project management

Concept

Project planning

Work Breakdown Structure(WBS)

• depicts information about tasks and details in terms of subtasks
• helps to divide the total work into smaller, well-defined unites
• includes estimates in man hour/day/month
• tasks should be well-defined - clear when the task can be considered done

Milestones

• end of a stage indicating significant progress
• high level plan

Buffers

• time set aside to absorb unforeseen delays
• should be explicit - don’t inflate tasks estimates to create hidden buffers
• explicit buffers make it easier to detect incorrect effort estimates

Issue trackers

• tool to keep track of assignments and progress

Gantt charts

• tasks are horizontal bars
• tasks over time
• shows subtasks and milestones/deadlines

PERT charts

• Program Evaluation Review Technique(PERT)
• directed graph of tasks
• shows the sequence of tasks, which tasks can be done concurrently
• critical path - shortest completion time

Team structure

Egoless team

• each team member is equal in responsibility and accountability
• concensus is required for any decision
• no authority to resolve conflicts

Cheif programmer team

• one authoritative cheif programmer
• one person makes major decisions, other members are domain specialists
• success depends on cheif programmer, needs good managerial skills

Strict hierachy team

• strict organization
• each member does their assigned tasks and reports to one boss
• better for larger projects to reduce communication overhead