Page 103 - DCAP305_PRINCIPLES_OF_SOFTWARE_ENGINEERING

Unit 5: Software Project Planning

• Do not estimate a general value. Take in consideration both pessimistic and optimistic Notes
views.
• Do not do a single estimation in the beginning of the project. Do as a habit, several
estimations at the end of every step in the pan.

• Estimate both revenue and costs.
• Look for references, is the calculated result reasonable?
5.1.4 Setting up a Time-Schedule

“We work not only to manufacture but to give value to time”.
When you have finished the milestone-chart and identified activities and possessions, and
stakeholders and management have approved it, you can make a time-schedule. Another name
for the time-schedule is Gantt chart or Bar chart. The schedule maps out, with help of a tool or
technique, when things are going to happen and identifies the key milestone dates. There are
many tasks that can be done parallel, this is a good way to speed up the work and get things
done faster. But some tasks cannot start until others have been completed. It is important that
the team members are clear about these linkages. If you fail to spot them it will cause many
problems later.

In the case of small projects it is found that the sequencing-scheduling approach suitable. This
is particularly so when we wish to allocate individuals to particular tasks at an early planning
stage. However, on larger projects they do not recommend it. To get a better picture of the
approach, we have drawn up an example of the bar chart in Figure 5.3.

Figure 5.3: A Project Plan as a Bar Chart

Week
Task : 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
A: Andy

B: Andy
C: Will
D: Will
E: Dave
F: Dave

One of the simplest and oldest techniques for tracking project development is the Gantt chart.
This is a matrix diagram and an activity bar chart indicating scheduled activity dates and
duration. Reported progress is recorded on the chart and a “today cursor” provides an immediate
visual indication of which activities are ahead or behind schedule. The Gantt chart is named
after Henri Gantt who created this planning tool. An example of a Gantt chart developed by
Microsoft is given in 5.4.

Microsoft Project is a well-established software planning tool in office environments today.
The tool can be very useful in planning projects, and the user can choose which detail to put
into the planning chart. It can be used for both making a simple milestone chart and a complex
time schedule having both resources and time estimation implemented in the schedule. The
user needs training of course, but the amount of training is proportional to the level of detail
the user wants to have. Before you use a software tool like MS Project it is essential to discuss
and decide how the tool will be used in your specific project. As we mentioned before, a small
project might not need a software tool at all.

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