CS3007A Software Project Management

Problem Sheet 5

Lecturer: Dr Robert Macredie

E-mail: Robert.Macredie@brunel.ac.uk,

Introduction

In the fifth session we talked about scheduling and resourcing. We explored the nature of these activities and discussed their relation to topics that we have already seen in SPM. We talked about the products of scheduling and resourcing (the project schedule and sets of resource plans) and highlighted the importance of contingency within software projects.

Learning Outcomes

The learning outcomes for the problem sheet are as follows:

(i)     you should be able to explain the role of scheduling in 
        software projects and the relation of scheduling to other 
        areas that we have already seen in the module;

(ii)    you should be able to explain what the schedule in a 
        software project shows;

(iii)   you should be able to discuss critically scheduling and explain 
        and exemplify the complexity of scheduling in software projects;

(iv)    you should be able to discuss critically resourcing and resource plans;

(v)     you should be able to explain why contingency is important 
        and to give reasoned examples of factors which might 
        determine the level of contingency required.

Questions

(i)     Why is scheduling important within software projects 
        and what is its relation to other activities that we have 
        already seen in the module? You might approach the 
        question by considering what a schedule shows and asking 
        yourself where the information it uses comes form. 

(ii)    What are the major difficulties in scheduling activities in a 
        software project.  Provide examples from real software projects 
        if possible, to illustrate the difficulties that you present.  

(iii)   What resourcing problems might a software project typically 
        face? Ensuring staff have the required skills is one key example.  

(iv)    What is meant by contingency with respect to SPM? Why is it 
        so important? Provide examples of factors which might determine 
        the level of contingency required in particular areas of a software 
        project.  Can you see any relation to earlier topics that we have 
        discussed in the module?

I would encourage you to work in groups of around five for this and subsequent exercises.

Robert Macredie

24 October 1998