Step Eight: Generate A Project Plan
The process of generating a project plan includes taking the estimate and allocating the cost and schedule to a function and task-oriented work breakdown structure. Models such as SEER Client for Microsoft perform this function automatically. The eight major software development phases
are: (1) concept, (2) acquisition, (3) requirements, (4) design, (5) code and unit test, (6) integration, (7) acceptance, and (8) post deployment.
Determining Costs from Effort Estimates
At this point in the estimation process, you should have a reasonably accurate projection of your project’s size and required effort, that is, an estimate of the number of person-hours by component and a sum of these projections, and you can now begin to price the estimate. As software estimation models generally account only for costs related directly to development, you may need to translate the required effort to a cost and finalize the estimate by adding in essential nonlabor costs. You can do so by answering the following questions:
What types of individuals do I need and when do I need them?
Identify the specific personnel requirements by task area (direct software management, software systems engineering, design, programming, configuration management, quality assurance, etc.). Develop a strawman schedule from the work breakdown structure or a staffing plan such as the one produced by SEER-SEM.
How experienced do they have to be? Assign specific staff levels to the task requirements and identify the level of experience required to satisfy the task. Some of the automated cost models will identify the tasks and develop a task-based schedule, which will minimize but not eliminate all of the work required to produce the software development plan.
Step Six: Quantify Risks and Risk Analysis
The best managers of software projects seem to have an uncanny ability to anticipate what can happen to their projects and devise just-in-time mitigation approaches to avoid the full impacts of the problems. In reality, this ability is simply the skillful application of well known risk management techniques to the well known problems of software management. Unfortunately, too many software managers are skilled in seeing potential risks and then ignoring them outright.
Before we explore the risk management process and how to apply it to the risks associated with sizing and estimation, it is important to understand what a risk is and that a risk, in itself, does not necessarily pose a threat to a software project if it is recognized and addressed before it becomes a problem.
