Project Management for Software Development
Tutorials and tools for managing, estimating, planning and tracking software development projects: PMP, Agile, Scrum, Lean, Kanban
Over the years KRC have closely analyzed the problems organizations are having with their projects and the way they work. One of the most common problems is to do with estimation. The fact is most people find it a struggle.
If you are struggling to forecast project delivery dates and cost, or you want to eliminate the story estimation process because you feel it is waste, or you need to build the business case for hiring more staff, then this session is relevant to you. All estimates have uncertainty, and...
Most software projects involve doing something new about which we’re ignorant, which brings uncertainty. Our brains aren’t comfortable with that, so we have to make conscious effort to stop pretending to be certain when we’re not!
Estimates are required multiple times in a project. Project members need to make estimates for a variety of reasons: the amount of time for a task; the cost for resources; the cost of software, hardware and other materials; the time required to finish a task.
Agile approaches use relative estimations to size requirements during the planning phase. Instead of the traditional man/days measure, you use story points that follow a Fibonacci sequence: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, … Playing “planning poker” allows the team to attribute story points to each user stories...
Estimation is a touchy topic in software development projects. In this article, Grant Rule proposes a quick and easy guide to accurate early estimating of software project size, costs and viability based on clothing sizes: Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large.
In this article, Markus Sprunck explores the benefits of estimating probabilities in project management. He explains that deviations in projects estimations lead to systematic over-or underestimation of the project efforts. Probabilities are seldom used in project management due to the lack of tools that integrate this concept in their computations....
In this blog post, Thomas Cagley discusses the need to size the scope of a software development project during the estimation activity. His opinion is that the main benefit of sizing is the conversation that this effort generates. But as managers and estimators are numbers people, it is not safe...