Software Development : Project Planning And Staffing

(TCO B) You are the project manager for three projects. You are about to estimate costs for these three projects. Given the below information on each project, recommend an appropriate estimation method and justify your answer for each.

Describe common practices to estimate the duration of project activities as well as real reasons that cause project delays.

The cost, team size and LOC are measured on the bases of COCOMO model. It is a constructive cost mode. Effort of the project is calculated by the help of algorithm models. One of these models which are widely used is COCOMO model. For the cost estimation of any project, COCOMO (constructive cost model) is used. This model was developed by Boehm in 1981. There are three versions of the COCOMO which are listed below:

After setting the entire project to 40% complete on Oct 1, 2008 we can see that the project is behind schedule. The schedule variance of the entire project is $ (736,599) and Schedule performance index is at 0.68, which indicates that for every $1.00 spent in the project we are only getting $0.68 worth of work done. Since we do not have actual cost data, the MS Project calculates the budget is under budget by a negligible $80.

I will use project scope, work breakdown structure, and AON to evaluate deliverables, set expectations, and estimate the completion date. From the case, we also learned that there are few deliverables new to the company; thus, I will use expert, Delphi, and wide-band Delphi to estimate the project task

In almost every business, project management is critically important. The critical path method (CPM) will provide a timeline for the project manager for when tasks should be completed. In addition, providing a deadline and the negative effects it will have on the following successors if not completed on time. These many task are interdepended. Therefore, the CPM provides the start and finishes times of the tasks, and identifies the few tasks on the critical path that the project manager should observe to determine which task needs the most attention. Already discovering and incorporating the details the task or assignments may require, CPM calculates all task times, which can be measured in hours, days, weeks, and months. For any unintended manually input errors, a warning message will be provided. Including an automatic successor generator, task numbering comment, and data validation, makes it easier on the project manager.

The Measurement Construct utilized in the Riordan Project is based on the adherence to estimate. Accurate project estimation is crucial in keeping project costs down and stakeholders happy. The Key Performance Indicator project managers want to minimize is expressed by the formula [(E-A)/E], where E = estimated Value to complete project and A = actual Value used to complete project. Project managers can substitute any value into the equation, such as hours or cost, to determine adherence to estimate. This will allow the project management team to spot trends early on during the project and then make the necessary adjustments.

Agile Project management is one of the industries dominating methodology for project management in IT. It is an incremental and iterative way to manage the build and design activities for constructing an IT product, services, and project development in manner which is highly interactive and flexible. In this methodology, scope is defined in granularity that is appropriate with time horizon and checked with the agreement on each feature with the customer. In this methodology work steps are divided with feature breakdown structures. In order to track the progress of the project progress charts are used instead of Gantt charts. Cross-functional and test-driven development teams starts working from the very beginning of the project to provide

Since the optimistic and pessimistic estimates for project tasks are unknown, the following table assumes an optimistic estimate of 90% and a pessimistic estimate of 130% of each task’s original duration

In field of project management, there are a plethora of mechanisms under perpetual reevaluation. One specific segmentation of project management under such scrutiny pertains to cost duration, which is the time and monetary costs of completing individual tasks within the project’s critical path (IBM Knowledge Center, 2016). The process of monitoring and evaluating the time and financial impacts of each task is referred to as cost duration analysis (IBM Knowledge Center, 2016). A chief concern of cost duration analysis is identifying tasks within the project’s critical path which can reduce project duration (PMI, 2013). A common approach to reducing a project’s duration is task “crashing” (PMI, p.181). According to The Project Management Institute (2013) crashing refers to the process of methodical determining the financial value of increasing a critical path task’s resources in order to decrease project duration (p.181).

Project Time Management – an estimated time for the completion of each task and based on resources, the duration is determined.

Among the various approaches adopted in project management is Agile Methodology, one that is mentioned frequently among experts and considered as one of the key approaches adopted in organizations. As pointed out by Stare (2013), Agile Methodology can be described as a particular way that is embraced in the management of projects and teams in Information and Technology among other fields. There are various practices associated with the Agile Methodology and some of them include the ability to assume simplicity, creation of documentation based on value, enabling rapid feedback to all stakeholders, and embracing change among others practices. Since its emergence in project management, various research studies have been conducted in a bid to explore the possibilities of using the Agile Methodology in other industries that are not specifically meant for software development. Given the fact that corporations are

Project estimates in terms of schedule, cost etc become more realistic as the project moves forward & loops in spiral get completed.

Changes in objectives can ease into project times that might have significant impacts on its outcomes. This requires project managers to monitor the progress of individual team members and project groups to ensure that activities and tasks are consistent with original project goals and objectives. Here, milestones are an effective tool frequently used in project management to track progress and make sure that original objectives are being observed.

There are many different ways to estimate the cost of a project using the following methods, Documenting assumptions, Expert judgement, analogous or parametric estimating. All