Page 280 - DCAP304_DCAP515_SOFTWARE_PROJECT_MANAGEMENT

Software Project Management

Notes In addition to the bar chart, you will need to document the milestones on the project. Milestones
are the dates by which you need to deliver certain things, or may be the date on which a major
activity ends.

Task The responsibilities of each project member must also be documented in the project
plan. Explain

Communication

Even in the smallest project team comprised of just a project manager and one other person, the
project manager will still need to assign tasks and responsibilities to the other person. It can’t be
assumed that they will know what they should do without it being effectively communicated
from the project manager. If the project manager doesn’t assign them specific activities, then the
chances are they will go ahead and work on things which are not needed by the project. So,
either the project will end up delivering the wrong things, or the project will get delayed since
time will need to be spent later on doing the activities which should have been done earlier.
You can communicate the plans via email, or give a print out of the plan to your project team
member(s), or better still, call a meeting and run through the plan with the project team members.
Remember, if the plan changes, you will also need to communicate the changes to your team as
well.

Tracking and Reporting Progress

If we still consider our two person project team - the project manager and one other person - the
project manager will need to know the progress of the activities which the other person is
working on. This can be done in a variety of ways: a short daily email detailing the work
completed, the work still left to do, and a list of any issues/problems. In most cases this will be
sufficient.
Alternatively a short 15 minute face to face catch up can accomplish the same thing. Or a
combination of the two things might be best. In any event, the project manager still needs to be
fully aware of the progress that is being made so that progress can be tracked effectively.

Change Management

Even on our two person project, changes are likely to occur. Requests for change usually come
from stakeholders and it is your responsibility as project manager to assess the impact of
accepting these into the project. To do this, you need a good estimate of the impact the change
will have in terms of the extra effort and cost involved. This will often impact the schedule as
well, so by having a clear understanding of how the schedule and budget will be affected you
can make the decision as to whether or not you will accept the change into your project.

On a small project there shouldn’t be any need for any fancy change control board to decide if the
change is accepted. A quick discussion with the key stakeholder(s) should be sufficient for you
to come to a decision providing you have worked out the impact on cost and schedule.
One thing you should never do is simply accept the change. Even if you think the change is
small, you should never accept any change(s) without fully understanding what its impact will
be on cost and schedule. That is a recipe for what we call “scope creep” where the project grows
bigger and bigger as more and more changes are added into the project.

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