Software engineering  is distinct  from other types  of engineering  in a number  of ways 
which can make software management particularly difficult :
        (1) The product is intangible.
        (2) There is no standard process.
        (3) Large software progects are often 'one-off'projects.

  3.1 Management activities

        -.  Most managers  take   responsibility  at some  stage for  some  or all    of the   
        following activities :
                +. proposal writing
                +. project costing
                +. project planning and scheduling
                +. project monitoring and reviews
                +. personnel selection and evaluation
                +. report wrting and presentations
 
        -. The proposal descrives the objectives of the project and how it will be carried out. 
        It usually includes cost and schedule estimates.

    (1) Proposal writing
          A critical task as the  existence of many software organizations depends on having 
        enough proposals accepted and contracts awarded. Proposal writing is a skill which is 
        acquired by experience.
    (2) Project planning
          It  is  concerned  with  identifying the    activities,  milestiones  and  deliverables   
        produced by a project.
    (3) Project monitoring
          It  is a continuing project  activity. Informal monitoring can  often predict potential  
        project problems as they may reveal difficulties as they occur. 

  3.2 Project planning
        -.   Project planning   is   probably the   activity  that   takes most   management    
        time. Planning is  required  for development activities  from specification through  to 
        delivery of the system.
        -. Project  managers revise the  assumptions about  the project as  more information  
        becomes available. The re-plan the project schedule.
 
    3.2.1 The project plan
        Most plan should include the follwing sections :
                (1) Introduction
                (2) Project organization
                (3) Risk analysis
                (4) Hardware and software resource requirments
                (5) Work breakdown
                (6) Project schedule
                (7) Monitoring and reporting mechanism

        The project plan should be regularly revised during the prokect.

  3.3 Activity organization
        -. When   planning a project,  a series   of milestones should  be  established where  
        a milestone is  an end-point  of some  software process activity. They may   simply 
        be a short report of achievements in a projct activity. 
        -. A deliverable  is a project result which is  delivered to the customer. To establish 
        milestones, the sofrware process which is being followed for a particular project must 
        be broken down into activities.

  3.4 Project scheduling
        -.   Managers estimate   the time   and resources   required to   complete activities    
        and organize them in a coherent sequence.
        -. Usually,  some of  these activities  are carried  out in parallel.  Project schedulers 
        must coordinate these parallel activities and  organize the work so that the workforce 
        is used optimally. 

    3.4.1 Bar chart and activity networks
        -.  Bar chart  and  activity network  are  graphical notations    which are  used  to  
        illustrate the project schedule. Bar  charts show  who is responsible for each activity 
        and when the  activity is scheduled to   begin and end. Activity  networks show the 
        dependencies between the different activities making up a project.
        -.  It shows  which activities  can be  carried  out in  parallel and  which must  be 
        executed in sequence because  of  dependency on an earler  activity. It is also useful 
        to set a  maximum amount of time for  any task on the chart of  about eight to ten  
        weeks. 
        -. PERT charts are  a more sophisticated form of activity  chart in which, instead of 
        making a  single estimate for  each task, pessimistic,  likely and  optimistic estimates 
        are made. 
        -. A shaded bar  in an activity bar chart shows that  there is some flexibility in the 
        completion date of these activities. 
        -. Project  managers must  also consider  resource allocation  and, in  particular, the 
        allocation of staff to project activities.