Project Management
We needed to MSProject up a project and all I could come up with was Silence of the Terminals.
Here is my Gantt Chart(at 81 Tasks its too big to be fully expanded):
"A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product,
service, or result." Kathy Schwalbe
The typical Project management Lifecycle:
Init
Planning
Execution
Testing
Closing
lifecycle Reference
My project follows this standard line pretty much, except my init and planning are together.
The Triple Constraint:
Time
Cost
Scope
The Quadruple Constraint:
Time
Cost
Scope
Quality
Apart from this there is:
Risk
The Triple Constraint is made up of the most important management factors.
Examples:
If I want to finish sooner, I would have to increase the Cost (Resources) or decrease the Quality.
An increase in Cost, means I can increase the Quality of the final product.
An increase in Scope would reduce my Quality. Or increase Time and Cost.
Every factor depends on each other, this is a key point. You can never change something without an effect to the other elements. This is why project mangers have to monitor everything to keep the project on track and to stay away from a degrading situation.
Project management reference
book: Kathy Schwalbe Information Technology Project Management, Fourth Edition
check her website
(the book is quite good, except if you have to read it everyday again and again!)
Here is my Gantt Chart(at 81 Tasks its too big to be fully expanded):
"A project is a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product,
service, or result." Kathy Schwalbe
The typical Project management Lifecycle:
Init
Planning
Execution
Testing
Closing
lifecycle Reference
My project follows this standard line pretty much, except my init and planning are together.
The Triple Constraint:
Time
Cost
Scope
The Quadruple Constraint:
Time
Cost
Scope
Quality
Apart from this there is:
Risk
The Triple Constraint is made up of the most important management factors.
Examples:
If I want to finish sooner, I would have to increase the Cost (Resources) or decrease the Quality.
An increase in Cost, means I can increase the Quality of the final product.
An increase in Scope would reduce my Quality. Or increase Time and Cost.
Every factor depends on each other, this is a key point. You can never change something without an effect to the other elements. This is why project mangers have to monitor everything to keep the project on track and to stay away from a degrading situation.
Project management reference
book: Kathy Schwalbe Information Technology Project Management, Fourth Edition
check her website
(the book is quite good, except if you have to read it everyday again and again!)
posted by Unknown at 11:20 am
2 Comments:
Great stuff Edward.
RE typical Life cycle:
I'm not sure what's meant by 'execution', i mean, does this mean coding the application in your case? In which case, I'd think there'd need to be a step inbetween 'testing' and 'project closure', such as monitoring cycle where feedback from real users is used to improve the project.
In actual fact, I wonder whether your SOTT project is really less traditional and more like an Agile Software development model (incremental updates of small usable deliverables?)
Other small notes:
* I know you know the answer, but just for completeness, why will finishing sooner mean increasing the cost? I mean, do you work faster when there's more money ;-)
* Similarly, why does an increase in cost mean an increase in quality?
* and again for your last example.
I get the feeling you had to read that book over and over in the past? Just as a requirement of a course? or because it was helpful? Just interested :)
Yeah your right Sott is more like an Agile Software Development Model.
Yeah execution is the development of the code etc, execution is generally used in all Project management as a general term. I would really use Programming or development in Software Development.
I wanted to put Testing in to the normal cyclic. Where as Project management in general wouldn't have it, as its apart of Execution. And It's more of a General Project Management out look on a project.
Yeah in the autual project management file there is meant to be a phase of testing and re-dev but I think its hard to show the loop in the general outlook.
I did have:
loop
{
Development
Testing
}
or:
do
{
Development
}while(testing == ok)
but thats not a very good way to show project management.
I remember we used to have phases and declared the loop in MSProject somehow.
*Well I work faster with more money, but generally an increase in cost is an increase really in resources which maybe developers, so you can finish faster (But doubling cost won't half time, due to the increase in communication channels).
*Well an increase in cost CAN increase quality if time stays the same, so you can produce a better quality product because you have more time, quality could be though more testing and development. Or in the case of a factory it maybe to buy a better filerment which will get you more money in the long term because you have less returned lightbulbs. (taken from the book I mentioned)
*An increase in scope will mean that more needs to be done, if you want to remain on time less testing and re-development can be done. Or an increase in Cost (Resources) can make the project smoothly run forward on time.
I had to read the book because it was in the class to read it every lession, so it wasn't because it was good. But a part from that I think it's most likely the best Information Technology Project Mangement book out there.
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