Guide to Software Project Management

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 PURPOSE
ESA PSS-05-0 describes the software engineering standards to be applied for all deliverable software implemented for the European Space Agency (ESA) [Ref 1].

ESA PSS-05-0 requires that every software project be planned, organised, staffed, led, monitored and controlled. These activities are called ‘Software Project Management’ (SPM). Each project must define its Software Project Management activities in a Software Project Management Plan (SPMP).

This guide defines and explains what software project management is, provides guidelines on how to do it, and defines in detail what a Software Project Management Plan should contain.

This guide should be read by software project managers, team leaders, software quality assurance managers, senior managers and initiators of software projects.

1.2 OVERVIEW
Chapter 2 contains a general discussion of the principles of software project management, expanding upon ESA PSS-05-0. Chapter 3 discusses methods for software project management that can be used to support the activities described in Chapter 2. Chapter 4 discusses tools for software project management. Chapter 5 describes how to write the SPMP.

Chapter 6 discusses progress reporting.
All the mandatory practices in ESA PSS-05-0 relevant to software project management are repeated in this document. The identifier of the practice is added in parentheses to mark a repetition. This document contains no new mandatory practices.

CHAPTER 2 SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT

2.1 INTRODUCTION
Software project management is ‘the process of planning, organising, staffing, monitoring, controlling and leading a software project’ [Ref 3]. Every software project must have a manager who leads the development team and is the interface with the initiators, suppliers and senior management. The project manager:

• produces the Software Project Management Plan (SPMP);
• defines the organisational roles and allocates staff to them;
• controls the project by informing staff of their part in the plan;
• leads the project by making the major decisions and by motivating staff to perform well;
• monitors the project by measuring progress;
• reports progress to initiators and senior managers.

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