Project process structuring

Standard Processes and Activities

UMP recommended life cycle model is developed tailoring the ISO/IEC 12207 standard on software life cycle. Read more >>

UMP process structure
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Project tasks definition

Three points of view should be taken into consideration when defining project tasks:

• Project goals
• Task control
• Task functional grouping and assignment to small development team

Project goals and process structuring

The project should be broken on well defined tasks:

1. Task should be derived from the project goals
2. Task directly contributes into project goals achievements.
3. Task should be "atomic", to implement 1 requirement, not several
4. Task cost should be:
   1 man*day <= task cost <= 1 man*week
5. Task has defined and specified inputs (data, documents, conditions, etc) and outputs (code, documentation, etc).
6. Task should allow to test impartially its implementation from the end user point of view.
7. Task completion criteria are established
8. Task should have project unique code.

Rationale
Too general task: "to write necessary scripts" IS NOT A TASK.
Samples of the completion criteria: resources exhausted, test passed, etc.
Do not use a few—hours task: do not waste time on micro—management.

Technique

One of the possible: WBS (Work breakdown structure).

Controlling task

Task micro life cycle consisting from micro—phases shall be defined. Such micro-phases are the generic tasks defined in life cycle model of the whole project.

Task micro life cycle shall be used to monitor and control project implementation on the daily basis. Use for this Task implementation check-list.

Rationale

Task "CR128: Calculate customer discount" could have the following phases:

• SRS
• SDD
• Programming
• User documenting
• Integration
• Qualification testing