Project Management in Software Development: Approaches, Estimation Techniques, Risk Management, and

Which Project Management Approach Should TC Use For This Development?

The Managing Director of LLB is the driving force behind the project and the budget holder. She has also put aside time in a busy diary to be available for this project. The Finance Director is keen to be involved, but is always too busy to attend meetings. The Operations Director has been with the company for 2 years and was a senior team member from the business community on a previous similar project. She is also responsible for the Order Handling Clerks and happy to make at least one available for the project. The Chief Accountant generally represents the Finance Director at meetings and is empowered to make decisions on behalf of the Finance Director. The Warehouse Manager is not available for the project.

The Marketing Director is available and is also a certified Workshop Facilitator and Agile Project Manager True Concepts (TC) is a software development consultancy located on the same industrial estate as Lizzie’s Leather Belts. They have purpose built rooms for working with clients and like to work closely with clients on projects. They assign a dedicated team for each of their projects. The team can be located on-site or off-site. They have 5 staff available. Julie is a very good programmer with a good working knowledge of web development and a good communicator. Jeff is an excellent web developer, but has been known to have stand-up arguments with customers. Sophie has good website development skills and works for the Samaritans in her spare time. Jonathan has worked on several projects as a Team Leader and has a very good understanding of website development. Ken is available for 2 days a

week throughout the project and has a good understanding of web development and testing.

1. Which project management approach should TC use for this development? Justify your decision and explain why it is more appropriate than other approaches including a discussion of how to make the best use of staff.

2. Discuss why the team might use time-boxing or Gantt charts to schedule the project. Recommend an appropriate estimation technique they should use and describe what benefits and drawbacks it might have in this situation.

3. Discuss what risks this project might face and highlight the problems the team might face with risk management. Critically evaluate three techniques that could be used to monitor and control this project, explaining why they are relevant.

4. If you were entrusted with the task of leading the quality management effort for this project, discuss how you would introduce a ‘quality culture’ and highlight what problems you would expect to find related to this project and this team.

Students to be provided exam paper at the beginning of the exam period. They will submit their answers through a TurnItIn link provided in Blackboard