Software Project Management Flashcards
What are the four key areas of software project management?
The four key areas are:
People
Product
Process
Project
Q: What is Software Project Management?
A: Software Project Management is the process of planning organizing leading and controlling resources to achieve specific goals in developing software systems. It ensures that the software project is completed on time within budget and meets the required quality standards.
Q: What is the role of People Management in software project management?
A: People management involves staffing communication and coordination work environment performance management training competency development career development and fostering team/culture development. High levels of people maturity lead to effective software project management practices.
Q: Who are the stakeholders in a software project?
A: Stakeholders can be categorized into five groups: Senior Managers define business issues and have significant influence on the project Project Technical Managers plan motivate organize and control practitioners Practitioners deliver technical skills necessary to engineer the product Customers specify the software requirements End Users interact with the software once it is released for use.
Q: What are the key practices for Team Leaders according to Jerry Weinberg’s MOI model?
A: Team leaders should focus on: Motivation encouraging team members to do their best Organization structuring processes to turn concepts into a final product Innovation encouraging creativity within project constraints Problem-solving management style concentrating on solving the underlying problems.
Q: What six project factors should be considered when planning software engineering teams?
A: 1. The difficulty of the problem to be solved. 2. The size of the resultant program (lines of code or function points). 3. The duration the team will stay together. 4. The degree to which the problem can be modularized. 5. The required quality and reliability of the system. 6. The rigidity of the delivery date.
Q: How can a high-performance software team be achieved?
A: 1. Trust among team members. 2. A distribution of skills appropriate to the problem. 3. Removal of disruptive individuals to maintain unity and collaboration.
Q: What is the importance of Product Definition in software project management?
A: Defining product objectives and scope is crucial before planning a project. It helps in establishing realistic estimates of cost risk task breakdown and schedules. This step also involves considering alternative solutions and identifying technical and management constraints.
Q: What is Problem Decomposition in software project management?
A: Problem decomposition breaks down the project into two major areas: 1. The functionality and information that must be delivered. 2. The process that will be used to deliver the functionality. This helps in clarifying the scope and tasks involved.
Q: What should be considered when choosing a Process Model for software engineering?
A: The process model should be chosen based on: 1. The customers’ needs and the people who will do the work. 2. The characteristics of the product. 3. The project environment.
Q: What is Process Decomposition in project planning?
A: Process decomposition involves creating a detailed project plan once a process model is selected. It defines the tasks and framework activities that must be completed ensuring that each aspect of the project is accounted for.
Q: What is the flexibility of choosing a software process model?
A: The software team has the flexibility to choose a process model best suited for the project’s characteristics (e.g. small projects may use linear sequential models while projects with uncertain requirements may use incremental models).
Q: What are the common warning signs that a software project is at risk?
A: According to John Reel the signs include: 1. The software team doesn’t understand customer needs. 2. The product scope is poorly defined. 3. Poorly managed changes. 4. Technology changes during the project. 5. Business needs change or are poorly defined. 6. Unrealistic deadlines. 7. Users resist the project. 8. Loss of sponsorship. 9. Lack of appropriate skills in the team. 10. Avoidance of best practices.
Q: What are the W5HH principles by Barry Boehm?
A: The W5HH principles are a set of questions used to guide the project planning process: 1. Why is the system being developed? 2. What will be done? 3. When will it be done? 4. Who is responsible for a function? 5. Where are they located organizationally? 6. How will the job be done technically and managerially? 7. How much of each resource is needed?
Q: How does the W5HH principle help in software project planning?
A: It helps by ensuring all essential aspects of the project are addressed such as objectives tasks schedules roles technical approaches and resource needs regardless of the project’s size or complexity.
