Project Management

Project Management

Project Management is a discipline about planning, monitoring, and controlling software projects, identifying the scope, estimating the work involved, and creating a project schedule. Along with it is also responsible to keep the team up to date on the project’s progress and handle problems and discuss solutions.

The Project Management Process consists of the following 4 stages: 

Feasibility study

Project Planning

Project Execution

Project Termination

Feasibility Study: 

A feasibility study explores system requirements to determine project feasibility. There are several fields of a feasibility study including economic feasibility, operational feasibility, and technical feasibility. 

Project Planning: 

A detailed plan stating a stepwise strategy to achieve the listed objectives is an integral part of any project. 

Planning consists of the following activities: 

Set objectives or goals

Develop strategies

Develop project policies

Determine courses of action

Making planning decisions

Set procedures and rules for the project

Develop a software project plan

Prepare budget

Conduct risk management

Document software project plans

This step also involves the construction of a work breakdown structure(WBS). It also includes size, effort, schedule, and cost estimation using various techniques. 

Project Execution: 

A project is executed by choosing an appropriate software development lifecycle model(SDLC). It includes a number of steps including requirements analysis, design, coding, testing and implementation, testing, delivery, and maintenance. 

Project Termination: 

There can be several reasons for the termination of a project. Though expecting a project to terminate after successful completion is conventional, at times, a project may also terminate without completion. Projects have to be closed down when the requirements are not fulfilled according to given time and cost constraints. 

Some of the reasons for failure include: 

 

Fast-changing technology

Project running out of time

Organizational politics

Too much change in customer requirements

Project exceeding budget or funds

Once the project is terminated, a post-performance analysis is done. Also, a final report is published describing the experiences, lessons learned, and recommendations for handling future projects.

Conclusion

Project management is a procedure that requires responsibility. The project management process brings all of the other project tasks together and ensures that the project runs smoothly. As a result, the project management team should have a thorough awareness of all project management procedures as well as the tools that can be used for each one.