Page 10 - DCAP304_DCAP515_SOFTWARE_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Software Project Management

Notes 1.1.4 Within Budget

Projects also have resource limits, such as a limited amount of people, money, or machines that
are dedicated to the project. While these resources can be adjusted up or down by management,
they are considered fixed resources to the project manager.

Example: Suppose a company has only one Web designer at the moment. That is the
fixed resource that is available to project managers. Senior management can change the number
of resources, but that luxury is not available to the project manager. If the one Web designer is
fully scheduled, the project manager has a resource conflict that he or she cannot resolve.

1.1.5 According to Specification

The customer, or the recipient of the project’s deliverables, expects a certain level of functionality and
quality from the project. These expectations can be self-imposed, such as the specification of the
project completion date, or customer-specified, such as producing the sales report on a weekly basis.
Although the project manager treats the specification as fixed, the reality of the situation is that
any number of factors can cause the specification to change. For example, the customer may not
have defined the requirements completely, or the business situation may have changed (this
happens in long projects). It is unrealistic to expect the specification to remain fixed through the
life of the project. Systems specification can and will change, thereby presenting special challenges
to the project manager.

Task Connectedness implies that there is a logical or technical relationship between
pairs of activities. Explain

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
1. In project planning, it explains a series of actions or steps that are needed to for the growth
of ................................... product.
2. A project has never happened before, and it will never happen again under the ……………
conditions.
3. In project scheduling, resources are allocated so that project objectives are attained within
a sensible ...................................
4. The chain of the activities is based on technical requirements, not on management
...................................

1.2 Software Projects vs. Other Types

Software Projects

Software projects are disreputably hard to define. Unlike a house, you can’t see software or
touch it or feel it or visualize it and it’s hard for the layman to get a theoretical grip of its size or
cost or how long it might take to construct. Software projects have numerous properties that
make them exceptionally different to other kinds of engineering project. The properties of
Software Projects are as follows:

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