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establishes in order to realize success is the development process. Unfortunately,
there is no exact science that dictates how to get from one end of this route to the
other. Instead, a project manager is responsible for synthesizing a number of
different concepts and schemes, in order to produce an environment that enables
the individual members of the development team to work together to reach a
common goal. Ghezzi describes the following five goals that can guide a project
manager is this endeavor (Ghezzi et al. 1991 ):
• Planning—The project manager is charged with identifying the goals, and
establishing the plans needed to meet those goals. This includes the assignment
of workers, the allocation of other resources, and the creation of a schedule. A
project's plan describes the course it will take, and the pattern it will follow on
its way to the creation of the final project.
• Organizing—A project manager must lay out clear lines of authority and must
make sure that development teams and engineers understand their duties and
responsibilities. Organizing must take place at all the various levels of the
development team hierarchy, from a small team of programmers, up to the
group of team leaders. Organizational structure must be tailored to ensure
efficiency and effectiveness, and must be based on the goals of both the project
in question, and the software engineering firm as a whole.
• Staffing—A project manager must select and assign the workers involved in a
project in an effective and efficient manner. This includes the assessing of, and
hiring of candidates as discussed earlier in the chapter. In addition, a manger
must see that employees are appropriately trained and compensated.
• Directing—A project manager is responsible for leading the workers of the
project, and for coordinating the activities in which they are involved.
Employees should understand not only what it is that they are doing, buy why
they are doing it and what part it plays in the project as a whole. They should
also be given specific goals to achieve.
• Controlling—A project manager must constantly assess the progress of the
software engineering project. This includes monitoring for deviations from the
project's plans and schedules as well as ensuring that the initial goals are being
reached. In addition, a project manager must be able to take action to correct for
errors encountered in the process.
The management aspects described above are general responsibilities required
of a project manager. The personal style of one manager may differ significantly
from another, but may be just as effective. What is important is to ensure that these
goals are realized. In addition, it is important to keep in mind that management is
not performed only by the project manager, but at various levels throughout a
project hierarchy. Team leaders, for instance, must effectively manage their team
using the same concepts. To achieve these management objectives, a tool known
as a software project management plan (SPMP) is often used. A SPMP is
essentially a document that specifies practices that will be used during the
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