Essay Collection 2009

Abstract:It is not necessary to point out that not only software project, but every project needs a good management. Whole success of the project depends in most cases on management abilities. It is hard to imagine today’s manager, who could manage whole project off the head. Therefore many supportive tools have been made, which make easier and help to manage many aspects of projects. But there are too many of these supportive tools nowadays and choose the correct tool with the rule “the more expensive it is, the better it is” is out of the question. This essay discuss the importance of the supportive tools and the process of choosing the right tool from the point of view of task tracking, human resources and responsibility matrix with the look on possibility of their utilization in software project realized in the scope of the Team project course study.

Abstract:This paper describes my opinion about software project planning, assigning tasks and fulfilling and updating the project plan. There are several ways how to plan a software project. My aim is to describe a traditional waterfall model of software project planning. Directing a software project, it is not important just to build a perfect plan, but also to assign a correct task to each team member. Correct task assigning is also important for keeping plan schedule and to maintain a good work atmosphere. That is why it is very important to take note of skills, experiences and preferences of team members. Team members should participate on project planning and also on tasks assigning. Even the greatest plan cannot be 100% fulfilled. That is why it is important to design a plan in a way that it can be easily actualized. Monitoring progress in a plan and changing the plan if needed is also very important. Strict persisting on keeping the plan schedule can lead to incomprehension and thus making the progress in project impossible.

Abstract:The area of risk management is still more important part in the process of software system development. Many software projects are unsuccessful because of the inadequate handling of possible risks and their consequences. However, in the field of risk management many significant results have been achieved. Essay shows my view on software project risks in the context of six member’s team. Even in the beginning of software project, there are the possibilities of many risks and their consequences estimation. The main goal is the risk categorization. Each category is the set of related risks showing the possibilities of handling, control and team task management. This essay brings the universal ground for the software project risk management in six member’s team.

Abstract:Although agile development methods are becoming more recognized among developers and managers, there are still many projects following a waterfall development model. Testing takes place only after the implementation is over, at the time when bugs are being fixed and the resulting functionality, which is a synonym of quality from the customer's point of view is hard to change. Even the acceptance testing discovers many bugs, which could have been fixed at the time of development. Quality software originates in implementation, it is thus important that it is also regularly assessed during that phase. But how can we improve software quality and decrease error rate? How to avoid unpleasant surprises during integration phase? This essay tries to answer these questions by leveraging code reviews and various types of automated tests and their regular execution on integration server (known as continuous integration).

Abstract:Each potential project has to set up its requirements and goals. Recently, the process of monitoring serves as a control mechanism for all the goals, activities and project sources, such as finances, people, time and quality. This process also helps project managers to find out how the project is progressing and also gives early warning of all possible problems and difficulties, which occur during the life cycle of software development. The aim of essay is to explain why to monitor and then outline the challenges of the process of monitoring, such as subjectivity of tracking progress in various stages of project and subjectivism in assessing the work of people. Essay also deals with responses to problems, especially from view of adding the new member to the team, or cutting exceptional functionality of system.

Abstract:Composition a small software team is not always ideal. Causes can be different: insufficient resources, choosing team members only by their professional qualification or other coincidence of malefic circumstances. But the project is set and waiting for solutions. This work deals with the analysis of personalities in team. According to the analysis I try to find the best distribution of the work positions between team members. Because the team is not ideal, neither the population of work positions will be. That is why this work is concerned also about the options how to mitigate negative aspects of populating particular position with inadequate personality. The goal is to help improve teamwork and overall performance of small information technology (IT) team.

Abstract:Correctness is a very important characteristic of a quality software application, if not the most important one. But ensuring correctness can be a difficult task. It is a known fact that the effort that is needed repair a defect in software is bigger, when the defect is discovered late. Test-driven development is a software development technique, which was designed to allow early defect discovery and repair. The code is tested by the programmer from the very beginning, unlike traditional techniques, where the code is tested after the whole module completed. Late defect repairs should be minimized this way. That means saving expensive resources – time, people and money. Of course, test-driven development is not a universal solution to everything and the desired effect is not guaranteed at all. In this essay I present my personal view on its advantages and disadvantages. I also attempt to describe situations where test-driven development helps creating better software and where not.

Abstract:Software development proces needs many software tools, which helps it. Flowing of information between people in team is one of their main behaviours. For good project managing is necessary to have stock informations of its state. Large part of this informations belong to time tracking. My focus in this essay is oriented to helping tools for managers and their review of time in project. I contemplate to more views on its by different roles. Managers interests to capacity of state informations is different as have other people in team (analytics, developers, testers). In this paper are discussed tools from more aspects from people and their importance from view of state monitoring.

Abstract:Information technology project is almost always team effort. Many factor influence the way that team can successfully accomplish project. One most important of these influences is the cooperation of the individual team members. In this essay I devote to influence personality types on cooperation and effects work in team and on success conclusion of software project. In first part I categorize human personalities according to Myers-Briggs type indicator. Then I try to decide which personalities are better suited for specifics roles in team. In the end I think, what is better from aspect effective project development and its successful conclusion, if the team is composite from people homogenous personality types or heterogeneous personality types.

Abstract:One has to realize, that in every bigger project not all goes according to project plan. Nowadays, even the smallest delay or the smallest deviation from the goals in product specification can cost the company many resources, or even result in project cancellation. Therefore its necessary to give enough attention to risk analysis and management. In this paper I compare some of the most common methods of risk management used in software development in a small, 5-6 member team. I concentrate on the suitability of the methods application in this team and the amount of overhead needed for the method. The method should also be suitable for software development especially in academic sphere.

Abstract:Software projects often end up as a failure, and the biggest cause of this is one of the basic pillars of the project: the plan. A software project manager with a good plan in his/her pocket is on the way to a successful completion of the project. With a good plan the manager is able to avoid many mistakes that could come up during the project. Also he/she can handle possible crisis situations better. This essay contains many new ideas and thoughts about how a good plan can be created and what is necessary for creation of such a plan. It is important to carry out the plan cautiously. In the end the essay concerns situations that usually result in delays or even unfulfillment of planned tasks. These situations should be considered during planning.

Abstract:The definition of the project itself says us that this is a unique process. The fact following from this is, that if we want the project to be effective, it is needed to be able to respond accurately to an unexpected behaviour, which is only related to this project. To know how to decide and how to respond right, we need to be perfectly familiar with current conditions of the project as well as with deviations regarding scheduled conditions for a given instant of time. This will enable us only correctly defined process of monitoring and set of metrics with the help of which we will evaluate the project. In case the project is not going right way, we have to take measures, which will ensure stopping it with the smallest deviation from the final stage. My essay will cover all this and I will also specify or let me say recommend which actions are necessary to be taken in which situations. At the same time, I will primarily focus on tasks of project management, and these include directing and motivating members of the team.