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Software Projects - Coggle Diagram
Software Projects
Project Management Tools
Project management tools are software applications which help the project manager organise, plan and monitor the progress of a project, they typically facilitate:
- Planning each task required to complete the software project
- Delegating members of the software
- Monitoring the progress of the project
- Providing the analytical capability to identify future problems
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A gantt chart is a type of bar chart which tracks against time and allows the project manager to keep track of the tasks and milestones in the software project. Each task is represented by its own bar which displays the start and end dates of the task and the duration of the task. Tells the project manager:
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A Gantt chart provides clear visual representation of the overall duration of the project, as well as the knock-on effect of any missed deadlines.
Critical Path Analysis
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This longest sequence is called the critical path — any delay in these tasks will directly delay the project.
Resources
The resources available to a project can be: Human, Technical, Financial or Physical. Resources can also be classified in terms of the way they can or cannot be used for the project
Availability: Resources can be either recurring(do not reduce in quantity) or they can be depleting(diminish over time after use)
Location: If the resources are movable(Human resources) or if they are fixed in location(Computer systems)
Elasticity: Elastic resources are ones that can be increased or decreased in size(More or less developers etc), an unelastic resource is one that is fixed in size(Deadline)
Ownership: Does something belong to the project or is it shared resource being used across many projects
It is important resources are managed correctly to maximise their benefit, resource management is concerned with:
-Planning: an estimate to how many of each resource is needed for the project and when they will be required
-Deployment: Where the resources are physically allocated to its various activities. Also involves the project manager to monitor the project to ensure it is on target, and if not to allocate/manage more resources to help get it back on track
-Release of Resources: Once a stage is completed, the resources are released and the project manager documents how many were used and how many were planned and any other findings
Project Management
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Measurable - each objective should have a clear, quantifiable metric that can be used to assess success
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Realistic - The project should have objectives that the development team think are achievable with the resources they have been assigned
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Risks
In software development, risks are anything which could have a detrimental effect on the system or even cause it to fail. It is vital that the project manager identifies risks and manages them. Some risks are:
Time: The project will have a deadline which must be met, missing this deadline will have a negative effect on the business, decreasing their user satisfaction and also will cost more money than expected which may cost the user or be eaten by the business as they have to fund extra development time
Requirements shift: If the requirements shift, it can cause the project to go over budget or miss its deadline, so it is very important to get a clear and thorough understanding of what the user wants the system to be able to do
Staff turnover: whenever a member of staff has to leave the project for any reason, they may take important knowledge with them leaving the rest of the project missing that knowledge, so it is important for all to collaborate and share their knowledge/
Productivity: The project manager must split the end deadline up into smaller more often deadlines to ensure good progress is made up until the deadline
Version Management
The process by which a team of developers keep track of changes to their code files, it provides a mean that they can go back to an old version if an error occurs
Version management systems require all files to be kept in a file repository, where access is monitored and every change is tracked with:
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Constraints
Projects are restricted by constraints, this has to be taken into account when planning a project. This falls into 3 categories:
Scope: The characteristics of the final product may be restricted by the client due to the client requesting many things such as: x amount of users need to be able to use it at the same time, must be compatible with this etc. This is out of the project managers control and limits the planning that can be done
Time: The project will normally be time restricted by the client to a certain date, it is the project managers job to find out if this is possible to do or if more time is needed
Resources: There is generally a limit to the volume and availability of resources for a particular project as there will be multiple projects all requiring resources at the same time.