Imagine that you have been appointed as a project manager for an important IT pr
ID: 369522 • Letter: I
Question
Imagine that you have been appointed as a project manager for an important IT project in a large firm. Answer the following questions:
Briefly outline which category of employee (top managers, business analysts, designers, developers, testers, system administrators, end-users) you will have frequent interaction with during the seven phases of the Systems Development Life Cycle and briefly explain why your interaction with these categories of employees will be frequent.
What project management tools would you draw on over the course of the seven phases of the SDLC to help you insure project success? Briefly explain why these tools are important.
How will your job be differ depending on whether your firm decides to use a waterfall or an agile methodology?
Explanation / Answer
In the Seven Phases of Software development life cycle, as a Project Manager I would interact frequently with the following set of employees in the respective phase as follows
1. Planning
The purpose of this step is to find out the scope of the problem and determine solutions. Resources, costs, time, benefits and other items would be considered at this stage. I would frequently interact with Top Managers , Team leaders, Architects and Business Responsible contact person.
2. Systems Analysis and Requirements
Systems analysis is vital in determining what business needs are, as well as how they can be met, who will be responsible for individual pieces of the project, and what sort of timeline should be expected.
I would frequently interact with Business Analyst, End Users (Or some one who can provide requirements) and Technical leaders/ Architects.
3. Systems Design
It is during this phase that they will consider the essential components (hardware and/or software) structure (networking capabilities), processing and procedures for the system to accomplish its objectives.
I would frequently interact with technical Leaders/Architects and Designers.
4. Development
The development phase marks the end of the initial section of the process. Additionally, this phase signifies the start of production. The development stage is also characterized by instillation and change. Focusing on training can be a huge benefit during this phase.
I would frequently interact with Developers, Technical Leaders/Architects
5. Integration and Testing
The fifth phase involves systems integration and system testing to determine if the proposed design meets the initial set of business goals. This testing will be performed until the end user finds it acceptable.
I would frequently interact with testing people, Business Analysts and team leaders and end users for acceptance testing.
6. Implementation
The sixth phase is when the majority of the code for the program is written. Additionally, this phase involves the actual installation of the newly-developed system. This step puts the project into production by moving the data and components from the old system and placing them in the new system via a direct cutover
I would frequently interact with Infrastructure Team members, Devops, Technical Leaders and Team leaders as well as Business Analysts.
7. Operations and Maintenance
The seventh and final phase involves maintenance and regular required updates. This step is when end users can fine-tune the system, if they wish, to boost performance, add new capabilities or meet additional user requirements.
I would frequently interact with Support team, Business Analysts who would be the Point of contact from Client’s perspective.
Tools:
I would Use Documentation Management Tool to manage requirements and specifications. Use a RTM (Requirement Traceability Matrix) for mapping requirements, use Design/UML tools for Prototyping, use JIRA for managing developing and testing activities, use Testing tools for QA.
But JIRA could potentially cover all the PM activities, where it can be used for Scrum or Kanban methods, where you can create activities, assign to team members, track its progress, track effort spent versus effort allocated, track the burn down of effort and have report on the Project Progress.
If the Project is a Waterfall method, I would focus on single phase at a time and act as a Regular Project Manager, manning each phase at a given point of time.
However if it is a Agile way, then I would have an Agile/Scrum team and I would take up the role of a scrum master/product owner and would need to have many phase simultaneously. In the sprints, BA might be involved in requirement for the next sprint, Developers may work on current sprint items and QA may work on testing past sprint developments and I tend to work in a very flexible way and taking chunks of pieces at a go completing it and will have delivery responsibility on every couple of sprints.