- General introduction and description
A project reveals a unique effort that has straightforward objectives, a beginning point, a finishing point, and generally a budget . The project manager has the project to launch of a new product line for a company including a marketing program. A line of product denotes a bunch of products that mutually cater a certain segment of market or accomplish a particular mission but, the software products line on the basis of inter-product harmony is a new phenomenon that is instantly rising, and reflects a feasible and significant paradigm of software development. The origination of news from Magdeburg, Germany through Vertical-News researchers on software product line engineering, research stated that it is a well-organized mean to develop family units’ programs alternative for a domain through a sole code base. However, due to the greater number of programs alternative, it is complex to check all of them and validate features like type safety for the whole product line .
- Project Scope Statement
The project scope statement deal with providing a comprehensive outline of the task required for the project. A good explanation to the scope is very significant for a project success, because it enables to enhance the time accuracy, cost, and estimation of resources. It acts a foundation in performance evaluation and control of project, and assists in delivering precise job tasks. The fundamental instruments and methods used in outlining scope involve executive judgment, analysis of product, alternatives generation and facilitated seminars .
The software product lines scope statement entails economies of scope which means that the company enjoys the economic benefits on the similarity of its products which is not by accident, but it actually planned in that direction. The company takes purposeful, long-term decisions and behaves in a systematic way to apply those decisions effectively.
- Project Objectives
- Discover the initial fundamental concepts and the mandatory activities of software products lines before its development.
- Uncover the practice areas that the software developing product lines must master.
- Outline practices in each practice area, when available knowledge is adequate enough.
- Procure leadership about ways to forward a product line attempt for software to an organization.
- Project Deliverables
It is very important to recognize the deliverables in the project. Project Manger (PM) wishes to know about the completion of a project. For instance, a project gets completed when A, B and, C occur. Groups that are convenient with the use of work breakdown structure (WBS) locate these variables in WBS vocabulary. If a PM does not have a WBS dictionary then he must have a bunch of deliverables for the purpose. A PM illustrated the criteria of deliverables with his group after decomposition of WBS into work packages. He then is able to review the deliverables to look whether they complied with the plan. A project reveals its completion after addressing the elements, for instance contract fulfillment, project scope and invoices completion and all jobs review . The deliverables of the project are as follow:
- Architecture-based development
- Attribute-driven design
- Architectural patterns
- Quality attributes workshops
- Aspect-oriented programming
- Product-builders guide
- Mechanism to achieving variability in product line architecture
- Architecture documentation
- Specified component interfaces
- Project Milestones
There are two forms of milestones in which one is major and another is minor. The major milestones reveal explicit project progress to external individuals, for instance customers and project sponsors. On the other hand, minor milestones help PM to monitor points that help him to control daily activities of a project. Minor milestones require shorter interval that gives PM a confidence on achievement of major milestones. Minor milestones also demonstrate progress on a weekly or regular basis to improve the confidence of project team and experience a sense of achievement . The minor and major milestones of a software product line are as under:
Major Milestones
- An approval of idea
- An appraisal of requirements
- An evaluation of introductory design
- A review of critical design
- An assessment of test plan
- An examination of readiness
- An analysis of system test
- A review of operational readiness
- A successful operation of a product
Minor Milestones
- A completion of document outline
- A conclusion of document
- A completion of technical investigation
- A compile conclusion
- An achievement of software module
- A fulfillment of software product builds
- An accomplishment of test case
- A completion of bug fix
- Technical Requirements
There is a need to establish technical standards in order to limit the selections of the software engineers so that they include the forms and sources of elements in systems. It is the responsibility of software engineers to audit for architecture compliance and review design to confirm the application of required standards. For instance, the developer has the option to prefer two located web browsers and three located database selections but he needs to apply a particular spreadsheet or middleware product if either is compulsory.
The technical requirements are barriers to encourage interoperability and to reduce the cost linked with support and maintenance of business elements. An organization that takes the responsibility of a product line effort has to abide the technical requirements to meet the standards. However, the standards are just obstacles that behave like input for a product line of software and nothing else.
- Limits & Exclusions
The use of product line approach also encompasses limitations and exclusions. The new product line approach makes up a technical strategy for the company. The management and company issues form obstructions that required overcoming and bring advanced dangers due to circumvent treatment. The foundation of successful software product line and taking it to the market requires skilled engineering individuals, scientific and management of organization. The acquisition of software product line also requires the bunch of skilled individuals to strengthen its position and to effectively exploit the unity of the forthcoming products, and to lend sound scientific omission and control to the development effort. These capabilities are mandatory in order to control the drawbacks that expose hurdles in getting success to an unsophisticated organization.
- Project Priorities
- Scope
The scope of the project for the individuals within a product line organization brings greater impacts.
Project Manager – The project scope enables PM to attain enough productivity gains, a substantial enhanced time to market, stabled market and development presence, and to attain the market niche economically.
Technical Manager – The scope allows him improve predictability; establish roles and duties and favorable production.
Software Product Developer – The scope facilitates him to have greater morale, focus on required features of products; learn user friendly software integration and technology; increased mobility at workplace.
Architect/Core Asset Developer – The scope enables him to enjoy increased challenge, work influence, receive prestige and get marketable for a product line within an organization.
Customer – The scope for customer is to receive favorable products having expected delivery time and costs known to them for the exclusive demands, well-established tutorials and documentation, communal preservation costs and opportunity to involve in user’s group.
End User – The scope enables end user to experience some flaws but gain an effective training guide and a system of other users.
The early announcement of production architecture brings stagnation and vice versa reveals unwanted variation. The project priorities require taking discretionary measures before deciding about the method and time to freeze the architecture. The required time to comprehensively establish the architecture may also be time-consuming. If there is an existence of avoidance in the case of product development and completion of product line architecture in time, then there is a probability to lose patience of developers, management may face conflicts and undesirable market share by the salespersons.
- Cost and Quality:
The project priority for an element reflects non-usability if it is very general or particular. If an element is too common then it entails varied conceptual domains, the element demands for multifaceted configuration knowledge to make it usable for a particular scenario and hence reveals inheritance complex to reuse. The additional generality brings performance and other variables of cost and quality to an intolerable point. In the case more specificity of a component, then a small number of conditions exist in which it represents right choice.
- Work Breakdown Structure
The following breakdown structure helps project manager to evaluate the division of work in the context of new software product line .
- Estimation of Project Costs
The estimation of project costs is attributable to the following core assets:
- Requirements
- Architecture
- Software components
- Performance modeling and investigation
- Business case, market study, cost and schedule predictions
- Instruments and procedures for software development and for making amendments
- Test cases, plans and, data
- Individuals, skills and, training
Any organization that intends to launch a new product line must keep in that it requires a substantial start-up investment along with constant costs to balance the fundamental assets. A cost and a caveat reveal their association with achievement of each gain. The estimation of costs for core asset is attributable to capture demands for a system group which include analysis and substantial conciliation to show consent on general demands and variations points together for all the systems.
- Project Network Diagram
- Project Gantt Chart
- Project Risk Management
The constant process of effectively managing the projects throughout their life period opposed to one-off exercise is the risk management of projects. The risk management of projects gives an opportunity to study from historical achievements and failures, locate actions to decrease the substantial influences of particular dangers, establish effective decisions, and ultimately reveal best performance of projects .
The greater danger linked with this practice domain is the pitfall of a favorable architecture of a product line. The influence of this danger reveals non-mutual adjustment of elements or their proper interaction, non compliance of behavioral, quality and performance goals, non-production of products under scope from the available core assets and a exposure of dull an ad hoc product development process.
The variables results in widespread and time-consuming redraft, unfavorable quality system, and non-realization of complete benefits of product lines. If the product groups fail to locate the suitable architecture for their products and simple to fathom and utilize, they can circumvent them that uncover the ultimate degradation of the complete concept of product line.
- Project Performance Measurement & Evaluation
Companies believe that the performance measurement and development of pertinent systems set from common assets bring extra-ordinary enhancements in output, quality of product, time to market, satisfaction of customer and, effective software product line to address the needs of mass customization. Companies enjoy economies in delivery time, cost, smooth acquirements, easy training through related systems commissioning that focus on acquisition of software systems opposed to their development.
- Project Closure
The flexibility of a product is the core element of a software market, and product lines help complete the conclusion of customized systems built particularly to address the needs of customers or their groups. The shared unity by software products helps product line to succeed and achieve economies of production.
- Critical Success Factors linked with project management
Skilled architect:
A product line architect must show the capabilities in present and promising technologies, the application domains available, contemporary techniques of design, support of tools, and specialized practices like the application of architectural patterns.
Sound input:
The scope of product line and the production strategy require adequate explanation in terms of definition and stability. The products requirements need effective articulation and competent enough in order to ensure the reliability of architectural decisions. The architecture of future technology requires effective design for its application, and precise estimation.
Communication and documentation:
Any architecture is of effective use if its consumers or the product builders experience effective communication and documentation.
Supportive culture and management:
If the architecture group is associated with the product development group, then there is no need to have the support of management for the use and development of product line architecture. The compliance compels product groups to not face “go renegade” and not execute unilateral amendments to the architecture in the case of turning out of systems.
Tools:
The tools that assist in designing, explaining, or using the variability of architecture’s mechanism which is a significant section of product line architecture, are substantial in this practice domain. The tools to check the product compliance to architecture are almost present.
Parameterization:
The non supplementary parameterization results in desirable system which is also easy to comprehend. The advanced measures do not bind the parameters that reveal user friendly customization.
Specification:
The integration of elements in the specifications is complete and comprehensive to stationary descriptions of individual services.
Decomposition:
An element procures the functionality required to apply the system in a right direction if there is not an absence of adequate decomposition of the desired functionality of system.
Inter-component dependencies:
A component is of any use if it does not bear additional dependencies on other components.
- Project Framework Form
- References
- Ashton Acton, Q., 2013. Issues in Software Research, Design, and Application. 2013 ed. Atlanta, Georgia: ScholarlyEditions.
- Bonnie Biafore, 2013. Microsoft Project 2013: The Missing Manual. 1st ed. Sebastopol: O Reilly Media, Inc..
- Chambers & Associations Pty Ltd, 2014. www.chambers.com.au. [Online] Available at: http://www.chambers.com.au/glossary/milestone.php[Accessed 1 October 2014].
- Greg, W., 2013. Project 2013 In Depth. 1st ed. USA: Pearson Education, Inc..
- Huang, C. & Kahraman, C., 2013. Intelligent Systems and Decision Making for Risk Analysis and Crisis Response. 1st ed. London: CRC Press/Balkema.
- Kathy Schwalbe, 2014. Information Technology Project Management. 7th ed. Boston: Course Technology, Cengage Learning.
- Project Management Documents, 2014. Project Management Documents - Free Project Management Templates, s.l.: www.projectmanagementdocs.com.
