requirement analysis

Jun 29 2009   10:00AM GMT

Outsource in a software project without losing control over it

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.

Jun 10 2009   10:00AM GMT

Ten Reasons of getting into pitfall of leaving a scope of software development at customer site

Posted by: Jaideep
Project Management, Software Project, change management, project organization, developer, project sponsor, project director, project manager, key user, implementer, technical lead, business requirement study, business analyst, business analysis, requirement analysis, requirement gathering, implementation phase, project phase

In the previous post we learnt what all could a software project could lead to in presence of higher scope of software development at customer site during implementation phase. Let us see what all factors are responsible of insufficient requirement gathering during business study phase of a project.

1. Incompetent team (vendor): Any project calls for a project team. A good team at both ends is important. Both teams have a substantial role during a project. If key users selected at customer site for delivering process knowledge to requirement analysts (vendor), there are higher chances of wrong information driven. The key users chosen should rightly be the actual process owners not essentially be at the higher level in the organization.

2. Incompetent team (customer): A right selection of project manager and analysts is equally crucial. The team has a short duration stipulated for gathering requirement information and understanding business processes. And mind it, this is not an individual race, it is a relay race, and weakest link will decide the overall result of the project.

3. Non commitment (customer): Well the process owners are the key users, but if are not serious or have not received the right message from their management may not be seriously committed to the vendor team. A non committed team will not be able to impart right knowledge, processes, practices and information required critically for a project.

4. Non commitment (vendor): A team of good committed project manager and analysts is equally crucial for gathering information. The previous experience on business domain and success factor definitely counts in.

5. Lack of time (customer): Key users identified if are engaged in other important projects running in the organization will be always short of time for providing right information to vendor project team.

6. Inappropriate discussions: In a limited timeframe of business study, there will be limited discussions. So all discussions should be crisp, purposeful, well driven and result oriented.

7. Improper documentation: Well explained requirements if not documented properly may lead to a wrong, incomplete product. Right people with right business and process knowledge have to acquire a good documentation skill also to lead the project to right direction and grand success.

8. Top Management involvement (customer): If customer management thinks that providing key users completes their job in the project, they are wrong. Their involvement in all important meetings is as important as the business is.

9. Project Organization: A right architecture of project team is very important. The project sponsor, project directors, project managers, key users, developers, implementers, technical leads from customer and vendor respectively should be the right mix of people.

10. Change in requirements: Any change in business or process during or after the requirement study phase has to be communicated to vendor team well in time, so that by following the change management procedure, the changes are taken care of properly.