Software Project Management 2070

Answered by: Raj kumar sunar

A project management framework consists of the processes, tasks, and tools used to take a project from start to finish. It encompasses all the key components required for planning, managing, and governing projects. The project management framework can be broken into three parts: 1. Project life cycle This is the cycle a project goes through from beginning to end. It consists of five phases: Initiation: This is where you define what the project actually is. You can outline your objectives in a project charter and identify any potential risks. Planning: In this phase, you list all the project tasks in a detailed roadmap. Estimate how long each one will take, create deadlines, and add assignees. Execution: Put the plan into action. Teams commence work on project tasks and align their schedules to achieve key deliverables. Monitoring and controlling: Project managers oversee progress by tracking team performance, creating reports, and readjusting priorities if necessary. Closure: The final phase incorporates the results achieved when all project tasks are completed. A project manager will analyze these results and plan the next steps.

2. Project control cycle The control cycle is the process of monitoring and controlling the project. 3. Tools and templates Project plans, project management reports, and risk logs are common tools and templates for managing projects. Project framework examples There are many project management frameworks you can choose to use. Here are six of the most common ones: PRINCE2: This framework is highly structured with a heavy emphasis on upfront planning.

CCPM: Critical chain project management focuses primarily on resource allocation across the project.

Lean: A lean framework focuses on minimizing wasted effort and resources. Process improvement techniques are often incorporated into this framework.

XPM: Extreme project management was designed for complex projects that occur in fast-changing environments. Emphasis is on stakeholder management as plans and schedules are rapidly changing.

Scrum: This framework was also designed for industries undergoing rapid change. Using this framework, projects are often broken down and planned in 2-4 week sprints.

Waterfall: This framework is one of the traditional approaches to project management. Waterfall requires a project to be planned from beginning to end, with no phase of a project beginning until the previous one has ended.

How to choose a project management framework One single framework does not work for all projects, which is why so many of them have been created over the years. When deciding which framework is best for your project, consider the following: If your industry, technology, or product is fast-changing, an adaptable framework such as XPM or Scrum is recommended. If the project deliverable is not well defined and is intangible in nature (such as software), a sprint-based approach (such as Scrum) may work best. If the project is well defined and stable, planning it out in its entirety decreases risks. Therefore, PRINCE2 or Waterfall should work best. Frameworks may be chosen based on what your organization and stakeholders are familiar with. If your company has never completed an XPM project before, introducing one may be difficult. The priorities of your stakeholders will impact your framework. If waste is a critical concern, a lean framework may be chosen. Frameworks are designed to be flexible and adapt to a project’s needs. It may be that you will end up borrowing pieces of separate frameworks as the circumstances of your project change.

Answered by Anonymous

Cash flow forecasting, also known as cash forecasting, is a way of estimating the flow of cash coming in and out of your business, across all areas, over a given period of time. A cash flow forecast shows your projected cash based on income and expenses and is an important tool when it comes to making decisions about activities such as funding, capital expenditure and investments. Cash forecasting can be carried out for a range of time horizons. Short-term cash forecast may cover the next 30 days and can be used to identify any funding needs or excess cash in the immediate term. A medium-term cash flow forecast may cover between one month and one year ahead, while a long-term forecast will be used to look at sales and purchases further into the future – between one year and five years ahead or even longer, depending on the nature of the business. The longer the time horizon of a cash flow forecast, the less accurate it is expected to be. Cash Flow has many uses in both operating a business and in performing financial analysis. In fact, it’s one of the most important metrics in all of finance and accounting. The most common cash metrics and uses of CF are the following:

a) Net Present Value – calculating the value of a business by building a DCF Model and calculating the net present value (NPV) b) Internal Rate of Return – determining the IRR an investor achieves for making an investment c) Liquidity – assessing how well a company can meet its short-term financial obligations d) Capital Expenditures – CF can also be used to fund reinvestment and growth in the business

Answered by Anonymous

PERT and CPM are techniques of project management useful in the basic managerial functions of planning, scheduling and control. PERT stands for “Programmed Evaluation & Review Technique” and CPM are the abbreviation for “Critical Path Method”. These days the projects undertaken by business houses are very large and take a number of years before commercial production can start. The techniques of PERT and CPM help greatly in completing the various jobs on schedule. They minimize production delays, interruptions and conflicts. These techniques are very helpful in coordinating various jobs of the total project and thereby expedite and achieve completion of project on time. Essentially, there are six steps which are common to both the techniques. The procedure is listed below:

1.Define the Project and all of its significant activities or tasks. The Project (made up of several tasks) should have only a single start activity and a single finish activity. 2.Develop the relationships among the activities. Decide which activities must precede and which must follow others. 3.Draw the “Network” connecting all the activities. Each Activity should have unique event numbers. Dummy arrows are used where required to avoid giving the same numbering to two activities. 4.Assign time and/or cost estimates to each activity 5.Compute the longest time path through the network. This is called the critical path. 6.Use the Network to help plan, schedule, and monitor and control the project.

The Key Concept used by CPM/PERT is that a small set of activities, which make up the longest path through the activity network control the entire project. If these “critical” activities could be identified and assigned to responsible persons, management resources could be optimally used by concentrating on the few activities which determine the fate of the entire project.

Answered by Anonymous

Initiation: Project initiation is the starting point of any project. In this process, all the activities related to winning a project takes place. Usually, the main activity of this phase is the pre-sale. During the pre-sale period, the service provider proves the eligibility and ability of completing the project to the client and eventually wins the business. Then, it is the detailed requirements gathering which comes next. During the requirements gathering activity, all the client requirements are gathered and analysis for implementation. In this activity, negotiations may take place to change certain requirements or remove certain requirements altogether Planning: Project planning is one of the main project management processes. If the project management team gets this step wrong, there could be heavy negative consequences during the next phases of the project. Therefore, the project management team will have to pay detailed attention to this process of the project. In this process, the project plan is derived in order to address the project requirements such as, requirements scope, budget and timelines. Once the project plan is derived, then the project schedule is developed. Depending on the budget and the schedule, the resources are then allocated to the project. This phase is the most important phase when it comes to project cost and effort. Executing: After all paperwork is done, in this phase, the project management executes the project in order to achieve project objectives. When it comes to execution, each member of the team carries out their own assignments within the given deadline for each activity. The detailed project schedule will be used for tracking the project progress. During the project execution, there are many reporting activities to be done. The senior management of the company will require daily or weekly status updates on the project progress. In addition to that, the client may also want to track the progress of the project. During the project execution, it is a must to track the effort and cost of the project in order to determine whether the project is progressing in the right direction or not. Control and Validation: During the project life cycle, the project activities should be thoroughly controlled and validated. The controlling can be mainly done by adhering to the initial protocols such as project plan, quality assurance test plan and communication plan for the project. Sometimes, there can be instances that are not covered by such protocols. In such cases, the project manager should use adequate and necessary measurements in order to control such situations. Validation is a supporting activity that runs from first day to the last day of a project. Each and every activity and delivery should have its own validation criteria in order to verify the successful outcome or the successful completion Closeout and Evaluation: Once all the project requirements are achieved, it is time to hand over the implemented system and closeout the project. If the project deliveries are in par with the acceptance criteria defined by the client, the project will be duly accepted and paid by the customer

Answered by Anonymous

Monitoring and control processes continually track, review, adjust and report on the project’s performance. It’s important to find out how a project’s performing and whether it’s on time, as well as implement approved changes. This ensures the project remains on track, on budget and on time. Monitoring and control keeps projects on track. The right controls can play a major part in completing projects on time. The data gathered also lets project managers make informed decisions. They can take advantage of opportunities, make changes and avoid crisis management issue. Put simply, monitoring and control ensures the seamless execution of tasks. This improves productivity and efficiency.

There are a range of monitoring and control techniques that can be used by project managers, including:

a) A Requirements Traceability Matrix (RTM). This maps, or traces, the project’s requirements to the deliverables. The matrix correlates the relationship between two baseline documents. This makes the project’s tasks more visible. It also prevents new tasks or requirements being added to the project without approval. This makes the project’s tasks more visible. It also prevents new tasks or requirements being added to the project without approval. b) A control chart monitors the project’s quality. There are two basic forms of control chart – a univariate control chart displays one project characteristic, while a multivariate chart displays more than one. c) Review and status meetings further analysis problems, finding out why something happened. They can also highlight any issues that might happen later