Project Management Process (PM)
The Project Management process establishes and carries out in a systematic way the tasks of the software implementation project, which allows complying with the project’s objectives in the expected quality, time and cost.
Relationships
Main Description

Many software products fail not because there is no market, but because the cost of creating the software far outstrips any profit. Currently approximately half a million project managers worldwide are responsible for in the region of one million software projects each year, which produce software worth USD$600 billion. It is now accepted that many of these projects fail to fulfil customers' expectations or fail to deliver the software within budget and on schedule. About one-third of projects have cost and schedule overruns of more than 125%.

Project Management Failure

Software project failure is often devastating to an organization. Schedule slips, buggy releases and missing features can mean the end of the project or even financial ruin for a company. Some of the major reasons for projects running out of control are: unclear objectives; bad planning; new technology; a lack of a project management methodology; and insufficient staff [Jalote02]. At least three of these five reasons clearly relate to project management.

While there are many reasons why software projects fail, one of the most important is incorrect management of the project. Good project management cannot guarantee project success, however bad project management usually results in project failure. The software is delivered late, costs more and fails to meet its requirements. Clearly, by using effective project management techniques a project manager can improve the chances of success.

A study by Capers Jones of approximately 250 software projects between 1995 and 2004 shows an interesting pattern. When comparing projects that successfully achieved their cost and schedule estimates against those that ran late, were over budget, or were cancelled without completion, six common problems were observed: poor project planning, poor cost estimating, poor measurements, poor milestone tracking, poor change control, and poor quality control. By contrast, successful software projects tended to be better than average in all six of these areas. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of these six problem areas is that all are associated with project management rather than with technical personnel.

Project Management Success

There are many ways to make large software systems fail. There are only a few ways of making them succeed. It is commonly agreed that project management is the key factor that tends to push projects along either the path to success or the path to failure. Among the most important project management practices leading to success are those of planning and estimating before the project starts, absorbing changing requirements during the project, and successfully minimizing bugs or defects.

Successful projects always excel in these critical activities: planning, estimating, change control, and quality control. By contrast, projects that run late or fail typically had flawed or optimistic plans, had estimates that did not anticipate changes or handle change well, and failed to control quality.

Key Considerations

The following diagram shows the flow of information between the Project Management Process activities including the most relevant work products and their relationship.

Figure 2 Project Management process diagram (ISO/IEC 29110)