Essay Collection 2008

Abstract:For a software project to be successful, a well made plan is necessary. There are various methods used to create plans, but problems can occur when using any of them, that will force us to change our plans. A problem does not emerge by itself, without a reason, on the contrary… One of the reasons are mistakes, which we tend to make during the process of planning. And it’s these mistakes I shall address in the following paper. Together we will look at 9 basic mistakes of planning in software projecting, their causes and consequences. Furthermore, I shall attempt to emphasise the human factor in the process of planning – human as an inseparable part of planning and developing a software project. Human, on whom everything stands and falls, on whom everything depends, for no man, like no plan, is perfect.

Abstract:Software projects, from their developing stage to using in practice, face a lot of risks. Not to pay attention to a risk prevention in software developing, can cause more economic loss for the company than the time and costs spent on analysis and risk management planning. The project will be successful if project managers are able to identify and prevent the maximum number of risks. Therefore, it is neccessary to dedicate a proper attention to this threat. Which risks can we deal with? How can we prevent their presence? Some problems can appear in every phase of the software developing. The essay will present us some software risk issues, it will provide us with the list of the most frequent risks and it will offer us some methods how to prevent them.

Abstract:Every piece of software code is created by humans. It is merely the question of the right management as to whether the project is to utilize these resources effectively. It is not the maximization of the effort being invested which counts the most but the timing and the right extent is crucial for the project success. It is therefore essential that the supplementary means of human resource allocation are utilized in accordance to the skills and capabilities of each and every project team member. This paper discusses the aspects of task tracking, the responsibility matrix and the managements of human resources. Moreover it analyzes the functionalities of the supplementary means in respect to their use in software team projects which we are to undergo throughout the studies.

Abstract:Developing of software project needed interactivity of many people, who constitute into work group. On support of group activities exists software with terminology groupware? Submitted article deal with basic views on this category software and on collaborative work, which is base element of work group. In next section deal 7 generally requirements on groupware. One section of article presents expansion generally groupware for requirement work groups develop software's projects. It includes short description most often usable modules. In the end article describes problem with motivation of members of work group to use groupware. It refers interesting, creative and useful solutions for this problem with view of members of group.

Abstract:Software repositories (e.g. CVS) are nowadays indispensable part by developing software projects. These systems are tracking informations regarding the evolutionary history of software projects ,e.g. informations related to refactorizing source codes. By studying sufficiently amount of these informations, with use of suitable tools, is possible to use them for project developement and give useful informations to developers ,e.g by foresight bugs in source codes and also to project managers by helping them to manage project more efficiently. This document presents tools and methods, which use effeciently these informations and offer useful support tools by software project developement.

Abstract:Testing is elementary part of software development process. It provides methods for software quality assurance. We can test the software on different levels with different strategies. In this essay, we learn the basic principles of testing and test planning. We take a look at black box and white box testing. We also concentrate on the quality of source codes and their revisions in smaller teams. We introduce the V-Model of software development. To assure the quality of software in smaller teams we will take some inspiration from agile methods.

Abstract:Work breakdown structure is the decomposition of the project into smaller parts that can be done by individual solver. During the creation process of the WBS tree manager has to scope on the effective decomposition, which means to split work into cost and duration measurable tasks in the way that each team member would be able to do his task without waiting for completion from another member. The director has to have in mind his employees, which means to consider their work time, know-how, skills, knowledge, working speed and quality. He needs to categorize tasks and decide who can solve this kind of tasks more efficient or faster in acceptable quality. Some operators work better on similar tasks others do better if they have miscellanous tasks. Total time and other resources (like money) allocated for the project has to be carefully split for the tasks. To construct such structure we can use sophisticated software product but the best part of the work have experienced manager in his hands. This document tries to search for the factors on which depends the quality of the WBS, their parameters and importance.

Abstract:Software assurance is the planned and systematic set of activities that ensures that software processes and products conform to requirements, standards, and procedures. Processes include all of the activities involved in designing, developing, enhancing, and maintaining software. Products include the software, associated data, its documentation, and all supporting and reporting paperwork. It’s very important to think about quality assurance through complete life cycle of software. In this article I will try to compare 3 selected methodologies for software developing (XP, MSF, and RUP) from quality assurance point of view. Than I will try to analyze test-driven software development.

Abstract:Planning of work is one of the most essential tasks in the software project creation process. There is nothing worse than to work on a project for several months and notice, that there has been basically nothing done up to now and that the deadline is coming close. That’s why I would like to show a few possibilities of planning in a project, and especially those, that bring satisfaction to developers and end customers alike. This includes the time scheduling, work distribution to modules and last but not least, deciding when and what to release to the customers. These processes are meant to be done in a way that will make the plan enough motivating for the team, and the results of the work also enough satisfying to the customers.

Abstract:Risk, most specifically such, that can abort a work-in-progress project is something that has to be taken care of seriously. Even so, software project failure is surprisingly common. In most cases, failure could be prevented by adhering to certain principles and methods collectively called risk management. Risk managemet covers procedures how identify, analyze and eliminate risks or minimize their occurrence and effect on software project. In this essay I discuss the most frequently occurring risks in software projects, ways to their identification, most effective methods of their elimination and overall impact of this struggle on software project development.

Abstract:Software project development almost always assumes team work. Team effectivity is determined by a number of factors. Besides professional qualities like experience and knowledge of team members there are personality characteristics of individuals, which determine one’s attitude to assigned tasks, approach to solving of emerged problems, including social interaction itself. These characteristics determine, who is the most suitable person for team leader, system analyst or project developer and which types of personalities would better not meet in a team. In this essay I discuss advantages and disadvantages of team composition with lack of or very high diversity of personality types and when is which combination desirable from the viewpoint of development effectivity of assigned software projects.

Abstract:Software development in teams for business or academic purposes is complex task. Extremely rapid evolution in technologies and methods for software development together with increasing complexity of developed applications introduce new challenges for software engineers. These challenges are even more complicated by the fact that software processes are human oriented, due to which they can be characterized as very unstable and unpredictable. All these facts contribute to a huge number of delayed or over budgeted projects. In this paper we would try to focus on factors and variables, which should be considered by project manager, techniques of measuring them and appropriate actions, which should be applied in case that something goes wrong.