THREE DAY WORKSHOP

Managing Software Development
Projects

How does a project get to be a year late? ... One day at a time.

Fred Brooks, The Mythical Man Month

Learn how to:
	Commit and Deliver. Make realistic commitments to your clients and be recognised as a professional who delivers.
	Motivate and Manage. Keep your people happy and productive with practical team building techniques.
	Plan. Configure software engineering projects using the latest software development process models and document your plans to international standards.

Project management = planning, organising, directing, controlling

	Estimate. Develop realistic estimates of project cost and schedule.
	Keep Progress Visible. Keep your project under control by through clear visibility of work completed for dollars spent.
	Manage Risk. Recognise and manage the risk scenarios that cause projects to fail.
	Deliver Quality. Measure and control software quality in compliance with Australian and international standards.
	Manage Change. Prevent inevitable change from destroying your project.

Who Should Attend

The workshop has been developed for practising project managers, team leaders and senior technical specialists who are responsible for organising the efforts of others. It is also recommended for senior managers, quality assurance people and process groups who are responsible for implementing and improving software engineering processes. All standards and procedures included in the workshop materials have been structured to comply with the requirements of AS 3563 and ISO 9000-3.

Endorsed by the Australian Computer Society

Highly rated by hundreds of attendees since 1991

Participant Reaction
We should have more of this. I believe our organisation needs an adaptation of this process ... and part of the process is simple exposure to the concepts by a large subset of the organisation.

This workshop has been tried and tested over several presentations since 1991. Past attendees include the RAAF, Telecom Australia, AWA Defence Industries, Mincom, Runge Mining, NORQEB and SUNCORP.

Practical Notes
The workshop attendees receive a 300 page work book with copies of presentation slides and additional standards and procedures that may be put to work in your projects. Our notes also provide an extensive bibliography of writings in Software Engineering Project Management. Several of the international standards discussed in the workshop are published in the IEEE Software Engineering Standards Collection which is available from C&A at discounted prices to workshop participants.

In-house Presentations
C&A presents this workshop to both in-house and public forums. The workshop may be tailored for individual needs or presented in its standard format.

The Project Manager’s Body of Knowledge

The Effective PM
The effective project manager has people skills and a good working knowledge of project management processes. This programme will give you the process knowledge you need on day one. The workshop covers the standard process knowledge that all software project managers should have at their fingertips if they are to be effective in the job.

Key PM Knowledge Components
Two classes of component are presented: 1) process definitions describing governing policies, what steps shall be taken, by whom and when and 2) a detailed description of the format and content of the end deliverables to be produced by each process. In our intensive 3 day programme we'll cover these key components:

	Scope Definition Process A process for defining the extent of the system that you are to build in terms of user requirements.
	Software Requirement Specification Standard A standard format for documenting user requirements.
	Software Development Strategy A standard software development life cycle with phases, task lists and tailoring instructions.
	Deliverable Definition Process A process for identifying project deliverables from software requirement specifications.
	WBS Standard A standard work breakdown structure for software engineering projects.
	Size Estimation Process Methods for estimating the size of a software product.
	Cost Estimation Process Methods for estimating the cost of a software product.
	Risk Assessment Process A method for recognising and quantifying the inherent risk in a project and developing risk management strategies.
	OBS Standard Alternative project Organisational Breakdown Structures.
	Scheduling Process A standard approach to scheduling a project with tasks and task precedences.
	Statement of Work Standard (SOW) A standard format for describing the work to be performed in the context of each task.
	Project Plan Standard A standard format for a project plan (including planning for Quality Assurance and Configuration Management).
	Performance Monitoring Process A process for measuring scope, cost and schedule performance against plan.
	Progress Report Standard A standard for reporting of progress to senior management and the client.
	Client Management Process A standard approach to client interaction with a focus on needs satisfaction through participation in requirements capture, change control and end product validation.
	Team Management Guidelines Key operating guidelines for developing productive teams.
	Quality Management Process A standard process for measuring and controlling software quality.
	Configuration Management Process A standard approach to management of changes to project scope.
	Project File Format A standard project file format and methods for organising technical documentation.
	Project Review Guidelines A process for conducting project reviews and keeping records.

Case Study
I will never forget the day I met a draughtsman who had been given the "project manager" title and spent two years developing, from scratch, the optimum format for a project management plan. He’d done an excellent job. His format was similar to that of the IEEE Standard 1058.1. This sounds like a success story but just think how much more productive he would have been over those two years if someone had given him the IEEE standard on day one.

Les Chambers

Put Them to Work
We cover all these items in sufficient detail for you to put them into practice in your current or future projects.

Workshop Outline

1. What is the Project Management Process?
	Characteristics of a world class project managed organisation.
	Project management objectives. The control of scope, cost, time and quality.
	Overview of project management functions - planning, organising, directing and controlling.
	Developing project management policy.
	The project manager’s job description.

2. Writing the Project Plan
	Setting project objectives.
	International standards for format and content of the plan.
	Characteristics of an effective plan.
	Controlling changes to the plan.

3. Defining the Software Development Strategy
	Components of a software engineering process model.
	Specifying a model.
	Minimum requirements for a useful model .
	Software development process models: Waterfall and Spiral models.
	Tailoring the model for the target project.

4. Implementing the Strategy
	Evaluating the maturity of your organisation.
	Identifying which processes will produce maximum benefit.
	Implementation strategy - people, tools and training.

5. Defining Project Scope With Accurate Requirements
	Project scope estimation and control with accurate Requirements Specifications.
	The requirements specification process.
	Format and content of the Requirements Specification. International Standards.
	Evaluating the quality of a Requirements Specification.

6. Planning and Control With the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
	Deliverable based planning with Work Breakdown Structures (WBSs).
	WBS notation and development technique (including a WBS checklist).
	WBS quality criteria.
	Project performance monitoring with the WBS.

7. Risk Assessment and Management
	What is risk? Classes of risk. Identifying and quantifying risk.
	Avoiding and controlling risk.
	Monitoring risk with management reserve.

8. Scheduling Techniques
	Scheduling objectives.
	Milestone and Gantt charts, Full Wall Scheduling, PERT and CPM. Task checklists.
	Critical paths and the concept of float.
	Resource loading and levelling.

9. Organizing the Project
	Project organisation structures.
	Development team structures.
	Staffing a project.
	Job/task analysis.
	Training needs analysis.
	Staff evaluation.

10. Controlling Software Quality
	Measuring software quality.
	The quality management process.
	Requirements of Australian and international standards.
	Writing a Quality Assurance Plan.
	Measuring quality before delivery with the Verification and Validation Process.
	Conducting inspections and walkthroughs.

11. Controlling Change
	What is configuration management? The 4 configuration management processes.
	Identifying configuration items.
	The concept of baselines - definition and use.
	The Configuration Control Process.
	Configuration Auditing and Status Accounting.
	Writing the Configuration Management Plan.
	The configuration register - format, content and use.
	Requirements of Australian and international standards.

12. Tracking Performance With Earned Value
	Why the variance between actual and planned spending tells you nothing about project performance.
	Tracking what we’re getting for what we’re spending with earned value.
	Earned value metrics: cost variance, schedule variance. Calculation and interpretation.
	Predicting future performance with "to complete" performance indices.
	Performance analysis and reporting with earned value and the WBS.
	Workshop exercises.

13. Progress Reporting
	Format and content of the project progress report.
	Conducting the Project Status Meeting.
	The Post Project Review.

14. Directing the Project
	Leadership and motivation.
	Herzberg’s hygienes and motivators.
	Delegation.
	Conflict resolution.
	Building productive teams.
	Client management checklist.

15. Organising Project Data
	The Unit Development Folder (UDF).
	The Project File Format.

Workshop Presenter Profile

Background. Les Chambers is a practising professional software engineer with extensive experience in the development of real time and commercial data management systems. As a software engineer, project manager and information systems manager with the DOW Chemical Company he developed and installed several real-time "life-critical" process control systems in chemical processing plants in the USA, Hong Kong and Australia. In later years he has consulted on the application of project, configuration and quality management processes to the development of large commercial transaction processing systems. As principal of Chambers and Associates he provides software quality, project management, requirements definition and architectural design services.

Project Management Experience. Les is a member of the exclusive club of project managers who have assumed complete responsibility for the construction of critical software and electronic systems with the capability to injure life and property. From this highly disciplined environment he has extended his services to establishing project management processes in client organisations such as Telecom Australia and AWA Defence and Aerospace. His extensive knowledge of project management processes filtered by his practical background provides workshop participants with the essentials of effective project management.

Training Skills. As a trainer his international experience in the nuts and bolts of developing reliable software provides a wealth of case studies. In past workshops he has been consistently highly rated on mastery of his subject and his ability to entertain and motivate the listener.

Education. Les holds a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering Honours Degree from Queensland University and has completed quality management system assessor training with Standards Australia.

THREE DAY WORKSHOP

Managing Software Development Projects

The Project Manager’s Body of Knowledge

Managing Software Development
Projects