Integrated Project Control System
The range of complexity of most modern software development projects is very wide. It means that the developers have to come up with new ways of managing them constantly. Integrated project control system is one of them. Actually the proper name for it is integrated project management and control system. That is because of the fact that project control is a part of project management. To understand what an integrated project control system is, it is necessary to find the proper definitions for project management and control in software development.
Project management is a process necessary for every software development project. It is necessary because any software development project can turn into a complete mess without proper management. The main goals of project management are to create high quality software products and to deliver them to the customers. Most researchers agree that project management process in software engineering has only three stages.
The first of them is the stage of planning. A good and realistic plan is the basis of every software development project. It is required to define the tasks of the team for the period of project realization and forecast the terms of product delivery.
At the next stage the project is monitored. This monitoring lasts from the day of plan formulation till the end of the project. Its goal is to define all problems with plan implementation.
The next stage of project management is called project control. At this stage all problems with plan implementation are eliminated. After that the software product is tested to make sure that these problems didn’t impact it.
An integrated project management and control system, just like any other project management systems, is capable of performing all the above mentioned activities. It is called so because the developers who use it take all factors that may impact the process of project realization into account. Usually these factors include: time frames, budget of the project, qualification of team members, complexity of tasks and customer’s requirements. An integrated project management and control system is used at all stages of software development project. Its main principle is – to gather as much information on the project and process of its development, as possible. Such approach helps integrated mangers handle their projects more effective. Perhaps, that is the main reason for integrated project management and control system popularity.
