Essay Collection 2010

Abstract:Task tracking is an inevitable aspect of software projects and therefore many support means exist. However there are situations when members of a software project development team do not turn to external tools, but because of various reasons they create task notes directly in source code in the form of comments. New task tracking support means is created in a natural way – task annotations in a source code. Support tools for these new means were created afterwards. In this essay I present my thoughts on circumstances where developers prefer annotations instead of available external tools, which are even already used in their project. Based on this reasoning, I weigh the role of task annotations in the teamwork and so the role, which these means take in a project management. When considering software projects, this essay aims at small teams that are using agile software development by the implementation of Scrum method.

Abstract:For new and small company is not really easy mission to win recognition in enlarging software market. The key moment for this company is good estimation of software project, from which they will be able to device interesting offering for clients. For this reason is really important for every single successful project manager to know how to create as much real estimation of software project as possible. In this work session I dwell on estimation of software projects, their clasification and comparing, whether of teoretical or real examinated projects. In this esay I evode the method of calculating of code lines, functional points, models COCOMO and expert guesses (checklist, DELPHI method) for software projects. Further I evode to problems and differences in software projects in small companies (small software projects, small working team) and bigger software projects.

Abstract:Every student of university studies focused on computer science has to work out many projects in order to finish his studies successfully. Just like in commercial projects, also in the school ones there are risks that may threaten their successful management. The essay is divided into three main parts. In the beginning I deal with the explanation of basic concepts in the field of risk analysis and management. In the second part of the essay I introduce the sources of risk, that occur during the school software projects, either team or individual. I am considering their differences from commercial projects, from the point of view of probability of their appearance and their influence on the project. In conclusion, building on earlier knowledge, I observe, if and how these risks can be managed. I consider if risk management is even needed in this scope.

Abstract:The work of project manager is not easy. Daily he challenges many problems and he must solve them. These problems may seem unimaginable to ordinary people. Almost every project manager was once a student, I decide to apply some of his tasks from his professional life to young future project managers, who are now only students and make his work and motive more understandable. I am not focusing on all of the aspects, that brings managing of software project. I am focusing on project monitoring, where I discus its detail properties and goals. I also focus on change and version managing. I am interested in how managers solve these problems in real life and how solve these problems their followers during their studies.

Abstract:Besides technical background, there is something more what is important in software engineering and that is human factor. A team project is work of a group of software engineers, so not only the final product quality, but also the efficiency of the development process is influenced by the composition of the team. Thanks to personality analysis, it is possible to determinate some conditions which should be accomplished in order to achieve the best performance of the team. Based on different methods of personality type classification, we can assign some typical traits to software engineers and discover their influence to decision making, management, planning and risks in project. University student team project is a typical example of working in team. Therefore I will analyze personality types of software engineering students in this essay. I will use the Myers-Briggs personality classification to discover pros and cons connected with presence of different personalities in team.

Abstract:Question of communication in software developing process still open issue. It could not be denied that communication in team is needed, but opinions differences in quantity and forms. Agile programming is significant with it’s huge amount and high frequecy of communication between team members. The nature of virtual team is reducing face to face communication and so it’s moving communication to other channels. The aim of this essay is therefore to think about options of customization of communication for the requisites of virtual team according to it’s specifics. I’ll compare pros and cons of each method and I’ll try to conclude the influence on team performance. However the form and the style is influenced by knowledge of other team members, I’ll pick some methods, which are reducing this problem at most.

Abstract:Virtual teams are relatively new phenomenon in software management. Deployment of virtual teams in the real project environment brings various problems and pitfalls. These can eventually lead to low team efficiency or even project failure. However, most of these problems can be successfully eliminated with help of supporting tools. Virtual teams are not deployed only in global organizations. We can see similarities if compared against student teams working on assignments. Author of this essay presents his opinion on existing tools and impact of wise choice on the performance and commitment of team members. He discusses critical issues and presents his criterions on tool to eliminate the risks. Finally, he discusses an ideal tool, or at least how to choose a near-perfect.

Abstract:Testing in various forms is an integral part of any software development, but each software company accedes to it from another point of view, whereby depends on the size of it. The essay analyzes the methods, means and practices of stages of testing in consideration of size of the company. It focuses on the appropriate and inappropriate use of them, which leading to prolonged phases of testing and in some cases to complete irrelevance of them. It find fault with small companies with limited budgets very high saving, which tends a large number of undiscovered errors in the final stage of the product and big companies insignificant increase in the cost of testing. It alerts to the suitability or unsuitability of use of the testing framework during testing in specific type of company. The essay monitors the trend of using the test phase from point of view of size of the company in consideration of number of employees.

Abstract:Almost every activity is linked with some risk. Software or any other project is not an exception, of course. This risk may be variously huge and may have various consequences from tiny obstacles to failure of the whole effort made. On the other hand, risk means a challenge which may or may not bring benefit. Therefore it is needed to know about the risks that might come during the work on the project and try to minimize them or find an ideal boundary between threatening the project and gaining some kind of advantage. In this essay, I write about common risk factors and aim for the most important of them in view of our school team project. I also describe the ways of decreasing and eliminating these risks.

Abstract:Earned value analysis is a management method of the project development monitoring. The usage of earned value analysis gives managers not only the review about actual state of project work, but also the prognosis of how project will be developing and how much it will cost. By comparison of these data with the original project plan, the project manager can determine how is the project developing and eventualy make steps which lead to right project destination. The essay describes the method and also discusses about its usage in software project development. It records to problems which are connected to usage of thus method in this kind of project. One of the problems is how to measure progress in a software project development. Another problem occures during decomposition into smaller components, because individual tasks can not be scheduled in advance. In conclusion, the essay discusses convenience of Earned Value Analysis in different kinds of software projects.

Abstract:In competitive environment of software development, success of software teams depends on many factors. It is shown, that one of the most important factors is not knowledge, but main role plays also team member’s personalities and their ability to effectively cooperate in team. The objective of this essay is to summary different aproaches of person characteristics and suitability for team role acording to Myers-Briggs type identificator, which is based on C. G. Jung’s work. At the same time, my goal is to analyse metods of building better team and try to find out what impact has the diversity of personalities in software team to project solving.