Aug 12 2009 10:00AM GMT
Posted by: Jaideep
Project,
Software Project,
Project Lifecycle,
project phase,
project execution
What is cycle time?
Cycle time in terms of a software project is the time taken from its initiation to handover. Another measure in terms of commercials could be order to execution to recovery… A project lifecycle in other terms
Do you measure it?
You might be banking on your experience without any data in place!
What is your definition of project cycle time?
In your opinion it might be what I said above. It might be nothing for you! Or might be some other definition!!
Is it merely based on gut feeling and past experience?
If you are not recording the development of a project from one stage to another, your cycle time measurement sheet could be a blank sheet.
What is objective measurement?
As we all know each project has several phases. Each phase is divided in milestones. One measure could be the time taken by each milestone from it planning to completion. There would be certain parallel activities. On the other hand some activities could be incremental in nature. Measure accordingly.
Do you segregate your similar type of projects?
You might be running different types of projects. Some could be similar to each other and may fall in one category. Another set of projects could make another category.
Do you know average game is successful for similar types?
An average cycle time worked out for similar set of projects falling in one category will work best for you for your future estimations and meeting those estimations. Else average may not work well and estimations may go haywired.
Jun 29 2009 10:00AM GMT
Posted by: Jaideep
Software Project,
Project Management,
outsourcing,
requirement analysis,
requirement gathering,
requirement freezing,
software design,
software development,
software testing,
documentation,
project implementation,
training,
handholding,
post implementation,
Project Planning,
project control,
project execution,
project component,
project phase,
project offload,
project outsource
We learnt in earlier two posts about the strategic decision of a management to outsource a complete project or part(s) of a project depending on certain factors, and the factors respectively. In this post let us see at the various components of a project that are most widely outsourced or otherwise we can say these are the components of a project which can be outsourced. It is very less often that a project awarded to a company is totally outsourced.
We are talking about outsourcing an activity of a software project. The most important components of a software project can be listed as:
Requirement analysis, gathering and freezing
Design, development and testing
Documentation
Implementation, training and hand-holding
Post implementation support
These can further be broken into various sub-components under each component thereby creating a tree like structure to have a bird’s eye view of any project. Planning and execution for each phase or component comes next with control everywhere.
Outsourcing mainly is the resultant of constraints in an organization.
Feb 27 2009 9:54AM GMT
Posted by: Jaideep
software quality,
project quality,
quality standards,
quality measures,
quality metrics,
software metrics,
Project Management,
Software Project,
customer requirements,
software product,
software design,
business requirements,
functional requirements,
software delivery,
Project Delivery,
project execution,
project initiation,
Project Development,
project implementation,
software strategy,
test strategy,
test case,
Test Plan,
test scenarios,
test results,
fixing of bugs,
project close-out,
post implementation phase of project
The definition of QUALITY varies in different contexts. On one hand we talk of software quality that means adopting standards and measures to ensure the building of software product that meets all customer requirements (design, interface, business requirements, functional requirements etc.) and ready to deliver. On the other hand when we talk of Project Quality, we mean the standards and measures by means of building (or adopting) to ensure the success in terms of time and revenues of a complete project right from its initiation till the implementation stage that keeps continuing at post implementation stage also.
In context of software – the quality means – software strategy, plan, text cases, test scenarios, test results and fixing of bugs. Inclusion of quality in this context will vary from organization to organization and project to project (within an organization). This will ensure the successful building of software product ready for delivery.
In context of project – the quality would mean – managing quality standards and measures for a project right from its initiation to all stages coming forth. A project lifecycle in standard terms would comprise of Project Initiation, Project Planning, Development Execution, Implementation execution, Project Close-out, and post implementation phase broadly, which remains on-going till the software built is in use by the customer for a period of years.
The subject matter can continue on pages and pages, but the crux is – software quality is merely a subset of project quality, and even if we have world class standards in software quality, it does not ensure a successful project lifecycle.
