ProjectMgtGuidelines[2]

Project Management Guidelines Page 1 of 9 Brought to you by Software Planner (www.SoftwarePlanner.com). Deliver software solutions to specification, on time and on budget with Software Planner. Tracks customer requirements, test cases, defects, project deliverables, and your schedule (appointments and to-do lists) via the web. Discussion forums and contact management also built in. FREE 2 WEEK TRIAL Interested in learning more? Call us at 800-773-7785 or click here. Software Planner Guided Tour Pricing Brochure Free Trial Software Planner Details Project Management Guidelines Owners and List of Contacts Name John Doe Email Jdoe@Me.com Phone 303-894-7315 W 303-471-8344 H 303-203-5567 Pgr Role Project Manager Development Lead System Test Lead Production Support Mgr User Test Lead Developer – Presentation Tier Developer – Business Tier Data Base Administrator Tester Tester Department VP Department Mgr Product Support Joe Tester Jane ProdSupport Joe UserMgr Joe Developer Jane Developer Joe DBA Joe Tester Jane Tester Joe Customer Jane Customer Josey Customer _____________________________________________________________________________ Developed by Pragmatic Software Co., Inc. http://www.PragmaticSW.com Project Management Guidelines Page 2 of 9 Revision History Date 09/15/1988 Reason for change(s) First Draft Author(s) John Doe _____________________________________________________________________________ Developed by Pragmatic Software Co., Inc. http://www.PragmaticSW.com Project Management Guidelines Page 3 of 9 Table of Contents Project Management Guidelines ...................................................................................................... 1 Owners and List of Contacts ............................................................................................................ 1 Revision History ............................................................................................................................... 2 Overview .......................................................................................................................................... 4 Project Life Cycle Phases ................................................................................................................ 5 Planning Phase ................................................................................................................................ 5 Deliverables ................................................................................................................................. 5 Design Phase ................................................................................................................................... 6 Deliverables ................................................................................................................................. 6 Iterative Code/Test/Release Phases ............................................................................................... 7 Deliverables ................................................................................................................................. 7 Production Phase ............................................................................................................................. 8 Deliverables ................................................................................................................................. 8 Post Mortem Phase .......................................................................................................................... 9 Deliverables ................................................................................................................................. 9 _____________________________________________________________________________ Developed by Pragmatic Software Co., Inc. http://www.PragmaticSW.com Project Management Guidelines Page 4 of 9 Overview Pragmatic Software follows a slightly modified version of the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) project lifecycle methodology. Every software development effort goes through a life cycle, a process that includes all activities in the development cycle that take place up to initial release. The main function of a life cycle model is to establish the order in which a project specifies, implements, tests, and performs its activities. The appropriate life cycle model can streamline your project and help ensure that each step moves you closer toward your goal. Two of the more popular life cycle models are the traditional waterfall model and the spiral or rapid application development (RAD) model. In the waterfall model, a project progresses through sequential steps from the initial concept through system testing. The problem with this development life cycle is that you are usually not aware of major problems until the system is ready for production, because this is when all the pieces of the software are integrated together in preparation for production. The spiral life cycle model is a risk-oriented one that divides a software project up into different subprojects. Each subproject addresses one or more major risks until all are identified. The spiral model allows for increased creativity and greater management of risk due to its iterative nature. This lifecycle implements portions of functionality in pre-releases. For example, a layer of functionality will be delivered as a .1 release. The full product is run through the testing cycle and user acceptance. Then more functionality is added as .2 release. It is then run through the testing cycle and user acceptance. This “iterative” cycle is repeated until all functionality is added and fully tested. This allows us to discover performance issues and design flaws early in the project. Pragmatic Software Company follows the spiral life cycle model. _____________________________________________________________________________ Developed by Pragmatic Software Co., Inc. http://www.PragmaticSW.com Project Management Guidelines Page 5 of 9 Project Life Cycle Phases Below are the phases of the life cycle:  Planning Phase  Design Phase  Iterative Code/Test/Release Phases  Production Phase  Post Mortem Planning Phase The planning phase culminates in the vision/scope approved milestone. At the end of this phase, the project team and the customer agree on the overall direction for the project, including what the product will and will not include. Determining vision and scope are opposite activities, yet a successful project requires both. Vision is the unbounded view of what the solution could be, without regard to project constraints. Scope defines what parts of the vision can be accomplished within the project constraints. A shared project vision is essential for project success. Deliverables    Functional Specification Functional Specification Signoff Risk Assessment _____________________________________________________________________________ Developed by Pragmatic Software Co., Inc. http://www.PragmaticSW.com Project Management Guidelines Page 6 of 9 Design Phase This phase specifies exactly the components needed to deliver all items in the functional specification. Our design methodology includes a 3-tier design: 1. Presentation Layer – Visual Basic Forms or Web Pages. No business rules appear in this layer. 2. Business Layer – Visual Basic Active Servers (DLL or EXE) that encapsulates all the business rules. 3. Database Layer – Can be any ODBC or OLE DB compliant database. The design phase specifies all components needed to deliver the system in a 3-tier fashion. Upon completion of this phase, a project plan may be developed that details the costs, effort and timeframes in which the solution may be delivered. As a final step, the client may decide to add, omit or delay functionality to fit within their timeframe and budget. Deliverables       Architecture Document Detailed Design Document Test Design Object Model Data Model Project Plan Budget Customer, Development, Testing Signoff   _____________________________________________________________________________ Developed by Pragmatic Software Co., Inc. http://www.PragmaticSW.com Project Management Guidelines Page 7 of 9 Iterative Code/Test/Release Phases After the planning and design phases, the client and development team has agreed on the feature set and the timeframe in which the product will be delivered. This includes iterative releases of the product as to let the client see fully implemented functionality early and to allow the developers to discover performance and architectural issues early in the development. Each iterative release is treated as if it the product were going to production. Full testing and user acceptance is performed for each iterative release. Our experience has found that you should space iterations at least 2 – 3 months a part. If iterations are closer than that, you spend too much time on convergence and the project timeframe expands. During this phase, code reviews must be done weekly to ensure that the developers are delivering to specification and all source code is put under source control. Also, full installation routines are to be used for each iterative release as it would be done in production. Deliverables       Triage Weekly Status with Project Plan and Budget Analysis Risk Assessment System Documentation User Documentation (if needed) Test Signoff for each iteration Customer Signoff for each iteration  _____________________________________________________________________________ Developed by Pragmatic Software Co., Inc. http://www.PragmaticSW.com Project Management Guidelines Page 8 of 9 Production Phase Once all iterations are complete, the final product is presented to the client for a final signoff. Since the client has been involved in all iterations, this phase should go very smoothly. Deliverables   Final Test Signoff Final Customer Signoff _____________________________________________________________________________ Developed by Pragmatic Software Co., Inc. http://www.PragmaticSW.com Project Management Guidelines Page 9 of 9 Post Mortem Phase The post mortem phase allows you to step back and review the things that went well and the things that need improvement. Post mortem reviews cover processes that need adjustment, highlight the most effective processes and provide action items that will improve future projects. Post mortem reviews are usually held about a month after you are in production. Separate post mortem reviews are held with the client, development team and testing team. To conduct a post mortem review, announce the meeting at least a week in advance so that everyone has time to reflect on the project issues they faced. Ask everyone to come to the meeting with the following: 1. 2 Items that were done well during the project 2. 2 items that were done poorly during the project 3. 2 suggestions for future improvements During the meeting, go around the room and solicit the information listed above. As each person offers their input, categorize the input so that you can count the number of comments that are the same. This allows you to see how many people had the same observations during the project. At the end of observation review, you will have a list of the items that were mentioned most often. Go through the list of items allowing the team to prioritize the importance of each item. This will allow you to draw a distinction of the most important items. Finally, make a list of action items that will be used to improve the process and publish the results. When the next project begins, everyone on the team should review the Post Mortem Report from the prior release as to improve the next release. Deliverables   Post Mortem Meeting Post Mortem Report Brought to you by Software Planner (www.SoftwarePlanner.com). Deliver software solutions to specification, on time and on budget with Software Planner. Tracks customer requirements, test cases, defects, project deliverables, and your schedule (appointments and to-do lists) via the web. Discussion forums and contact management also built in. FREE 2 WEEK TRIAL. Software Planner Guided Tour Pricing Brochure Free Trial Software Planner Details _____________________________________________________________________________ Developed by Pragmatic Software Co., Inc. http://www.PragmaticSW.com