Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 4.1 Model of a software
project and the constituent
activities (Bruegge
2004
)
Function
Project
Function
Activity
Activity
Activity
Activity
Activity
Activity
Task
Task
Task
Task
(Bruegge
2004
)
Proper project planning deals with the identification of activities, milestones,
and deliverables that are to be produced as the result of a project. A plan is drawn
up in order to guide the development process toward the established project goals.
Cost estimation is a closely related activity, concerned with estimating the
resources needed for the successful completion of a project (Sommerville
2004
).
This activity will be explained in detail later in this chapter.
4.1.1 Identifying the Purpose of the Project
Project planning begins with a simple goal: determination of software scope and
purpose. This may seem like an obvious first step, but for that very reason it is
often overlooked. If an effective and well-defined purpose is not laid out at the
onset, developers and clients will not be able to understand the connection between
the development process and the final product. This will result in the project
quickly getting off track due to a loss of focus. For this reason, the basic objectives
of the project should be considered and determined at the project's onset. The
required function and performance of the software being developed should be
assessed in order to establish a project scope that is unambiguous and under-
standable at both the managerial and technical levels. Of course, many aspects of a
project are somewhat hazy at the beginning of the development process. Often, a
final product will get defined and the basic goals and objectives will be enunciated.
However, the information necessary to define the scope (a prerequisite for esti-
mation) is commonly not yet generated from the relationship between real the
world phenomena to be represented and the abstractions that will make up the final
software product. For this reason, it is of paramount importance to permit the use
of adequate time and resources in order to develop an effective project plan.
