Design and development of a user interface for the Dynamica Model of Software Project Management

Abstract

Managing large software development projects and delivering them on time and within budget has proven to be a difficult task. The Dynamics Model of Software Project Management, has been designed to support the management of the software development process. The current interface to the model, however, is not suited to the inexperienced user. The objective of this thesis is to enhance the usability and acceptance of the Dynamics Model of Software Project Management. The design of the user interface accomplished in this thesis is an attempt to provide the maximum benefit of the model to the user by simplifying the process of using, viewing, and storing results from the model. This allows the user to focus his or her attention on design considerations and interpreting model experiments. Specifically the accomplishments of this thesis include the development of a menu system which provides a logical format for accessing the Dynamics model and the creation of a Dynex model interface to aid in variable manipulation. Keywords: Theses; Computer architecture