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The Software Project Manager’s Conflict: To Allow, Or Not Allow, Change (2009)

This research investigates if software development projects can be delivered on time and to budget in environments where requirements change frequently. Software development projects have a poor delivery record with most delivering late and over
budget, many being cancelled, and only a few delivering software that meets the customer’s full requirements. A project's schedule and budget are determined and committed to in the early stages of the project when little is known about the product requirements. As the customer learns about the product they need to change the product. But change requires rework and this creates a conflict for the project manager: should they allow changes, to exploit their learning, or should they reject changes to protect the promised schedule and budget. The traditional waterfall software development approach tries to resolve this conflict by perfecting the requirements upfront and therefore preventing change. In contrast, iterative and incremental approaches try to
resolve the conflict by frequently delivering small increments of top priority functionality and allowing the customer to reprioritise between iterations.

10,000 words - 29 pages in length
Excellent use of literature
Good analysis
Well written throughout
Ideal for MBA and IT students

1 Aims And Objectives

2 Introduction And Background
Introduction
The Conceptual Sub-Problem
The Real World Sub-Problem

3 The Nature Of The Problem
The Waterfall Approach
The Agile Approaches
Two Extremes

4 Research Design And Methodology
Research Questions And Initial Hypotheses
Research Design
Research Framework
Research Techniques
Data Collection And Analysis

5 Analysis And Findings
How The Data Was Analysed
Completeness, Reliability, And Extensiveness Of Data
Outcomes Of Analysis
Theme 1: Preventing Change By Getting The Specifications Right Up-Front
Theme 2: Change Happens Anyway
Theme 3: Management Of Frequent Change
Theme 4: Uncertain Finish Date
Theme 5 – “Big Bang” Delivery Reduces Return On Investment

6 Conclusions, Implications And Recommendations
Conclusion And Implications
Recommendations
Recommendation 1: Incremental Delivery For The Remainder Of The Current Project
Recommendation 2: Incremental Delivery For Future Projects
Recommendation 3: Manage The Decision Making Bottleneck

References

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