projectized structure	159	(2)
Cooling in a composite structure	161	(1)
Hosting Your First Project Team Meeting	161	(1)
Working with Organizational Policies	162	(3)
Creating Project Time Estimates	165	(26)
Organizing Information Before You Build a Timeline	166	(1)
Understanding the Importance of a Project Network Diagram	166	(2)
Preparing to Create Your PND	168	(4)
Determining What May Happen---and When	168	(2)
Factoring in external dependencies	170	(1)
Putting together all the pieces	170	(1)
Relying on network templates	171	(1)
Identifying subnets and fragnets	172	(1)
Using Historical Information to Complete Inexact Activity Time Estimates	172	(1)
Identifying Activity Duration Influencers	173	(3)
Documenting project assumptions	173	(1)
Documenting project constraints	173	(1)
Considering the project risks	174	(1)
Considering resource requirements and capabilities	175	(1)
Anticipating the first-time, first-use penalty	176	(1)
Making the Project Duration Estimate	176	(2)
Creating a rough order of magnitude estimate	177	(1)
Creating an analogous estimate	177	(1)
Creating a parametric estimate	178	(1)
Estimating Do's and Don'ts	178	(1)
Using PERT for the Most Accurate Estimates	179	(1)
Knowing What to Say if the Boss Wants an Estimate Now	180	(1)
Understanding the Way PND Paths Interact	181	(4)
Calculating the critical path	181	(1)
Calculating float	182	(2)
Applying float to the project	184	(1)
Creating the Project Schedule	185	(6)
Working with the project calendar	185	(1)
Working with a resource calendar	186	(1)
Using resource-leveling heuristics	187	(1)
Crashing and fast tracking your project	188	(3)
Building Your Project Budget	191	(18)
Creating Cost Estimates	191	(4)
Using the right resources (and using them wisely)	192	(1)
Creating a rough estimate	193	(1)
Creating a budget estimate	194	(1)
Creating a definitive estimate	194	(1)
Creating an Accurate Estimate	195	(2)
Considering Project Profitability	197	(1)
Planning for Contingencies	198	(1)
Controlling Project Costs	199	(3)
Understanding accounting blue dollars	199	(1)
Understanding work-for-hire accounting	199	(1)
Following simple strategies to manage project expenses	200	(2)
Having More Project than Cash	202	(5)
Completing root cause analysis	203	(2)
Reducing the project scope	205	(1)
Begging for cash	206	(1)
Recognizing Budgetary Problems Before You Get to the Root Cause Analysis Stage	207	(1)
Dealing with a Budget Problem that Your Bosses Know about (But Haven't Addressed)	208	(1)
Part III: Executing Your Software Project Plan	209	(54)
Working the Project Plan	211	(18)
Authorizing the Project Work	211	(2)
Creating a work authorization System	212	(1)
Using a project management information system	212	(1)
Ensuring Quality in Execution	213	(3)
Understanding the Interoperability of the Quality Management Plan	216	(1)
Follwing Quality Assurance	217	(1)
Following the Quality Policy	218	(1)
Managing Software Project Risks	219	(5)
Gathering the ingredients for a solid risk management plan	220	(1)
Examining typical risks	221	(1)
Getting a plan together	221	(1)
Gathering information to identify real risks	222	(2)
Monitoring and Controlling Risks	224	(1)
Managing Secondary and Residual Risks	225	(1)
Documenting Risk Management Effectiveness	226	(3)
Working with Project People	229	(16)
Examining the Phases of Team Development	229	(4)
Understanding the life cycle of a typical project team	230	(2)
Making a team out of a group of people	232	(1)
Training the project team	232	(1)
Doing Some Fun Team-Building Exercises	233	(1)
Managing Project Conflicts	234	(4)
Dealing with stakeholders	235	(1)
Dealing with project team members	236	(1)
Documenting project conflicts and resolutions	237	(1)
Using Your Super Magic Project Manager Powers	238	(5)
Forcing a decision	238	(1)
Relying on expert power	239	(1)
Using coercive power	240	(2)
Rewarding the project team	242	(1)
You and Your Positional Power	243	(2)
Procuring Goods and Services	245	(18)
Finding a Vendor	246	(4)
Using RFIs to solicit vendors	247	(1)
Hosting a bidders' conference	248	(1)
A day in the life of a bidders conference	248	(1)
Setting up criteria for RFPs	249	(1)
Selecting the Vendor	250	(3)
Considering market conditions	250	(1)
Using a screening system	251	(1)
Using the help of others	251	(1)
Implementing a weighting system	252	(1)
Negotiating for the Best Solution	253	(2)
Starting with price	253	(1)
Considering time, cost, and quality issues	254	(1)
Administering Contracts	255	(5)
Selecting the contract type	256	(1)
Writing the terms and conditions	256	(2)
Creating the statement of work	258	(1)
Solving problems and compromising	259	(1)
Closing the Vendor Contract	260	(3)
Auditing the goods and services	261	(1)
Signing off for the procured goods and services	261	(2)
Part IV: Controlling Your Software Project	263	(50)
Managing Changes to the Software Project	265	(16)
Introducing the Controlling Process Group	266	(1)
Controlling the Project Scope	266	(6)
Examining the project scope	267	(2)
Creating and following a change control system	269	(2)
Determining the value of the proposed change	271	(1)
Correcting mistakes	271	(1)
Controlling Project Costs	272	(3)
Managing project cost variances	273	(1)
Estimating the cost of change	274	(1)
Forecasting variance	274	(1)
Controlling the Project Schedule	275	(6)
Managing project time variances	275	(2)
Estimating impact of change on the project schedule	277	(1)
Forecasting schedule variances	278	(3)
Using Earned Value Management in Software Projects	281	(14)
Defining Earned Value Management	281	(3)
Understanding what earned value is (and isn't)	282	(1)
Discovering the other pieces of the EV formula	282	(1)
Determining a project's worth	283	(1)
Discovering the Earned Value Management Formulas	284	(2)
Playing with Values	286	(9)
Calculating your PV	286	(1)
Calculating earned value	287	(1)
Calculating your AC	287	(1)
Creating a new EAC	288	(1)
Determining the estimate to complete the project	289	(1)
Uh-oh! What's your variance?	289	(3)
Finding your cost and schedule performance indexes	292	(3)
Tracking Project Performance	295	(18)
Planning Project Metrics	296	(2)
Establishing project goals	296	(1)
Planning for project metrics	297	(1)
Determining realistic project milestones	298	(1)
Implementing a Tracking Plan	298	(4)
Using project baselines	299	(1)
Stressing accuracy in reporting	300	(2)
Using a Project Management Information System	302	(1)
Tracking Project Performance	302	(6)
Using earned value management	303	(1)
Creating Pareto charts	303	(3)
Creating control charts	306	(2)
Communicating Project Performance	308	(5)
Relying on the communication management plan	308	(1)
Automating project communications	309	(1)
Hosting status meetings	310	(1)
Sharing good and bad news	311	(2)
Part V: Closing Your Software Project	313	(34)
Finalizing the Project Management Processes	315	(18)
Closing the Software Project	315	(4)
Completing quality control	317	(1)
Completing scope verification	318	(1)
Closing Out Vendor Contracts	319	(3)
Auditing vendors' work and deliverables	320	(2)
Paying the bills	322	(1)
Completing the Project (Or at Least Transferring It to Someone Else)	322	(6)
Celebrating!	324	(1)
Releasing project team members from the project team	325	(3)
Case Study: Completing a Project Post Mortem	328	(5)
Documenting Your Software Project	333	(14)
Using Teamwork When Writing Documentation	334	(1)
Completing the Lessons Learned Documentation	335	(3)
Getting your historical information together at the beginning of a project	336	(1)
Creating a lessons learned spreadsheet at the beginning of the project	336	(2)
Organizing Your Lessons Learned Document	338	(4)
Organizing the summary of your document	338	(1)
Organizing the meat of the document	339	(1)
Organizing your references, contributors, and resources	339	(1)
Documenting the project's successes	340	(1)
Documenting the project's failures	340	(1)
Documenting the better approach	341	(1)
Offering advice for future project managers	341	(1)
Creating the User Manual and Help System	342	(5)
Using the project scope as a reference	343	(1)
Establishing operational transfer	343	(3)
Avoiding helpless help systems	346	(1)
Part VI: The Part of Tens	347	(22)
Ten Ways to Make Your Software Project Crash and Burn	349	(10)
Failing to Plan	349	(1)
Ignoring Risk Management	350	(1)
Letting Your Ego Lead the Project	351	(1)
Letting Your Iron Triangle Melt	352	(1)
Hiding from the Project Team	353	(1)
Hovering over the Project Team	353	(1)
Creating Unrealistic Schedules	354	(1)
Consistently Being Inconsistent	355	(1)
Doing Nothing	356	(1)
Being a Wimp	357	(2)
Ten Ways to Make Any Software Project Better	359	(10)
Asking the Right Questions	359	(1)
Being a Good Communicator	360	(1)
Showing Your Leadership Skills	361	(1)
Creating the Right Project Plan	361	(1)
Finding the Correct Sponsor	362	(1)
Recognizing Failure Before It Arrives	363	(1)
Planning, Planning, and a Little More Planning	364	(1)
Documenting Your Project Even if You Don't Want To	365	(1)
Hosting a Successful Project Meeting	365	(2)
Establishing Project Rules Before the Project Begins	367	(1)
Communicating Good and Bad News	367	(2)
Appendix: Formal Project Management Training and Certification	369	(6)
Getting Up Close and Personal with the Project Management Institute	369	(1)
Finding Out Whether the Project Management Professional Certification Is for You	370	(3)
Understanding what a PMP certification says to others	371	(1)
Understanding what the PMP certification gets you	371	(1)
Getting started	372	(1)
What Is the CAPM Certification?	373	(1)
Deciding between the PMP and the CAPM	374	(1)
Index	375