Page 128 - DCAP304_DCAP515_SOFTWARE_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Software Project Management

Notes Granularity of Estimates

Estimates are to be given for each phase in the project.
For maintenance projects,
 For work requests >= (x) days, estimates are to be given for each phase in the work
request.
 For work requests < (x) days, estimates may be given for the entire work request. However,
it is desirable to give the estimates for each phase even for these work requests.

In addition to this, effort estimates are to be given for the following activities:
 Project management
 Documentation effort

 Reviews
 Configuration Management
Understanding the Tradeoffs

Once a project estimate is generated, some combination of functionality, schedule, cost and
resources that can be accepted by management and customers should be produced. This requires
a good understanding of the relationships between these variables. Here are some instances of
tradeoffs:

 If the schedule is lengthened, the overall cost can be reduced and fewer resources can be
used. Sometimes, the schedule has to be lengthened only by a few weeks, to get a benefit.
Usually, management and customers may not want a delay, but it is worth to negotiate an
acceptable delay. A schedule can be shortened only in three ways:

 Reducing the functionality (reducing the effort by doing less)
 Increasing the team size (but only if there are tasks that can be done in parallel to
take advantage of this), or

 Keeping the team size constant but get them to work overtime
 If the functionality cannot be reduced, choosing one of the two remaining alternatives
will cost more.
 The difference between the nominal schedule and the shortest schedule for the project may
be a little over two months. But to achieve the shortest schedule, the peak team size may
have to be increased by almost 10 and this would increase the cost by over ` 50,00,000.
The decision should be taken considering

 If a 2-month decrease in the schedule is worth the cost
 If 10 additional team members can be found in time to help achieve it.
The decision is project specific; For some projects, a schedule decrease may be required at any
cost; for others, it won’t be.
All projects may not have such dramatic differences between the estimate options. The
size-effort-schedule-resource-cost relationship follows some basic rules.

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