Advanced software project planning. Estimation of cost and value. Risk management. Release planning. Productivity and quality metrics. Management of software assets, contracts, project portfolio and distributed projects. Personnel, legal and ethical issues. Applicable standards and tools.
We want students to be able to distinguish various types of software projects, to select or adapt a lifecycle adapted to the project at hand, to estimate efforts and cost, to track progress on various fronts: time, risks, deliveries, etc., assess quality, both of the product and the process, understand the key issues in managing people and teams, and be able to reflect on their own projects to improve over time their management practice. They also need to understand ethical and legal issues, as well as some of the difficulties communication and coordination related to distance or cultural difference in global software projects, as these are rapidly becoming dominant model.
Bob Hughes & Mike Cotterell, Software Project Management 5th edition, 2008 McGraw-Hill, UK