02 Lecture Flashcards
Define a Project
- limited in time,
- has a clear goal and
- a specific budget,
- requiring a concerted effort
A project consists of …
- start date and duration
- set of deliverables to a client
- schedule
- activities required to produce and deliver the deliverables
- Resources
4 Steps of a Dynamic Model
- Define Scope
- Assign Tasks
- Develop System
- Deliver System
Roles in a Project Team
- Project Manager
- Analyst
- System Architekt
- Tester
Assignments of Roles to Participants
- One-to-One
- Many-to-Few
- Many-to-“Too-Many”
Problems in Role Assignments
- Incompetence (Peter Principle)
- Useless role: (Dilbert’s Law) only exists to minimize damager control
- Increase of Bureaucracy (Parkinson’s Law)
Peter Principle
Employees who perform their roles in a hierarchy with competence are promoted to a higher
level until they reach a level where they are no longer competent. There they remain forever
Dilbert’s Law
Companies tend to systematically promote their least-competent employee to management
(generally middle management), in order to limit the amount of damage they are capable of
Parkinson’s Law
Work expands to fill the time available for its completion
Definition of Delegation
Binding a responsibility assigned to one person to another person
Definition of Task
A task describes the smallest amount of work monitored (tracked) by the project manager
(Typically 3-10 working days effort (1-2 weeks))
Definition of Activities
An activity is a major unit of work
Culminates in a project milestone
Activities can also have internal checkpoints
Definition of Unit of Work (Phases, Steps, Sprints)
A task or an activity that contains other tasks and lower-level activities
Definition of Project Function
An activity that spans the entire duration of a software
project.
Definition of Work Package
A task or activity is specified by a work package which contains:
• Description of work to be done
• Preconditions for starting, duration, required resources
• Work products to be produced, acceptance criteria for it
• Risks involved
A work package must have completion criteria
• Includes the acceptance criteria for the work products produced by the task or activity
Definition of Work Product
A work product is the visible outcome of a unit of work
Work products that have to be given to the customer are called deliverables
Definition of a Functional Organization
people are grouped into departments, each of which
addresses an activity (“function”)
Advantages of a Functional Organization
Members of a department have a good understanding of the functional area they support
Disadvantages of a Functional Organization
- It is difficult to make major investments in equipment and facilities
- High chance for overlap or duplication of work among departments
Definition of a Project-based Organization
In a project-based organization people are assigned to a project, each of which has a problem to be solved in a certain time within a given budget
Advantages of a Project-based Organization
+ Responsive to new requirements (the project is newly established and can be tailored
around the problem)
+ New people can be hired who are familiar with the problem or who have special capabilities
+ There is no idle time for the project members
Disadvantages of a Project-based Organization
- Teams cannot be assembled rapidly. Often it is difficult to manage the staffing/hiring process (flat staffing vs. gradual staffing)
- Because there are no predefined departments (as in a functional organization), roles and responsibilities need to be defined at the beginning of each project
What is Gradual Staffing
The organization is gradually ramped up by hiring people as needed
Gradual staffing is motivated by saving resources in the early part of the project
What is Flat Staffing
All the participants are assigned at the start of a project
Consulting companies usually allocate these participants from a pool of available people
When to use a Project-based Organization
- Project has high degree of uncertainty
- Open communication is needed among participants
- Requirements are expected to change during the project
- New technology that could effect the outcome may appear during the project
Definition of Matrix Organization
People from different departments of a functional organization are assigned to work on one or more projects (assigned with less then 100% of their time)
Advantages of a Matrix Organization
+ Teams for projects can be assembled rapidly from the departments
+ Expertise can be applied to different projects as needed
+ Consistent reporting and decision procedures can be used for projects of the same type
Disadvantages of a Matrix Organization
- Team members are often not familiar with each other
- Team members have different working styles
- Team members must get used to each other
A project organization has at least 3 relationships:
- Decision structure
- Reporting structure
- Communication structure
Advantages and disadvantages of Information flow in non-hierarchical project organizations
+ Cutting down on bureaucracy
+ Reduces development time
+ Decisions are expected to be made at each level
- Hard to manage
What is a Communication event:
Information exchange with defined objectives & scope
- Scheduled: Planned communication (Examples: review, meeting)
- Unscheduled: Event-driven communication (Examples: Request for change, clarification, bug report)
What is a Communication mechanism:
Tool or procedure that can be used to deal with a communication event
- Synchronous: Same time
- Asynchronous: Different time
Pros and cons of an Informal Meeting
+ Cheap and effective for resolving simple problems
- Information loss, misunderstandings are frequent
Pros and cons of an Formal Meeting
+ Effective for issue resolutions and consensus building
- High cost (people, resources)
Three roles in a team meeting
- Primary Facilitator
- Minute Taker
- Time Keeper
Define Deliverables
Work products to be delivered to the client
Which two styles of Navigation did Gladwin define in the year 1964
1) European Navigation (Traditional Planing)
2) Polynesian Navigation (Agile Planing)
