How We Do Software Project Management - Part I

Our projects life cycle is divided into following phases:

1. Initialization,
2. Planning,
3. Execution
4. Testing
5. Closure

1. Initialization,

Initialization starts with kick off meeting-I, the points discussed in KoM-I are:-

• Introductions
• Goals
• Provide History
• Roles, Structure, Contacts
• Standards, Guidelines
• Set up 'Functions' team
• (High level) Schedules, budget

Same meeting Product Scope (containing 'what' the project is all about) is provided.

Once the KoM-I is complete, the feasibility study of the project features are done, finally leading into Kick off meeting - II:

• Look at Requirements, Specs, SOW, CDRL
• Design standards
• Rules, Procedures
• Reporting
• Training requirements
• Problem areas
• Risks

2. Planning

Planning and design is most important part of a software project, and a lot of emphasis is given in to it.

The planning phase mainly consist of making the Project Scope, the documents which consist of at least the following:

1. System Architecture
2. Design Constraints
3. Functional Specification
4. Work Breakdown Schedule
5. Base Gantt Chart
6. UI design
7. Risk Matrix

The System Architecture consist of UMLs, with a bare minimum of the following:

1. Use case Diagram
2. Class Diagram
3. Sequence Diagram
4. State Chart Diagram
5. Component Diagram
6. Deployment Diagram

In the planning stage Test Plan is also created.

3. Execution

Execution is the phase, and always the longest, where coding take place. SVN repository is created for the project, and coders are assigned their accounts are privileges. Daily commits are required.

To keep communication open and active, weekly Progress Status Report meeting is done, in this meeting, the PSR report consisting of:

1. Work done in Last week,
2. Work planned to do in new week,
3. Current Gantt chart, comparison with baseline,

is submitted.

The Project Managers need also to watch for Change control, where he/she is required to monitor the work, if a fix in plan is required, the change in Scopes are done, along with changes in schedule and project scope. Same need to be reported to the management.

If everything is on track, the PM software, which is phpCollab in our case, is updated.

4. Testing

During the execution phase, Test cases are made. They are executed in this phase, with reporting to our bug database, the assigned developers fixes the bugs, and give feedback on the same system.


5. Project Closure

At this stage, acceptance testing is done, checking for grammers, signing of application, trial versions are made/tested, web site content are updated, PRs are made among other things.

The team need to submit a Project closure report and hold a PCR meeting with their team.

Initialization Phase:
Planning Phase:

Execution Phase:

Project Closure

So the above is a quick look at how we do the entire process, in coming days I will throw more light on each of the topics / phases.