Lecture 1 - What Is Project

Software Project Management Lecture - 1

by: M. Shahid Farid

1. 2. 3. 4.

Course Introduction What is Project? Project vs. Program Project Classification

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A project is sequence of unique, complex, and connected activities having one common goal that must be completed by a specific time time, within budget budget, and according to specification.

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￭ ￭ ￭ ￭

Activity is piece of work A project comprises a number of activities Completed in some specified order or sequence The sequence of the activities is based on technical requirements

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The two types of activities are: ￭ Critical activities

￭ Defines the critical path

￭ Non Non-critical critical activities

￭ Can be delayed to some extent

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Activities of the project are unique in nature Every project is unique w.r.t its ￭ Conditions ￭ Requirements ￭ Resources ￭ etc

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Activities of the project are not ￭ Simple ￭ repetitive

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Every activity is complex in its nature nature, for example, designing an interactive user interface

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There is a logical or technical relationship between pairs of activities Activities are connected because the output of one activity is the input to another

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Each and every project has a single goal Large and complex projects are decomposed into several subprojects M d l i i Modularization off the h project j iis always l encouraged and desired

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Projects have a specified completion date which may be ￭ Self imposed or ￭ Client specified

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Project is over on the deadline, whether or not it has been completed p

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Projects have resource limits such as: ￭ Staff ￭ Money and ￭ Machines etc

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Customer expects, from the project, a certain level l l off ￭ Functionality and y ￭ Quality

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Functional Specification (FS) document may not reflect all the requirements, some are hidden or expected requirements and hence are not stated

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“One size fits all” does not work in SPM

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Each project has different complexity and business value and thus, cannot be treated equally. O methodology One th d l may fit one type t off projects and useless for those of other type.

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1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Business Value Complexity Length Cost Ri k Risk

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￭

On the basis of these characteristics, projects are classified into four categories: ￭ Type ￭ Type ￭ Type ￭ Type

A Projects B Projects C Projects D Projects

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Class

Business Value

Complexity

Length

Technology

Risk

Type A

High

High

> 18

Breakthrough

High

Type B

Medium

Medium

9 – 18

Current

Medium

Type C

Low

Low

3–9

Best of the breed

Low

Type D

Very low

Very low

<3

Practical

Very low

(months)

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Thanks!