Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC)

The software development life cycle (SDLC) is a conceptual model used in project management that describes the stages involved in an information system development project, from an initial feasibility study through maintenance of the completed application.

Many SDLC methodologies are developed to guide the processes involved, including the waterfall model, rapid application development, the fountain model, the spiral model, build and fix, synchronize-and-stabilize, Exterme Programming, Agile Software Development etc. The list goes on for ever

The main stages in the SDLC are

1. Requirement Analysis
2. Design
3. Coding & Debugging
4. Systems Testing
5. Deployment / Implementation
   
6. Maintenance

Some of them might be clubbed together if required depending on the projects. Success of a project is to succeed in each of these phases.

Each phase requires some input and gives out a deliverable. A deliverable here need not necessarily be the one that goes to the end customer, but some tangibles that are produced on completion of that particular phase. For example, requirements document, test cases, design document etc.

In coming articles we shall look at each phase of the lifecycle and their stakeholders

Software Estimation - Lines of Code (Part 1)

One of the primitive and efficient method for estimation of software development time is based on the Source Lines of Code (SLOC). For maintenance or enhancement projects the SLOC is readily available and the impact of the new change request can be had. On the other hand, this luxury is not available for new projects - projects from scratch. Here we need to assume to SLOC and start working

Now the question is 'how to get the Source Lines of Code more accurate?'

We need to get the figures from the experts who know the code and will be doing the coding - the programmers, the DBAs etc. It is advisable to get the figures from them for three different situations

1. Expected
2. Best
3. Worst

Expected will be the usual case and the Best scenario will less estimated time and the worst, obviously have more time .. if a module gets screwed up etc..

The final figure of SLOC can be achieved by using the Mean and Standard Deviation

Mean =[best+worst+4*(expected)]/6

and the Standard Deviation can be achieved by

SD =(worst–best)/6

Final Estimation = Mean + 3 * SD

The final estimation will give a bit accurate figure.

The estimation of lines of code should not count the following:

Comments

Blank lines

OS include files directives etc

There are many tools to do the estimation. We will discuss on some of them in the future articles.

For mean and SD, Microsoft Excel should come handy. You can also write some custom functions in MS Excel (http://vbadud.blogspot.com) for customized calculations

Project Management Professional Certification

Views on Project Management Professional(PMP)Certification from Bharathwaj Srinivasan

PMP is Project Management Professional(PMP)Certification from Project Management Institute(PMI)for Project Managers across the globe in variousindustries. It is a generic certification and notindustry specific, it has great value in the industry.

PMP exam is tough but a lot of organised preparationcan take you through. It is mandatory that you have4500 hours of experience in projects implementation,35 MANDATORY hours of PM training from a registeredtraining provider before you apply for the exam. Youcan do independently, but you also need to be ready toinvest about INR 50,000 if you are doing it yourself

Check out <www.4pmti.com> or write to <info@4pmti.com>for more details about PMTI (they provide themandatory that is required). You will also need to gothrough the PMBOK guide before appearing for the exam.But there might be other good institutes who offerbetter training than PMTI.

Welcome to Project Management

Hello everyone

It took me more than half a decade to start a blog on Effective Project Management - a topic always close to my heart.

This blog should be useful for all would be project managers and who are into Project management recently. We would cover all tools, techniques on managing projects effectively.

Comments and criticism are welcome.

I sincerely dedicate this blog to Mr Sandeep Sridharan - My boss at LaserWords (www.laserwords.com) .

Sincerely Yours
Sundar