Guide to Software Project Management

The first chapter presents a broad overview of software engineering, and discusses various software lifecycles and the phases in software development. We discuss requirements gathering and specification, software design, implementation, testing and maintenance. The lightweight Agile methodology is introduced, and it has become mainstream in industry. Chapter two discusses professional responsibility in software engineering, and we discuss the code of ethics of various bodies such as the British Computer Society, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and the Association of Computing Machinery. Chapter three discusses ethical software engineering and we discuss notable failures such as the space shuttle disaster and the defective Therac-25 radiotherapy machine. Chapter four discusses legal, ethical and professional responsibilities of project managers. Project managers have a professional responsibility and are required to behave ethically with their clients, and need to be aware of their legal and ethical responsibilities during the project. Chapter five provides an overview of software project management, and we discuss project estimation, project planning and scheduling, project monitoring and control, risk management, managing communication and change, and managing project quality. We conclude with a discussion of well-known project management methodologies such as Prince 2 and Project Management Professional Chapter six discusses software project planning, and we discuss activities such as project initiation, effort estimation, project planning and scheduling, and risk identification. We discuss the preparation and evaluation of the business case to determine if the project makes business sense and the composition of the project board. Chapter seven discusses risk management, and we discuss activities such as risk identification, risk analysing and evaluation, identifying responses to the risk, selecting and implementing a response, and managing risks throughout the project lifecycle. We conclude with a case study on risk management in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.