Course Overview
Software project managers face the pressure of expectations for faster and cheaper development. To rise to this challenge requires an approach that is precisely planned and designed for success.
This course provides the tools necessary to organise and select process choices, create realistic plans, and build and manage an accomplished team through every phase of the SDLC.
Audience
This course is valuable for project managers, team leaders, technical leads, business analysts, resource managers, non-managerial development staff and business personnel who are new to software projects.
Throughout this course, you are immersed in an authentic experience to run asoftware development project. Course workshops incorporate interactive activitiesand PC-based examples to provide you with actual project experience that forms afoundation for your next project.
Activities include:
- Reaching a consensus on project goals and deliverables
- Assessing your project for strategic risk: anticipating problems before they occur
- Choosing the SDLC that best meets your needs
- Creating an effective project plan: accomplishing the goal with the teams buy-in
- Managing change: controlling the project day to day
- Extracting best practices for future projects
Skills Gained
- Deliver successful software projects that support your organisation's strategic goals
- Match organisational needs to the most effective software development model
- Plan and manage projects at each stage of the software development life cycle (SDLC)
- Create project plans that address real-world management challenges
- Develop the skills for tracking and controlling the project deliverables
- Focus on key tasks for the everyday management of software projects
- Build an effective and committed team and keep them motivated day to day
Course Outline
Conducting a Project Kick-Off Meeting
The business reasons for the project
- Where the project fits in the business
- How this fit influences your chances of success
The project customers
- Identifying stakeholders and their needs
- Developing strategies to effectively manage involvement
The project objectives
- What success looks like
- Making the team's success visible
- Managing the project to build customer confidence
Balancing Development Needs with Organisational Expectations
Selecting software development life cycle models
- Comparing SDLC models
- How to identify the right model
- V model
- Spiral
- Iterative
- Agile (including RAD, XP)
Designing a roadmap for your project
- Mapping your PM process to your project's SDLC
- Optimising time, cost, function and quality
- Considering industry standards: PMI and PRINCE2(TM)
Translating Stakeholder Needs into Actions
Structuring content for your software project plan
- Providing initial top-down estimates
- Identifying tasks and phases using a WBS
- Calculating realistic bottom-up estimates
- Sequencing tasks into a network diagram
- Constructing Gantt charts to assess resource needs
Getting the right resources
- Identifying resource needs using your plan
- Delegating work effectively
Reality check for your project plan
- Testing the plan before you begin
- Assessing the project using risk management
- Involving the team in planning
- Building confidence and selling the plan
Running the Project: Day-to-Day Decisions for Success
Focusing on the project management process
- Putting theory into practice
- Early warning signs
- Building team commitment and managing communication
- Day-to-day tracking and management
- Measuring progress with milestones
- Defect detection and prevention
Characterising the software development process
- Pressures to expect at each stage
- The major stages and how they relate
- Key events and deliverables in each stage
Building successful teams
- Participation and empowerment
- Accountability and responsibility
Driving the Implementation: Recognising and Overcoming Challenges
Tracking and control
- Measuring software progress
- Linking progress to success
Implementing change control
- Principles of change
- The details of change
Controlling risk
- Analysing project risk
- Changing the risk profile
- Planning for contingency
Closing the Project: Learning From Experience
- Sharpening your project management skills
- Influencing the continuous improvement process of your organisation
