Software Project Management - Software Project Planning

1. Understanding the project needs.


2. 
   
   
   
   • the project manager must identify the people who are making decision that afftect the project and understand why they need the software built. By talking to them and writing down their needs, the project manager can set the project on its proper course.
   
   
   
   


3. Drive the scope of the project


4. 
   
   
   
   • the start of the porject is the time when the scope of the project is defined; only the project manager is equipped to make sure that it's defined properly.
   
   
   
   


5. Talk to the main stakeholder


6. 
   
   
   
   • more information on understanding user and stakeholder needs can be found in "managing software requirements: a user case approach" by Dean leffingwell and Don widrig (Addison Wesley, 2003)
   
   
   
   


7. Write the vision and scope document (outline)


8. 
   
   
   
   1. problem statement
   
   
   2. 
      
      
      
      1. prject background - provide a summory of the project that the project will solve. It should provide a brief history of the problem and an explanation of how the organization justified the decision to build software to address it.
      
      
      2. shareholder - a bulleted list of the stakeholders.
      
      
      3. users - a bulleted list of the users.
      
      
      4. risks - list any potential risks to the project. It should be generated by a project team's brainstorming session.
      
      
      5. assumptions - a list of assumptions that the stakeholders, users, or project team have make. Often, these assumptions are generated during a Wideband Delphi estimation session.
      
      
      
      
   
   
   3. Vision of the solution
   
   
   4. 
      
      
      
      1. vision statement - the goal of the vision statement is to describe what the project is expected to accomplish.
      
      
      2. List of features
      
      
      3. scope of phased release ( optional) - when software projects are released in phases, a plan divides the features into two or more phases.
      
      
      4. features that will not be developed
      
      
      
      
   
   
   
   


9. Review the vision and scope document - performing this review can be as simple as emailing the document to every stakeholder and very project team member.

More information on defining features and creating a vision and scope document can be found in "The Art of Project Management" by Scott Berkun (O'Reilly, 2005). A more detailed template for a vision and scope document is described in "Software Requirements" by Karl Wiegers (Microsoft Press, 1999).

Create the project plan

1. statement of work


2. resource list


3. estimate and project schedule


4. risk plan


5. 
   
   
   
   1. brainstorm potential risk
   
   
   2. estimate the impact of each risk
   
   
   3. make a mitigation plan