Marcelo Marinho

An Approach Related to Uncertainty in Software Projects

A number of recent studies confirm that change continues to occur in project management in both the professional and research fields. Although project management has become a core business process for many firms at strategic and operational level it is no secret that many projects still fail, and one reason for this may be due to a lack of knowledge regarding project uncertainties. The goal of this article is to understand what gives rise to uncertainty, to recognize its symptoms and explore strategies for controlling it. This article offers a new classification to areas of uncertainty in software projects, and our aim is to assist project managers and staff to reduce uncertainty and thereby contribute to commercial project success.

A Systematic Review of Uncertainties in Software Project Management

It is no secret that many projects fail, regardless of the business sector, software projects are notoriously disaster victims, not necessarily because of technological failure, but more often due to their uncertainties. The threats identified by uncertainty in day-to-day of a project are real and immediate and the stakes in a project are often high. This paper presents a systematic review about software project management uncertainties. It helps to identify the difficulties and the actions that can minimize the uncertainties effects in the projects and how managers and teams can prepare themselves for the challenges of their projects scenario, with the aim of contributing to the improvement of project management in organizations as well as contributing to project success.

Uncertainties in software projects management

The organizational environment becomes increasingly focused on projects, it is time to unleash the power and energy embedded in projects. The disturbingly poor project success rate makes it imperative that the organization pays more attention to their project activity, their potential, and the competitive advantage that they can bring. The goal of this article is to understand what gives rise to uncertainty; to recognize its symptoms and explore strategies for controlling it. This article offers a classification to source of uncertainty in software projects, a guide to manage software projects in phases of uncertainty and our aim is to assist project managers and staff to reduce uncertainty and thereby contribute to commercial project success.

A GUIDE TO DEAL WITH UNCERTAINTIES IN SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Various project management approaches do not consider the impact that uncertainties have on the project. The identified threats by uncertainty in a projec day-to-day are real and immediate and the expectations in a project are often high. The project manager faces a dilemma: decisions must be made in the present about future situations which are inherently uncertain. The use of uncertainty management in project can be a determining factor for the project success. This paper presents a systematic review about uncertainties management in software projects and a guide is proposed based on the review. It aims to present the best practices to manage uncertainties in software projects in a structured way including techniques and strategies to uncertainties containment.

Dealing with Uncertainties in Software Project Management

Nowadays it is noticed that many projects fail, software projects are notoriously disaster prone, not necessarily because of technological failure, but more often due to uncertainties. In their efforts to keep their projects, many project managers are implicitly using similar ideas, though not always formally as the subject proposes. In this article, a qualitative research which was conducted through semi-structured interviews with 25 participants is presented. Among the interviewees there are software project managers and management researchers. The aim of the work is to explore practices, strategies and techniques as well as to provide a set of recommendations to guide managers in order to reduce uncertainties in their projects.

SYSTEMATIC REVIEW ON PROJECT ACTUALITY

Nowadays much is written about how to manage projects, but too little on what really happens in project actuality. Project Actuality came out in the Rethinking Project Management (RPM) agenda in 2006 and it aims at understanding what really happens at project context. To be able to understand project actuality phenomenon, we first need to get a better comprehension on its definition and discover how to observe it and analyse it. This paper presents the results of the systematic review conducted to collect evidence on Project Actuality. The research focused on four search engines, in publications from 1994 to 2013. Among others, the study concludes that project actuality has been analysed by several methods and techniques, mostly on large organization and public sectors, in Northern Europe. The most common definitions, techniques, and tips were identified as well as the intent of transforming the results in knowledge.

Development Risk Assessment in Software Projects Using Dependability Models

Risk management is a prominent activity, which aims the mitigation of undesirable issues during a project lifetime. In this context, techniques have been proposed to evaluate the impact of risks, but probability estimates are usually neglected, affecting a proper evaluation of such issues. This work presents an approach based on dependability models (e.g., stochastic Petri nets) for probabilistic evaluation of risks regarding the turnover of team members and requirement implementation in software development projects. Two case studies are adopted to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed technique.

Stochastic model for performance evaluation of test planning

One of the challenges the IT industry faces involves maintaining the quality of the developed product within a consistent planning. Product delays are in general consequences of badly conceived planning and lack of progress control. The interest in software testing activities has been growing over the last few years. Software companies currently seek low cost testing procedures and at the same, with great capacity to handle mistakes. In this article, concepts related to testing processes are mapped in Stochastic Petri Nets(SPN) which provides a formal representation for measures used in performance analysis.

Gerenciando as incertezas dos projetos de software através da gestão de conhecimento: Uma revisão sistemática

Innovations and the constant changes in software projects have brought a remarkable number of failures and uncertainties present in these. In front of the exposed, stands out the relevance of a management aimed at assisting in the ability to perceive uncertainties and in extracting pertinent information within the development environment. Regarding the construction of software, it is necessary to identify content, allocation and sharing, from the point of view of a management directed to knowledge. This monograph aims to investigate and analyze ways to complement the uncertainty management task in the knowledge management process. Thus, through a systematic review of the literature, this research sought to identify practices, strategies and techniques to support knowledge management that can subsidize the task of managing the uncertainties that pervade software development. It is concluded that from the knowledge management there is an effective contribution regarding the identification and management of uncertainties, thus corroborating in the optimization of the software development processes.

DIRECTIONS FOR BUILDING AN APPROACH TO INNOVATIVE SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Abstract : In recent decades, organizations have structured its activities around projects. We have become a driven-projects society. The research and practice in project management area have evolved as a response to this. Among other benefits, successful projects allow reducing costs and increasing profits as well as improving quality and customer satisfaction. Innovation is one of the keys to success in organization. However, due to the high level of uncertainty and complexity, the threats identified by innovation in a project day-to-day are real. A large number of project management approaches do not consider the impact that innovations have on projects, contributing to high rate of project failure. In a typical software development environment it is not different. Based on this, the objective of this research in progress is to contribute to project success by proposing an approach to guide project managers and team members about the management of innovative software projects, fostering innovation and avoiding it to be stifled. The research method used in this research is based on the principles of Evidence-Based Software Engineering. During the first research phase, exploratory literature research in the innovation management in software projects was carried out as well as a systematic review of the impact factors in innovative software project management. At this research stage, the necessary elements to construct the initial approach have been identified. The results of this research contribute to the project management field, defining an approach to the innovative software project management, and helping project managers to realize the opportunities to promote innovation and manage it.