MG6088 Software Project Management: Agile, RAD, SCRUM, and Estimation

This document provides a comprehensive overview of software project management, covering key concepts and methodologies. It begins by defining SCRUM and its role in agile development, along with an explanation of the RAD model and its applications. The assignment then delves into the advantages of agile unified processes, the function of the spiral model, and the importance of activity models. It enumerates various software process models, including waterfall, spiral, and agile, and defines agile methods and their approaches. Furthermore, the document explores extreme programming (XP), the COCOMO model, and its types, along with the advantages of function point analysis. It also covers application composition, the stages of estimation in a software project, and provides examples of RAD tools. Finally, the document explains how cost estimation is done in agile projects, emphasizing the differences between agile and traditional methodologies and the importance of sprints in agile development. This assignment provides a detailed analysis of software project management techniques and methodologies.

VIVEKANANDHA COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
FOR WOMEN
DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING
MG6088 SOFTWARE PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Question Bank
REGULATION -2013
IV- YEAR –CSE (VIII-SEMESTER)
STAFF INCHARGE HOD DEAN
UNIT- II

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MG6088 Software Project Management
UNIT II
PROJECT LIFE CYCLE AND EFFORT ESTIMATION
PART A
1. What is SCRUM? (Nov/Dec 2018) (APR/MAY 2018)(NOV/Dec 2019)
Answer:
• Scrum is an efficient framework within which you can develop software with
teamwork. It is based on agile principles.
• Scrum supports continuous collaboration among the customer, team members,
and relevant stakeholders.
2. Expand RAD. Is it incremental model? Justify. (Nov/Dec 2018)
Answer:
• RAD model is Rapid Application Development model. It is a type of incremental
model. In RAD model the components or functions are developed in parallel as if
they were mini projects.
• The developments are time boxed, delivered and then assembled into a working
prototype.
3. Identify the uses of RAD model. (APR/MAY2019)
Answer:
• Rapid application development (RAD) describes a method of software
development which heavily emphasizes rapid prototyping and iterative
delivery.
• The RAD model is, therefore, a sharp alternative to the typical waterfall
development model, which often focuses largely on planning and sequential
design practices.
4. Brief about two ways of setting objectives. (APR/MAY 2018)
Answer:
Software process and Process Models – Choice of Process models - mental delivery – Rapid
Application development – Agile methods – Extreme Programming – SCRUM – Managing
interactive processes – Basics of Software estimation – Effort and Cost estimation techniques –
COSMIC Full function points - COCOMO II A Parametric Productivity Model - Staffing
Pattern.

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• For any project to be success , the project objectives should be clearly defined
and the key people involved in the project must known about it. This only
will make them work with single focus and concentration towards achieving
the objectives
• These key people or organisation is called ‘Stakeholder’. A stackholder is
defined as a person or organization who are directly or indirectly affected by
the project .
• A software project is normally complex in nature and would involve many
people draw from various specialities.
• It is always advisable to set sub objectives suitable for every individual or a
group of individuals in line with the main objectives. Sub objectives are more
meaningful to a team so that it is under their control and achievable by them.
• A workable goal setting must always be done using SMART approach.
5. What is rapid application development? (NOV /DEC 2017)
Answer:
RAD or Rapid Application Development process is an adoption of the
waterfall model; it targets at developing software in a short span of time.
RAD follow the iterative method.
SDLC RAD model has following phases
• Business Modeling
• Data Modeling
• Process Modeling
• Application Generation
• Testing and Turnover
6. Outline the advantage of agile unified process. (NOV /DEC 2017)
Answer:
1. Agile methodology has an adaptive approach which is able to respond to the
changing requirements of the clients
2. Direct communication and constant feedback from customer representative leave
no space for any guesswork in the system.

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7. What is the function of spiral model? (APR/MAY 2017)
Answer:
• The spiral model is similar to the incremental model, with more emphasis
placed on risk analysis.
• A software project repeatedly passes through these phases in iterations (called
Spirals in this model)
8. What is activity model? (APR/MAY 2017)
Answer:
• The activity model indicates the set of activities needed to turn a set of inputs
(capital, raw materials and labour) into the firm’s value proposition (benefits
to customers).
• Examples of such activities include product development, purchasing,
manufacturing, marketing and sales and service delivery.
9. What is a software process model?
Answer:
• A Process Model describes the sequence of phases for the entire lifetime of a
product.
• Therefore it is sometimes also called Product Life Cycle.
• This covers everything from the initial commercial idea until the final de-
installation or disassembling of the product after its use.
10. What were the phases in software process model?
Answer:
• There are three main phases:
∗ Concept phase
∗ Implementation phase
∗ Maintenance phase
• Each of these main phases usually has some sub-phases, like a requirement
engineering phase, a design phase, a build phase and a testing phase.
• The sub-phases may occur in more than one main phase each of them with a
specific peculiarity depending on the main phase.

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11. List various software process models.
Answer:
• Waterfall model,
• Spiral model,
• V-model,
• Iterative model,
• Agile model and RAD model.
12. Define Agile Methods.
Answer:
• Agile model is a combination of iterative and incremental process models with
focus on process adaptability and customer satisfaction by rapid delivery of
working software product.
• Agile Methods break the product into small incremental builds. These builds
are provided in iterations. Every iteration involves cross functional teams
working simultaneously on various areas like planning, requirements
analysis, design, coding, unit testing, and acceptance testing.
13. List out the various agile approaches.
Answer:
• Crystal Technologies
• Atern(formerly DSDM)
• Feature-driven Development
• Scrum
• Extreme Programming(XP)
14. What is extreme programming?
Answer:
• Extreme programming (XP) is a software development methodology, which is
intended to improve software quality and responsiveness to changing
customer requirements.

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• As a type of agile software development, it advocates frequent "releases" in
short development cycles, to improve productivity and introduce checkpoints
at which new customer requirements can be adopted.
15. Write about COCOMO model.
• Constructive Cost Model.
• It refers to a group of models.
• The basic model was built around the equation:
Effort=c*sizek,
• Where effort is measured in pm,or the number of ‘person-months’.
16. Define organic mode.
Answer:
• Organic mode is the case when relatively small teams developed software in a
highly familiar in-house environment and when the system being developed
was small and the interface requirements were flexible.
17. Give an idea about parametric model?
Answer:
• Models that focus on task or system size. Eg.Function Points.
• FPs originally used to estimate Lines of Code, rather than effort
• Models that focus on productivity: e.g. COCOMO
• In this Lines of code (or FPs etc) is an input

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18. What is the use of COCOMO model and its types?
Answer:
• COCOMO predicts the effort and schedule for a software product development
based on inputs relating to the size of the software and a number of cost
drivers that affect productivity.
• COCOMO has three different models that reflect the complexity:
• The Basic Model
• The Intermediate Model
• The Detailed Model
19. Write any two advantages of function point analysis.
Answer:
• Improved project estimating
• Understanding project and maintenance productivity
• Managing changing project requirements
• Gathering user requirements.
20. Define application composition.
Answer:
• In application composition the external features of the system that the users
will experience are designed. Prototyping will typically be employed to do this
with small application that can be built using high-productivity application
building tools, development can stop at this point.
21. Determine the stages of estimation carried out in a software project.
(APR/MAY2019)
1. Scoping.

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2. Decomposition.
3. Sizing.
4. Expert and Peer Review.
5. Estimation Finalization.
22) Give example for rapid application development.
Some of the tools that can be used in RAD are those that are strong in
automated code generating, such as:
Super Mojo by Penumbra.
Microsoft Lightswitch.
Visual Studio.
Wavemaker.
Delphi RAD studio.
Lazarus IDE.
PART B
1) How the cost- estimation of Agile projects are done? Explain in detail
(Nov/Dec 2018) (13m)
Answer:
• Agile software development methodology is a process for developing software
(like other software development methodologies – Waterfall model, V-Model,
Iterative model etc.)
• However, Agile methodology differs significantly from other methodologies. In
English, Agile means ‘ability to move quickly and easily’ and responding
swiftly to change – this is a key aspect of Agile software development as well.
• Cost estimation in software engineering is the process of predicting the
resources (money, time, and people) necessary to finish a project within
the defined scope.
• Accurate estimates help everyone involved in the project: Project owners
can decide whether to take on the project
Brief overview of Agile Methodology
Why agile estimates?
There are two generally accepted methodologies for developing software:
waterfall, also known as the traditional model, and agile. Their
approaches to estimating projects are quite different. At Steelkiwi, we follow

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an agile development methodology. Why? Let’s explain using a real-world
example of two similar projects by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
that were developed with two different methodologies and resulted in vastly
different outcomes.
Waterfall vs Agile
The waterfall methodology is a sequential design process, meaning each
phase is started and completed before moving on to the next. Once a phase
is completed, developers can’t go back to a previous step.
• With agile development, planning consists of three main building blocks:
scope (requirements), resources (software development budget), and
time. With waterfall, the scope is fixed while the budget and time are
flexible to make sure all required functionally is delivered. This means that
the project isn’t considered finished until it meets all requirements. The
agile development, on the other hand, is quality-driven, meaning that
developers aim at maximizing value while sticking to a fixed budget and
schedule.

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• In traditional software development methodologies like Waterfall model, a
project can take several months or years to complete and the customer may
not get to see the end product until the completion of the project.
• At a high level, non-Agile projects allocate extensive periods of time for
Requirements gathering, design, development, testing and UAT, before finally
deploying the project.
• In contrast to this, Agile projects have Sprints or iterations which are shorter
in duration (Sprints/iterations can vary from 2 weeks to 2 months) during
which pre-determined features are developed and delivered.
• Agile projects can have one or more iterations and deliver the complete
product at the end of the final iteration.
Example of Agile software development
• Example: Google is working on project to come up with a competing product
for MS Word, that provides all the features provided by MS Word and any
other features requested by the marketing team.
• The final product needs to be ready in 10 months of time. Let us see how this
project is executed in traditional and Agile methodologies.
• In traditional Waterfall model – At a high level, the project teams would spend
15% of their time on gathering requirements and analysis (1.5 months), 20%
of their time on design (2 months), 40% on coding (4 months) and unit
testing, 20% on System and Integration testing (2 months).
• At the end of this cycle, the project may also have 2 weeks of User Acceptance
testing by marketing teams. In this approach, the customer does not get to
see the end product until the end of the project, when it becomes too late to
make significant changes. Project schedule in traditional software
development.
• With Agile development methodology – In the Agile methodology, each project
is broken up into several ‘Iterations’.
• All Iterations should be of the same time duration (between 2 to 8 weeks).
• At the end of each iteration, a working product should be delivered.
• In simple terms, in the Agile approach the project will be broken up into 10
releases (assuming each iteration is set to last 4 weeks).

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• Rather than spending 1.5 months on requirements gathering, in Agile
software development, the team will decide the basic core features that are
required in the product and decide which of these features can be developed
in the first iteration.
• Any remaining features that cannot be delivered in the first iteration will be
taken up in the next iteration or subsequent iterations, based on priority.
• At the end of the first iterations, the team will deliver working software with
the features that were finalized for that iteration.
• There will be 10 iterations and at the end of each iteration the customer is
delivered a working software that is incrementally enhanced and updated
with the features that were shortlisted for that iteration.

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2) Explain estimation through COCOMO II model (Nov/Dec 2018)(Nov/Dec
2019) (13m)
Answer:
COCOMO a parametric model
• COCOMO (Constructive Cost Estimation Model) was proposed by Boehm.
According to him, any software development project can be classified into
one of the following three categories based on the development
complexity: organic, semidetached, and embedded.
• The classification is done considering the characteristics of the product as
well as those of the development team and development environment.
Usually these three product classes correspond to application, utility and
system programs, respectively.
• Data processing programs are normally considered to be application
programs. Compilers, linkers, etc., are utility programs. Operating
systems and realtime system programs, etc. are system programs.
• The definition of organic, semidetached, and embedded systems are
elaborated below.