Essay Collection 2010

Abstract:Most of approaches to process modeling such as an iterative model have little practical effect on the design and effectiveness of software where human resource is a critical variable. These models ignore the impact of human, organizational, social and others aspects on software development and describe activities for software creation in ideal conditions. In contrast with software process models, project management deals with resources. The goal is to find the best compromise, to provide support for coordination of people, planning, managing of financial and material resources. A specific incorporation of project management into process modeling may eliminate the primarily limitations of existing process models. Tools and techniques used in project management can be applied variously and can differ in types of organizations. In this essay I focus on differences in human resource management. These differences can depend on a scale of organization and private or public sector. I discuss reasons of these differences in relation to methods and techniques applied in organizations, too.

Abstract:Software products represent a constantly greater and greater need in our lives and they already penetrate all areas of our society. Great financial resources and high hopes are poured into software development, expecting that the software will bring anticipated advantage and that it will be reliable. Nevertheless, a great amount of software is destined to be thrown away because it either doesn’t meet the customer’s requirements or it contains too many bugs and failures. Another great group of software projects is able to produce a desired product, but with the cost of highly exceeded time and budget. There are more factors that cause this situation, but the main one is usually bad planning. In this essay I review the most common causes that affect the quality of software project planning negatively and the benefits that the agile methods of software development bring into software project planning and estimation.

Abstract:Increasingly bigger emphasis is putted on quality assurance of the software product. This evolution inducts the basic question: How assure quality of the developed software product? It is difficult give concrete answer, which will be universally applicable to all projects, to this question. One of the recommendations is elaborate quality testing plan and follows this plan during development of the software. For what is software testing so important? Which one of the testing techniques is it advisable to choose? I aimed at quality assurance of the software product, which is being developed with small team, from sight of software testing in this essay. I discussed and compared frequently used techniques of software testing like automatic and manual software testing, test driven development, functional testing and random testing in this essay.

Abstract:Most of information technology students dislike management subjects. They find processes of software project management boring, unimportant and unnecessary formal. However a good management of software project can actually help students solving the project. Risk management is exceptionally important, since virtually every project is affected by risks. Therefore, there is a necessity to introduce basics of risk management to students and emphasize its importance within process of project management. In this essay I discuss possible risks emerging within students’ projects, I try to identify important aspects for risk management method ideal for students, which is supposed to be less formal, student-friendly, but still bringing benefits of risk management in the project.

Abstract:This essay deals with tasks monitoring in software project. Problems occur when task reports are deprived or insufficient. Essay decribes aftermaths resulting from these problems and analyses how they affect the progress of software project from the aspect of further planning and controlling. It is shown how it is possible to utilize informations acquired with task monitoring for the whole project or individual developers self management. To eliminate these problems it is necessary to find efficient solutions. Some effective tools are briefly introduced, which where proposed to solve these kind of problems.

Abstract:Development of the software projects is a critical process affecting the project’s success and it is important to constantly analyze and improve the process. Essay represents my views on the issue of planning in software projects. Using interesting look through the nine key issues of planning, I evaluate and reflect my personal experience from large-scale projects and also from smaller school software projects. The essay also describes the problems project managers have to face in the process of updating the plans. This essay is not intended to provide a complete view of planning software projects, it provides my opinion, which I have gained during my participation in several software projects.

Abstract:Software quality is well defined and frequently used term. But what does software quality mean in the context of the team project at our faculty? In this essay I choose the best perspective on the quality of the software in the context of our team projects. The quality is influenced by every phase of the software development process from specification to deployment. However, probably the most important to quality is the design phase, which determines the effort needed in the subsequent phases of the lifecycle. Another important factor to mention is the overall knowledge and skills of the team members and their endeavour in the process of quality assurance which lasts through all lifecycle phases of the project. Frequent reasons for the decrease of the quality are late involvement of testing, misuse of refactoring and excessive reliance on design patterns or modern software development tools. In this essay I express my opinion on the proper use of the above-mentioned techniques, by which they are increasing the quality of the team project’s result.

Abstract:Risk management is often underestimated on projects of smaller scale, as management can percieve it as unnecessary expense. However, the truth can be opposite and investment can be returned in the form of eliminated disaster which would only cause multiple damages. After all it is not only about expenses, platitude is for instance higher probability of successful project and therefore it is also about reputation and other factors. With these, risk management is classified as essential approach to software project management. In the essay I will examine which risks could be more important and frequent for smaller projects than classic risks for bigger projects. I will try to find answer for a question if there is a sense in doing fully dedicated risk management in small projects and what impact could it have if it would have been completely skipped.

Abstract:The Monitoring software project is one of the most important aspects for successful development of project . I present my opinion about influence of monitoring software product on change management in this work. The main task of change management is identification and realization of change, which is needed. This can save a lot of time, human and financial resources and it can improve satisfaction of customer.

Abstract:The main reason for working in a team is to achieve such goals, which cannot be achieved by a single working human. Does the creation of a team automatically guarantee achievement of the expected results? Not in every case. The success of the project largely depends on the composition of personalities in team. Each person contributes to the team with its own personal attributes. Some of which can be a benefit for the team, others might not. However among those apparently useless personal attributes, there are also such, that can proove their use to the team while combined with others. Analysis of the personalities in the team also plays an important role with assigning tasks. In this essay I bring my own insight into the different personality types, their interaction in the team. I explain the pros and the cons of possible combinations of personalities in the team depending on project size.

Abstract:My father use to say, that everything takes longer than one would say by a first look. In my opinion this is true even more, if concerning software problems. Complicated software projects consist of carefully connected tasks. In current situation of people specialization it is not possible for manager to have knowledge of every technology used by people driven by him. Because of this, most project tasks become some kind of black-box. On the other hand, programmer can see only his specified task and not the circumstances of task within project. Communication in team is inevitable. This essay talks about what is by my opinion the best solution of team communication and project tracking. It talks about software tools for management support and their significance. It talks about time, which this tool can save to manager, but can cost the programmer.

Abstract:Everyone who has ever been involved in software development probably realizes an importance of planning in this kind of project. Everyone who has ever been involved in software development probably knows that the plans tend to be broken there. The reasons of it may vary, but generally it is not possible to capture a computer program (until not already done) and hence hard to plan. In this essay I describe a way of planning with consideration that there is something I’m actually unable to plan in the project. Even when tried hard, it is never guaranteed that a project will follow the plan and will not turn into an unguided missile. In such case it is reasonable to bury the old plan and set new rules to the development. An example of how it might be done is also part of this article.

Abstract:To ensure quality of software project should be matter of course for developers. However what does it exactly mean? In my essay I want to point that under software quality everybody can understand something else. Different people can have different priorities however on the first sight the goals are equal. Somebody requires reliability and speed, another one a nice graphical interface. From that reason it is very important to involve customer in process of software development. Besides that I want to highlight how important role plays the testing in this process for securing of inner software quality. Its neglecting can lead to software uselessness in production use or even causing damage to customer.

Abstract:There are parallels between the growth of a small company and that of a tree. Confronted with the necessity of getting used to the conditions and particular surroundings in the first place, the tree later becomes faced with climatic changes, pest infestation and, last but not least; the man. It has to learn to hold up no matter what... As for a company, the process is rather similar... Its growing, taking on new staff, launching new and unexplored projects, expanding, exploiting new technology, but also the impact of economic and financial fields result in increased occurrence of risks. There are many ways of how to prevent risks or, let us say, how to swim right and walk straight. The correct analysis and point-by-point planning ahead, defining pros and cons as well as making the right sacrifices, are company´s thorough necessities and priorities to follow. When analysing the society, we most often point out the risks, mistakes and missteps that are caused by human factor, by having the wrong approach and taking the wrong decisions, or else, that are due to technology and ill-considered moves.

Abstract:Success of software project depends on many factors. One of them is exactly monitoring, which provides feedback for the control process. Decide to monitor a software project is just beginning, but how to avoid unnecessary burdens and monitor useful? It is key to choose the correct quantity and essential data in respect of a project that match a specific manager. Sometimes less is more. In the essay you will also learn how to detect the direction, in which the project is moving and other benefits that the monitoring brings. Furthermore, what kind of the monitoring is inappropriate in respect of the type and size of the project, in my personal opinion. All of these questions I am confronting with school projects, where the essence of monitoring is totally different, influenced by the goals of the projects.

Abstract:A consequence of different combinations of character trait of a person is unique and varied, but the general character can be integrated into the group. Everyone is sympathetic to something different and each have different meaning about the other. We could say, that the process of creating teams, where every person is happy and well-socialized, is similar to find a love or find a partner. In this essay I am discribing, that the compilation of the team, regardless of character properties of individual members, can create conflicts inside of the team. Section describes the personality cahracter, positive and negative consequences of joining them into the teams. Examples of how to create a group are shown. To the reader is presented the examples which characters are or are not sympathetic to my own.