Software Project Planning

 Software Project Planning

Software project management begins with a set of activities that are collectively called project planning. Planning is one of the most important management activities and is an ongoing effort throughout the life of the project. Software Project Managers are responsible for making project plans by using information from customer and software engineer’s customers and software metrics data collected from past projects. It is advisable to generate your estimates using at least two different methods (as a cross-check). The objective of software project planning is to provide a framework that enables the manager to make reasonable estimates of:

-        Resources

-        Cost, and

-        Schedule

Project Planning: Key Tasks

-        Set goal and scope

-        Select lifecycle

-        Set organization team form

-        Start team selection

-        Determine risks

-        Create WBS

-        Identify tasks

-        Estimate size

-        Estimate effort

-        Identify task dependencies

-        Assign resources

-        Schedule work

Primary Planning Steps (Types of Plans)

Once the scope of the project has been defined, the project enters the detailed planning phase. This involves the creation of a:

-        Project Plan: Outlines the activities, tasks, dependencies, and time frames

-        Resource Plan: Lists the labor, equipment, and materials required

-        Financial Plan: Identifies the labor, equipment, and materials costs

-        Quality Plan: Provides quality targets, assurance, and control measures

-        Risk Plan: Highlights potential risks and actions are taken to mitigate them

-        Acceptance Plan: Lists the criteria to be met to gain customer acceptance

-        Communications Plan: Lists the information needed to inform stakeholders

Procurement Plan: Identifies products to be sourced from external suppliers