Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

project management software 389Nonprocedural LanguagesAlthough the bulk of today’s software is written using procedurallanguages, there are some important languages constructedusing quite different paradigms. LISP, for example,is a powerful language used in artificial intelligence applications.LISP is written by putting together layers of functionsthat carry out the desired processing (see nonprocedurallanguages, LISP, and functional languages). There arealso “logic programming” languages, of which Prolog isbest known (see Prolog). Here a chain of logical steps isconstructed such that the program can traverse it to findthe solution of a problem.Context and Change inProgramming LanguagesBecause of the amount of effort it takes to truly mastera major programming language, most programmersare fluent in only a few languages and developers tendto standardize on one or two languages. The store oftried-and-true code and lore built up by the programmingcommunity tends to make it disadvantageous to radicallychange languages. Thus, FORTRAN and COBOL,although more than 40 years old, are still in considerableuse today. C, which is about 30 years old, has been graduallysupplanted by C++ and Java, but the latter languagesrepresent an object-oriented evolution of C, intentionallydesigned to make it easy for programmers to make thetransition. (Smalltalk, which was designed as a “pure”object-oriented language, never achieved widespread usein commercial development.)Similarly, when programmers had to cope with parallelprocessing (programs that can have several threads of executiongoing at the same time), they have tended to favor “parallelized”versions of familiar languages rather than whollynew ones (see concurrent programming and parallelprocessing).While the basic elements of computer languages tendto persist in the same recognizable forms, the way programmersexperience their use of languages has changedconsiderably through the use of modern visual integrateddevelopment environments (see programming environment).A variety of languages have also been designed fortasks such as data management, interfacing Web pages, andsystem administration (see scripting languages, awk,Perl, PHP, and Python).Further ReadingBergin, Thomas J., and Richard G. Gibson, eds. History of ProgrammingLanguages-II. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley/ACMPress, 1996.Sebesta, Robert W. Concepts of Programming Languages. 8th ed.Boston: Pearson Addison-Wesley, 2007.project management softwareWhether a project involves only a few people in the samedepartment or thousands of people and several years, thereis a variety of software to help managers plan and monitorthe status of their projects.At the simplest level, PIM software (see personalinformation manager) can be used by an individual tomonitor simple personal projects. Such software generallyincludes the ability to record the description, priority, duedate, and reminder date for a task.Project management software is generally used toplan larger projects involving many persons or teams. Acomplex project must first be broken down into tasks.(Large projects often have subprojects as an intermediateentity.) Next, dependencies must be taken into account.For example, the user testing program for a softwareproduct can’t begin until a usable preliminary (“alpha”or “beta”) version of the program is available. The various“resources” assigned to a subproject or task mustalso be tracked, including personnel and number of hoursassigned and budget allocations. In tracking personnelassigned to a project, their availability (who is on vacationand who is assigned to what location) must also beconsidered.Once the scheduling and priorities are arranged, theinevitable divergences between what was planned and whatis actually happening must be monitored. Good projectmanagement software provides many tools for the purpose.Available charts and reports often include:• Gantt charts that use bars to show the duration andpercentage of completion of the various overlappingsubprojects or tasks.• PERT (Program Evaluation and Review Technique)charts that show each subproject or task as a rectangular“node” with information about the task. Theconnections between nodes show the relationships(dependencies) between the items. PERT charts areusually used at the beginning stages of planning.• Analysis tools that show critical paths and bottlenecks(places where one or more tasks falling behindmight threaten large portions of the project). Generally,the more preceding items a task is dependent on,the more likely that task is to fall behind.• Tools for estimating the probability for completionof a given task based on the probabilities of tasks itis dependent on, as well as other factors such as thelikelihood of certain resources becoming available.• A system of alerts or “stoplights” that show slowdowns,potential problems, or areas where work hasstopped completely. These can be set to be triggeredwhen various specified conditions occur.• Integration between project management and budgetreporting so tasks and the project as a whole can bemonitored in relation to budget constraints.• Integration between the project management softwareand individual schedules kept in PIM software such asMicrosoft Outlook or in handheld computers (PDAs)such as the PalmPilot.• Integration between project management and softwarefor scheduling meetings.