Software Project Management - The complete course

Explore life cycle models and software development methods, and learn how project goals guide model selection, shaping testing approaches, regression testing, and test techniques across agile, waterfall, and prototyping.

Explore the software development lifecycle (SDLC) as a structured set of stages and models that deliver high-quality software from kickoff to maintenance.

Explore the software development lifecycle phases from requirements gathering and analysis to design, coding, testing, deployment, and maintenance, plus models such as waterfall, incremental, and iterative.

The waterfall model, a linear sequential life cycle, requires complete phase completion before the next and tests after development, causing late defect fixes but simple for small, well-defined projects.

Explore the V model, pairing developer verification with tester validation along a sequential lifecycle from requirements to system integration testing, through high and low level design, coding, and testing.

Explore the incremental model, dividing requirements into modules that pass through design, implementation, and testing. Deliver each module as an integrated release, enabling early work, flexibility, and risk management.

Explore how the rad model accelerates development by running parallel mini projects to build and assemble a working prototype, enabling early customer feedback and faster modular delivery.

Explore agile model with incremental cycles and frequent releases, emphasizing customer collaboration, working software, and adaptation, while noting limits on design and documentation and the risk of going off track.

Adopt iterative and interactive life cycle development, beginning with partial specifications and delivering software in cycles that produce a rough version for review and refinement, guided by user feedback.

The spiral model repeats planning, risk analysis, engineering, and evaluation to build baselines with each spiral, emphasizing risk assessment and customer input while enabling early functionality at higher cost.

Explore the prototype model by building an initial, working prototype from current requirements to capture user feedback, clarify needs, and iteratively refine the system.

Identify, assess, prioritize, and manage software project risks by analyzing triggers across technology, user and functional requirements, architecture, performance, and organizational risk, then mitigate, monitor, and communicate risk.

Identify new risks by analyzing past project problems and current plans, using flowcharts, brainstorming, and risk templates to uncover known unknowns.

Identify and categorize risks in software project management, evaluating likelihood and impact through qualitative and quantitative analysis, considering technology complexity, team knowledge, tools, and potential business consequences.

identify and analyze risk, then plan and implement avoid, mitigate, transfer, or accept measures; document a risk management plan with owners, impact, likelihood, and contingency plans.

Integrate softer risk monitoring into project activities, conduct checks on risks, track risk plans for major changes, close risks when impact decreases, and prepare status reports for Project Management Review.

Identify and prepare contingency plans within risk management to trigger plan b when identified risks materialize, detailing action steps, responsibilities, and communication.

Illustrate a practical risk report template in Excel, covering risk identification and analysis, likelihood and impact, costs, mitigation actions, contingency plans, and change requests.

Implement change management to prepare, analyze, and implement changes to requirements using configuration management and version control tools, ensuring tracking of changes and assessing their effects.

Explore how change requests are analyzed, approved, planned, implemented, tested, and documented, with tools for assessment, development, testing, deployment, and backtracking.

Identify initial requirements in agile projects, refine them just in time, and implement a streamlined change management process that prioritizes high-value items and collaborative stakeholder input.

Plan, design, and execute a deployment process that makes a software system available across production, testing, and development environments while validating credentials and user rights.

Explore agile software deployment and DevOps practices, including checklists, automation, continuous integration and delivery, automated deployment, and monitoring to ensure fast, reliable releases and rollback readiness.

Explore agile methodology, emphasizing adaptive planning, early delivery, and continuous improvement through iterations. Deliver a working product at the end of each sprint with active customer collaboration.

Explore agile frameworks with Scrum, detailing sprint cycles, roles such as product owner and Scrum master, and key practices like daily scrum, sprint planning, and retrospectives to deliver incremental value.

Navigate the scrum sprint cycle, delivering a shippable increment in 1–6 week sprints through planning, standups, reviews, and retrospectives. The product backlog, prioritized by the product owner, guides sprint work.

Scrum release planning helps determine when each feature is delivered and at what cost by balancing customer expectations, quality, scope, and budget in an agile setup.

Sprint planning aligns the scrum team to forecast the sprint work and select items from the product backlog into the sprint backlog within an eight-hour limit, to deliver the increment.

Conduct a daily stand-up to share yesterday's achievements and today's plan, identify impediments, and coordinate work; keep it short, not a status meeting, and focus on information exchange and collaboration.

The sprint review demonstrates completed work to the product owner and stakeholders, gathers feedback, updates the product backlog, and seeks approval to start the next sprint.

Analyze sprint outcomes and processes in a retrospective to identify what went well, what to change, and how to implement improvements, boosting team productivity.

Apply kanban to manage software work with a prioritized to-do list and pull-based workflow, moving items from to do to doing to done while adapting to changing backlog priorities.

Explore Kanban boards that visualize work with cards and columns, use visual signals, track commitment point and delivery point, and move items from backlog to delivery for faster lead time.

Explore optimal team size in a scrum project by balancing seven plus or minus two, three to nine, and 10+ for cross-team work, never below four for pairing and review.

Explore agile project management with the Scrum framework and the Campbell framework, focusing on backlogs, sprints, ceremonies, and continuous releases driven by customer feedback.

Explore agile ceremonies derived from Scrum, including sprint planning, grooming, daily standups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives, all within time-boxed sprints guided by the Scrum master and product owner.

Implement agile programs to foster iterative development through development, testing, and launch in small cycles, with a product owner prioritizing backlog and a cross-functional team delivering in iterations.

Define a simple, repeatable workflow for agile software teams, moving work from open to in progress, code review, and done, with a clear definition of done and regular retrospectives.

Explore agile structures like epics, stories, themes, and initiatives, and learn how teams organize work, break it into user stories, and align with broader goals.

Learn how epics outline high level design requirements to drive an executive summary and roadmap by breaking them into user stories for browsing the product catalog, pricing, orders, and history.

Learn how agile user stories drive collaboration and focus on the user, outlining simple, non-technical outcomes that guide sprint work and deliver customer value.

Understand how initiatives group epics and align multi-team work with high-level business priorities, while teams label backlogs to track strategic focus, resources, and investment categories.

Break down work into granular pieces and assign story points on a relative, fibonacci-like scale. Story points express effort, not time, guiding backlog prioritization and team velocity.

Explore agile metrics that track delivery and ensure the right product in the right time for the right market, including burn down charts, velocity, cycle time, and cumulative flow diagrams.

Estimate story points by comparing each user story to a baseline size using fibonacci, numeric scales, or t‑shirt sizing, and relate points to task hours for sprint planning.

Define project management by linking a project to a set of tasks with a start and end date, distinguishing projects from routine tasks, and aiming to produce a product.

Understand triangle of project management—time, resources, and quality—and how tradeoffs shape delivery to the customer. Define requirements, craft specs and user stories, plan with sprints, and verify via test reports.

Understand how a software project unfolds through linked tasks with durations, start and end dates, and predecessor–successor relationships, including milestones and final deliverables.

Present the project output as the final product plus deliverables like reports, training materials, and manuals, delivered to customers after meeting defined acceptance criteria.

Coordinate task dependencies and milestones, manage inputs and outputs such as technical specifications, flow charts, wireframes, mockups, and test reports, while guiding the team toward the final product release.

Build a work breakdown structure by breaking the project into phases and tasks, linking high and low level plans, milestones, and deliverables.

Break down the project into phases and nested tasks, assign WBS codes to levels 1 through 3, and visualize with connectors and colors.

Milestones act as markers signaling changes or stages, map forward, and communicate key outputs and third-party inputs to stakeholders for dashboards and reports.

Define milestones to guide scheduling and track progress, balancing agile short iterations with traditional deadlines, and communicate success to stakeholders through clear checkpoints and synchronized goals.

Break down the work breakdown structure into detailed phases and requirements, map them to a release plan with major and minor versions, testing, fixes, milestones, and a final rollout.

Explore traditional project management, detailing a sequential Waterfall process from requirements definition and planning to releases, testing, and rollout, with Gantt charts guiding progress.

Learn how agile project management with scrum uses sprints, continuous user acceptance testing, and flexible release planning to move requirements between iterations and deliver working software.

Develop a project plan for an e-learning membership site by translating user stories into a structured roadmap, detailing courses, slides, and components across front-end and back-end.

Organize requirements, slides, and quiz content to craft a project plan for an eLearning membership website, then estimate hours for analytics and database creation.

Create and assign a project plan for an e-learning membership website, detailing roles for front end, content, and database work, with analytics tasks and a four-day timeline.

Explore setting up the project plan for an elearning membership website, detailing task dependencies, milestones, and steps like database creation across February and March.

In this case study, set up a project plan for an eLearning membership website, specifying timelines, resources, and customer requirements to deliver a workable solution.

Define a biweekly sprint release plan for an eLearning membership site, schedule sequential releases, factor in bug fixes and delays, and align development with a dynamic timeline.

Compare cloud-based and desktop project tools, highlighting gantt charts, tracking, resource allocation, demand management, analytics, and portfolio reports, with pricing options for project online professional and desktop pro 2019.

Install and set up the project tool through the microsoft 365 admin center, download and sign in, and explore the English version to create and manage a new project.

Explore a simple overview of the tool for software project management: create new roadmaps or projects, manage created items, share with others, and review recaps across Drive, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Create and configure a software project in the enterprise project on SharePoint: set permissions, create phases and tasks, define scheduling mode, and visualize the timeline and task durations.

Create a new project, manage tasks with a ribbon and a task tab, and save the baseline to plan timelines and track progress.

Learn to add and manage tasks in a software project using auto schedule and manual mode. Define task start, duration, finish dates, track completion, assign resources, and customize columns.

Import tasks from Excel into a project by mapping id, name, duration, dates, work, and cost, then create a map or append to the project, including predecessors and gantt chart.

Learn to manipulate tasks by moving, editing, inserting, and deleting tasks to manage a project workflow.

Create a clear work breakdown structure by indenting and outdenting tasks across initiation, design, implementation, testing, and rollout. Align requirements, design, and deployment with dependencies to reinforce a waterfall workflow.

Define start and end dates and durations, with examples: two weeks for requirement gathering, two days for approvals, one day for initial specification, and auto or manual date selection.

Learn how to identify milestones and mark important moments such as specification, rollout, and integration tests, using zero-duration milestones and memorable dates to guide project progress.

Learn to create task relationships by linking requirement gathering, technical specifications, and approvals, establishing milestones, and letting automatic duration estimates flow from dependencies for efficient project planning.

Compare the desktop and cloud versions of the project tool, explore task management, charts, formatting, and reports, and learn to export plans to Excel.

Learn how to add and manage task constraints and deadlines in a project plan, including setting finish dates, earliest start, dependencies, and visual indicators for late tasks.

Add notes and attachments to tasks by adding notes, assigning files, and importing documents such as Word, Excel, or PowerPoint to enrich task information.

Explore linking tasks and defining dependency types in software project management, including finish-to-start, start-to-start, finish-to-finish, and start-to-finish with lag and lead times.

Explore the work breakdown structure (WBS) approach to map phases, tasks, and subphases, assign task codes, and use project tools to automatically generate and document design tasks.

Explore direct and indirect software development costs, including time and effort estimates, risk-related expenses, outsourcing and third-party tasks, software purchases, maintenance, and office space.

Identify factors driving software development expenses such as customization, complexity, frontend design, third-party integration, and migration; align scope with budget through prioritization, outsourcing, and clear cost planning.

Explore factors driving software production costs, such as overestimation and resource quality; track estimates against reality and allocate tasks to appropriate skills while considering technology costs.

Explore factors that reduce product development costs by prioritizing simplicity and essential features that deliver user value. Compare in-house teams with outsourcing partners and consider offshore options in emerging regions.

Estimate software project costs by engaging stakeholders early, applying budget estimation approaches, and breaking down requirements into must-have and nice-to-have elements to control costs.