Software Project Management Fallacies

An analysis of approximately 250 large software projects between 1995 and 2004 shows an interesting pattern. When comparing large projects that successfully achieved their cost and schedule estimates against those that ran late, were over budget, or were cancelled without completion, six common problems were observed: poor project planning, poor cost estimating, poor measurements, poor milestone tracking, poor change control, and poor quality control. By contrast, successful software projects tended to be better than average in all six of these areas. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of these six problem areas is that all are associated with project management rather than with technical personnel. Two working hypotheses emerged: 1) poor quality control is the largest contributor to cost and schedule overruns, and 2) poor project management is the most likely cause of inadequate quality control.

ibimapublishing.com

Communications of The Ais, 1999

As businesses become more dependent on information technology for their operations, IS managers are under increasing pressure to deliver quality applications software on time and within budget. Thus, in addition to their technical skills, they must master the necessary management skills to lead and control software development projects.

2018

Complexity of software project management has been increasing rapidly in recent years. Project management strategies are evolving in order to address the complexity problems. A persistent struggle is to find an adequate balance between conflicting factors such as providing freedom and flexibility to software engineers in order to solve complex problems in a creative way while managing risks associated with freedom and flexibility. Risk based strategies for software project management appear to be promising. Potential risks are identified, analyzed, assessed and monitored. Appropriate steps are taken for managing imminent risks in a timely manner. This study suggests that communication risk plays a special role in software projects, because it interacts with other risks in startling ways. Interacting risks need to be studied at several levels with special attention to communication risk, because it could be considered as a super-risk. Current trends in software project management include analysis of all categories of risks such as technical risks, budget risks, scheduling risks, legal risks, ethical risks, operational risks, security risks, communication risks, project planning risks, and personnel risks that require timely intervention without restricting the creative power of executable software knowledge development.

PM World Journal, 2023

Traditional project management methods are based on scientific principles that would be considered "normal science," but lacks any theoretical basis for this approach. [31, 32, 63] These principles make use of linear stepwise refinement of the project management processes based on a planning-asmanagement paradigm. Plans made in this paradigm and adjusted by linear feedback methods cannot cope with the multiple interacting and continuously changing technology and market forces.

This is one of a series of subject guides published by the University. We regret that due to pressure of work the authors are unable to enter into any correspondence relating to, or arising from, the guide. If you have any comments on this subject guide, favourable or unfavourable, please use the form at the back of this guide.

Proceedings of the the 6th joint meeting of the European software engineering conference and the ACM SIGSOFT symposium on The foundations of software engineering, 2007

One of the key factors influencing project success or failure is project management. Unfortunately, effective management of software projects is not in practice; what is actually being practiced varies significantly from what is advised in the available literature. In order to improve performance in the field of software project management, there is a dire need to formally educate prospective project managers in both the theoretical and practical aspects of managing software projects. This paper focuses on the formulation and execution of Practicum in Software Project Management, a graduate course that aids students in learning practical aspects of software project management. This course has been a part of the Masters in Software Project Management curriculum at National University of Computer and Emerging Sciences (NUCES), Lahore, Pakistan since 2001. We discuss the course in light of the major software project management activities recommended in literature. A comparison of the course with the Portfolio, Program and Project Management Maturity Model (P3M3) has been done to allow us to 1) assess the maturity of this course in terms of software engineering project management processes, and 2) assist us in identifying and highlighting the areas needing further improvement in terms of teaching, practice and industry needs. The comparison is based on the key process areas applicable to our course and shows that Practicum in Software Project Management is 90% capable at the Repeatable and 81% capable at the Defined levels of the P3M3.

Every project - whatever the application field - should be managed taking into account at least four dimensions: Time, Cost, Quality and Risk. To manage these dimensions, a key tool for a Project Manager is to increase project visibility, defined as the amount of information about the project associated with its probability of occurrence. This paper uses the "iceberg" metaphor to introduce the ICEBERG (Improvement after Control and Evaluation-BasEd Rules and Guidelines) approach that can help Project Managers through the use of standard (de jure and de facto) ICT methods and techniques. This approach focuses not only on the management, and measurement, of resources, process and product, but also of the project and the organization itself. A list of candidate measures related to these 5 entities is suggested for a comprehensive software measurement plan in order to reduce project risk.

2016

This paper describes an in depth analysis of successful and unsuccessful software Projects and the Role of Software Project Mangers in that success. One of the main reason in software project success is manager. Software houses are investing too much in this regard but the average ratio of software project failure is on the high side. Project managers experience, technical knowledge, and skills are not good enough for success in general. In this paper we have conducted a survey related to the approached used by different project managers, their methods and techniques, and the success ratio of their projects, and the steps they took during their projects. We will explore the core reasons of software project success and then will suggest key steps to be taken by the software project managers to deliver a successful software project.