Page 63 - DCAP304_DCAP515_SOFTWARE_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Unit 2: Step Wise Project Planning

12. The ………………… purpose is very significant because late completion of a project is not Notes
very likely to please the project purchaser or the sponsor.
13. Converting reference documents to ………….. is also useful.

2.4 Project Characteristics

1. Temporary: Temporary means that every project has a exact beginning and a definite end.
The end is reached when the project’s objectives have been attained, or it becomes clear
that the project objectives will not or cannot be met, or the need for the project no longer
exists and the project is terminated. Temporary does not essentially mean short in duration;
many projects last for several years. In every case, however, the duration of a project is
finite; projects are not ongoing efforts.

2. Unique, Product Service or Result: Projects engage creating something that has not been
done in exactly the same way before and which is, therefore, unique and distinct. Projects
create:
 A product or artifact that is produced, is experimental and can be either an end item
in itself or a component item.
 A capability to perform a service, such as business functions supporting production
or distribution.

 A result, such as new knowledge. For instance, a research and development project
develops knowledge that can be used to determine whether or not a trend is present
or a new process will benefit society.
The presence of recurring elements does not change the fundamental uniqueness of the
project work. For example:
 A project to develop a new commercial airliner may require numerous prototypes.

 A project to bring a new drug to market may require thousands of doses of the drug
to support clinical trials.
 A real estate expansion project may include hundreds of individual units.

 A growth project (e.g., water and sanitation) may be implemented in five geographic
areas.

3. Aims/Tasks/Purpose: The projects are designed to achieve exact targets defined in terms of
aims, tasks or a purpose. The nature and size of the project depends upon complexity of the
task, realization of the aims and scope of the purpose any organization wants to achieve.
In short project has to be aimed for achieving certain tasks in a given time frame.

4. Limited Time Scale: The projects are always planned considering time constraints. Extension
to the project completion dead lines are always discouraged as time overrun, costs extra
and in some cases opportunity cost for not completing a project is too high.

2.5 Effort Estimation

Effort estimation contains in predict how many hours of work and how many workers are
needed to develop a project. The effort invested in a software project is most likely one of the
most important and most analyzed variables in recent years in the process of project management.
The determination of the value of this variable when initiating software projects allows us to

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 57