Essay Collection 2008

Abstract:Nowadays is leading of software project more and more accentuate. Persons charging to lead such projects but have available numerous support resources and techniques, which can help them to keep order and overview over project. Subject of this paper is not only overview of these resources, but also author's experiences, remarks and his point of view of this issue.

Abstract:The purpose of this essay is to bring answers about questions concerning the importance of usage tools for project management support. Next to indicate key features and advantages, which these tools support by direction and management. Simultaneously bring specific consideration to question about responsibility project managers for project failure, in case, which these tools are not used properly or are not used at all, while poor management has main role in project failure. One part of essay is also specific summary and apportionment of software projects from aspect of their large range and importance measure of their usage.

Abstract:Supporting decision making in loosely connected groups: a study of the status in the given area FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) is today among the most dynamically developing areas in the world of IT. It offers unprecendented flexibility in design and integration for both professional and non-professional IT systems. This undoubtedly very attractive feature is further enhanced by the often very low price, which allows companies to quickly experiment and prototype new systems. Despite these great advantages, the development of FOSS is done kind-of „in the wild“. Development teams are comprised of volunteers which enhance a given project in their spare time. This forms a loosely connected system without a significantly coherent management structure. In such an environment traditional decision-making support mechanisms, which are applied with great success in closed commercial development teams, simply don't work. The need for decision-making support cannot, however, be simply ignored – many great projects end not because of insufficient motivation or because of technical issues, but instead because of inconsistent steps taken to achieve the given goal. This essay tries to research the processes and principles which govern FOSS projects and their development, and tries to compare this to the traditional principles usually found in traditional closed-team developed software. Next, it will try to extend these principles into methods and processes based on which systems for supporting decision-making in FOSS projects could be based, so that they can efficiently exploit the technical potential contained in the community.

Abstract:Testing is a necessary part of software project development. It is one of metrics of project quality. Software with high quality must by test with high quality, too. But in present there are many testing methods. So which should responsible programmer use? I entertain some of them in this work. I will valorize benefits and limitations of unit testing, test-driven development (white box methods) and some black box methods.

Abstract:Planning is one of the most important parts in development of software project. At the beginning it is important to analyze generated project and to determine goals and requirements, which are needed for creating the plan of activities. These activities are divided between team members. However we can not consider this plan as final, because during development rise new requirements, goals, problems, which were not expected at the beginning. It is necessary to follow defined plan and terms in order to successful continuity of the project. In this work I will analyze plan creation, comparing the models of software lifecycle. I will also mention admission and actualization of plans.

Abstract:The importance of the quality in software engineering is not needed to be specially highlighted. Every company realizes in the context of increasing competitors that it can survive only if it developes more quality product with less cost. Today there are many models and standards how to assure and improve the quality. One of them is CMMI which specializes in the software and system engineering. The purpose of this essay is to explain principal of CMMI and also a fact why the number of companies choosing CMMI is increasing. It states the advantages of using this model and its influence on various factors like cost and productivity. It appraises CMMI also from the view of smaller companies and highlights the importance of the quality also for the smaller teams.

Abstract:Creating a good, effective team is not an easy task. Personality analysis is one of the tools that can help us. Various methodologies, means and approaches exist nowadays, that try to determine a persons qualities, character and dispositions. Based on this, it is possible to determine the composition of a team and to distribute roles within it to attain highest work effectiveness. One also comes across opinions that these methods have their shortcomings and limitations. That is why, when creating a team, we should also consider other qualities, like knowledge, skills, experience. Even all this might not guarantee the creation of an ideal team, but it does help us prevent unwanted situation, that could arise in a software team. This essay concentrates on some approaches that are used in the field. It describes the characteristics of the Myers-Briggs type indicator (MBTI), the 16 personality factors (16 PF) and the Big Five model used for personality analysis and role assignment in a software team, and also the possibilities of use of each approach, their pros and cons, but also their possible application in a team project.

Abstract:The goal of this essay is to show dependencies between estimations and risks in software projects. There is a lot of literature about both phenomenons available, but there is a lack of opinions which confront them too. The first part of this essay thinks estimations as project risk factors. The second part thinks risks as a potential source of inaccuracy in software project estimation.

Abstract:Today‘s software systems are becoming bigger and more complex and therefore planning is an inseparable part of their development. The goal of planning is to better understand the goal of the project, make the development process more effective, reduce uncertainty and build a base for project management. In the process of preparation of a plan it is important to know the global approach to software development and his lifecycle. It is necessary to know ahead which tasks need to be planned and in which order. This essay is concentrated on the two most used approaches to software development: plan-driven and agile. Continuous changes in software requirements compelled the existence of a new approach. The question is how the old approach can be applied in changed environment of the 21. century. At the beginning the main principles of both approaches are explained. On the bottom of actual surveys in commercial and academic sphere the areas of their usage, their advantages and disadvantages are compared. As none of the approaches is the famous Brooks silver bullet, a hybrid approach is examined in concern to school team project. This hybrid approach should have all the advantages and eliminate their disadvantages.

Abstract:This essay focuses on ensuring the quality in software project and mainly on one of the phases of project’s life cycle, testing. There are many types of testing division, but in this document we are focusing only at one of best known of them, division to white box testing and black box testing. In software project, in most cases it is required to perform both types of testing, but managers must pay attention to their differences and adjust planning and couching in software project. This document shortly specifies both types of testing and tries to compare them from the view of managers and different topologies and composition of teams.

Abstract:Both school and commercial software project often suffer total failure, cost or schedule overruns, or deliver less functionality than promised. The root can be found in inability to recognize or in undervaluing possible occurrences of unplanned situations – risks. This ignorance leads to considerable money and reputation loss. It is also the cause, why students get worse marks. It points out to the importance of appropriate software project risk management not only in the business sphere, but also at university. Essay compares an academic environment with the environment of large enterprises. It examines greatest commercial project risks from the view of senior IT managers and possibilities to mitigate them. The purpose of this paper is to make use of acquired knowledge to improve quality of school projects and reduce students’ amount of stress.

Abstract:When we try to realize bigger or smaller software (or others) projects, usually there is some path, which we need to take to reach the project goal. For first to reach that goal successfully, second to reach that goal in some deadline. This path is some plan or Schedule of work on project or time Schedule. Software projects’ creating is young discipline, but there are some procedures how to create time Schedule. There are some options like Gantt graph or network graph. Naturally there are some software products to easement creating schedules varying to their options and usage. This work is treating of plan creating for software project with usage of software products. Next it describes on some methods of plan creating. Then it describes options of software products on this department and trying to understand the question if it is necessary with some project size using some software products. And if yes then what are the advantages and disadvantages.

Abstract:The biggest problem of software product development is its invisibility. Many projects are seemingly near completion, but required work exceeds work done. Different ways of monitoring have been developed in order to control the progress of this process. Results of measurements are not only essential for control of work, but also for management and planning of software process. Only actual information is really valuable, and because of that gathering of information must be automatic in most possible way. Problem arises when members of team begin production of good measurement results instead of doing real work. Because of that, it is important to choose a good metrics and to analyze collected information in correct way. Work presented in this paper deals with different methods of software process monitoring, and their suitability depending on properties of project.