Unit 9: Project Management
Project management in a software engineering environment is unique because of the technical aspects of a software project. The project manager's role is different from that of the software engineer's. While software engineers are generally accountable for the technical aspects of a project, the project manager is accountable for organizational aspects.
As you review the materials of the unit, try to connect this unit with what you have already learned about the software development life cycle. You will see that the success of an SDLC depends on people, process, and product. Project management is the glue that holds these aspects together.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 4 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- compare the role of the project manager to that of the software engineer;
- describe the areas of responsibilities of a project manager; and
- apply the concepts of project management, such as planning, scheduling, and execution, in terms of the project, people, change management, and quality control.
9.1: Project Management
The software engineer and the project manager provide complementary skills and work collaboratively on shared activities. The three main activities of the project manager are organizational liaison, personnel management, and project monitoring and control. The "Liaison" section discusses the project manager's role as a go-between for the technical team and agents who are not members of the technical team (such as project sponsors, users, IS management, vendors, and so on).
In the "Personnel Management" section, you will learn that this job entails working with personnel and human resources to hire, fire, and provide employees with professional development.
The "Monitor and Control" section explains that project monitoring involves tracking project progress relative to budget. Project control means implementing changes when progress is not satisfactory (such as training or revising project plans).
In software engineering, management activities occur at three levels: organizational and infrastructure management, project management, and measurement program planning and control. This section describes the areas of project management, including initiation and scope definition, project planning, project enactment, review and evaluation, and engineering measurement. These subjects are often regarded as being separate, and indeed they do possess many unique aspects, their close relationship has led to their combined treatment in software engineering as effective management requires a combination of both numbers and experience.
9.2: Change Management and Quality Control
A critical component of project monitoring and control is change management. As business requirements and operating environments change all the time, the project manager has to manage change throughout the software development cycle from acquisition, supply, development, operation, and then maintenance. The guiding principles, techniques, and tools for change management are discussed in this chapter.
The notion of "quality" is not as simple as it may seem. For any engineered product, there are many desired qualities relevant to a particular project. The section explains software quality fundamentals, including the main SQM processes: quality assurance, verification, validation, review, and audit.
Unit 9 Assessment
- Receive a grade
Take this assessment to see how well you understood this unit.
- This assessment does not count towards your grade. It is just for practice!
- You will see the correct answers when you submit your answers. Use this to help you study for the final exam!
- You can take this assessment as many times as you want, whenever you want.