Purpose

Software project management is the art of balancing competing objectives, managing risk, and overcoming constraints to deliver a product that meets the needs of the customers (the ones who pay the bills) and the end users. The fact that few projects are 100% successful is an indicator of the difficulty of the task. Our goal with the software project management discipline of the Rational Unified Process is to make the task as easy as possible by providing guidance in this area. It is not a recipe for success, but it presents an approach to managing the project that will markedly improve the odds of delivering software successfully.

The project management discipline has the following three purposes:

• To provide a framework for managing software- intensive projects

• To provide practical guidelines for planning, staffing, executing, and monitoring projects

• To provide a framework for managing risk

However, this discipline of the Rational Unified Process does not attempt to cover all aspects of project management. ^[1] For example, it does not cover issues such as the following:

^[1] Project managers are invited to read a companion book by Walker Royce, Software Project Management: A Unified Framework . Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1998.

• Managing people: hiring, training, coaching

• Managing budgets : defining, allocating

• Managing contracts with suppliers and customers

This discipline focuses on the specific aspects of an iterative development process:

• Planning an iterative project through the lifecycle and planning a particular iteration

• Risk management

• Monitoring the progress of an iterative project and measurements