APPLICATION TO SOFTWARE ENGINEERING

   

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Figure 4.2 shows an example of the application of Step 4 taken from a real-life project. What the project manager has done is to overlay our form on a Gantt chart of the project. This is a neat idea because, for starters, it enables her to check that every job has been assigned to somebody!


Figure 4.2.

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Looking through the form it looks like we're in reasonable shape. There are some training requirements arising from the 4s and we should check that something has been allowed for these on the job list. If not we should add something. Also the 2s and 4s would want to be watched a bit more closely than the 1s. However, with luck, a lot of the 4s may turn into 1s with the appropriate training and supervision.

You can fill out one of these forms at a number of possible levels:

  • for the project team as a whole

  • for each person, as we have done above

  • or for each person-job, as we talked about at the beginning of this chapter

The deeper you go the more insight you get. Also, you can do it at different times in the project, say at the beginning of each phase. A reasonable compromise between not doing it at all and doing it repeatedly for each person-job might be to do it for each team member, either once (when they join the project) or, for very long projects, at the beginning of each phase.

Finally, one other thing that's useful is illustrated in Figures 4.3 and 4.4: charts showing who is allocated to what project over what period. This helps you to keep track of multiple people across multiple projects, and can also assist you with hiring plans. We have given two examples: Figure 4.3 is for a single, large project; Figure 4.4 is for a software engineering department.

Figure 4.3. Example of large project staff allocation

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Figure 4.4. Example of software department staff allocation

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How To Run Successful Projects III. The Silver Bullet
How to Run Successful Projects III: The Silver Bullet (3rd Edition)
ISBN: 0201748061
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2001
Pages: 176

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