Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
2. Explain why the process of project planning is iterative and why a plan must
be continually reviewed during a software project.
3. What is the critical distinction between a milestone and a deliverable?
4. Explain the difference between task and activity?
5. Can a role be shared between two or more participants? Why or why not?
6. To which role would you assign the following tasks?
a. Change a subsystem interface to accommodate a new requirement.
b. Communicate the subsystem interface change to other teams.
c. Change the documentation as a result of interface change.
d. Design a test suite to find defects introduced by the change.
e. Ensure that the change is completed on schedule.
7. Select at a random a working day in your work week. Log all the activities that
qualify as communication activities (e.g., talking to a friend over phone,
providing information and obtaining information to a fellow) which fraction of
your working day does communication represent?
8. Why do software development projects generate so much documentation?
9. As a programmer, you are offered a promotion to project management but you
feel that you can make a more effective contribution in a technical rather than
a managerial role. Discuss whether you should accept the promotion.
10. Explain why the best programmers do not always make the best software
managers. You may find helpful to base your answer on the list of project
activities described in
Sect. 4.1
.
11. You work for a large mobile phone manufacturer. You have been nominated
project manager for the design project of a new mobile phone model. The
project scope has already been determined. You have chosen a very simple
work breakdown structure, and the included activities have been named. You
must now plan the project schedule and calculate project duration, as well as
estimate the resources needed and calculate project costs. Your boss wants the
schedule and resource plan on his table in a few weeks' time.
a. You have already made the following table (Table 1) that includes all the
activities required in the project, the duration of each activity (in weeks),
and resources (in men). Also, dependencies between activities have been
identified. Dependency refers to the activity number of the preceding
activity. The preceding activity must be fully completed before work on
the following activity can be started (all dependencies are Finish to Start
dependencies).
b. Draw a Gantt-chart corresponding to the shortest duration for the project,
and mark the floats of the activities in the chart. Mark the two most
important milestones in the Gantt.
