Workshop on Framework of Software Project Success

1

Akshaya Centre of Excellence (www.acoe.in)

FSPS

Framework of Software Project Success – A one day workshop

http://www.acoe.in/

Highlights of the workshop

Real life examples from successful global projects

Know-how from global sources such as SEI and PMI included

Goes beyond CMMi and PMBoK and tells you what they don’t

tell at the SEI and PMI

– Practices that you can effectively apply for software projects

Uses Audios and Videos apart from faculty presentation

Easy, simple and effective tips throughout the project life cycle

– Both left-brain oriented and right-brain oriented tips.

FSPS - Framework of Software Project Success 2

Objectives of the course…

Strategic goals

– Participant should gain an integrated, end-result oriented

perspective of project management

• CMMi, PMI and Software industry expert perspectives included

– Participant should be able to devise project strategies according

to the type of project

Knowledge goals

– Participant to gain an awareness of CMMi areas and PMBoK

– Participant to be exposed to various success practices beyond

CMMi and PMBoK

3 FSPS - Framework of Software Project Success

…Objectives of the course

Operational goals

– Enable the participant to plan projects in alignment with project

strategies.

– Enable the participant to apply best practices to improve results

in several areas of project

• Estimation accuracy, stability of requirements, Effectiveness of

project schedules, crispness of work allocation and tracking etc.

– Enable the participant to use simple practices to satisfy team

and get the best out of them

– Enable the participant to be customer-focused and ensure

customer satisfaction


Overview of the course

Why this course?

An integrated, end-result oriented view of project

management

Basic project management challenges

Basic solutions from ISO 9001 and SEI CMMi

frameworks

Limitations of CMMi / ISO 9001

Advanced practices

Formulating project strategies and aligning the advanced

practices with the chosen strategy

Action plan for participants and conclusion


Extended overview of the course

Why this course?

– Take your individual project management competency to level 2

– Ensure consistency in project delivery

– Speed up your career growth

An integrated, end-result oriented view of project

management

– Walk-through of the complete project management landscape

– End results – deliverables – importance of having complete

visualization of the desired end results of the project

• Release plan including list of deliverables

• Acceptance criteria

• Keeping track of delivery enables the project vision to be achieved

– Tasks to construct the deliverables and achieve the end results

• Task sequence – life cycle model selection and importance – Is agile

always the best model?


…Extended overview of the course

…end-result oriented view of project management

– Tasks to construct the deliverables…

• Task scheduling – effective ways of scheduling tasks; how to

estimate duration?

• Quality check and intermediate deliverables of tasks – ETVX model

of quality systems

• Templates, guidelines and checklists associated with tasks and their

intermediate deliverables

– Resources

• Attracting the right talent

• Work allocation and tracking

• Motivating team members

• Skills and competencies

– Inputs to the project

• Ensuring clarity and completeness in requirements

• Ensuring accuracy in estimates…



…An integrated, end-result oriented view of project

management

– Driving the project to successful delivery

• Progress monitoring and control

• Status reports

• Quality checks

• Remotivating

• Replanning when necessary according to the project strategy

chosen

– Beyond deliverables – benefits to stake holders

• Realization of customer’s vision

• Better profits to the organization

• Career growth and job satisfaction for the team

– Closure



Basic project management challenges

– Ensuring consistency in quality of deliverables

– Repeatability of successful delivery

– Absence of formal quality or project management models or

standards

– Version management

– Lack of proper documentation

– Lack of visibility into the project and hence no control over project

progress

– Unaccounted-for estimates

– Free-flowing change of requirements

– Many others…



Basic solutions from ISO 9001 and SEI CMMi

frameworks

– Standardized workflow in the project based on ETVX model

– Standards, guidelines and templates for documentation

– Configuration management to check floating versions

– Standard-based planning to bring in uniformity

– Metrics and measurements to bring in consistency in

performance levels

– Well defined project tracking mechanisms to bring in visibility into

the project and gain control.

– Reviews, inspection and testing to ensure minimum quality levels

– Various types of plans such as resource plan, risk management

plan, technology plan, release plan to bring in uniformity in

project execution

– Change control procedures to contain requirement changes



Challenges not met by the basic solutions (Limitations of

CMMi / ISO 9001)

– Unless the right methods are used, effort estimation would still be

inaccurate and that throws the entire project into disarray.

– Managing the estimation process with the sales people

– Difficult to enforce change control procedure with the customers.

Smarter ways of handling requirement changes needed.

– CMMi guidelines don’t cover effective ways of developing project

schedules. As a result, projects are driven in ad hoc manner and

schedules are updated in retrospect

– Many project planning and control procedures are practiced for

the purpose of audit and not followed in spirit. As a result

benefits for following quality practices not realized; ex:- life cycle

model selection.

– Many other challenges…



Advanced practices

– Needed over and above CMMi

– Methodologies to increase confidence level of estimates

• 3 point estimate

• Wide-band delhpi techniques

• Use case points

– Smarter ways to enforce change control procedure

• Why change control procedures breakdown?

• What do you need to do in smarter ways to enforce change

management?

– Proactive ways of managing requirement changes

• Why do requirements change?

• Is change healthy or should it be controlled? Is there a mid-ground?

• Taking proactive steps to reduce the possibility of requirement

changes.



…Advanced practices

– Simple and effective ways of keeping the team motivated

• Common-sense ways with unbelievable results

– Step-by-step methodology to develop effective project schedules

• Effective schedules need not always be lax ones. A tight schedule

can also be a very effective one.

– Leveraging the life cycle model for many benefits

• Pitfalls of not selecting the right life cycle model

• Is agile always good?

– Effective dashboards for tracking multiple types of projects

• Tracking group of small projects with varied life cycles

– Simple risk mitigation strategies

– Many simple practices throughout the project management

spectrum



Formulating project strategies and aligning the advanced

practices with the chosen strategy

– Analyzing project dimensions – scope, duration, cost, resources

and quality

– Classifying the dimensions into driver, constraint and degree of

freedom

– Leveraging the degree of freedom to formulate strategies

– Aligning planning to chosen strategy

Putting all this into practice

– There is only one challenge that you have to surmount. If you

can overcome that challenge, you are sure be an effective

project manager. What is that single challenge?

Conclusion


Further learning

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Please visit the web page of this course

For any enquiries, please email [email protected]

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Thank you

Workshop on Framework of Software Project Success

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Transcript of Workshop on Framework of Software Project Success