Software Project Management Plan

Nowadays, many companies, organizations, and individuals are becoming more aware of the importance of technological factors in all aspects of life. This situation has resulted in the increasing need for different software products and services that cannot be created successfully without a proper software project management plan.

Overview of Software Project Management

Project management refers to the process of applying skills, knowledge, techniques, and tools to project activities to fulfill the requirements of the project. It usually broke down into project management phases, including project initiation, project planning, project execution, project monitoring, and project closure.

Building a Software Project Management Plan

Just when the software project can approve, it needs a project plan to give direction for the whole team in terms of product scope, resource and material required, quality outputs, potential risks management, costs throughout the project.

Planning for Software Project Risks

The project risks can unexpected and rampant, ranging from insufficient time and budget. This can be achieved by using both quantitative and qualitative risk analyses, but the former is more suitable for large projects with longer durations and more money at stake. Besides, the risk response plan plays a vital role in risk management since it contains a list of identified risks. Their impacts and the measures to address them.

Unrealistic stakeholders’ expectations to software quality standards and human resource issues. Irrespective of their company’s official risk management plan, software project managers and their project team have to identify the project risks accurately and quickly.

Building a Software Project Quality Plan

There are three interrelated constraints (project scope, cost, and time) that determine the quality of a project. Project quality refers to the project’s deliverables and ability to meet the specified and implied requirements. And the quality in the middle is affected accordingly.

Therefore, as a software project manager, you can determine the project scope connected with the cost and required schedule. Moreover, it would help if you had a quality assurance or defect prevention plan. Which is one of the most necessary things of any software project. It ensures that your project’s satisfactory level will obtain through validation.

Selecting Software Project Team Members

A software project is a collaborative activity performed by people, and they are those in your project team. You need a project team for planning, estimating, execution, and project completion. They need you to lead the project until the end and protect them from stakeholders’ badgering.

You can also refer to the resource database in your company. It will scan the resources and know people’s skill sets. To determine all necessary resources for the project, you can consult those experienced in software and IT-related products.

Creating Software Project Time Estimates

The software project manager is also responsible for creating the time estimate as accurately as possible. And time-consuming tasks so that the whole project can be implemented straightforwardly to the completion. Creating a correct time estimate of how long the project will last is a time-consuming and challenging task.

In addition to Gantt charts, you can use PERT charts to achieve the correct time estimate. PERT is the only time-estimation technique with a built-in risk assessment level because outside of estimating the best-case scenario.

Estimating Software Project Cost

Cost estimation helps the project manager explain all real costs to a stakeholder about a correct ballpark figure for the project. Though not all necessary information is available until the planning process. You should also bear in mind that understanding your organization’s rules for estimating is essential before diving into the cost estimates.

A critical phase in software project management methodology is recognizing and understanding how much a project will cost for you to commit the funds. It won’t stop customers from asking cost questions requiring quick responses. Remember that poor cost estimates win little trust from the stakeholders.