Page 54 - DCAP304_DCAP515_SOFTWARE_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Software Project Management

Notes With software project management, once the scope of the project has been defined, it is significant
to get the endorsement of stakeholders before proceeding further. If the project is small it might
only require a single signature from the main sponsor or client for scope verification however
with larger projects there may be a number of stakeholders involved.
With key stakeholders it is essential to get explicit scope verification which could be a formal
signature on paper or via an email that specially states project approval. Whichever the method,
a record of the scope verification should be retained. Of course, the stakeholders should already
have been exposed to draft copies of the proposal making the verification process a mere
procedure.

With other, less concerned, stakeholders it is acceptable to get implicit approval or scope
verification. In other words the project manager presents the project plan to them for inspection
with an ending date for voicing any questions or concerns. After that date if the project
management team has not heard from the stakeholder it is assumed that approval has been
granted.
With other interested parties the project manager require only deliver to them a copy of the
project plan letting them know the document is for informational purposes only. These parties
are not in a position to request changes and by this point the project has probably already been
permitted by the sponsor or main client.

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Caution The project management team should however be available to answer questions
or clarify the parameters of the project.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
1. The project managers then allocate different ................................... to accomplish the goals.
2. Specially, the project management team discusses the needs, risks, strategies, effort and
...................................
3. ................................... can be in the form of a written report, which can be extremely lengthy
and can encompass extensive amounts of information and data.

4. ................................... control is positioned between planning and definition.
5. Verification can take place during production or ..................................., and is usually an
internal process.

6. The terms activity and ................................... have been used interchangeably among project
managers and project management software packages.
7. Post workshop, the Project Manager will need to sit with a ................................... modeler to
sort out what else is required.

2.2 Project Objectives

Successful objectives in project management are specific. A specific objective increases the chances
of leading to a specific outcome. Consequently objectives shouldn’t be vague, such as “to improve
customer relations,” because they are not measurable. Objectives should show how effective a
project has been, for instance “to reduce customer complaints by 50%” would be a good objective.
The measure can be, in some cases, a simple yes or no answer, for example, “did we reduce the
number of customer complaints by 50%?”

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