UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHAMPTON
SEMESTER 1 EXAMINATIONS 2016/17
Software Project Management and Development
Duration 120 minutes (2 hours)
This paper contains five questions.
Answer three questions.
COMP6204W1
An outline marking scheme is shown in brackets to the right of
each question.
University approved calculators may be used.
A foreign language dictionary is permitted ONLY IF it is a paper
version of a direct ‘Word to Word’ translation dictionary AND it
contains no notes, additions or annotations.
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COMP6204W1
1. Asamanagerplanningasoftwaredevelopmentproject,you
have compiled a list of subtasks and obtained estimates of the
time each subtask should take to complete and identified
which tasks must be completed before others can start, as
follows:
Task
Description
Estimated time
to complete
(weeks)
A.
Capture user requirements
6
B.
High level design of the system
4
C.
Low level design of the system
modules
10
D.
Code and test system modules
18
E.
Integrate the whole system
4
F.
Plan staff allocations
2
G.
Integration test
5
H.
Finalize UI
5
I.
Unit tests
9
J.
User acceptance tests
4
K.
User survey
5
Subtask B cannot start until subtask A is complete
Subtask C cannot start until subtask F is complete
Subtask D cannot start until subtasks C, H, K are complete
Subtask E cannot start until subtasks D is complete
Subtask F cannot start until subtask B is complete
Subtask G cannot start until subtasks E and I are complete
Subtask H cannot start until subtask K is complete
Subtask J cannot start until subtasks E, G are complete
Subtask K cannot start until subtask B is complete
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COMP6204W1
(i) Draw a Critical Path Analysis (CPA) diagram representing
the project and explain the paths shown.
10 marks
(ii) Identify the Critical Path of the project and calculate the
shortest time in which the project may be completed.
3 marks
(iii) What does it mean for a task to be on the Critical Path of a
project? Give two reasons why it is useful to identify the
Critical Path of a project.
(iv) How much could you delay the start of Integration (subtask
E) without delaying the whole project?
3 marks
(v) What are the most significant drawbacks normally
encountered when using CPA for a software project?
5 marks
(vi) Following a review, it is decided that work on the low level
design (Subtask C) can start as soon as the High Level
design is complete (Subtask B) without waiting for
completion of the staff planning activity (Subtask F). How
does that affect your analysis?
4 marks
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8 marks
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2. (i) Explain why approaches to project and quality
management used in industries such as civil engineering
or mass production may not be effective for software
development projects.
11 marks
(ii) Describe the purpose and the principal features of ISO
standards which are relevant to software development
projects.
11 marks
(iii) Draw an example of an Ishikawa (or fishbone) diagram.
What does this kind of diagram show? Explain how one
may be useful to a project manager.
3. (i) Give four reasons why the failure rate of a software system
rises when developers hand it over to users.
8 marks
(ii) A system fails on average once every eight and a half
days. The maintenance team repairs a fault in 26 minutes
on average. What is the Availability of the system (to three
significant figures)?
4 marks
(iii) What is artificial bug insemination? Explain how it is used
as part of the testing of a software system.
7 marks
(iv) Give and explain two reasons why some managers believe
that it is not a good idea to use artificial bug insemination.
6 marks
(v) Even the most highly respected and diligent software
developers issue updates periodically to address security
and other problems in software. Why aren’t these
problems identified and eliminated when software products
are tested?
8 marks
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11 marks
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4. The following risks that may affect a project to develop a tax
guidance and management system have been identified.
Event
Delay
Impact
Financial
Impact
Probability
Departure of
experienced staff
3 months
£40,000
40%
Launch of revised
hardware platform
2 months
£20000
30%
Changes to tax
rates or regime
1 months
£5,000
20%
Tests reveal extra
bugs
3 months
£15,000
30%
Invent a series of digits to serve as random numbers and use
them to perform a Monte Carlo simulation predicting possible
project outcomes.
(i) Construct graphs to show the ranges of various project costs
and durations.
(ii) Suggest what the Manager may deduce from this exercise and
how they might act on the deductions.
9 marks
(iii) Some analysts divide risks into “controlled risks” and
“uncontrolled risks”. Explain the difference between these two
classes of risk and what a manager can do about each.
12 marks
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12 marks
5.
(i) List and describe each of the stages of the Capability Maturity
Model (CMM) of the software development process
8 marks
(ii) It has been suggested that software systems will improve if
Software Developers improve the processes they use. Do you
agree? Explain and justify your answer.
8 marks
(iii) Describe what Brookes means by what he calls, “The
Programming Systems Product” in his book, “The Mythical
Man-month”. Include an explanation of the distinction he
makes between computer programmes and the programming
system or programme product, and the implications for
developers.
9 marks
(iv) As it is widely accepted that a larger team working on a
project will get the work done more quickly and complete the
project earlier, adding more people would appear to be the
obvious solution when a project starts to fall behind.
Do you agree? Explain what happens when more people are
added to a project.
8 marks
END OF PAPER
COMP6204W1
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