Page 204 - DCAP304_DCAP515_SOFTWARE_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Software Project Management

Notes However, this measure by itself will probably not give sufficient insight to help identify all
personnel shortfall risks. Two further refinements of this measure are software development staff
profile and software development personnel qualification, sometimes also called staff experience.
Software development staff profile is composed of several components which managers can
measure and assess during the risk identification period:
 Staff level, which deals with actual availability for the project and considers whether a
team member is full or part time, will be transferring before the project is over, going on
family leave, etc. All this data is measurable and can be plotted against estimated staff
requirements.
 Staff availability, which deals with whether the team member is actually available, in
place and trained at the appropriate time of the development life cycle.

 Historic project and company retention rates, which can help project managers predict
whether their team will be intact throughout the project, or whether they should plan for
turnover and build sufficient slack in their estimates.
 Staff mix, which measures distribution by activity such as Quality Assurance (QA) and
Configuration Management (CM), and helps managers determine whether they have
enough people for each task.
Another measure is staff experience, or software personnel qualification, which deals with
individual team members’ proficiencies. Referring back to the list of underlying risk factors
developed by the authors in “Toward an Assessment of Software Development Risk,” team
expertise is listed in four different categories as potential risk factors.

Staff experience or qualification level can refer to several different things:
 educational level
 years of experience with the company, indicating a knowledge of company standards as
well as loyalty and dedication

 years of software development experience
 years of experience in the domain
 years of experience in the language
 years of experience on similar projects
 amount of specialty training
 years of relevant specialty training
All of this measurement data is available to managers who are trying to assess whether their
team has sufficient experience to complete the planned project. None of this experience necessarily
guarantees capability, but these types of measurements give managers a tool to determine
whether their proposed team members can perform the tasks required of them.

Task Explain another measure is staff experience, or software personnel qualification,
which deals with individual team members’ proficiencies.

10.7.2 Tracking Risks with Metrics

Once managers have built their teams and the project has begun, their metrics programs allow
them to track the progress of the project, product and process. The metrics programs also offer
insight into those areas that were identified as potential risk items in the early planning stage.

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