Management of a Software Development Project Essay Example for Free

direction of a bundle package increment wander EssayIntroductionMany years ago, general services offered by hotels similar dinner party reservations, means reservations and other services were through with(p) manu aloney. Most hotels used books, ledgers and papers to record names of guests, their period of stay and contact details. This required a lot of effort and time. Since the advent of the information age however, slashing and interactive websites guard been introduced which have more efficient and faster technological features and capabilities for the caution of hotel services. For any assembly line to remain competitive, it is necessary to maintain an online presence in order to reach out to customers all all over the world and compete on a global platform. Reservations and payments atomic number 18 now done online to ensure that conduction of business is faster and more convenient for customers.Definition of attend ManagementA couch is a temporary end eavor that is done to generate a unique product or service (Dun arse 1996). insure Management is an activity that involves the overall supervision, charge and co-ordination of all activities related to accomplishing a set activity. It always has a start and a finish date. concord to Whitten, Project Management is a process that starts at the germ of a consider, is conducted throughout a determine and doesnt end until after the realise is completed (2001). fit in to Duncan (1996), Project caution is the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to activities to fulfill stakeholders commands and expectations. It usually involves finding a balance among scope, time, cost, persona, and varying expectations of stakeholders. Another definition of Project Management is the process of scoping, planning, staffing, conducting, directing, and managing the victimisation of a arrangement at an inexpensive cost within a specified time frame (Whitten, Bentley Dittman 200 1, p.124).Importance of Project ManagementAccording to Dr Malcolm Wheatley, Project management as a management discipline, supports much economic activity. In major(ip)(ip) industries like Information Technology, Softw are ascendment, Construction, Pharmaceuticals, and Aerospace, check management is fundamental. Project Management is in addition important in governments that have set goals and milestones which can only be achieved with effective management practices. Data from the Bureau of Economic synopsis of the US Department of Commerce, forecastd in 2001 that the US companies spend $2.3trn on reckons each year (2000).Project management is important in any economic activity because it ensures adequate planning, scheduling and successful execution of a undertaking it also helps to reduce possible risks associated with a project and ensure minimal hitches. Project Management is indeed important to every economy. Many projects fail because of poor knowledge of Project Manag ement concepts. Its relevance cannot be over emphasized.Role of the Project ManagerThe project manager is in charge of day by day management and supervision of the project. He manages the project to ensure that things go according to plan. He also communicates with all stakeholders and project team members to ensure that theres a clear understanding of general requirements. The project manager confirms users requirements to bedevil sure that these requirements are incorporated into the end-product. A project manager engages in scoping, planning, staffing, organizing, scheduling, directing, imperious and closing a project (Whitten 2001, p.127).Swot AnalysisThe Regency Hotels has several strengths that serve as advantages. It has the potential to put out its services to customers internationally due to the number of branches it has, internet accessibility and its unique services. It is also strategically located, can leverage on its positioning and has a wide customer base. Its two major weaknesses are 1) it has a static website which cannot result interactive functions like online payments, online reservations, message boards, fan clubs, and so on. 2) It does not have masterful IT staff in-house that can manage the online system when it is eventually deployed. at that place are however, opportunities for it to become one of the high hat hotels in the world by maintaining a consistent and interactive global presence. Increased competition is the major threat to Regency Hotels. Most hotels today, have a strong online presence that offers customers various services that make their experiences with the hotel more memorable and convenient, like qualification and paying online. Regency Hotels is yet to rise to the challenge.Development methodologyThe software development methodology to be adopted for the production of this system is the waterfall method. This is an approach to software development that specifies that a project should be grouped into phases and one phase must be completed before the next. The project is carried out in a logical manner through a pre-determined number of steps.This method is preferred because the duration of the project is only two weeks and the requirements are clear. With the waterfall method, project reviews are conducted mingled with stages, which contain milestones. This forgets an organized scenario that ensures required documentation and quality management of the developed application is carried out (Sorensen 1995).Project arenaThe project scope definition involves clarifying the boundaries of the project. Regency Hotels in addition to unattached technological features like retrieving customers information, billing, checking for direction availability, desires a system with added capabilities of online booking and payment.This project involves building a system that can accept online booking and payment options by customers. A penetration will be developed to include the following feature s Online reservations, online payment, checking room availability, checking in, checking out, discussion group and general information on the hotel.Secure Socket Layer (SSL) will be added to the website to provide for added security when paying online search functions will be provided on web pages to check for room availability and booking e-mail and discussion group facilities will be included to facilitate communication among customers and the hotel and other technological features from the available website will be incorporated into the new portal to ensure that a juicy system that meets the expectations of Stakeholders at Regency Hotels is built.The final system will be deployed at the hotel and tested. Staff members that need to be trained will be identified and educated on how to use the system. The change management process will be made easier for staff of Regency Hotel by ensuring that they are adequately trained, resources are provide to assist them, and maintenance/ supp ort plans are put in place.Result of using COCOMO model to estimate effort, duration and number of people required.The constructive Cost Model, known as COCOMO was developed by Barry Boehm in 1981. It is based on the waterfall model and is used for estimating the number of person and months necessitate to develop software. It also estimates the development schedule in months. The development mode for this project is organic because it is a small and straight-forward one. A small team with sufficient experience work together to develop the portal system (Merlo-Schett 2002). COCOMO is defined in terms of three basic models The Basic model, the mediocre model and the detailed model. The KDSI is the size of the project in Kilo delivered source instructions. These are source lines that are created by the project team. Using the Intermediate COCOMO I, calculation is done as followsRequired Portal system for online payment and bookingDevelopment labor (MM) = a * KDSI bEffort and develo pment Time (TDEV) = 2.5 * MM cWith organic mode of development, a = 3.2, b = 1.05, c = 0.384 modules to implementData entry 0.5 KDSIData update 0.3 KDSIOnline Reservations 0.8 KDSIOnline Payment 0.7 KDSI frame SIZE 2.3 KDSIMM = 3.2 * 2.3 1.05 = 7.7TDEV = 2.5 * MM c = 2.5* 7.7 0.38 = 5.4 (Project needs more than 5 months to complete)Number of people to be hired = MM/TDEV = 7.7/5.4 = 1.4 (This means that more than one team member is essential to execute the project).The major shortcoming of the above calculation is that value of the KDSI used is approximate (Merlo-Schett 2002).Hardware and Software RequirementsAt to the lowest degree four separate computers will be needed for building the portal, testing it and hosting it. Softwares like Macromedia Dreamweaver, Java, PHP, SQL Server and optic Basic .NET will be needed for building the portal. A central server for hosting and managing user connections to the portal will also be required.Work Breakdown StructureWork Breakdown Str ucture shows the stratified decomposition of projects into phases, activities and tasks (Whitten 2001, p.135).SOFTWARE REQUIREMENT SPECIFICATION1.1 Identify sponsors and stakeholders1.2 Meet with sponsors and stakeholders to clarify system requirements1.3 Produce Software Requirements Specification Draft1.4 Sign-off on software requirementsTECHNOLOGY SPECIFICATION2.1 Determine hardware and software needed for developing the system2.2 Procure hardware and software needed for system development2.3 Set-up hardware and software for useSCOPE anxiety3.1 Develop a written scope statement as a basis for future project decisions3.2 Verify Scope of the Project with sponsors3.3 Perform Scope Change tame to prevent scope creepCOST SCHEDULE MANAGEMENT4.1 Develop an estimate of project cost4.2 Schedule Meeting with Stakeholders to agree on cost and deadline4.3 Receive Payment from Stakeholders4.4 Allocate cost estimates to case-by-case work items4.5 Evaluate actual versus projected schedule4 .6 Control changes to project budget to avoid press release over the budget4.7 Compare actual and budgeted costs4.8 Schedule Development4.9 Schedule Controlmilitary personnel RESOURCES MANAGEMENT PHASE5.1 Identify Project Roles/Conduct Organizational Planning5.2 Determine Skills of People needed to develop system5.3 Determine number of people to work on the project5.4 Recruit Project Team Members5.5 Engage staff with appropriate skills5.6 Develop individual and group skills to enhance project mathematical operationACTIVITY MANAGEMENT PHASE6.1 Develop activity list for project team members6.2 Sub-divide major project deliverables into smaller components6.3 Assign Team Members to tasks and deliverables6.4 Supervise activities within the project team6.5 Evaluate Performance and productivity6.6 Update activity list as necessary6.7 Conduct meetings and review status reports on software developmentPROJECT OFFICE ADMINISTRATION7.1 Attend to daily activities or events concerning the proj ect7.2 General project supervisionPROJECT COMMUNICATIONS8.1 Determine information and communication needs of stakeholders8.2 Provide information to stakeholders in a timely fashion8.3 Put contact details of all team members and stakeholders into the database8.4 Performance reporting to stakeholders through status reports, progress measurement and forecasting8.5 Set up meetings with project team members8.6 Develop status reports for the projectRISK MANAGEMENT9.1 Identify all possible risks within the project and effects on project9.2 narrow steps for responding to threats9.3 Respond to changes in risks during the course of the projectQUALITY MANAGEMENT10.1 Identify quality standards relevant to the project and how to satisfy them10.2 Evaluate overall project performance10.3 Define Quality Assurance Specifications10.4 Code and check the system for compliance with quality standards10.5 Test System to make sure it fits clients requirementsHand-Over of Project11.1 Ensure adherence to client requirement11.2 Conduct Customer Acceptance Tests11.3 check over Software User Manuals11.4 Sign off Certify Solution Development11.5 Submit Project Close-out motif11.6 Terminate ProjectProject scheduling(Please refer to attached Microsoft Project document for dependency between activities, network diagram, critical path and Gantt chart)A Project network diagram displays the logical relationships of project activities. A Gantt chart is a horizontal bar chart that shows tasks against timelines. Each bar is equivalent to a project task. Gantt charts show, tasks that can be performed at the same time (Whitten 2001, p.128).Any tasks on the critical path cannot be delayed. chance upon of Activity DurationStarting DateFinishing DateSoftware Requirement Specification1 Day bind 4/23/08 bind 4/23/08Technology Specification1 DayThu 4/24/08Thu 4/24/08Scope Management10 Days bond 4/23/08Tue 5/6/08Cost Schedule Management12 Days splice 4/23/08Thu 5/8/08Human Resources Management Phase8 Days marry 4/23/08Fri 5/2/08Activity Management Phase10 DaysWed 4/23/08Tue 5/6/08Project Office Administration10 DaysWed 4/23/08Tue 5/6/08Project Communications10 DaysWed 4/23/08Tue 5/6/08Risk Management10 DaysWed 4/23/08Tue 5/6/08Quality Management10 DaysWed 4/23/08Tue 5/6/08Hand-Over of Project10 DaysWed 4/23/08Tue 5/6/08 realistic risks related to the software development projectEvery project has its own share of risks. Risks associated with this project are outlined belowThe period of time given for the execution of the project is short. The COCOMO model shows that a project of such magnitude requires at least 5 months for completion. There is a risk of the project particular(a) the time frame allocated by the stakeholders.User requirements may change or expand during the duration of project. There is a risk of having to accommodate changes to the design of the portal. This is known as scope creep and may advert the schedule and budget (Whitten 2001).With the obvious need to procure softwares for the development of the portal system, resources like time and money may not be sufficient.There is a risk of taking short cuts around the system development methodology in order to meet the deadline and not exceed the budget. This might affect the quality of the final product.Another potential risk is that of feature creep. This refers to the uncontrolled addition of technical features to a system that is being developed without regard to schedule and budget (Whitten 2001, p.125). A portal system is a robust application that is designed to fulfill various needs of an organization. The temptation to add more features is always a prevalent riskThere is the risk of a team member resigning from the project. This will cause a considerable loss of time.There is also the risk of insufficient communication within the project team which may lead to misunderstanding of customers requirements, and cause a deviation from the project plan, budget and schedule.Project super viseProject monitoring involves supervising the project throughout its lifecycle. This is important in order to know how things are going and to solve any problem that may arise during the course of the project. This can be done via meetings, emails, reports on progress and finances and also by observing project management best practices. stopping point Applying the principles of Project Management to the development of the portal system at Regency Hotels will go a unyielding way to ensure that the objectives are met on time, within budget and that the software product will be of the desired quality. Project Management is a crucial practice that should be encouraged in every sector of the economy.It ensures that money, energy and time are not wasted on failed projects. With sufficient project management practices in place, stakeholders and contractors can conduct businesses without bothering about the hitches involved with long-term projects. Regardless of the end product, which co uld be a new service, product or knowledge, project management ensures that a successful outcome is achieved within the available resources and time frame.ReferencesWhitten, JL, Bentley, LD, Dittman, KC 2001, Systems Analysis and Design Methods, 5th edn, Mc Graw-Hill, New York.Wheatley, M 2000, The Importance of Project Management, Project Smart. Available from http//www.projectsmart.co.uk/the-importance-of-project-management.html 22 April 2008Sorensen, R 1995, A comparison of Software Development Methodologies, Software Technology jut Centre. Available from http//www.stsc.hill.af.mil/crosstalk/1995/01/Comparis.asp 24 April 2008Duncan, WR 1996, A Guide to Project Management Body of Knowledge, PMI Standards Committee. Available from www.unipi.gr/akad_tmhm/biom_dioik_tech/files/pmbok.pdf 24 April 2008Merlo-Schett, N 2002, COCOMO Constructive Cost Model, Proceedings of the seminar cost estimation W 2002/2003, pp. 1-24. Available from www.ifi.unizh.ch/req/courses/seminar_ws02/reports/ Slides_4.pdf 22 April 2008.