PROJECT PLANNING FIXING Flashcards
How can a project go wrong? (5 examples)
1) Tasks take longer than estimated - Poor estimation
2) Poor communication
3) Feature Creep - want to add extra features,
things might take longer than expected, bugs may be found.
4) Different costs and time - As the project moves on, it becomes easier to calculate the cost and time of a project, which are often different than the ones that were calculated at the beginning.
5) A team member may leave
What is Risk Mitigation?
Risk Mitigation is when you anticipate the risks that might affect the scheduling of the project or the quality of the software being developed AND YOU TAKE ACTION to reduce the effect of these risks or avoid them all together if possible.
Having a plan B is also Risk Mitigation
Name the three kinds of risk
1) Project risks,
2) Product risks
3) Business risks
What are project risks?
Projects risks:
are risks that affect the SCHEDULE of the project or the RESOURCES of the project.
eg: a loss of an experienced designer.
what are product risks?
Product risks:
are something that affects the QUALITY or PERFORMANCE of the software being developed.
eg: failure of a purchased component to perform as expected.
what are business risks?
Business risks:
are something that affects the organisation-company that is developing the software
eg: a competitor introducting a new product
What is Risk Identification?
In risk identification stage you list and identify all the risks you can think.
You can use checklists to separate risks into different categories
eg:
o Technology risks
Derive from software or hardware technologies that are used to develop the system
o People risks
Associated with people in the development team – sickness, unexpected loss of a team member because they leave project, change jobs, long term sick, etc.
o Organizational risks
Change of management or something similar
o Requirements risks
Derive from changes to the customer requirements and the process of managing requirements change.
o Estimation risks
Derive from the management estimates of the system characteristics and the resources required to build the system.
What is Analysis of Risk?
Analysis of Risk is the analysation of a risk. Each risk has two measures:
seriousness and likelihood.
o Seriousness Catastrophic Serious Tolerable Insignificant
o Likelihood Inevitable Likely Moderate Unlikely
What is Risk Planning?
Consider each of the risks that have been identified and plan ways to manage them.
What is Risk Monitoring?
Asses each of the risks that have been identified to see if its becoming more or less SERIOUS or LIKELY.
- Again, this relies on judgement and experience.
- Every risk on the list needs one of:
o Avoidance Strategies
Following these means that the PROBABILITY that the risk will arise will be reduced – replace defective components with reliable new ones
o Minimization Strategies
Following these means that the IMPACT of the risks will be reduced – reorganize your team so there is an overlap of work and people understand each other’s jobs.
o Contingency Plans
Following these means that you are PREPARED for the WORST and have a strategy in place to deal with it e.g. have a back up copy of your software located off-site so in case of disaster you can work from.
What might cause an increase in risk?
1) Late delivery of hardware
2) Technology problems
3) Poor staff morale
4) Failure to meet the agreed schedule.
What is a critical path?
Critical Path is the LONGEST SEQUENCE OF ACTIVITIES that are needed to be completed for a project to be completed on time.
An activity on a critical path cannot start until its predecessor activity is completed.
If an activity is delayed for a day, the entire project will be delayed for a day, unless any following activity finishes a day earlier.
ALWAYS HAVE THE CURRENT CRITICAL PATH ON THE RISK LIST.
