“Impart high quality knowledge & skills to students in the field of information technology, motivate research,

encourage industry consultancy projects & nurture human values and life skills”.

Project management, Software configuration

management & Project monitoring

Session by

Dr. Aisha Fernandes

Associate Professor, Information Technology
Department
Goa Engineering College.

aisha@gec.ac.in

PMP,SCM & Monitoring

 Organization of this Lecture:

• Project management plan

• Team management
• Software configuration management
• Project execution : The review process
• Project monitoring and control: project tracking & milestone analysis.
• Summary
• References

PMP,SCM & Monitoring

 Learning Outcome

To understand Project management plan, Software configuration

management , Project monitoring and control.

PMP,SCM & Monitoring

 Project Management Plan (PMP)
ØProject manager- ensure that final software is of high quality

ØPMP contains the outputs of all the planning activities undertaken by the
Project Manager.

ØPMP is the baseline document guiding the overall execution of the Project.

ØThe document gives the senior management an overall view of the project
goals and commitments and describes how the project will be managed to
meet them.

ØIt gives the project team a comprehensive view of the project and the roles
of individual team members.

PMP,SCM & Monitoring

 Project Management Plan Template ( Infosys)

Has 4 major sections:

1. Project Summary (Gives high level overview of the project. Includes

information on Start/End dates, project leader, project Objectives, Milestones and
deliverables, contacts at the customer end)
2. Project Planning (contains the outputs of executing the various project planning
procedures, development process, tailoring notes, requirement change management
process, traceability plans, Estimates and Schedules, People requirement)
3. Project Tracking (specifies the measurements to be taken and the system to be
used for recording data, project tracking activities to be undertaken, frequency of
progress reporting)
4. Project Team (Defines the Project team and its structure. Also the roles and
responsibilities of the people)

PMP,SCM & Monitoring

 Team Management

Software development is a team effort.

To achieve high quality and productivity; all team members

must contribute effectively and remain motivated.

Team management includes:

ØTeam structure
ØCommunication
ØTeam development

PMP,SCM & Monitoring

ØTeam structure
Usually a hierarchical team structure is used.
A team is headed by a Project Manager, who reports to a Business manager. A team
usually consists of developers, configuration controller and database administrator; all of
who report to the Project manager. A large project may also have a defect prevention
team. A Software Quality advisor is also associated with a project.
While assigning roles to the team, the project manager takes into consideration Skills,
background, experience, aspirations, etc,…
ØCommunication
Good intrateam communication is a must for the success of a project.
Team communication is divided into 2 categories: Communication relating to the project
and destressing communication.
The methods used by project managers to enhance team communication include Project
mailing list, Project meetings, Project Web site, Presentations by team members, access
to Project status reports.
Destressing is necessary to ensure continued motivation. Project managers organize
Project parties, birthday celebrations, fun days,etc….
ØTeam development
Project teams often include many junior people. It is the responsibility of the team and
project manager to enhance the personal development of these team members. As the
skills and abilities of these members improve, they become more productive and can
take more responsibility. Project managers use methods like mentoring of Juniors by
Seniors, appraisals, coaching, Trainings, Recognition of work done, etc.
PMP,SCM & Monitoring
 Software configuration management (SCM)

-- Role is to manage the evolving configuration of the software system.

-- Systematically controlling the changes

Why is SCM needed ?

During system development, there are at times constant changes that take place
during software development. Also sometimes there are changes in the User
requirements. All these changes eventually get reflected as changes in the files
containing source code , data or documentation. When multiple people create and
make changes, this could result in disasters if not controlled and handled properly.

Some Configuration Management (CM) functions :

Give the states of the Program
Give the latest version of the program
Handle concurrent update requests
Undo a Program change
Prevent unauthorized changes or requests

PMP,SCM & Monitoring

 SCM Mechanisms

ØConventions for naming and organization of files

(Using standard conventions and keeping files in specific directories)

ØVersion Control
(Helps preserve older versions of programs)

ØChange request Traceability

( Provides mapping from requirement change request to subsequent changes in
the program)
ØAccess control
( Ensure that only authorized people can modify certain files)

ØReconciliation Procedures
( Specify how two changes made independently to a program can be merged to
create a new version that reflects both)

PMP,SCM & Monitoring

 Software configuration management process

-- Defines the sequence of activities that must be performed in support of the CM

mechanisms.

Has 3 steps:
1.Planning and setting up configuration management
( Involves identifying the configuration items and specifying the procedures to be
used for controlling and implementing the changes)

2. Performing Configuration Control

( Two main configuration control activities include one that deals with managing
the state transitions of programs and one that deals with managing the change
requests that must be implemented)

3. Status Monitoring and Audits

(To minimize and identify errors early, projects must perform regular status
checking of the configuration items. Audits must also be carried out to ensure that
the CM process of the project is being followed.)
PMP,SCM & Monitoring
 Project Execution : The review process

Reviews are the most effective and most commonly used method for identifying defects.

Advantages of Reviews :
ØHelps preserve team motivation by giving people a sense of achievement, participation.
ØThrough reviews, team members can develop the skills.
ØSenior people can mentor their less experienced colleagues
ØHelp prevent defects

Review process : Group review ( Inspection) OR One person review

Formal Group review:

Ø Also called as Inspection. Software inspections were proposed by Fagan.

Ø A group review is an analysis of a software work product by a group of peers following a clearly
defined process.
ØThe goals of such reviews are to improve quality by finding defects and to improve productivity
by finding defects in a cost effective manner.
Ø The group review process includes 4 stages

PMP,SCM & Monitoring

 The Group Review process

Work product Schedule, review

for review team, invitation Preparation &
Planning
Overview

Self
preparation
logs

Rework & Group Review

Summary Follow up Defects log, meeting
report Recommendations

PMP,SCM & Monitoring

Planning phase- Select the group review team, Schedule the review. The project
manager selects a moderator and the other reviewers.

Overview and Preparation- To deliver the package( work product for review, its
specifications, checklists) for review to the reviewers and explain the work product
if necessary. The reviewers go through and make notes in a self preparation log.

Group review meeting- aim is to identify the final defect list.

For the meeting , one reviewer is designated as scribe and another as reader. The
reader goes over the work product line by line while the scribe records the issues
and defects identified. Moderator ensures meeting stays focused.

Rework and Followup – The author of work product performs the rework to
correct all defects. The author then reviews the corrections with the moderator.

One person review

Group review process is time consuming and has large overheads( expensive).
If the work product is small, and straightforward , it is not likely to have many
defects. For such situations, a one person review may be more appropriate. Here
the reviewer goes through the package individually and prepares for the meeting
with author. After meeting issues log and defects log are generated.
PMP,SCM & Monitoring
 Project monitoring and control

Two key aspects of Project monitoring:

ØProject managers must have visibility into the true status of the Project.
ØProject managers must interpret the data properly and find out if the project is
moving along the planned path, else proper corrective action to bring back on
track.

Project monitoring activities:

ØProject tracking
ØMilestone analysis
ØEvent level control
ØProcess Audits

PMP,SCM & Monitoring

 Project monitoring and control Cycle

Apply management
Control

Analyse and Predict Execute Project

Gather
measurements

PMP,SCM & Monitoring

 Project tracking

Project manager must track the execution of all the scheduled tasks as per Project plan. This
calls for activities tracking, defect tracking and issues tracking.

Activities tracking: Ensuring that the planned activities are done as per schedule. The
Project manager has to frequently check the status of the scheduled tasks and update in report.
For tracking purpose, an activity is specified as 0% done until it is completed. When the
activity is finished it is marked as 100% done.

Defect tracking : Every defect is logged and tracked to closure. Once information about a
defect is known, it remains open until it has been fixed. The defect is marked as closed, when
its removal has been verified. At the end of a project, ideally no open defects should remain.

Issues tracking: Many small jobs/ clarifications come up during a project. These are called
issues. Managing issues is an important task for any project manager because they can be
many and can potentially delay a project. A formal method used is to create an issues log. In
the issues log, issues are recorded as they arise along with related information. When issues
are closed , they are marked as closed.

PMP,SCM & Monitoring

 Milestone analysis
A status report provides the mechanism for regular monitoring of the project. Status
reports do not require metrics data or any analysis.

A milestone analysis should use the project plan and schedule, as its baseline and
compare the plan to the actual progress.

Two common approaches for metrics based tracking are cost-schedule milestone chart
and the earned value method.

Analyzing planned versus actual progress is considered the best practice for Project
management.
Small deviations in the effort or schedule can be considered normal. Significant
deviations may mean the project is heading towards failure.. To differentiate, acceptable
deviation limits are specified in the Project plan. Usually upto 20 % deviation allowed. If
the deviation at a milestone exceeds these limits, the project manager has to find the
reason for variation and apply corrective and preventive actions. The pattern of effort
deviation can also be useful for analysis.

Quality is measured by number of defects found. Reviews and testing are used.
Risks and related activities are also monitored at milestones. The risk and the mitigation
step must be evaluated.
PMP,SCM & Monitoring
 With Summaries, I never have to worry
about missing the key points………Charles H. Miksicek
Consulting Archaeobotanist

Ø PMP contains the outputs of all the planning activities undertaken by the Project
Manager.

Ø PMP is the baseline document guiding the overall execution of the Project.

Ø The document gives the senior management an overall view of the project goals
and commitments and describes how the project will be managed to meet them.

Ø SCM :Role is to manage the evolving configuration of the software system.

-- Systematically controlling the changes

Reviews are the most effective and most commonly used method for identifying
defects
• Project monitoring activities:
Ø Project tracking
Ø Milestone analysis
PMP,SCM & Monitoring
References :

1. Pankaj Jalote,“Software Project Management in

Practice” Pearson Publication.

PMP,SCM & Monitoring

Any Questions…??

PMP,SCM & Monitoring

PMP,SCM & Monitoring