UNIT-V

CCPDS-R Case Study

Successful here means on budget, on schedule, and satisfactory to the customer. The Command Center
Processing and Display Sys-tem-Replacement (CCPDS-R) project was performed for the U.S. Air Force by
TRW Space and Defense in Redondo Beach, California. The entire project included systems engineering,
hardware procurement, and software development, with each of these three major activities consuming about
one-third of the total cost. The schedule spanned 1987 through 1994.

The software effort included the development of three distinct software systems totaling more than one million
source lines of code. This case study focuses on the initial software development, called the Common
Subsystem, for which about 355,000 source lines were developed. The Common Subsystem effort also
produced a reusable architecture, a mature process, and an integrated environment for efficient development of
the two software subsystems of roughly similar size that followed. This case study therefore represents about
one-sixth of the overall CCPDS-R project effort.

Although this case study does not coincide exactly with the management process presented in this book nor
with all of today's modern technologies, it used most of the same techniques and was managed to the same spirit
and priorities. TRW delivered

Key Points a An objective case study is a true indicator of a mature organization and a mature project process.
The software industry needs more case studies like CGPDS-R.

a The metrics histories were all derived directly from the artifacts of the project's process. These data were used
to manage the project and were embraced by practitioners, managers, and stakeholders.

a CCPDS-R was one of the pioneering projects that practiced many modern management approaches. a This
appendix provides a practical context that is relevant to the techniques, disciplines, and opinions provided
throughout this book.

the system on budget and on schedule, and the users got more than they expected. TRW was awarded the Space
and Missile Warning Systems Award for Excellence in 1991 for "continued, sustained performance in overall
systems engineering and project execution." A project like CCPDS-R could be developed far more efficiently
today. By incorporating current technologies and improved processes, environments, and levels of automation,
this project could probably be built today with equal quality in half the time and at a quarter of the cost.
 Modern Project Management

Projects have been around since the Great Pyramids, but how we approach managing them has
changed. Modern project management has been developing over several decades. To put this in perspective,
let’s start with traditional project management.

Traditionally, projects were predictable workflows that arrived at predictable results. Processes were efficient,
accurate, and stable. Sometimes these were called “continual effort” projects, because they emphasized
repeatable work that didn’t change often (for instance, maintenance activities).

Today, projects have changed. Services firms provide more “single-time efforts” than continuous ones. Their
projects are often unique and short-term (for instance, building a website or implementing a software product).

That has driven a shift in how we manage projects.

Traditional project management

Traditional project management serves continual efforts. It uses common technology, known scopes, and task-
based workflows to achieve mostly predictable results. Issues arise only occasionally.

Modern project management

Modern project management serves unique projects. These could be one-time projects, such as website builds.
Often, a services provider specializes in delivering unique projects repeatedly, such as a creative website
builder. Because of its customized results, modern project management requires more flexible processes and
scopes as well as highly specialized resources. It’s common to find services firms tapping outside resources
through contract tasks that roll up into a larger project within the provider’s core services offering.

What does that mean for PLOC?

In modern project management, there have been several shifts related to planning, leading, organizing, and
controlling work.

1. Plan
Project planning has become more flexible. Once a deal closes, project managers must find the appropriate
resources, budget, timeframe, and tools (i.e., technology) required to complete the work in a timely manner and
for a cost to which the client has agreed.

2. Lead
Today’s project managers need a more widespread understanding of specific resource skills, since they will be
leading a variety of people through specialized tasks that roll-up into the successful deliverable. They must
speak many languages, from programming and creative to project financials, sales, and accounting. This
knowledge helps them gain group consensus, solicit specific contributions, and create the best environment for
individuals to contribute to the group project.
 3. Organize
Organization requires greater flexibility as well. Project managers are increasingly relying on technology to
help conduct their work. They are looking for solutions that pull them out of time-consuming spreadsheet
calculations, data exports, manual report building, and manual monitoring in favor of real-time integrations and
tracking tools now available. This helps them optimize resource allocation, budget tracking, report building, and
on-time delivery.

4. Control
With more flexible tools comes greater control. Project managers are able to shift resources mid-project in order
to address an issue that has arisen, such as potentially not meeting a deadline or going over budget. Today’s
software creates this environment of greater control, with early adopters of platform innovations pulling ahead
of their competitors.

Modern Process Transitions

Successful software management is hard work. Technical breakthroughs, process breakthroughs, and new tools
will make it easier, but management discipline will continue to be the crux of software project success. New
technological advances will be accompanied by new opportunities for software applications, new dimensions of
complexity, new avenues of automation, and new customers with different priorities. Accommodating these
changes will perturb many of our ingrained software management values and priorities. However, striking a
balance among requirements, designs, and plans will remain the underlying objective of future software
management endeavors, just as it is today.

The software management framework I have presented in this book is not revolutionary; numerous projects
have been practicing some of these disciplines for years. However, many of the techniques and disciplines
suggested herein will necessitate a significant paradigm shift. Some of these changes will be resisted by certain
stakeholders or by certain factions within a project or organization. It is not always easy to separate cultural
resistance from objective resistance. This chapter summarizes some of the important culture shifts to be
prepared for in order to avoid as many sources of frictio n as possible in transitioning successfully to a modern
process.

Key Points

▲ The transition to modern software

1 processes and technologies necessitates i several culture shifts that will not ; always be easy to achieve.

▲ Lessons learned in transitioning organizations to a modern process have exposed several recurring themes of
success that represent important culture

( shifts from conventional practice.

▲ A significant transition should be attempted on a significant project. Pilot i projects do not generally attract
top tal-; ent, and top talent is crucial to the success of any significant transition.
 Emerging Project Management Trends To Prepare For In
2020
1.Constantly Changing Digital Technologies
The latest and greatest is never actually the latest and greatest anymore.

What’s Happening?
This is nothing new to project managers, but this project management trend is ramping up as we head into 2020
and beyond. By the time a piece of tech or software has launched, there’s something new to take its place.
Companies are putting more and more emphasis on their employees’ Technology Quotient, defined by the PMI
as “a person’s ability to adapt, manage and integrate technology based on the needs of the organization or the
project at hand.”
In other words, how well (and quickly) you can adapt to new tech, like AI and automation, and successfully
integrate it into your project management process.
What’s The Impact?
Digital project managers should develop their technology quotient, but it’s not just about who can implement
technology X, Y, or Z the fastest. It’s also about discerning which digital technologies to use when, and whether
a certain technology should be used at all. Using the wrong project management or automation software can
have disastrous effects on your projects, costing you time and budget.
Automation and AI technologies remain prominent and are increasingly so, consistent with our project
management trends from 2019. Knowing how to use them to optimize your projects will have a positive impact
on your projects, like streamlining resource management, reducing and mitigating project risks and threats, and
prioritizing tasks and projects. This will free up time for your other project management activities like leading
team meetings, interpreting client or organizational requests, and driving timelines.
Your technology quotient can’t stand on its own. It is useless when not used in combination with project
management skills. Recent data from the PMI shows that organizations that implement a combination of the
technology quotient and project management skills are 76% more likely to hit project objectives than those that
don’t (61%). Also, those that do are more likely to complete projects without going over budget or exceeding
timeline.
What You Should Do About It?
Exercise your technology quotient muscle and keep it in shape. Make use of the technology that benefits you,
and ignore the hype on the rest. After all, there is only so much technology you can use in a day. Balance your
technology quotient and project management skills by:
1. Doing your research. Read ‘best of’ lists, customer reviews, testimonials, subject matter expert blogs,
whatever you can get your hands on before committing to any software.
2. Riding the automation wave. Set up email filters, automatic reminders, follow- ups, analytics reports, and
other tasks that will save you time.
3. Building your PM skills. Take The DPM School course, and read PM books, blogs, and other informational
resources to keep progressing in project management.
 2.Importance of Change Management to Project Success

Stay flexible—bending over backwards is a daily project management activity.

What’s Happening?
Change management is a hot topic among project management trends—whether it’s mitigating change,
reducing change, embracing change, or accelerating change. In 2020, increasing competition and smaller profit
margins mean organizations must always adapt and adjust their processes, workflows, and competencies.
Digital project managers must manage change effectively to complete projects and boost their organizations.
What’s The Impact?
Change management is becoming a daily routine. According to recent data from the IPMA, 63% of companies
are carrying out projects that involve change management in some capacity. This will help them complete more
complex projects while streamlining and standardizing processes. Project managers will be involved in this
standardization and applying it to their own projects, as well as supporting change management initiatives.
Even though more and more companies are implementing change management, only 30% of companies agreed
that their internal competencies in change management were either “very or extremely effective,” according to
the IPMA.
As a PM, you can strengthen your organization’s ability to conduct change management by setting the standards
or processes that your team members should follow, and being an agent of change by noting areas or processes
that are worth changing. This may lead to a balancing act (at least in the beginning) between ensuring processes
are being followed and keeping projects running smoothly. Eventually, these tasks will be one and the same.
What You Should Do About It?
Don’t resist change – be the messenger of it. Here are some initial steps for effecting and harnessing change in
your organization:
1. Be Proactive. Note processes or procedures that aren’t being followed properly, or spots where
implementing a new process could help streamline projects. Brainstorm solutions for solving the issue or
use a change management tool designed to help you through the process.
2. Continue hybridizing project methodologies. A key project management trend from 2019 was melding
different project approaches together to find the best fit. This can help with change management on project
and organizational levels, as you can tailor your methodologies to unexpected changes, disruptions, or
problems.
 Agile or agile-like methodologies don’t mix with organizations that are hesitant to change. One of the top
three reasons that organizations avoid agile project methodologies was a culture that was adverse to
change, with 48% of organizations citing this as a challenge to implementing agile.
3. Stay flexible. While organizational change can be slow and involve more red tape, project change occurs
daily, and sometimes even hourly or by-the-minute. Adapt to changes by implementing scheduling,
workflow, and agile-based tools, like HighGear, ActiveBatch, or Agilean.
 3. Risk Management has Higher Stakes

It’s slightly more complicated than the board game is.

What’s Happening?
One of our key project management trends from 2019 was an increase in competitiveness, a trend that is still
relevant to 2020 as it places more importance on risk management. Competition between agencies and
organizations is increasing as more and more players enter the field. Companies need to have a risk
management strategy to reduce the impact and frequency of threats and give them an edge over their
competitors. As a PM, minimizing risks from project to project can boost project success and keep clients
happy. It can also boost ROI and keeping customers returning.
What’s The Impact?
Risk management affects entire organizations, not just at the project level. Managing risk is the latest project
management skill that PMs can use toward project success. According to the IMPA, 60% of project managers
implement risk management throughout a project, and around 2 out of every 5 companies “never” or only
“sometimes” involve a risk management process. More risk management at all stages in the project will help
project managers foresee issues or threats before they arise and plan ways to mitigate those risks.
According to Wellingtone, risk management is a top 5 value-add process, but also one of the hardest to
implement. PMs need to spend the time and effort on risk management, as the ROI is worth it. This means an
increase in the volume and robustness of risk assessment prior to project kick-offs, as well as implementing a
standard risk management strategy across all projects.
What You Should Do About It?
Risks can be scary. Strategize for them so you have a plan to shrink them down to size. Start with the steps here:
1. Document risk assessments at the beginning of projects. Categorize the risks by client, department, project
type, or other relevant categorize. Record the assessment for future projects and build up a library of
common risks to plan for.
2. Implement a risk management technique like SWOT Analysis, Root Cause Analysis, or a Probability and
Impact Matrix. These can help you prioritize risks and determine which might have the largest negative
impact on a project.
3. Problem solve with your team in advance. During your project briefing, spend 5 to 10 mins discussing risks
and how you might solve them so you can be prepared.
 4. Increased Organizational Collaboration

Project management trends: it’s all about collaboration, collaboration, collaboration in 2020.
What’s Happening?
Individual work—keeping your head down with your nose in your notes or reports—doesn’t seem to exist
anymore. It never really existed at all in project management. People have always had to work together to get
projects done, and heading into 2020 there are more tools, tips, and tricks than ever that you can leverage to
collaborate with your team in a productive way.
What’s The Impact?
Communication is an essential component of collaboration. In 2019, we covered how soft skills like
communication, negotiation, and emotional intelligence are increasingly providing more business value. Project
management skills in communication will intensify in importance, and are likely to shoot to the top of the list
for companies looking for and allocating project managers.
On a day to day level, this means more check-ins with your team, more quick meetings (who doesn’t love a 5
minute meeting), and more heads ups. You’ll find that projects run smoother, your team has more direction, and
you’re proactive in approaching problems.
More collaboration means more collaboration tools. This is a little bit like the chicken and the egg: are we
collaborating more because there are more tools, or are we using more collaboration tools because we need to
collaborate more? Either way, tools are crucial to your collaboration process. 51% of companies are using
collaboration tools in completing projects, and the most commonly used tools were SharePoint, MS Teams, and
Confluence. Tools make it easier for team members to jump in on projects, so you can cover all angles, get a
fresh perspective, and make better decisions.
What You Should Do About It?
Keep building your communication skills! You can never be too good at communication, and your team, your
superiors, and your clients will thank you. Here’s some ways to get started.
1. Create a communication plan for you and your team to stick to, to make sure you’re all on the same page
when it comes to checking in.
2. Invest in a communication tool. Tools can provide just about any functionality you need, and they offer
customization options so you can adjust the settings to find what works best for you and your team.
3. Have more meetings, within reason, of course. While no one likes having a meeting when a quick instant
message would have sufficed, having a few extra few meetings throughout a project can help you keep
projects on track and stay proactive in anticipating issues.
4. Get other people’s perspectives. Involve team members from other departments, other project teams, or
other educational or cultural backgrounds. Everyone has a unique perspective—it’s likely they’ll present
something you hadn’t thought of, helping you brainstorm or problem solve. At the very least, you’ll get a
fresh pair of eyes on a deliverable, which never hurt anyone.
 5. Shifting, Globalized Gig Economy

More people are working remote gigs (and the coffee shops are raking it in!).
What’s Happening?
Project managers already have firsthand knowledge of the growing gig economy—many teams are bringing on
gig workers, and the increasing numbers of remote working and co-working arrangements has already begun to
impact our approach in managing projects. Stats from Gallup show that 36% of workers earns income from gig
work in some capacity. In fact, according to Arras People’s 2019 Project Management Benchmark Report, 42%
of project managers are themselves freelancing, indicating this will become the norm more and more.
What’s The Impact?
More than the other project management trends, the gig economy has direct, immediate results in a project
manager’s work. We often find ourselves with a smaller pool of core, full-time team members, who are
supported by a distributed and shifting network of freelancers.
For PMs, managing a remote team comes with a whole new set of challenges in time, people, and task
management. We’re continuously trying to answer the question of how we’ll keep work flowing smoothly when
our teams are in different time zones, different continents, and often committed to more projects than just ours.
What You Should Do About It?
It appears this is one of the project management trends is here to stay. You’ve got to get used to gig workers and
the quirks of managing a remote team. Here’s where you can start:
1. Make it your job to be aware of the risks specific to remote teams, such as burnout and isolation, and
develop strategies to minimize these risks. Likewise, develop strategies for motivating and inspiring a
distributed team.
2. Read this article on becoming more adept at managing remote teams, across time zones, who are often
working flexibly and on different projects.
3. Brush up your briefing: with less face-to-face check-in, setting your team up for success with clear
requirements and extra clear expectations is essential.
4. Add structure to a distributed team through the use of tools focused on workflow automation and business
process management.
 6. Greater Focus On Data

You can’t “not be a numbers person” anymore…

What’s Happening?
Now that we can collect large amounts of data, we need to find a use for it. With that mountain of information,
companies expect that it must be useful. From understanding customer needs to detailing risks, analyzing data
for important insight is a key activity in almost any development project.
The 2018 WEF Future of Work Report stated that by 2022, 85% of companies are either “likely” or “very
likely” to expand their use of data analysis, especially big data. Big data is an important subset of data analysis,
and it’s exactly what it sounds like. It involves analyzing massive data sets for insights on audiences, customer
needs, and demographics.
What’s The Impact?
Especially with profitability being trickier, we have to be smarter about the way we create project data, use data
to estimate, and plan and forecast our projects. Yes, algorithms can help analyze some of the data, but the
growing availability and importance of data means that project managers will need to step into a data analysis
role from time to time.
This means setting up projects strategically with a plan for collecting the right types of data, and it also means
helping teams and internal stakeholders get business insights and a common understanding from the data that is
collected. We have more data than ever before, so we need to become adept at making sense of the data (and the
confusion!). We need to become data translators who extract and communicate solid, clear insights from data. A
PM who can put the human spin on data analysis is worth their weight in gold.
What You Should Do About It?
Learn to love the data and find the tools you need. Make sure you’re:
1. Incorporating data analysis into your process
2. Staying up-to-date on new tools for data visualization and reporting like Google Data Studio, Power BI,
and Tableau
3. Using (and choosing) data in ways that effectively present risks, progress, and results to stakeholders
 Project Management Trends From 2019
1. Expanding Automation And Artificial Intelligence
You won’t be replaced by a limbless drone anytime soon—but you’d better learn to play nice with AI.

What’s The Impact?

For digital project managers, technologies powered by AI will assist in prioritising projects and allocating
resources for production. AI-powered bots can calculate the best projects to take on and quickly and efficiently
schedule and assign resources in real-time. Real-time scheduling of operations means that organizations can
adjust to any late-breaking developments in employee availability or client needs.
Machine intelligence can also contribute to improved decision-making on multiple levels within a company.
Consistency in decision-making is much more easily achieved by machines than people. According to the
Project Management Institute’s Global Project Management Survey results for 2017, 41% of projects were rated
as high complexity. The more complex the projects, the more value can be wrung from machine learning
strategies to understand the process, risks, and outcomes.
Lastly, because we can use bots for fact-gathering and data analysis, project managers will find that aspects
like relationship-building and negotiating enter as a critical part of the PM role. AI research teams are
building machine learning systems to augment a project manager’s decision-making ability by analyzing data
from multiple projects in the project portfolio. However, there’s no algorithm that can do project management
tasks such as empathizing, actively listening, or tactfully negotiating.

What You Should Do About It?

Embrace it. It’s a literal no-brainer: machine intelligence can free up your brain for building meaningful,
human-powered relationships with your team, stakeholders, and clients. Find ways to automate tasks so that you
become as redundant as possible—this means that your teams, clients, and projects themselves become more
self-sustaining. Take these steps:
1. Start with your inbox. Set up automatic filters to sort incoming messages by client, project, priority, etc.
This seems like a small step, but given how much time you spend sifting through email every day,
spending just an hour learning to set up filters can improve your correspondence every day, for months to
come.
2. Look into the settings in the project management tools you use for scheduling, resource management, and
invoicing. Automate tasks like:

 Prompting your team for a meeting 10 minutes before the scheduled time
 Following up with a client about an outstanding invoice
 Sending a daily or weekly check-in message to team members
 Generating and sending a daily or weekly report to your team
 Receiving an alert when a project approaches a budget limit
3.Ask yourself where your team’s bottlenecks are—and find a tool to eliminate it. You can use AI for
monitoring progress, tracking team morale, managing documentation, content migration, etc. Examples:

 Gather Content (online PM platform for web design) automates content migration through their API
and CMS integrations
 Forecast.it (project management software) apply machine learning algorithms to predict how much
time your team will actually spend on tasks, notifying you in advance of any delays.
Listen to PM experts talk about the effects of AI in our podcast episode.
 2. Increasing Business Value Of “Soft Skills”
Strong handshake, look ‘em in the eye—people skills are more valuable than ever.
On the other side of the artificial intelligence equation, we find emotional intelligence. Yes, machines can
process, learn, and display lots of information, but they lack a critical ingredient in successful project
management: humanity.
The family of social skills, such as emotional intelligence and skills in coordination, teaching, and negotiating,
are increasingly regarded as some of the most valuable professional assets. In fact, in a prediction of the most
in-demand job skills for 2020 in the World Economic Forum’s Future of Work Report, “social skills” ranked as
employers’ second most desired skill (second only to “complex problem-solving skills”).
Beyond project management trends, soft skills are being more formally recognized as important in many fields
of work.

What’s The Impact?

In essence, this means that our job is as important as ever (go ahead, pat yourself on the back). But really—as
we become more adept at using the intelligence of machines to handle certain parts of our processes,
this highlights a project manager’s people-focused role as an empathetic listener, anticipator of needs, adept
coordinator, tactful negotiator, and motivational leader. The importance of developing the essential soft skills
for project management cannot be overstated.

What You Should Do About It?

Well, you’re probably not going to get promoted based on your excel skills, and your developers will not laud
you for your coding skills. Throughout your career, you must make continuous effort to hone the the people
skills critical to managing smooth operations and happy teams.
Start to own and invest in the social aspects of your role by:
1. Educating yourself on the role of emotional intelligence in PM
2. Giving this podcast a listen: in this episode, we interview PM and emotional intelligence expert, author,
and speaker Colin Ellis.
3. If you haven’t read it, Dale Carnegie’s book How to Win Friends & Influence People is a classic for
thinking about skill development in the workplace.

3. Growing Tendency For Method Melding

A cocktail, please, with a hint of Agile and a drizzle of Scrum, topped with a spritz of Waterfall…
A few years ago, “going agile” would’ve been one of the top project management trends—but agile isn’t really
new anymore. However, applying it well is still tricky. For instance, an agile approach may serve the working
environment of your development team, but it’s difficult to execute a full-blown Agile project without
wholehearted buy-in from a client. And the reality is, the traditional Waterfall approach isn’t going anywhere.
Waterfall is a suitable methodology for getting from A to B, especially in cases the project’s route and end
result are well-defined.
As a result of our complex work environments, Agile, Waterfall, and a number of different methodologies are
often incorporated into custom blends under the project management umbrella. Companies are increasingly
adopting simultaneous planning and flat hierarchies, replacing the linear, traditional method for developing
products.
And it is not just in software development—Agile principles are trickling into the work processes in finance,
construction, marketing, and more as time goes on. As business catches up to the methodology, we are seeing a
melding of old and new, innovative and trusted processes all coming together in new mixtures.
 What’s The Impact?
For project managers, methodology melding presents a challenge that is two-fold. First, PMs must ensure we
continuously seek out education in the latest methods so we understand the mindset and environment of our
teams.
Additionally, we’ve got to walk a fine line between steering projects with clearly defined methodologies
without being dogmatic. We’ve got to become confident at leading projects where we leave room to
incorporate aspects of other approaches. We have to know which parts of which methodology or
combination thereof will serve our specific case—our specific team, time frame, environment, goals, etc.

What You Should Do About It?

Keep up with the latest methodologies and how they’re being applied—incorporate flexibility into your project
plans so you can test and learn new approaches. Make sure you:
1. Know enough about the most popular project methodologies in order to make good decisions about how
you’ll use them.
2. Give special attention to scheduling and workflow tools. If you’re blending and switching methodologies,
you need a tool that can be customized to accommodate the shifts. Explore your options for 2018 with
our 10 alternatives to Microsoft Project guide.

4. Increasingly Competitive Landscape

That cushy 20% net margin we enjoyed a decade ago is slipping down towards 10%…
Margins for agencies are tighter than ever before, due in part to the commoditization of the digital industry. A
small boutique agency might do a web design project for $10k, while the big agency up the street charges $1M
for it. However, that gap is steadily narrowing: clients expect more, for less, and are more savvy about how
much things should cost.

What’s The Impact?

In an atmosphere of increased competition and tighter margins, agencies are pushed to specialize if they are
going to survive. While 5 years ago, many of the big agencies aimed to be a one-stop-shop for everything
digital, today, agencies are redefining themselves as specialists in a digital niche in order to differentiate their
services from their competitors.

What You Should Do About It?

In short, we PMs need to be better at what we do. And understand more than ever what our teams are doing.
With so many digital agencies out there to choose from, there has to be a good reason for clients to choose one
over the other.
 Up-skill yourself. Head over to the DPM School for professional training, or
 Take advantage of our resources for managing projects well, from templates for kick-off meetings to
budgeting basics and beyond.
 Embrace the bleeding edge, and make sure your agency does, too. It’s hard to master, but there are
opportunities for complex technical projects—if your agency can deliver, you’ll thrive.
 Develop expertise that automatically takes you a step above the competition. Look to specialize in areas
such as:
 Blockchain
 Artificial intelligence and machine learning
 Voice interface design
 Service design and customer experience
 Content production, video and podcasts
 Data visualization and metrics
 5. Growing Importance Of Human-Centered Design
We’re realizing that it’s best to design products with actual human needs in mind. Figures!
We are seeing human-centered design grow in importance as tech evolves. Human centered design is a way of
designing products with people at the center of the design and implementation process, and can be seen as a
way of integrating business and technology around human needs. The formal concept of human-centered design
has been around for decades. However, it has taken a central role along with the rise of Agile and Lean
principles and their focus on designing products based on feedback from user testing.
As digital products become more and more prevalent in our lives, we’re becoming more conscientious about
how we go about designing them: we want products that serve real needs, with the best user experience, least
risks, and greatest positive impact for humans. But no pressure.

What’s The Impact?

For digital project managers, a growing focus on human-centered design means expanding our skill set to include
Customer Experience and Service Design. Increasingly, agencies will be tasked with creating products that speak to the
needs of users, guided by customer insight and user feedback. The job requires a laser sharp focus on the customer
insights so we’re steering the team to architect a solid human-centered solution—while also keeping teams on track
towards the agreed-upon end product. Sometimes, this means descoping an idea with a team that’s gone a bit too “blue
sky” in their solution development.

What You Should Do About It?

Project managers are no longer purely focused on managing development teams and producing websites.
Today, you’ve got to produce something innovative and impactful, built upon empathy towards human needs
and desires.
Set yourself apart with a strategic approach to managing human-centered design projects:
 Learn more about human-centered design (Check out IDEO’s blog and head to Design Kit, who have a
great intro video on HCD)
 Focus on developing expertise in Customer Experience Design, Service Design, or other design thinking
approach
 Create alignment: host a guest speaker or workshop to help internal stakeholders understand the benefits
and approaches in human-centered design.
 UNIT V
CCPDS-R Case Study and Future Software Project Management
Practices

This appendix presents a detailed case study of a successful software project that followed
many of the techniques presented in this book. Successful here means on budget, on
schedule, and satisfactory to the customer. The Command Center Processing and Display
Sys-tem-Replacement (CCPDS-R) project was performed for the U.S. Air Force by TRW
Space and Defense in Redondo Beach, California. The entire project included systems
engineering, hardware procurement, and software development, with each of these three
major activities consuming about one-third of the total cost. The schedule spanned 1987
through 1994.

The software effort included the development of three distinct software systems totaling more
than one million source lines of code. This case study focuses on the initial software
development, called the Common Subsystem, for which about 355,000 source lines were
developed. The Common Subsystem effort also produced a reusable architecture, a mature
process, and an integrated environment for efficient development of the two software
subsystems of roughly similar size that followed. This case study therefore represents about
one-sixth of the overall CCPDS-R project effort.

Although this case study does not coincide exactly with the management process presented in
this book nor with all of today's modern technologies, it used most of the same techniques
and was managed to the same spirit and priorities. TRW delivered

Key Points a An objective case study is a true indicator of a mature organization and a mature
project process. The software industry needs more case studies like CGPDS-R.
a The metrics histories were all derived directly from the artifacts of the project's process.
These data were used to manage the project and were embraced by practitioners, managers,
and stakeholders.

a CCPDS-R was one of the pioneering projects that practiced many modern management
approaches. a This appendix provides a practical context that is relevant to the techniques,
disciplines, and opinions provided throughout this book.

the system on budget and on schedule, and the users got more than they expected. TRW was
awarded the Space and Missile Warning Systems Award for Excellence in 1991 for
"continued, sustained performance in overall systems engineering and project execution." A
project like CCPDS-R could be developed far more efficiently today. By incorporating
current technologies and improved processes, environments, and levels of automation, this
project could probably be built today with equal quality in half the time and at a quarter of the
cost.

Some of today’s popular software cost models are not well matched to an iterative software
process focused an architecture- first approach Many cost estimators are still using a
conventional process experience base to estimate amodern project profile A nextgeneration
software cost model should explicitly separate architectural engineeringfrom application production,
just as an architecture- first process does. Two major improvements in next-generation software cost
estimation models: Separation of the engineering stage from
the production stage will force estimators todifferentiate between architectural scale and
implementation size. Rigorous design notations such as UML will offer an opportunity to
define units of measurefor scale that are more standardized and therefore can be automated
and tracked. Modern Software Economics: Changes that provide a good description of what
an organizational manager should strive for in making the transition to a modern process: 1.
Finding and fixing a software problem after delivery costs 100 times more than fixing the
problem in early design phases 2. You can compress software development schedules 25% of
nominal, but no more. 3. For every $1 you spend on development, you will spend $2 on
maintenance. 4. Software development and maintenance costs are primarily a function of the
number of source lines of code 5. Variations among people account for the biggest
differences in software productivity. 6. The overall ratio of software to hardware costs is still
growing – in 1955 it was 15:85; in 1985 85:15 7. Only about 15% of software development
effort is devoted to programming 8. Software systems and products typically cost 3 times as
much per SLOC as individual software programs. 9. Walkthroughs catch 60% of the errors.
10. 80% of the contribution comes from 20% of the contributors.

Next-Generation Software Economics:

Next-generation software economics is being practiced by some advanced software

organizations. Many of the techniques, processes, and methods described in this book's
process framework have been practiced for several years. However, a mature, modern
process is nowhere near the state of the practice for the average software organization.
introduces several provocative hypotheses about the future of software economics. A general
structure is proposed for a cost estimation model that would be better suited to the process
framework

new approach would improve the !accuracy and precision of software cost estimates, and
would accommodate dramatic improvements in software economies of scale. Such
improvements will be enabled by advances in software development environments. Boehm's
benchmarks of conventional software project performance and describe, in objective terms,
how the process framework should improve the overall software economics achieved by a
project or organization.

Key Points
▲ Next-generation software economics should reflect better economies of scale and
improved return on investment profiles. These are the real indicators of a mature industry.

▲ Further technology advances in round-trip engineering are critical to making the next
quantum leap in software economics.

▲ Future cost estimation models need to be based on better primitive units defined from
well-understood software engineering notations such as the Unified Modeling Language.

Modern Process Transitions:

Successful software management is hard work. Technical breakthroughs, process
breakthroughs, and new tools will make it easier, but manageme nt discipline will continue to
be the crux of software project success. New technological advances will be accompanied by
new opportunities for software applications, new dimensions of complexity, new avenues of
automation, and new customers with different priorities. Accommodating these changes will
perturb many of our ingrained software management values and priorities. However, striking
a balance among requirements, designs, and plans will remain the underlying objective of
future software management endeavours, just as it is today.

numerous projects have been practicing some of these disciplines for years. However, many
of the techniques and disciplines suggested herein will necessitate a significant paradigm
shift. Some of these changes will be resisted by certain stakeholders or by certain factions
within a project or organization. It is not always easy to separate cultural resistance from
objective resistance. summarizes some of the important culture shifts to be prepared for in
order to avoid as many sources of friction as possible in transitioning successfully to a
modern process.

Key Points
▲ The transition to modern software
1 processes and technologies necessitates i several culture shifts that will not ; always be easy
to achieve.

▲ Lessons learned in transitioning organizations to a modern process have exposed several

recurring themes of success that represent important culture
(Shifts from conventional practice.

▲ A significant transition should be attempted on a significant project. Pilot i projects do not

generally, attract top tal-; ent, and top talent is crucial to the success of any significant
transition.