Logo

Navigation
  • Home
  • Services
    • ERP Solutions
    • Implementation Solutions
    • Support and Maintenance Solutions
    • Custom Solutions
    • Upgrade Solutions
    • Training and Mentoring
    • Web Solutions
    • Production Support
    • Architecture Designing
    • Independent Validation and Testing Services
    • Infrastructure Management
  • Expertise
    • Microsoft Development Expertise
    • Mobile Development
    • SQL Server Database and BI
    • SAP BI, SAP Hana, SAP BO
    • Oracle and BI
    • Oracle RAC
  • Technical Training
    • Learn Data Management
      • Business Intelligence
      • Data Mining
      • Data Modeling
      • Data Warehousing
      • Disaster Recovery
    • Learn Concepts
      • Application Development
      • Client Server
      • Cloud Computing Tutorials
      • Cluster Computing
      • CRM Tutorial
      • EDI Tutorials
      • ERP Tutorials
      • NLP
      • OOPS
      • Concepts
      • SOA Tutorial
      • Supply Chain
      • Technology Trends
      • UML
      • Virtualization
      • Web 2.0
    • Learn Java
      • JavaScript Tutorial
      • JSP Tutorials
      • J2EE
    • Learn Microsoft
      • MSAS
      • ASP.NET
      • ASP.NET 2.0
      • C Sharp
      • MS Project Training
      • Silverlight
      • SQL Server 2005
      • VB.NET 2005
    • Learn Networking
      • Networking
      • Wireless
    • Learn Oracle
      • Oracle 10g
      • PL/SQL
      • Oracle 11g Tutorials
      • Oracle 9i
      • Oracle Apps
    • Learn Programming
      • Ajax Tutorial
      • C Language
      • C++ Tutorials
      • CSS Tutorial
      • CSS3 Tutorial
      • JavaScript Tutorial
      • jQuery Tutorial
      • MainFrame
      • PHP Tutorial
      • VBScript Tutorial
      • XML Tutorial
    • Learn Software Testing
      • Software Testing Types
      • SQA
      • Testing
  • Career Training
    • Career Improvement
      • Career Articles
      • Certification Articles
      • Conflict Management
      • Core Skills
      • Decision Making
      • Entrepreneurship
      • Goal Setting
      • Life Skills
      • Performance Development
      • Personal Excellence
      • Personality Development
      • Problem Solving
      • Relationship Management
      • Self Confidence
      • Self Supervision
      • Social Networking
      • Strategic Planning
      • Time Management
    • Education Help
      • Career Tracks
      • Essay Writing
      • Internship Tips
      • Online Education
      • Scholarships
      • Student Loans
    • Managerial Skills
      • Business Communication
      • Business Networking
      • Facilitator Skills
      • Managing Change
      • Marketing Management
      • Meeting Management
      • Process Management
      • Project Management
      • Project Management Life Cycle
      • Project Management Process
      • Project Risk Management
      • Relationship Management
      • Task Management
      • Team Building
      • Virtual Team Management
    • Essential Life Skills
      • Anger Management
      • Anxiety Management
      • Attitude Development
      • Coaching and Mentoring
      • Emotional Intelligence
      • Stress Management
      • Positive Thinking
    • Communication Skills
      • Conversation Skills
      • Cross Culture Competence
      • English Vocabulary
      • Listening Skills
      • Public Speaking Skills
      • Questioning Skills
    • Soft Skills
      • Assertive Skills
      • Influence Skills
      • Leadership Skills
      • Memory Skills
      • People Skills
      • Presentation Skills
    • Finding a Job
      • Etiquette Tips
      • Group Discussions
      • HR Interviews
      • Interview Notes
      • Job Search Tips
      • Resume Tips
      • Sample Resumes
 

Software Project Planning

By Exforsys | on December 4, 2005 |
Testing

Software Project Planning

This article explores the various aspects of Software Project Planning and Scheduling.
Project planning is an aspect of Project Management, which comprises of various processes. The aim of theses processes is to ensure that various Project tasks are well coordinated and they meet the various project objectives including timely completion of the project.

What is Project Planning?

Project Planning is an aspect of Project Management that focuses a lot on Project Integration. The project plan reflects the current status of all project activities and is used to monitor and control the project.

The Project Planning tasks ensure that various elements of the Project are coordinated and therefore guide the project execution.

Project Planning helps in
– Facilitating communication
– Monitoring/measuring the project progress, and
– Provides overall documentation of assumptions/planning decisions

The Project Planning Phases can be broadly classified as follows:
– Development of the Project Plan
– Execution of the Project Plan
– Change Control and Corrective Actions

Project Planning is an ongoing effort throughout the Project Lifecycle.

Why is it important?

“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
Project planning is crucial to the success of the Project.
Careful planning right from the beginning of the project can help to avoid costly mistakes. It provides an assurance that the project execution will accomplish its goals on schedule and within budget.

What are the steps in Project Planning?

Project Planning spans across the various aspects of the Project. Generally Project Planning is considered to be a process of estimating, scheduling and assigning the projects resources in order to deliver an end product of suitable quality. However it is much more as it can assume a very strategic role, which can determine the very success of the project. A Project Plan is one of the crucial steps in Project Planning in General!

Typically Project Planning can include the following types of project Planning:
1) Project Scope Definition and Scope Planning
2) Project Activity Definition and Activity Sequencing
3) Time, Effort and Resource Estimation
4) Risk Factors Identification
5) Cost Estimation and Budgeting
6) Organizational and Resource Planning
7) Schedule Development
8) Quality Planning
9) Risk Management Planning
10) Project Plan Development and Execution
11) Performance Reporting
12) Planning Change Management
13) Project Rollout Planning

We now briefly examine each of the above steps:

1) Project Scope Definition and Scope Planning:
In this step we document the project work that would help us achieve the project goal. We document the assumptions, constraints, user expectations, Business Requirements, Technical requirements, project deliverables, project objectives and everything that defines the final product requirements. This is the foundation for a successful project completion.

2) Quality Planning:
The relevant quality standards are determined for the project. This is an important aspect of Project Planning. Based on the inputs captured in the previous steps such as the Project Scope, Requirements, deliverables, etc. various factors influencing the quality of the final product are determined. The processes required to deliver the Product as promised and as per the standards are defined.

3) Project Activity Definition and Activity Sequencing:
In this step we define all the specific activities that must be performed to deliver the product by producing the various product deliverables. The Project Activity sequencing identifies the interdependence of all the activities defined.

4) Time, Effort and Resource Estimation:
Once the Scope, Activities and Activity interdependence is clearly defined and documented, the next crucial step is to determine the effort required to complete each of the activities. See the article on “Software Cost Estimation” for more details. The Effort can be calculated using one of the many techniques available such as Function Points, Lines of Code, Complexity of Code, Benchmarks, etc.
This step clearly estimates and documents the time, effort and resource required for each activity.

5) Risk Factors Identification:
“Expecting the unexpected and facing it”
It is important to identify and document the risk factors associated with the project based on the assumptions, constraints, user expectations, specific circumstances, etc.

6) Schedule Development:
The time schedule for the project can be arrived at based on the activities, interdependence and effort required for each of them. The schedule may influence the cost estimates, the cost benefit analysis and so on.

Project Scheduling is one of the most important task of Project Planning and also the most difficult tasks. In very large projects it is possible that several teams work on developing the project. They may work on it in parallel. However their work may be interdependent.

Again various factors may impact in successfully scheduling a project
………..o Teams not directly under our control
………..o Resources with not enough experience

Popular Tools can be used for creating and reporting the schedules such as Gantt Charts

7) Cost Estimation and Budgeting:
Based on the information collected in all the previous steps it is possible to estimate the cost involved in executing and implementing the project. See the article on "Software Cost Estimation" for more details. A Cost Benefit Analysis can be arrived at for the project. Based on the Cost Estimates Budget allocation is done for the project.

8) Organizational and Resource Planning
Based on the activities identified, schedule and budget allocation resource types and resources are identified. One of the primary goals of Resource planning is to ensure that the project is run efficiently. This can only be achieved by keeping all the project resources fully utilized as possible. The success depends on the accuracy in predicting the resource demands that will be placed on the project. Resource planning is an iterative process and necessary to optimize the use of resources throughout the project life cycle thus making the project execution more efficient. There are various types of resources – Equipment, Personnel, Facilities, Money, etc.

9) Risk Management Planning:
Risk Management is a process of identifying, analyzing and responding to a risk. Based on the Risk factors Identified a Risk resolution Plan is created. The plan analyses each of the risk factors and their impact on the project. The possible responses for each of them can be planned. Throughout the lifetime of the project these risk factors are monitored and acted upon as necessary.

10) Project Plan Development and Execution:
Project Plan Development uses the inputs gathered from all the other planning processes such as Scope definition, Activity identification, Activity sequencing, Quality Management Planning, etc. A detailed Work Break down structure comprising of all the activities identified is used. The tasks are scheduled based on the inputs captured in the steps previously described. The Project Plan documents all the assumptions, activities, schedule, timelines and drives the project.

Each of the Project tasks and activities are periodically monitored. The team and the stakeholders are informed of the progress. This serves as an excellent communication mechanism. Any delays are analyzed and the project plan may be adjusted accordingly

11) Performance Reporting:
As described above the progress of each of the tasks/activities described in the Project plan is monitored. The progress is compared with the schedule and timelines documented in the Project Plan. Various techniques are used to measure and report the project performance such as EVM (Earned Value Management) A wide variety of tools can be used to report the performance of the project such as PERT Charts, GANTT charts, Logical Bar Charts, Histograms, Pie Charts, etc.

12) Planning Change Management:
Analysis of project performance can necessitate that certain aspects of the project be changed. The Requests for Changes need to be analyzed carefully and its impact on the project should be studied. Considering all these aspects the Project Plan may be modified to accommodate this request for Change.

Change Management is also necessary to accommodate the implementation of the project currently under development in the production environment. When the new product is implemented in the production environment it should not negatively impact the environment or the performance of other applications sharing the same hosting environment.

13) Project Rollout Planning:
In Enterprise environments, the success of the Project depends a great deal on the success of its rollout and implementations. Whenever a Project is rolled out it may affect the technical systems, business systems and sometimes even the way business is run. For an application to be successfully implemented not only the technical environment should be ready but the users should accept it and use it effectively. For this to happen the users may need to be trained on the new system. All this requires planning.

Summary:

In this article we explored the various aspects of Project Planning and Scheduling.

« « Software Cost Estimation
Software Quality Management » »

Author Description

Avatar

Editorial Team at Exforsys is a team of IT Consulting and Training team led by Chandra Vennapoosa.

Free Training

RSSSubscribe 392 Followers
  • Popular
  • Recent
  • Database Checkpoints in WinRunner

    May 27, 2005 - 0 Comment
  • Unit Testing: Why? What? & How?

    January 8, 2006 - 0 Comment
  • Usability Engineering – Usability Testing

    May 7, 2005 - 0 Comment
  • Automated Testing Best Practices

    May 29, 2005 - 0 Comment
  • Integration Testing: Why? What? & How?

    January 22, 2006 - 0 Comment
  • A Unit Ttesting Framework for the Oracle PL/SQL Language

    May 7, 2005 - 0 Comment
  • So you want to be a Software Tester?

    June 8, 2005 - 0 Comment
  • What is Regression Testing?

    January 22, 2006 - 0 Comment
  • Best Practices in Automated Testing

    May 15, 2005 - 0 Comment
  • Bug Life Cycle & Guidelines

    October 25, 2005 - 0 Comment
  • Software Testing Best Practices

    July 20, 2009 - 0 Comment
  • Bug Reporting – Art and Advocacy

    January 11, 2008 - 0 Comment
  • Software Testing Myths

    November 10, 2006 - 0 Comment
  • Challenges in Testing Web Based Applications

    June 7, 2006 - 0 Comment
  • Auditing Software Testing Process

    June 5, 2006 - 0 Comment
  • Testing for Agile Software Development

    June 4, 2006 - 0 Comment
  • What is User Acceptance Testing?

    January 27, 2006 - 0 Comment
  • System Testing: Why? What? & How?

    January 22, 2006 - 0 Comment
  • What is Regression Testing?

    January 22, 2006 - 0 Comment
  • Integration Testing: Why? What? & How?

    January 22, 2006 - 0 Comment

Exforsys e-Newsletter

ebook
 

Related Articles

  • Software Testing Best Practices
  • Bug Reporting – Art and Advocacy
  • Software Testing Myths
  • Challenges in Testing Web Based Applications
  • Auditing Software Testing Process

Latest Articles

  • Project Management Techniques
  • Product Development Best Practices
  • Importance of Quality Data Management
  • How to Maximize Quality Assurance
  • Utilizing Effective Quality Assurance Strategies
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA
  • Trademark Information
  • Contact Us
© 2023. All Rights Reserved.IT Training and Consulting
This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.AcceptReject Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Non-necessary
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
SAVE & ACCEPT