improving performance: the pmi/ieee computer society software development extension dennis stevens...

Improving Performance:The PMI/IEEE Computer Society

Software Development Extension

Dennis StevensLeadingAgile, LLC

“PMI” is a registered trade and service mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc. ©2013 Permission is granted to PMI for PMI® Marketplace use only.

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Presentation Agenda

• Development of SWX

• Why a Software Extension to the PMBOK® Guide?

• Overview of the PMBOK® Guide

• Structure and Content of SWX

• Summary and Questions


Computer Society PMI

Dick Fairley Dennis Stevens

Ken Nidiffer Jesse Fewell

Annette Reilly Mike Griffiths

Richard Turner Krupakar Reddy

Chuck Walrad Cindy Shelton

SWX Project

The first collaborative effort for both organizations


SWX Review and Revision Cycles

• SWX was developed over 18 months

• First draft reviewed by 27 invited SMEs

730 comments received and adjudicated

• Public reviews by 170 reviewers

1973 comments received and adjudicated

• Many rewrites and re-edits

5“PMI” is a registered trade and service mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc. ©2012 Permission is granted to PMI for PMI® Marketplace use only.

The Software Extension to the PMBOK® Guide

Published January, 2014


Why a Software Extension?

“Managing a large computer programming project

is like managing any other large undertaking – in

more ways than most programmers believe. But in

many ways it is different – in more ways that most

professional managers expect.”

~ The Mythical Man-Month, Anniversary Edition,

Fredrick P. Brooks, Jr., Addison Wesley, 1995;


Why a Software Extension?

• PMI: Many experienced project managers will

benefit by understanding how managing software

projects differs from managing other kinds of

projects

• IEEE C/S: Many software engineers and software

managers will benefit by understanding how the

methods, tools, and techniques in the PMBOK®

Guide can be adapted and extended for managing

software projects


The PMBOK® Guide

• The PMBOK® Guide covers the general principles of

project management– a guide for managing all kinds of projects– provides for extensions in various domains and for

various applications• More than 65% of the 400K+ members of PMI

identify their work as IT or software related• The mission of the IEEE Computer Society is to

develop products and services for the ~85K members


The PMBOK® Guide – Fifth Edition

The PMBOK® Guide includes:

• 5 process groups

• 10 knowledge areas– Addition of Chapter 13: Project Stakeholder

Management

• 47 processes within the KAs

• Fifth Edition incorporates a project life-cycle

continuum


SWX Structure and Content

• The structure of SWX mirrors the structure of the

PMBOK® Guide to the third level of inputs, tools and

techniques, and outputs for each process in each KA– with some additional sub-sections

• The content of SWX is based on the continuum of life

cycle models– as interpreted in SWX– plus extensions to and adaptations of the 10

knowledge areas across the continuum


The PMBOK® Guide 10 KAs

• Chapter 1: Introduction• Chapter 2: Project Life Cycle and Organization• Chapter 3: Project Management Processes for a Software Project• Chapter 4: Project Integration Management• Chapter 5: Project Scope Management• Chapter 6: Project Time Management• Chapter 7: Project Cost Management• Chapter 8: Project Quality Management• Chapter 9: Project Human Resource Management• Chapter 10: Project Communications Management• Chapter 11: Project Risk Management• Chapter 12: Project Procurement Management• Chapter 13: Project Stakeholder Management


SWX Content

• Some sections of SWX refer the reader to sections of the

PMBOK® Guide; for example:

4.1.1.1 Project Statement of Work

See Section 4.1.1.1 of the PMBOK® Guide.• Some sections of SWX provide modifications to the

corresponding sections of the PMBOK® Guide

e.g., 7.4.2.1 Earned Value Management• Some sections of SWX are additions to the PMBOK® Guide

e.g., 4.3.3.6 Demonstrations of Working, Deliverable

Software


Chapter 1:Introduction

• Supplements the PMBOK® Guide with

knowledge and practices that can improve the

efficiency and effectiveness of software project

managers, their management teams, and their

project members.

• The organization and/or project management

team is responsible for determining what is

appropriate for any given project or situation.


Chapter 1:Challenges in Software Project Management

• Complexity of the project and the product

• Nonlinear scaling of resources

• Knowledge is gained as a project evolves

• Communication and coordination within and across

software teams is challenging

• Solutions are constrained by technologies, vendors,

languages, compliance, etc – all of which may be

evolving

• Many problems require innovative solutions


Chapter 2:Project Lifecycle and Organization

The Project Team: Striking a balance between…

• Dedicated vs non-dedicated team members

• Collaborative team vs functional division

• Virtual vs colocated

• Specialists vs generalists

• Stable vs interim


Chapter 2: Project Life Cycle

“Project life cycles can be described as falling

somewhere in a continuum from predictive or plan-

driven approaches at one end to adaptive or

change-driven approaches at the other.”


Chapter 2:Project Life Cycle

(SWX Figure 2-1)


Chapter 2:Highly Predictive SWX Project Cycle

(SWX Figure 2-2)


Chapter 2:Predictive - Adaptive SWX Model

(SWX Figure 2-3)


Chapter 2:Adaptive SWX Model

(SWX Figure 2-6)


Chapter 2:Adaptive vs Agile Software Development• The term “agile” is not used in SWX

– other than to explain why it is not used• Various attributes of agility are presented• The influences of agility are described for each of

the 10 KAs• For example, managing cost and schedule (SWX

Chapters 5 and 6) is presented for– predictive PM life cycles– incremental-adaptive PM life cycles– adaptive PM life cycles


Chapter 4:Integration Management

• The SWX life cycle continuum is not a thin straight

line– Tailoring each of the 10 Knowledge Areas

• Be intentional about fitting the project management

approach to the situation

• For example, trying to use high predictability

practices when the situation is emergent will reduce

predictability, increase time, and reduce quality


Chapter 5:Scope Management• Predictive-Adaptive: Rolling Wave Elaboration – for example,

planning 12-18 months out at a high level and getting very

specific 3 months out. Risks, architecture, dependencies

should be laid out in advance of detailed planning.

• Adaptive: Working toward an business goal or outcome while

detailing scope frequently.

• Feature and Story Backlogs


Chapter 6:Project Time Management• Structured Scheduling

• Schedule as in independent variable – fixed time

• Iterative scheduling with a backlog

• On demand schedule

• Consideration: When organizations have stable teams – this is

about bringing work to teams – not building teams around

projects.

• Feature Points, Use Case Size, and Story Points


Chapter 6:A Burndown Chart for a Single Iteration

Planned Tasks Remaining

Actual Tasks Remaining

Iteration Timeline in Days

Nu

mb

er o

f Ta

sks


Chapter 6:Tracking Progress Features

remaining to be constructed

Dark Matter added to the

productscope

Planned rate of progress

Features addedto product scope

}

Working testedfeatures

Fea

ture

s


Chapter 7:Project Cost Management

• The Scope and Scheduling approaches must be

aligned with the Cost Management approach

• On Adaptive Projects, you may use cost as an

independent variable for development (tightly

coupled to time management)

• You may use traditional cost management for

other aspects of estimating

• Yesterday’s weather…


Chapter 8:Project Quality Management

• Uncertainty and complexity make quality

management critical on software projects

• Tight collaboration between SQA, SQC, and software

development help improve quality

• Late testing of functionality and fit of software is a

major cause of lack of predictability


Chapter 8:Project Quality Management

• Regardless of lifecycle frequent, collaborative, cross

functional testing is preferred over late, functionally separate

testing

• Collaborative Teams on adaptive projects, in addition to

regression testing will incorporate testers into the delivery

team and emphasize delivering working tested remediated

code increments frequently

• Modern software practices allow for significant automation of

many types of testing – making SQA involvement in planning

a critical component of success


Chapter 9:Project Human Resource Management

• Software project team members often possess

technical skills and domain knowledge superior

to those of their project managers.

• Collaboration between team members is

particularly important on software projects.

• Managing Software project teams can require a

facilitative and empowering approach.


Chapter 10:Project Communications Management

• On predictive adaptive and adaptive projects –

more frequent communication is required

• Effective use of Information Radiators

• Frequent cadence of planning and coordinating

meeting

• When teams are distributed, or not dedicated, or

not stable then communications become much

harder to manage effectively


Chapter 11:Project Risk Management

• Technical, Safety, Security, Team, Schedule, Cost,

Stakeholder Risks

• One complex software projects these risks can have a

bigger impact on the ability to deliver on time and on

budget than the scope, cost, and time estimates

• For the most part, project management isn’t the expert in

the risks

• Integrate Risk Analysis, Planning, and Control into the

planning and coordination cadences of the project


Chapter 12:Project Procurement Management

• Build versus Buy

• Total Cost: Cost to buy and cost to integrate and

cost to maintain

• Cost of Quality

• Mitigate vendor risk with source code escrow

• Impact of procurement on adaptive projects –

can limit the adaptability of the organization


Chapter 13:Stakeholder Management

• Adaptive projects put a higher burden on

stakeholder management

• Milestones and demos can be scheduled for

frequent feedback

• Leverage information radiators

• Allows for feature identification, prioritization and

sequencing to be influenced by stakeholders to

maximize value


Summary

The processes in the PMBOK® Guide require tailoring to each

specific situation, informed by…

• The nature of the work (predictive to adaptive),

• The organizational make up (dedicated, collaborative, colocated

and stable vs non-dedicated, functional, distributed, interim team),

• The desired planning horizon of management.

The Software Extension can help guide discussions based on good

practices around how to manage software projects based on these

different circumstances


Questions?Comments?

37

Dennis Stevens

[email protected]

Contact Information

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improving performance: the pmi/ieee computer society software development extension dennis stevens...

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