Project Management in a software development context is a crucial skill for students of Information Systems. Software costs run to billions of dollars annually, and research estimates that around 60% of Information Systems projects do not meet targets for delivery on cost, functionality or timeliness.
This module introduces some of the current techniques to manage software projects through the lifecycle of the project.
The module integrates with communications and teamwork from the ‘soft skills’ side, and develops some concepts from organisational behaviour and how it impacts team selection and performance. The module integrates with software quality assurance from a quality assurance perspective and with software engineering from a development perspective.
Organisational Issues;
Team assembly, team structures (control centralised<->democratic decentralised), communication mechanism
Work Breakdown Structure;
Project tasks/activities
Estimation;
Size, effort, schedule and cost.
Network Models;
Activity on Arrow Technique and its application to Project Planning;
Activity durations, earliest start and finishing times, latest start and finishing times, project duration, critical path method (CPM) and its application to Project Scheduling.
Total and Free Float and its application to Project Control.
Resource scheduling using Block Graphs/ Gantt charts;
Cost scheduling, cost slope, crash costs and Time-Cost Trade-Off;
Risk Management, Uncertainty and Project Planning/Scheduling;
Identifying, prioritising and managing risk
Optimistic, most likely and pessimistic activity times, PERT Estimates and PERT (project evaluation and review technique)
Activity on node networks with non standard types of dependency:
Finish to finish, start to start and start to finish dependencies with time lags.
Lecture/discussion session supplemented with case studies and research
| Module Content & Assessment | |
|---|---|
| Assessment Breakdown | % |
| Formal Examination | 60 |
| Other Assessment(s) | 40 |