SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Unit –I

Part A

1.What is a project?

      The dictionary definitions put a clear emphasis on the project being a planned activity

      A project is a unique venture with a beginning and an end, conducted by people to meet       established goals within parameters of cost, schedule and quality.

2.What are the characteristics of a project?

·         Non-routine tasks are involved

·         Planning is required

·         Specfic objects are to be met or a specified product is to be correct

·         The project has a predetmined time span.

      3.What is the difference software projects and other types of project?

         İnvisibility ,complexity,confirmity,flexibility

      4.Why organize an activity or job as a project?

·         It allows you to better structure and organize the tasks that need to be performed

·         Well developed approaches and tools are available for managing projects

·         Easy-to-use software is available for scheduling and budgeting projects.

      5..Define Contract Management.

      Contract management or contract administration is the management of contracts made with customers, vendors, partners, or employees. Contract management    includes negotiating the terms and conditions in contracts and ensuring compliance   with the terms and conditions, as well as documenting and agreeing on any   changes that may arise during its implementation or execution. It can be summarized as   the process of systematically and efficiently managing contract creation, execution, and      analysis for the purpose of maximizing financial and operational performance and         minimizing risk.

      6.What are the three successive processes that bring a new system?

The feasibility study, Planning, Project Execution.

Define Feasibility Study.

It is based on an outline design of system requirements in terms of

      Input, Processes, Output, Fields, Programs, and Procedures. This can be quantified

      in terms of volumes of data, trends, frequency of updating, etc

7.What is meant by planning?

Planning as a process involves the determination of future course of action, that is, why an action, what action, how to take action, and when to take action. These why, what, how, and when are related with different aspects of planning process

8.What are the phases in software development life cycle?

Requirement analysis

Architecture design

Detailed design

Code and test

Integration

Qualification testing.

Installation.

Acceptance support

9.Define Requirement Analysis.

This investigates what the potential users and their managers and employers require as features and qualities of the new system.

10.What is meant by qualification testing?

The system, including the software components, has to be tested carefully to ensure that all the requirements have been fulfilled.

11.What is the difference between Information systems and embedded systems?

            Information systems:-Information System includes databases that include useful     "information". Information Systems is the discipline concerned with the development,     use, application and influence of information systems. An information system,     following a definition of Langefors, is a technologically implemented medium for    recording, storing, and disseminating linguistic     expressions, as well as for drawing      conclusions from such expressions.The technology used for implementing information           systems by no means has to be computer technology. A notebook in which one lists         certain items of interest is, according to that definition, an information system.          Likewise, there are computer applications that do not comply with this definition of      information systems. Embedded systems are an example.
            Embedded Systems:-Embedded systems include small computers that make things   work, such asthe computer in your radio, television or the computer that controls             your     vehicle engine.An embedded system is a computer systems that is part of a larger          system.

            Examples:Washing machine,Car engine control,Mobile phone

             12.Differentiate Objectives Vs products.

            Objectives are goals or aims which the management wishes the organization to achieve.

            These are the end points or pole-star towards which all business activities like           organizing,

            staffing, directing and controlling are directed.

            A project might be to create a product, the details of which have been specified by the        client.

            The client has the responsibility for justifying the product.

13..What is management?

      Management can be defined as all activities and tasks undertaken by one or more     Persons for the       purpose of planning and controlling the activities of others in order to           achieve objectives or complete an activity that could not be achieved by others         acting   independently.

14.What are the activities of management?

·         Planning –deciding what is to be done.

·         Organizing – making arrangements.

·         Staffing-selecting the right people for the job

·         Directing-giving instructions.

·         Monitoring – checking on progress

·         Controlling- taking action to remedy hold-ups

·         Innovating-coming up with new solutions.

·         Representing – liaising with clients, users , developers , suppliers

15.What are the problems with software project from manager’s point of view?

·         Poor estimates and plans.

·         Lack of quality standards and measures.

·         Lack of techniques to make progress visible.

·         Lack of guidance about organizational decisions.

·         Poor role definition.

·         Incorrect success criteria

16.What are the problems with software project from student’s point of view?

·         Inadequate specification of work.

·         Lack of knowledge of application area.

·         Lack of standards.

·         Narrow scope of technical expertise.

      17.What is meant by management control?

The process of setting objectives for a system and then monitoring the systems to see what is true performance is.

      18.What are the steps involved in step wise planning?

·         Identify project scope and objectives.

·         Identify project infrastructure.

·         Analyze project characteristics.

·         Identify project products and activities.

·         Estimate effort for each activity.

·         Identify activity risks.

·         Allocate resources.

·         Review / publicize plan

·         Execute plan/ lower levels of planning.

19.How to identify project infrastructure?

Establish relationship between project and strategic planning.

Identify installation standards and procedures.

Identify project team organization.

20.How to manage activity risks?

Identify and quantify activity-based risks.

Plan risk reduction and contingency measures where appropriate

Adjust plans and estimates to take account of risks.

21.Define project stake holders.

      Stakeholders are the people involved in or affected by the project actives

22.How to review and publicize plan?

      Review quality aspects of project plan

      Document plans and obtain agreement.

Part –B

1.      Explain the difference between software projects and other projects in detail.

2.      Explain contract management and technical project management.

3.      Explain activities covered by the software project management.

4.      What is management? Explain the problems with software projects.

5.      Explain stakeholders and business case.

6.      Explain management control in detail.

7.      Explain the step-wise project planning in detail.

8.      How to analyze the project character tics?

9.      Explain the steps involved in to identify activity risks.

10.  Explain the steps in project planning with case studies example.

                                                                                                       Unit –II

1.Define project Evaluation.

Project evaluation is a systematic method for collecting, analyzing, and using

information to answer questions about projects, policies and programs, particularly

about their effectiveness and efficiency

2.What is meant by programme?

D.C. Ferns defined a programme as “ a group of project that are managed in a coordinated

 way to gain benefits that would not be possible were the projects to be managed independently”

       3.What is the concept of strategic programmes?

       Several projects together can implement a single strategy. For example the

       merging of  two organizations could involve the creation of unified payroll and

       accounting   applications.

       4.Define business cycle programmes.

       The collection of projects that an organization undertakes within a particular planning   

     cycle is sometimes refer to portfolio. Decisions have to be made about which projects to   

      implement within that budget within the accounting period.

5.Define Infrastructure programmes.

Some organizations have very integrated information systems. The distinct activities can be integrated.

6.Define Research and development programmes

Truly innovative companies especially those that are trying to develop new product for the market, are well aware that projects will vary in terms of their risk of failure and the potential returns .

7.Write the difference between programme managers and project managers.

Programme manager	Project manager
Many simultaneous projects	One project at a time
Personal relationship with skilled resources	Impersonal relationship with resource type
Need to maximize utilization of resources	Need to minimize demand for resources
Projects tend to be similar	Projects tend to be dissimilar

8.Define programme mandate.

This should include

The new services or capabilities the programme should deliver.

How the organization will be improved by use of the new services or capability.

How the programme fits with corporate goals and any other initiatives

9.How the programme will brief?

A programme brief is now produced which would be the equivalent of a feasibility study for the programme

      10.Define vision statement.

            A preliminary vision statement which describes the new capacity that the

            organization seeks.

11.What is meant by blueprint?

The achievement of the improved capability described in the vision statement  can only come about when changes have been made to the structure and operations of the organizations. These are detailed in the blueprint. This should contain business models.

12.What are things to be considered in the blueprint?

·         Business models outlining the new process required.

·         Organization structure

·         The information systems

·         Data and information requirements

·         Costs, performance and service level requirements.

13.What are the benefits of management?

·         Mandatory compliance

·         Quality of service

·         Productivity

·         More motivated force

·         Internal management benefits

·         Risk reduction

·         Economy

·         Revenue enhancement

·         Strategic management.

14.Define technical assessment.

Technical assessment of a proposed system consists of evaluating the required functionality against the hardware and software available. Organizational policy aimed at the provision of a uniform and consistent hardware/software infrastructure is likely to place limitations on the nature of technical solutions that might consider.

15.What are the steps in cost-benefit analysis?

·         Identifying and estimating all of the costs and benefits of carrying out the project and operating the delivered application.

·         Expressing these costs and benefits in common units.

16.Define development costs.

Development costs include the salaries and other employment costs of the staff involved in the development project and all associated costs.

17.Define setup costs.

Setup costs include the costs of putting the system into place. These consists of mainly the costs of the new hardware

18.Define operational costs.

It consists of the costs of operating the system once it has been installed.

19.What is meant by cost flow forecasting?

As important as estimating the overall costs and benefits of a project is the forecasting of the cash flow that will take place and their timing. A cash flow forecast will indicate when expenditure and income will take place.

20.What are the cost-benefit evaluation techniques?

Net profit, Payback period, Return of investment, Net present value, Internal rate of return.

21.Give the formula of  Net Present Value

 

                Give the formula of payback period.

 

        22. Define Decision tree.

Decision tree provide tools for evaluating expected outcomes and choosing between alternate strategies.

                                                Part-B

1)      What are the steps involved in project evolution?

2)      Write in detail for project management with strategic programme.

3)      How to manage the allocation of resources within programmes with examples.

4)      Explain in detail strategic programme management.

5)      What re the steps involves in creating a programme?

6)      Explain the benefits of management.

7)      Explain cost-benefit evaluation techniques.

8)      Explain decision trees with examples.

9)      Explain risk evaluation.

10)  What is meant by cash flow forecasting? Explain with example.

                                    Unit-III

1.What are the steps involved in Activity Planning?

Ensure that the appropriate resources will be available precisely when required.

Avoid different activities competing for the same resources at the same time.

Produce a detailed schedules showing which staff carry out each activity.

Produce a timed cash flow forecast.

2.What are the objectives of activity planning?

·     Feasibility assessment

·     Resource allocation

·     Detailed costing

·     Motivation

·     Co-ordination

3.Define resource allocation.

What are the most effective ways of allocating resources to the project. When

Should the resources be available? The project plan allows us to investigate the

relationship between timescales and resource availability.

4.How will define the activities?

·     A project is composed of a number of interrelated activities.

·     A project may start when at least one of its activities is ready to start.

·     A project will be completed when all of the activities it encompasses have been completed.

·     If an activity must have a clearly defined start and a clearly defined end-point normally marked by the production of tangible deliverable.

5.What are the three different approaches to identifying the activities?

Activity-based approach

Product-based approach

Hybrid approach

6.Write short notes on WBS.

This involves identifying the main tasks required to complete a project and then breaking each of these down into set of lower-level tasks.

7.Mention the five levels of WBS.

Project, deliverables, components, work-packages, tasks

8.How will formulate the network model?

The first stage in creating a network model is to represent the activities and their interrelationships as a graph. Then constructing the precedence networks.

9.What are the rules  for constructing precedence networks?

·     A project network should have only one start node.

·     A project network should have only one end node.

·     A node has duration.

·     Links normally have no duration.

·     Precedents are the immediate preceding activities.

·     Times moves from left to right

·     A network may not contain loops.

·     A network should not contain dangles.

10.Define Hammock activities.

Hammock activities which, in themselves, have zero duration but are assumed to start at the same time as the first ‘hommmocked’ activity and to end at the same time as the last one.

11.What is meant by forward pass?

The forward pass is carried out to calculate the earliest dates on which each activity may be started and completed.

12.What is meant by backward pass?

The second stage in the analysis of a critical path network is to carry out a backward pass to calculate the latest date at which each activity may be started and finished without delaying the end date of the project. The calculating the latest dates, we assume that the latest finish date for the project is the same as the earliest finish date- that is we wish to complete the project as early as possible.

13.What are the rules of activity –on-arrow rules and conventions?

·     A project network may have only one start node

·     A project network may  have only one end node

·     A link has duration

·     Nodes have no duration

·     Times moves from left to right

·     Nodes are numbered sequentially

·     A network may not contain loops.

14.Define Risk.

“an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs has a positive or negative effect on a project objectives”.

15.What are the risks to business impact?

·         Affect of this product on company revenue?

·         Reasonableness of delivery deadline?

·         number of customers who will use this product

·         interoperability constraints

·         Sophistication of end users?

·         Costs associated with a defective product?

16.What are things to be considered in risk management?

Risk Management involves: Risk Identification, Risk Analysis, Risk

Planning and Risk Monitoring

17.Define Risk Identification.

Risk Identification concerns with discovering possible risks to the project.

18.Define risk analysis and risk monitoring.

n  Risk Analysis considers each identified risk and makes a judgment about the probability and seriousness of it

n  Risk Monitoring involves regularly assessing each identified risk to decide whether that risk is becoming more or less probable and whether the effect of the risk have changed

19.Define Risk Planning.

n  Risk Planning considers each identified risk and identifies strategies to manage the risk

20.What are the steps in risk planning?

Risk identification

Risk analysis and prioritization.

Risk planning

Risk monitoring.

21.Define risk assessment.

Using this formula

Risk exposure = (potential damage) * (probability of occurrence)

22.Define Hazard analysis.

A hazard analysis is a process used to assess risk. The results of a hazard

analysis are the identification of unacceptable risks and the selection of means of controlling or eliminating them. The term is used in several engineering specialties, including avionics, chemical process safety, safety engineering and food safety.

                                                Part-B

1.What are the objectives of activity planning?

2.Write the steps involved in project schedule.

3.Explain the approaches for identifying the activities.

4.Explain in detail formulating a network model.

5.What is the difference forward pass and backward pass explain with example.

6.Explain activity-on-arrow networks.

7.Explain the categories of risk.

8.What are the approaches in risk identification?

9.Explain the risk planning.

10.How to evaluate the pert techniques.